VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Canucks are no longer batting zero on their free agents.
But the massive, $58-million contract extension signed this week by defenceman Filip Hronek, followed by the modest re-signing of depth blue-liner Mark Friedman, still leaves the National Hockey League team with nine free agents, eight of them with unrestricted status on July 1.
Exactly one month after the Canucks’ impressive and encouraging season ended with a Game-7 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, key players like Elias Lindholm, Dakota Joshua, Nikita Zadorov and Tyler Myers remained unsigned as of Thursday morning.
With the entry draft next week and free agency the week after, Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford talked to Sportsnet about the apparent hard line his team is taking with its free agents.
We didn’t ask him about reported interest in Carolina winger Jake Guentzel (the NHL calls that kind of thing tampering and is against it), but we did get Rutherford’s views on other hot-button topics besides free agency and its risk to the Canucks.
In one of his first major interviews since the season ended, Rutherford talked about the possibility of top prospect Jonathan Lekkerimaki playing in the NHL next season, Brock Boeser’s future with the Canucks, coach-of-the-year Rick Tocchet’s contract status, changes to the coaching staff and filling out the roster over the next couple of weeks. And Rutherford said free agency is in the players’ court.
The interview has been edited slightly for length and clarity.
Sportsnet: Filip Hronek was only a restricted free agent, not a UFA, but how happy were you to get that contract concluded?
Jim Rutherford: I’m really pleased. He’s still at a young enough age (26) that his game and his production can even grow. You know, he should be just coming into the prime of his career. We obviously liked the player right from the time we traded for him, and with the price we paid we were hoping that this was a player that we would have long term. We really felt he fit in seamlessly with the team and he’s been a good player for us. So getting him signed and getting him comfortable knowing he’s going to be here (for eight more years) was important and we feel good about it.
SN: General manager Patrik Allvin said Hronek was at the top of the pecking order among your free agents. Could his re-signing untangle other negotiations and lead to some of your UFAs getting signed?
JR: Wherever they fall in the pecking order. . . we’re in business here to sign players. We’ve talked enough to some of our players and, you know, it’s really their choice now. And if not, we’re only a number of days away from free agency. One way or the other, we’ll have a better understanding of what our team is pretty soon.
SN: A month into your off-season, why haven’t more players been re-signed?
JR: I don’t know, it varies from year to year, player to player. Sometimes you just have to let these things play themselves out.
SN: Are you surprised?
JR: I thought there was a chance we could have a couple of more signings by now, but I don’t see a lot of other signings around the league, either.
SN: Do you think part of the standoff is both sides grappling with the idea of historic salary-cap inflation over the next few years and what that means for salaries now?
JR: I can’t speak for other teams. We do projections all the time. Of course, it’s a little bit of a juggling act trying to figure out how to fit. . . these guys within our cap. Our projections compared to what players think they should get may not be the same. And then if you just give the player what they want, that means there could be another player that you can’t add to your lineup.
SN: Are you playing hard ball – holding the line at what you think the players are worth in the context of what the Canucks can afford to pay?
JR: I don’t know. I mean, we have a cap and we have a budget. Somewhere along that line, there always has to be give and take within negotiations and as much as you think you’d like to hold the line, it doesn’t necessarily turn out that way.
SN: How big could the job be this summer if most of your free agents leave?
JR: It’s always a big job to try and make the right decisions. We do feel comfortable in the fact that we have four or five guys now from Abbotsford (in the American Hockey League) that should be knocking on the door to be with the big team. We have Lekkerimaki coming, which based on his year this year (in Sweden and the AHL), if he comes in and has a good camp, he’ll make a case to be on the team right away. We have a bigger pool of players now to turn to than we did a year or two years ago.
SN: Hronek was a big domino. If players nearer the bottom of the pecking order have had to wait, do you risk alienating them or making them feel less wanted?
JR: That’s a fair point. But up until July 1, we’re not concerned about that. You know, I’ve always felt that if a player really likes it somewhere and they want to stay with that team and in that city, they’re going to figure out how to do it whether they have to wait a little while or not. And if they’re 50/50 (on staying), they’re going to be 50/50 regardless. I have confidence that there’s going to be some players that really want to stay in Vancouver.
