According to the NHL Network, by way of Erin Brown (aka @Rinkside), a credentialed reporter who covers the Florida Panthers, the Canucks were priced out of the Jason Garrison sweepstakes. Not a huge shocker, as Garrison is looking to cash in on an impressive offensive season (16 goals, third among all NHL defensemen in 2011-12 behind only Shea Weber and Erik Karlsson). The crazy part is that they were priced out at a ridiculous $6.5 million.

Update: Jason Garrison is a Canucks Defenseman After All.

Read past the jump for more!

Canucks reportedly priced out at $6.5m. @JOSE97LUIS still better than over paying 5m + that G52 wanted #FlaPanthers

— rinkside (@rinkside) July 1, 2012

It was later clarified, that the update came from the NHL Network:

Regarding the $6.5m price tag on Garrison, that was mentioned on NHL Network. We can't take credit.

— rinkside (@rinkside) July 1, 2012

The Canucks know they need to improve their defensive depth, but if it's going to cost upwards of $6 million to bring in a solid second pairing defenseman, they may want to re-think things. Even with the ever-increasing salary cap, that is a crazy amount of money to commit to a defenseman with one good offensive season.

Spending some time trying to get Keith Ballard’s game back together may be a good starting point. After all $4.2 million doesn’t look so bad for the underwhelming, third-pairing defenseman at the moment...