Vancouver Canucks expected to make strong play for Jake Guentzel in free agency
Frank Seravalli
Jun 18, 2024
... sources have been percolating that the Canucks might present the best mix of money and opportunity right out of the gate. There is a familiarity there, as Guentzel played for Rick Tocchet as an assistant coach in Pittsburgh, and under Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin in the Steel City – not to mention the strength and training staff.
There is also a need. The Canucks pushed the Edmonton Oilers to Game 7 in Round 2, but fell short in part because they couldn’t find a way to engage Elias Pettersson, and putting Guentzel on his wing might go a long way in solving for that problem.
Guentzel, who turns 30 before he would play his first game under the new deal, is expected to fetch a contract worth at least $65 million. He was traded from Pittsburgh to Carolina at the March deadline and fit like a glove with 25 points in 17 games, plus another nine in 11 playoff contests. It could be as much as 7 years x $9.5 million, or the Hurricanes have let teams know they are willing to work out a sign-and-trade so a team could get him on the maximum eight-year term (and lower the cap hit) in exchange for a mid-round pick.
Over the last six seasons, Guentzel ranks 14th in goals (198) despite being the only player on the list under 400 games played, plus 20th in points-per-game (1.03) and 27th in points (410).
I know the plan A would be to put him with Pettersson, but I like that additionally he's not the same wing as Boeser, so assuming we sign Boeser long term, we aren't forced to have one of them playing on the second line.
You at least have an option to load up a top line and get a ton of skill on it, maybe similar to the lotto line where we use it when we are struggling to get offense going.
but Doc, you told me getting rid of Mik wouldn't be that costly because we are no longer in flat cap.. why would we take on another bad contract?
I've always maintained it would "cost something" to move Mikheyev
... but I strongly disagreed with your suggestion that the price might be a 1st round pick.
Mikh and Guds are overpaid by about the same amount ($1.5M?) in my books.
Guds is $750K less on the cap however...
I'd rather have the space for Zadorov, but if that's off the table then swapping Mikheyev for someone else's misfit seems like a pretty solid plan B. Same term as Mik, lower cap hit, but I wonder if the BJs would be interested given Mikheyev is owed an extra $2.3m over the next two seasons.
I don't know why a franchise like the Canucks aren't front-loading every single deal they sign in order to gain an advantage in situations like this.
If they paid Ilya 6/5/4/4 with half the money as July 1 signing bonuses and they'd be dealing a guy owed $6m over two years instead of $9.3m.
but Doc, you told me getting rid of Mik wouldn't be that costly because we are no longer in flat cap.. why would we take on another bad contract?
I've always maintained it would "cost something" to move Mikheyev
... but I strongly disagreed with your suggestion that the price might be a 1st round pick.
Mikh and Guds are overpaid by about the same amount ($1.5M?) in my books.
Guds is $750K less on the cap however...
I'd rather have the space for Zadorov, but if that's off the table then swapping Mikheyev for someone else's misfit seems like a pretty solid plan B. Same term as Mik, lower cap hit, but I wonder if the BJs would be interested given Mikheyev is owed an extra $2.3m over the next two seasons.
I don't know why a franchise like the Canucks aren't front-loading every single deal they sign in order to gain an advantage in situations like this.
If they paid Ilya 6/5/4/4 with half the money as July 1 signing bonuses and they'd be dealing a guy owed $6m over two years instead of $9.3m.
donlever wrote: ↑Wed Jun 19, 2024 8:03 pm
Not to disparage Lynn Valley because it can be a high rent district in some locations but at 9 sheets a year Jake is not living there....
Wasn’t Jay Bouwmeester and Marian Gaborik once shopping around with a realtor too?
Say NO to Guentzel. At $9+, he wrecks the cap. We need depth more than any $9 winger. I love the idea of him, but he hamstrings our depth, and depth/grinders win cups.