SN: Some of your free agents, especially Zadorov and Joshua, have become fan-favourites. Do you risk straining the team’s renewed relationship with its fan base if they’re allowed to leave?
JR: Well, you’re always going to have that situation. There’s going to be fan-favourites the fans would really like to stay. When Bo Horvat left (in a trade last year), he certainly was a highly-respected guy with the Canucks’ fan base. But he left and the Canucks kept going and (the team) was fine as we went forward. So that’s going to happen year after year, where you get a fan favourite that may or may not stay.
SN: Moving away from free agency, as this is our first chance to really talk with you since the season ended, what are your takeaways from the 109-point regular season that saw the Canucks win their division for the first time since 2013?
JR: The team and the organization took a big step in the right direction to be a contending team. And that started this time last year when our coach, Rick Tocchet, laid out the guidelines as to what he would like our players to do in the off-season, when he’d like them to return to Vancouver to prepare for training camp. Then, how the training camp went, and the start of the season. . . the coaching staff did a terrific job with this group of players. And the players deserve a lot of credit because they all had to buy in and they did. There was a good system in place, and even on nights when we weren’t at our best, we still had a chance to win games. They just had a really good run.
SN: Will it be harder next season?
JR: I don’t want to say it will get harder, but it will still be hard. We have to stay focused. There’s nothing easy about winning games in the National Hockey League. I really respect and like our coaching staff and our leadership group and our core. We have the right pieces in place to continue on, but we have to work at it.
SN: After a 40-goal season, Brock Boeser is heading into the final year of his contract. Will you make a decision on his Canuck future this summer?
JR: I just couldn’t be happier for a player for the year he had after what he’s gone through. I think that this will be a case where we will watch this closely into the season. But we believe that Brock is back on track and he’ll continue to do what he was doing, and once we get confirmation of that during the season, then we’ll make a decision on him going forward.
SN: So no plans to explore a trade this summer?
JR: No. No.
SN: What about an extension for Rick Tocchet?
JR: He’s under team control for two more years (including a club option for 2025-26). I don’t know, we’ve got so many other things going on. We want him to continue doing the job that he’s done. Obviously, Patrik and I have a long history with Rick. That (next contract) is not going to be a concern when we get around to doing it. But I would suspect sometime at the end of next season, we’ll be looking at it.
SN: Until you announced the Hronek contract on Tuesday, the Canucks’ biggest off-season news was allowing minor-league coach Jeremy Colliton to leave, preemptively replacing him with Manny Malhotra. Can you explain that decision?
JR: We really respect the job that Jeremy did (but) it appeared it was time that everyone moved on. And you know, Manny Malhotra is a guy that we just really respect and like. I had him as a player (in Carolina), he was here in Vancouver before and it was such a natural fit. So we’re very pleased with how all of that has played out. And it worked out for Jeremy, too. . . as he continues to work his way back to becoming a head coach in the NHL.
SN: Experienced assistant coach Mike Yeo also left your NHL staff to join Travis Green in Ottawa. Skills coach Yogi Svejkovsky was promoted to replace him. Are you concerned about your organization’s relative lack of NHL coaching experience beyond Tocchet?
JR: Not at all. I don’t view Yogi as an inexperienced guy. He has a lot of experience. And the fact that the Sedins (development coaches Henrik and Daniel) will be around more and on the road when necessary, I see our coaching staff being just as strong.
SN: With the draft and free agency looming, how critical is this time of year for building your team?
JR: There’s a lot of important times of the year for hockey ops. This is certainly one of them. Our scouting staff is very well prepared for a draft in which we don’t have (first- and second-round) picks. But they are well prepared and are going to try to pluck one or two guys that eventually will play for the Canucks. And then of course there’s free agency. I actually enjoy (this time of year) more and more as time has gone on, watching our people work. Two weeks from now, we’ll be happy that this is behind us and we’ll have a better understanding of what we’ve got for our team this coming year and in the future. It is a fun time of the year — I think even more fun when we come off a year where we know we’re going in the right direction.