It's not a secret, Patrik Allvin and his Canucks have eleven ending contracts, and they'll have to do some magic to re-sign them all or perhaps replace them.
One of this season's surprises, Dakota Joshua, will be due for a vital pay raise. The Canucks' number 81 lived up to Rick Tocchet's expectations and took his game to a whole new level this season. During his second full NHL year, Joshua reached career highs with 18 goals and 32 points through 63 games.
Rick Dhaliwal came up big today with a massive update on Joshua's current status. The insider revealed that the two parties had been talking, but the update doesn't bear any good news. According to his intel, Allvin offered a two-year contract carrying a $2M AAV:
«This one is a little low for me: two years and two million per. I want to say this about Dakota; not hearing the Canucks are close with Joshua sounds like a lot of work to do before a deal gets done.»
«[There's] A lot of models out there showing Joshua could get over three million on July 1st,I don't think the Canucks are comfortable going with three million for him.»
At his exit interview, Allvin addressed this upcoming situation with a rather concerning statement. The Canucks' GM stated that he believed he could find the next Dakota Joshua in free agency.
The Canucks currently have $23.78M of cap space as they head to the off-season, with nothing less than 11 contracts to be replaced, including players like Filip Hronek, Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov. Given that Joshua could get the $3M AAV if he gets to free agency, is it too much for the Canucks?
