Kiefer Sherwood. Kevin Lankinen. Pius Suter. Dakota Joshua.

If there’s one thing the Vancouver Canucks‘ front office has done especially well under Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin, it’s hit on their bargain bin free agent pick ups. Now, there have certainly been some misses as well — Vincent Desharnais and Danton Heinen come to mind — but for the most part, the Canucks have benefited from their work signing some of the lesser talked about free agents.

Any time your signings make other NHL teams look inward and wonder how them and their pro scouts missed out on a player, you know you’ve done something right. And that thought certainly crossed multiple GMs minds when they saw Kevin Lankinen provide the Canucks with quality starting goaltending for under $1 million; seeing Kiefer Sherwood hit everything that moves while recording 40 points likely did the same.

But as we look at and preview the Canucks’ lineup and offseason work ahead, their bottom six seems pretty set. Following the trade and subsequent signing of Drew O’Connor, the Canucks have an abundance of middle six forwards. Conor Garland, Dakota Joshua, Teddy Blueger, Filip Chytil, Jake DeBrusk, Nils Höglander — in fact, it’s kind of hard to name a current Canucks forward who isn’t of the middle-bottom six variety. And we haven’t even mentioned the Abbotsford Canucks, who boast multiple players that will be challenging for full-time NHL bottom six jobs out of training camp next season.

As a result, most of the conversations being had right now are how the Canucks are going to address their needs in the top six. But are there any bargain bin NHL free agents the Canucks could sign?

Daily Faceoff put out together a team of “all value signings” earlier this week. Here are the five names featured:

Anthony Beauvillier (F)
Jonathan Drouin (F)
Eric Robinson (F)
Nick Perbix (D)
Nate Schmidt (D)
James Reimer (G)

Could any of these players be of interest for the Canucks? Potentially James Reimer if the club chooses to trade a goaltender to upgrade at forward and wants to ensure they have an appropriate plan B in the case that Arturs Silovs still isn’t ready for consistent NHL reps despite another strong playoff run? Maybe.

Could Anthony Beauvillier work again? In Bruce Boudreau’s high-octane offensive system, Beauvillier tallied 20 points through 33 games playing most of his minutes alongside Elias Pettersson. But a slow start in 2023-24 led the Canucks to moving Beauvillier to Chicago in a cap-clearing move. That likely makes Beauvillier irrelevant

Really, the greatest argument against the Canucks going out and making value signings this offseason is that they likely have enough middle six and bottom options; and true top six wingers aren’t typically found late in free agency. Further, finding a player even as good as Pius Suter — of two years ago — will be more difficult this offseason. With the cap going up, teams aren’t likely to let players they have even the slightest of inkling could help their team in any measurable way fly under the radar.

Plus, with Matt Duchene officially off the board ahead of free agency and Sam Bennett presumably soon to follow, the market for “lesser players” is only going to increase, making it even more difficult to find bargain bin signings this summer.

Even looking lower on the list of Daily Faceoff’s list of top 50 free agents, there are very few names that you look at and think “he makes sense for the Canucks”, given their current lineup.

Do you see any names on that list who could be bargain bin signings that could be anything more than bottom or middle six wingers? Perhaps the one that stands out the most Victor Olofsson, who scored 28 goals just two seasons ago.

He’s a bit of a power play specialist, and could help the Canucks in that regard, but is a 3 year deal at $3.4 million — as AFP Analytics projects he’ll get — really “bargain” territory? Perhaps if he can pot 25+ goals it is, but there’s also plenty of reason to believe that 28-goal season was a flash in the pan. There might be some upside there, but even with a somewhat intriguing name like Olofsson, it feels like the Canucks need to be making bets on more sure-fire players.

And so as the Canucks head into a pivotal two-week offseason stretch and gear up for free agency on July 1, it would appear likely their shopping in the bargain bin will be far more limited this summer than it has been in the past.