Photo Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki/USA TODAY Sports

The Vancouver Canucks are still working to keep defenseman and power-play specialist Yannick Weber, even though they opted against qualifying the club’s leading goal scorer from the back-end earlier this week.

With the market set to open shortly on Wednesday, Vancouver was still engaged with Weber’s agent J.P Barry and discussing a new contract, according to a report from News 1130 Sports. News 1130 Sports is also reporting that the Canucks, as it currently stands, aren’t in on Cody Franson.

Let’s focus on the player the Canucks are talking to.

Weber, 26, was a crucial contributor on the Vancouver power play and his right-handed shot opened up a whole whack of cross-seam passes for the Sedin twins to take advantage of. He was also thrust into a top-four role when the club was battling injuries in February and into March, and excelled in that role. 

The Swiss-born defender has long been viewed as a depth guy – a power-play specialist and a defensive liability who would often be thrust into a spot on Vancouver’s fourth forward line when John Tortorella was coaching the club – but he’d never really received an extended opportunity to play regularly in the middle of a club’s lineup. When given that opportunity last Spring, Weber held his own, and was one of Vancouver’s more effective puck movers in their first-round playoff loss to the Calgary Flames.

In gauging Weber’s value earlier this month, I suggested that his last RFA season was worth somewhere in the neighbourhood of $2.5 million. As an unrestricted player, he could be a $3 million piece. 

I guess we’ll see what the market will bear, and whether or not Weber will return to Vancouver.

Finally, that the Canucks aren’t locked into the bidding for Franson may suggest that they’ll be hunting more in a middle sort of range on Wednesday. It wouldn’t be huge surprise – and actually it might be a sensible approach – were the club to spend time kicking the tires on the likes of Weber and Matt Bartkowski, and eschewing more expensive pieces like Franson and Mike Green.