Vancouver Canucks Armchair GM: The Offseason

Time for the fourth edition of Vancouver Canucks Armchair GM. It’s time for me to make a fool of myself and tell you what I would do as the General Manager of the Vancouver Canucks in the 2016 offseason. Click on the link below to see the Canucks 2015–16 depth chart.

Current Player(s) Making it To UFA Status

Radim Vrbata, Dan Hamhuis, Brandon Prust, Matt Bartkowski, and Yannick Weber will all become unrestricted free agents of July 1st. All these guys will be free to sign elsewhere. Radim Vrbata is obviously quite upset that he hasn’t been playing with the Sedins and he will look for a fresh start. Dan Hamhuis will get too much money and term on his next contract for the Canucks. It would be best for them to let him walk. Prust, Bartkowski, and Weber are all victims of the numbers game. The depth will come up and replace them on the roster.

Player(s) Retained Through RFA

Sven Baertschi, Emerson Etem, Linden Vey, Markus Granlund, and Andrei Pedan will all be signed as restricted free agents.

Player(s) Traded

The only player who makes this list is Jannik Hansen. He is coming off a career year and holds the highest trade value on the whole team. He is also young enough at age 30 that teams will feel that he can produce for at least a few seasons following this. If the Canucks would like to learn from not trading Vrbata last offseason and Hamhuis at the deadline, they will trade Hansen this offseason.

Player(s) Acquired

Jason Demers, Ben Lovejoy, Philip Larsen, and Loui Eriksson will all be signed via free agency. This is a pipe dream and it’s mine so don’t spoil it. Demers will get $5 plus million over 5 years (5 years, $25+ million), Lovejoy will get $4 million over 3 years (3 years, $12 million), Larsen will get $2 million over 2 years (2 years, $4 million), and Eriksson will get $5.5 million over 5 years (5 years, $27.5 million). I’m not a huge fan of the money Demers and Eriksson get but they are worth it to the Canucks because of their proven performance and veteran leadership. Plus, a line of Eriksson and the Sedins has me salivating.

2016–17 Opening Night Roster

Left Wing

Daniel Sedin, Sven Baertschi, Brendan Gaunce, Emerson Etem, [Chris Higgins]

Centre

Henrik Sedin, Brandon Sutter, Bo Horvat, Markus Granlund, [Linden Vey]

Right Wing

Loui Eriksson, Jake Virtanen, Anton Rodin, Alex Burrows, [Derek Dorsett]

Defense

Chris Tanev, Alex Edler, Ben Hutton, Jason Demers, Luca Sbisa, Ben Lovejoy, [Nikita Tryamkin], [Philip Larsen], [Alex Biega], [Andrei Pedan], [Troy Stecher]

Goaltender

Jacob Markstrom, [Ryan Miller]

Thank you for reading. I hope you got to criticize my choices.