Further breaking down Canucks GM Patrik Allvin’s comments from Tuesday’s press conference

On Tuesday, Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin held a press conference in which he fielded questions from the media about his club’s decision to extend J.T. Miller, and more importantly, about the work that still lies ahead for the Canucks to construct a cup-contending team.

“We took our time and looked at the roster, the cap situation moving forward obviously is important and then we looked at the options, what’s out there in terms of players being available, potentially for next summer,” explained Allvin when discussing the club’s decision to lock up Miller long-term. “As I said, all the way along here, JT.. was our best player last year and he’s a super competitive player. We were really happy to get that contract extension here done.”

Allvin also briefly touched on the club’s ongoing negotiations with captain Bo Horvat, who is set to hit unrestricted free agency at the end of next season.

“Bo’s our captain, we respect him,” said Allvin. “We like Bo and we’re communicating with his camp and we’ll see if there’s a deal to be made there.”

“We don’t have to make moves coming into this season in order to get Bo signed, but moving forward we need to be aware of the cap situation and potentially make some roster decisions coming into next summer.”

Allvin went on to admit that the reality is that sometimes off-ice contract situations can be a distraction to players, and reiterated that the club would like to figure something out with their captain sooner, rather than later.

On the topic of Miller, the Canucks’ GM added that his group took the expected rise of the salary cap — in two to three years’ time when the players’ escrow debt is paid off — into consideration when locking up Miller into his late 30s.

Allvin also gave a vote of confidence when asked about his defence group, which remains nearly identical to the group that the Canucks iced last season.

However, he certainly didn’t close the door on the defence group changing before the start of the season begins, either.

We spoke about that and much more in the video below!