Face paint will flow like wine at this last night for hockey in Canada this season. All eyes in Edmonton are on the Oilers, and you have to be in the city to truly get it.
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.