Monday Mailbag: Draft prospects who could play in the NHL next year, and will the Canucks trade the 11th pick?

The Stanley Cup Final will come to a close this week and our hope is that the trade market opens up like a Wal-Mart on Boxing Day.

We’ve seen a bit of movement over the past week. The aggressive general managers are getting active and it ponders the question on how active the Canucks currently are on their offseason plan.

It’s clear that the Canucks have to clear cap space, and we’ve already written a thousand articles about Conor Garland, Brock Boeser or Tyler Myers. The problem isn’t the players, the problem is cap flexibility. Other teams are able to make some bold moves and know that they can scratch off the extra one or two million dollars that come on their cap over the next few years. The Canucks cannot take on any money at all and that puts them in a difficult position as the cap only sees a one-million-dollar augmentation for the 2023-24 season.

Clearing up cap space is going to come at a cost.

There are two roads and they each have very different-looking paths.

It would be very hard to believe that this will be the case. Tyler Myers and Anthony Beauvillier’s cap hits will come off the books after the 2023-24 season and if the Canucks were to go the direction of waiting, they could look to move Beauvillier and Myers at the deadline, and there’s potential there to pick up a pair of top-60 picks there.

Waiting coincides with running it back, and we just don’t know how that will go for the Canucks. They will need to have a healthy Thatcher Demko, Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, and J.T. Miller to achieve success. The penalty kill will need to improve and the defence corps will have to look significantly better after their acquisition of Filip Hronek.

A lot needs to happen. But it is possible that the Canucks can contend for a playoff spot next season — they just need everything to no go to crap as it did this past season.

Maybe Rick Tocchet has the right formula to get this team firing on all cylinders.

We saw this with the Hronek trade and could end up seeing more of that in the coming weeks.

The Canucks won’t be able to give up picks to pick up high-level NHLers like Hronek until they clear some cap. So, this means that you basically need to pay double time if you want to upgrade this team in the near future. The Canucks will need to give up picks or prospects to get off some of their bad money or Conor Garland’s pretty decent contract.

We need to see a clear path committed to in the coming weeks and if the Canucks don’t do anything major, we are looking at a team that is what it is.

If there are no major moves, whatever they got on opening night is what they are going to give their best run with for the next couple of years.

Maybe Vasily Podkolzin and Nils Höglander can make an impact and perhaps Hronek fits the defence corps like a glove and can drive a second pairing while creating his own offence from the backend.

Anything is possible. Let’s see how things go over the next three weeks.

The NHL Entry Draft is 16 days away. It’s time for the Canucks to get to work and execute whatever their plan is.

We went on a bit of a spree there. I know you are all here for the Monday Mailbag. Let’s not waste any more words and instead, dive into what the wonderful people of #CanucksTwitter had to ask this week!

Let’s go!

The key word here is cheap.

Tyson Jost is a 25-year-old, left-shot centre/winger who won just 38.8% of his 451 faceoffs this past season. Jost is a restricted free agent with the Buffalo Sabres but may not receive a qualifying offer as his QO is $2,250,000.

He may look better in a new environment and Jost is a former BCHL who played with the Penticton Vees. He’s a fine fourth-line player by all of the metrics but as we said off the top — the keyword would be cheap.

You’re not likely to see Jost earn over two million dollars but maybe he’s the type of player you take a risk on in a similar way to how the Canucks signed Curtis Lazar for three years at a one-million dollar cap hit.

I’d be happy with Jost at three years and $1,100,000. His salary would be buriable in the AHL and he’s still very young at 25 years old.

The key is cheap!

There are not many whispers from the Canucks right now. They’ve got their lips sealed tight as the draft approaches. There are a lot of options for the Canucks in the 11-hole but we still believe that Dalibor Dvorsky and David Reinbacher are the two players of interest who could legitimately be there at 11.

Colby Barlow and Eduard Sale look like two players who could be in the NHL sooner than some of the other prospects. Perhaps that is the way the Canucks are looking at using this pick. You could legitimately see Barlow in the NHL next season but we will have to see what he looks like at an NHL camp.

For now, there are not really any names coming out who the Canucks have an interest in. None that we are hearing, anyways.

I’d target Kyle Burroughs because I don’t think the Canucks can spend any money or move any picks for another defenceman.

Get the local kid signed and back in a Canucks jersey. Burroughs was the heart of soul of the Canucks for a good portion of the season and stuck up for the stars. He played his role extremely well and shouldn’t be very expensive to sign.

It’s too bad they don’t have this deal done already.

As for targeting a defenceman in trade or free agency, I’d just simply pass.

https://twitter.com/Raymond_Hatt/status/1668051470913273856?s=20

I’m expecting something like 47 games played, 12 goals, and 13 assists in SHL as well as eight games played, four goals, and four assists at the World Juniors

I’d bet on Podkolzin because Tocchet has seen him play and if he can take a step this season, he’s the perfect top-six winger for Tocchet.

It would be David Reinbacher. Go get Hughes’ partner.

Very much doubt it but there’s a very small chance that they buy out Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

It’s very fair to be a bit worried. The Canucks have the option to trade down or just trade the pick in exchange for a win-now player.

He’s so young, so it’s pretty great that Cole McWard already has some NHL games under his belt. I’d expect him to play big minutes in the AHL and be a good measuring stick for Jett Woo. Those two should battle for who is the best right-shot defence prospect in the system.

It’s got to be up there for sure. The moments within that putt were legendary.

Well, that wraps up another Monday Mailbag here at CanucksArmy. Thanks to everyone who sent in a question this week and we will see you all next Monday!