With pre-season games underway, we are nearing the opening day of the 2023-24 regular season. Vancouver Canucks‘ general manager Patrik Allvin and president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford have a goal of improving the team’s cap situation. After buying out Oliver Ekman-Larsson early in the offseason, the team had enough cap space to address most of their needs. With the changes to the roster, the Canucks have a few new contracts. Here are four of the team’s best and worst contracts heading into the season.
Best:
4. Pius Suter
When the offseason started, Allvin listed a third-line centre as one of the Canucks needs. After signing Teddy Blueger earlier in the Summer, it seemed the team was fine with him in the slot. However, in early August, the team signed Pius Suter to a two-year deal with an annual average value (AAV) of $1.6 million.
“Bringing in Pius for the next couple of years really helps us strengthen our centre ice position,” Patrik Allvin. “Adding a player who has scored 43 goals the past three seasons will be a boost for us up front and he will also add to our penalty-killing unit as well. His flexibility to be able to play down the middle or on the wing will give Toc more options when putting together his forward lines.”
Suter is the fourth-best contract for the Canucks, as he is signed at a pretty good AAV and brings a lot to the table. He will provide the team with depth scoring up the middle while helping on the penalty kill. Additionally, he’s an upgrade over Blueger as a third-line centre.
3. Quinn Hughes
Quinn Hughes has the Canucks third best contract with a four-year deal with an AAV of $7.850 million. The 23-year-old is the team’s best defenceman and one of the best blueliners in the league. Additionally, he has the 20th-highest cap hit among defensemen in the league, while he posted the third most points in the league with 76 in 78 games.
Hughes is an underrated defenseman across the NHL. With the Canucks, he’s already set and surpassed the single-season record for most points by a blueliner in the organization’s history. He posted 68 points in 76 games in the 2021-22 season to surpass Doug Lidster’s 63 points from the 1986-87 season, and then his 76 points last season set the bar once again. Since entering the league in the 2019-20 season, he has posted the third most points in the NHL. His 238 points are behind Roman Josi’s 253 and Cale Maker’s 246 over the past four seasons.
He has also provided the team with leadership, speaking up when he needs to. As a result, the Canucks named him the organization’s 15th captain before the 2023-24 season.
2. Thatcher Demko
Thatcher Demko comes in with the second-best contract on the roster. He is in the third year of his five-year deal with a $5 million AAV. In the first year of that deal, he played great in the 61 games he started. He posted a 33-22-7 record, with a 2.72 goals against average (GAA), a .915 save percentage (SV%) and a shutout. Last season, he struggled in the 32 games he started, posting a 14-14-4 record, a 3.16 GAA, .901 SV% and a shutout. However, Demko said he feels better going into the 2023-24 season than he did last year, as he learned so much from a mental and physical standpoint.
“I feel so much more at ease this year in a good way,” Demko said. “I feel so much more confident. I know that I can perform. I know that I can have a good start. I think there’s pressure on us in a good way but I’m not here to add any pressure on myself. If you’re confident, then that pressure doesn’t seem so intense.
Related: Quinn Hughes On Track to be Best Defenceman in Canucks History
“I knew that the beginning of the year wasn’t me. And I think the fan base knows that, I think the organization knows that and the media knows that. Coming back from that (groin) injury, obviously I was proving something to myself. . . and just reminding everyone around me that that’s who I am. I felt great about my game at the end of the year, so it was just a couple of tweaks here and there as far as the strategy heading into (summer) training and the training that I did mentally. I think I put myself in a fantastic spot to start this season.”
Demko had minor knee surgery last summer, which could explain why he struggled early in the season. He injured his groin mid-way through the season and was out of the lineup for close to three months. As Demko said, he improved his play after he returned from his injury. He posted an 11-14-4 record, a .918 SV%, a 2.52 GAA and a shutout. The 27-year-old returned to form and should be back to his usual self in the 2023-24 season.
1. Andrei Kuzmenko
Andrei Kuzmenko was the Canucks biggest signing last season. After gaining interest from multiple teams, he chose to sign in Vancouver. After posting 21 goals and 44 points in 47 games, the Canucks extended him to a two-year deal with an AAV of $5.5 million. Kuzmenko finished the season with 39 goals and 74 points in 81 games.
