I have been having some fun over the past few weeks throwing out names of some impending unrestricted free agent wingers who could be good fits in Vancouver and might have interest in signing with the Canucks.
On Friday, the reliable and well-connected
Pierre LeBrun of ESPN weighed in with his thoughts on the future in Vancouver:
I think their No. 1 priority is to add a winger through the draft, trade or free agency. When it comes to July 1, I believe two of Vancouver's targets will be hometown boy Lucic and Loui Eriksson. They’d love to get one of those guys. Eriksson would be a perfect fit with the Sedin twins. But Lucic would be a popular move, too.
I do find his use of the word "popular" to be—well, a bit surprising. Debate here over the pros and cons of Lucic has been very lively for a couple of years, with strongly entrenched positions on both sides.
That means it's time for another poll. Do you side with the group that believes that Lucic would bring much-needed grit and toughness to the Canucks, along with his goal-scorer's hands, and that he has plenty of gas left in the tank at age 27? Or do you think that Lucic's playing style means that he's on the decline and that his hair-trigger temper will ultimately do the team more harm than good?
I'm keeping the question dead simple.
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Of course, issues like cap hit and contract term are important when judging a player's overall value to a team, but for now, let's just focus on desirability. If the Canucks can sign Lucic, should they do it?
Now, to compare apples to apples, let's see how Loui Eriksson polls.
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Both players have summer birthdays. They're three years apart in age. Lucic turns 28 in three days and Eriksson will be 31 in July.
Eriksson is more of a pure goal-scorer and showed tremendous chemistry with the Sedins when they led Team Sweden to a gold medal at the 2013 World Championship. Though he had concussion issues in 2013-14, Eriksson has been healthy for the past two seasons, playing 81 games in 2014-15 and all 82 games last season.
Last year, he broke the 30-goal mark for the second time in his career, going 30-33-63 to tie for second in scoring with the Bruins, while Lucic went 20-35-55, hitting the 20-goal mark for the fourth time. Lucic has also been durable over the years. The only game he missed last season was due to a one-game suspension for punching Kevin Connauton of the Arizona Coyotes in January. That was the third suspension of Lucic's career, but his first since 2011, and all were for just one game each.
One other item to note—Lucic is a left wing, while Eriksson plays the right side, though both are left-hand shots.
LeBrun points out that even though both sides sounded enthusiastic about getting Lucic signed to a contract in Los Angeles after the playoffs ended, we haven't heard anything further. The only major move that has been made since the Kings were eliminated from the playoffs was completing a new contract for coach Darryl Sutter.
"I'm told Lucic would still prefer to re-sign and remain with the Kings but has also begun to accept and be comfortable with the possibility of heading to the market July 1," writes LeBrun. "He’s ready for either scenario."
Over in Boston, on May 24, the Bruins inked defenceman Kevan Miller to a new four-year deal with a cap hit of $2.5 million a season. The biggest RFA on their list of players to re-sign is Torey Krug, but the Bruins have plenty of work to do. With just over $51 million already committed to the salary cap next season, Boston needs to add nine more players to its roster—the team currently has just nine forwards, four defencemen (including Kevan Miller) and one goaltender inked for next year.
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney talked with
Joe Haggerty of CSNNE at the draft combine on Friday about the prospect of bringing Eriksson back to Boston.
“I met with (agent) J.P. (Barry) and his group this week, and we’ve continued to have discussions to see if we can find common ground. We’re getting closer to July 1. Does he feel the itch [to test free agency]? Maybe. But I’ve said all along I respect what Loui brings to our hockey club,” said Sweeney, who said Eriksson’s camp hasn’t given the Bruins indication they are automatically determined to hit the open market on July 1. “If we don’t find common ground with Loui then we’re going to have to replace him.
“There have been some good discussions. The onus is on us to display what level we’re willing to commit to Loui, and as he knows on the door to free agency that is important to him. It comes down to how far we want to stretch.”
Of course, you'll recognize J.P. Barry as the Sedins' agent. Does that inch Eriksson closer to Vancouver, or closer to making a last-minute move to stay loyal to his current team, like the twins did when they signed their eleventh-hour contract extension with the Canucks during the summer of 2009?
Haggerty suggests that Eriksson's camp is looking for a deal in the range of six years at $6 million per season, but suggests that anything more than three to four years at about $5.5 million is too rich for the Bruins, so there's a rough framework of the numbers that are in play.
Me? I don't doubt that Lucic and Eriksson are at the top of Jim Benning's wish list, but I'm not in love with either option—mostly because if I was an owner, I'd never want to give a player anything longer than a four-year contract—there are just too many risk factors at play.
I realize that when you're competing with other organizations for the same top-level players, sometimes you have to give more than you're comfortable with. And looking at Benning's history, while he has perhaps been willing to pay more than market value for some players, his contact terms are actually pretty reasonable. The longest deals or extensions that he has handed out to date are to Chris Tanev and Brandon Sutter, for five years each, so maybe he will have an upper limit on term as he considers his free-agent options.
I suppose the real question boils down to this:
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When I think of it like that, I'm going to need some time before I cast my vote. What's your verdict?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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