Report: No extension talks between Canucks, pending UFA Vrbata

Photo Credit: Tom Szczerbowski/USA TODAY Sports

The hockey gods are choosing an inconvenient time to smite Vancouver Canucks forward Radim Vrbata.

Vrbata, 34, is about an consistent a first-line winger as you’ll find in the NHL. That is until this season, where brutal percentages have ravaged his production. 

Considering Vrbata’s age and that this is a contract year,  the fact of his being snake bit over the past six weeks may cost Vrbata a good deal of money on his next contract. And realistically this next contract may have been his last really good chance of getting capital P-A-I-D PAID.

As for whether or not that next contract may be with the Canucks, well, it’s interesting to note that the two sides have yet to broach the subject, according to a report from ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun.

LeBrun’s rumbling note on Vrbata is brief, but here it is:

LeBrun notes that the club may be just taking a cautious approach and waiting to see what the Canadian Dollar does to the projected upper limit of the salary cap before committing to Vrbata. The league generally provides a more thorough estimate – though still historically an optimistic one – at league meetings in Pebble Beach, in December.

Even if the salary cap is relatively flat, the Canucks are going to have significant salary cap space to spend this season with Vrbata and Hamhuis coming off of the books. 

And I don’t know that it’s a safe assumption to expect the salary cap to be flat. The relative weakness of the Canadian dollar aside, the NHL is forecasting $4 billion in revenue for this season, according to a recent article on Bettman’s nearly eight-figure salary from sportsbusinessdaily.com. As outspoken, but skeptical player agent Allan Walsh of Octagon hockey noted on Twitter recently, that would imply a salary cap upper limit in the $76 million range for the 2016-17 campaign.

If the $4 billion forecast holds, the Canucks could have somewhere in the neighbourhood of $20 million to spend, which would seem to leave some room to return Vrbata. 

That said, it promises to be an oddly strong free agent class, especially up front with Steven Stamkos, Eric Staal, Anze Kopitar, David Backes, Andrew Ladd and Milan Lucic all unsigned with about seven months to go until the market opens. There are some intriguing lower-end options for the Canucks on the wing too, including local talent like David Jones and Troy Brouwer, and Sedin favourite Loui Eriksson.

It makes sense then for the Canucks to take something of a wait-and-see approach. It also may ben sensible for a team that’s rebuilding – and make no mistake, that’s what the Canucks are doing in their own halting, ‘trying have it all’ fashion – to consider dealing Vrbata if they don’t intend on resigning him.

Vrbata’s snakebit start to the season has likely cost him a good deal of money, and it may also cost the Canucks a more premium asset in any hypothetical trade involving the veteran Czech sniper. When we looked at it this summer and examined trades for comparably productive top-of-the-lineup scorers, it seemed likely that Vrbata would net the Canucks a first-round pick and more in a deal. 

Based on Vrbata’s slow start to the year though, that seems impossibly farfetched now, especially when you factor in the veteran volume shooter’s no-trade clause.

How this situation will play itself out will be worth watching closely. For both the team and the player though, the outcome is more likely to be favourable if Vrbata’s shots start finding the back of the net at a more reasonable clip.