Heading into the first year of his new deal, Kuzmenko should come close to posting the same amount of points as he did last season. He is one of the team’s top three forwards and provides while playing on the first line and first power-play unit on a fairly cheap cap hit. There’s a chance he’ll outplay his cap hit even more than expected after the offseason he’s had.
Worst:
4. Conor Garland
Conor Garland finished his second season with the Canucks since the organization traded for him and Ekman-Larsson in the 2021 offseason. The organization signed him to a five-year deal with an AAV of $4.950 million. Through his first two seasons, Garland scored 36 goals and posted 98 points in 158 games. However, he has struggled to consistently produce with the club and crack the team’s top six.
With Rick Tocchet behind the bench, Garland has an opportunity to turn things around with the Canucks. Tocchet previously coached with the Arizona Coyotes from 2017 to 2021. Garland played the first three years of his career with the coach and believes he will get off to a better start under Tocchet.
“I was excited when he came in, just knowing what he brings,. I played my best hockey under him,” Garland said. “But I loved playing for Tocchet and I’m glad he’s back. It’s good for everybody to understand the system and to understand the standard he wants because it is a standard where he doesn’t care if you’re at your best, but you better compete and better play hard and you better be 100 percent for the team all the time because he sniffs that out. He’s just somebody I love playing for and all the guys here loved playing for him. We’re eager to get going and get some real games under him at the start here.”
3. Tyler Myers
The third worst contract on the Canucks roster is Tyler Myers. Usually, the 6-foot-8 defenceman’s deal is either the worst or second-worst contract on the roster. However, he is in the final year of his five-year, $6 million AAV contract. Still, the 33-year-old defenceman doesn’t provide the value expected of a player with a $6 million AAV.
Throughout the four years of his deal, Myers has failed to post more than 21 points, which is an issue for a few reasons. Myers received his $6 million AAV due to his size and offensive skillset. However, he struggled to produce at an acceptable rate. Additionally, Myers will likely play fewer minutes than the 20:54 he averaged last season. Allvin also says he was better after Sergei Gonchar and Adam Foote joined the team. The veteran defenceman could end up having his best season with the team if everything goes right.
2. Brock Boeser
Brock Boeser has had an up-and-down career in the NHL. He impressed in his rookie season, where he posted a career-high 29 goals. However, he struggled with two tough seasons in 2018-19 and 2019-20. Boeser stepped up and put together his best season in 2020-21, scoring 23 goals and posting 49 points in 56 games during the COVID-shortened season. He had a tough time continuing to play at that level the following season, scoring 23 goals and posting 46 points. However, he received a three-year, $19.950 million deal. In 2022-23, he struggled to play up to his $6.650 million AAV, scoring 18 goals and posting 55 points in a career-high 74 games. Additionally, he was involved in trade rumors throughout the season.
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Boeser needs to have a bounce-back season, as his current cap hit hurts the Canucks. His lack of production doesn’t help as he is expected to be a top-six forward for the team, as he failed to surpass the 20-goal mark for the first time since 2019-20, scoring 18 goals. Another poor season from the 26-year-old will once again result in the Canucks trying to trade him away.
1. J.T. Miller
Despite being one of the team’s top offensive weapons, J.T. Miller’s contract is expected to hurt the Canucks more than help. Although Miller is the most productive player out of the four players with the worst contracts, he is locked up for a long time. The 2023-24 season will be the first season of the seven-year contract with an $8 million AAV.
The forward is 30 years old and will be 36 entering the final year of his contract. Therefore, it is safe to assume he will decline throughout this contract. Miller already saw a drop in his play after posting 99 points in 80 games during the 2021-22 season to 82 points in 81 games in the 2022-23 season. Additionally, other issues remain with his game, including his poor backchecking ability and temper. Miller can still turn things around if he maintains his scoring ability and improves on the areas he lacks. The first year of his new deal will be the most important because it will dictate how much pressure the forward will receive. A poor season will only make matters worse for him, but a great season will help him a lot.
Less Bad Contracts Than Before for Canucks
In previous seasons, the Canucks enter with multiple terrible contracts. There was a time when Loui Eriksson, Antoine Roussel and Jay Beagle ate up a sizeable amount of cap space to Myers and Ekman-Larsson doing the same. Now, three of the four contracts are from forwards who can still live up to their deals, while Myers is in the final year of his. Additionally, the best contracts are also good as they are players on good value deals for more than a season. The Canucks cap situation is slowly improving as the organization hopes the product on the ice improves as well.