Welcome to the cusp of June.

Which, really, in hockey terms, means welcome to the final month of the NHL season. And welcome to the final month before the opening up of the 2025 Free Agent Frenzy. As we’ve already noted countless times, this year’s edition promises to be an excessively frenzied one, with cap space available leaguewide and organizational wallets wide open.

But July 1 actually denotes two important dates on the NHL calendar. It is the opening of free agency for those newly-minted UFAs, yes, but it’s also the point at which next year’s 2026 UFA class – those not on one-year contracts, anyway – can begin negotiating extensions. (Players on one-year deals must way until January 1).

And so, on July 1, 2026, the Vancouver Canucks become eligible to sign any of their 2026 UFAs, meaning those whose contracts expire after this coming 2025/26 seasons, to extensions. At the very least, it’s when they’re eligible to officially open up negotiations.

But should they?

As of now, the Canucks have four 2026 pending UFAs of note. Below, we’ll offer some commentary on whether the team should look to start talks with them in a month or so, or whether those talks should wait.

Blueger has been a consistent bottom-six performer since signing with the Canucks back in 2023, and has certainly returned fair value on that initial one-year, $1.9 million deal and at least the first year of his subsequent two-year, $1.8 million AAV extension.

But considering Blueger’s role on the team, the fact he’ll turn 31 in August, and the fact that the Canucks have some internal replacements on hand already, the chances of Blueger being extended early seem slim.

Right now, Blueger is at the bottom end of a depth chart that already contains Elias Pettersson and Filip Chytil, and that is aiming to add at least one more centre to the mix. At the same time, he’s facing pressure from Aatu Räty, who proved to be the team’s most reliable faceoff-taker last season and is now waiver-eligible, which pretty much guarantees his spot for 2025/26.

That could result in Blueger sliding over to the wing sooner rather than later, and it will almost certainly result in his having to wait on contract talks, too.

What a tough call here. On the one hand, Conor Garland has perhaps been the Canucks’ most consistent scorer since arriving in 2021. Maybe their only consistent scorer. He’s notched 19, 17, 20, and 19 goals, while missing just seven regular season games over four seasons.

His defensive presence has steadily improved, too, and he remains a possession whiz and intangible agitator out there.

We must also note that the Canucks are currently pretty short on offence, consistent or otherwise. Garland returns as the top-scoring winger from last season with 50 points, beating Jake DeBrusk by two points. It’s one of the reasons why, despite him making a tempting trade chip for other teams, it’s unlikely to see him traded this summer. The Canucks need him as much, if not more, in 2025/26 than they did last year.

But opening up extension negotiations is another matter entirely. Garland is 29 and won’t turn 30 until March of next year. That’s still young enough, and with enough prime years remaining, to think an extension is possible. But, really, it will largely depend on who else the Canucks have on hand at that point.

We imagine talks with Garland won’t open up on July 1, 2026, at any rate. The Canucks will wait to see who else they land in free agency and through the trade market, and how prospects like Jonathan Lekkerimäki progress. If the Canucks can add another scoring winger, they will probably be fine to let Garland’s contract expire.

Unless, of course, Garland were willing to take some sort of discount compared to what he might land on the open market. But after a season in which Garland lost his most respected teammate, JT Miller, and a coach he spoke incredibly highly of in Rick Tocchet, we’re not so sure Garland would be willing to open up extension talks himself.

As difficult as it is to say, all signs point to ‘no’ here.

Demko is 29, going on 30 in December, and is only one season separated from a Vezina nomination. Normally, that’d be prime goalie extension time.

But there’s the uncertain recovery from multiple injuries, including one to the popliteus that we’ve been told Demko will just have to live with from now on.

There’s the fact that the Canucks already signed Kevin Lankinen to a four-year extension with a full no-movement clause in the first two years.

There’s also Arturs Silovs pending loss of waiver exemption, combined with his utter stardom in the current AHL playoffs.

Add it all up, and there’s just no way the Canucks can justify signing Demko to an early extension – unless he comes to them first, and with an offer that includes no real pay raise. But that seems unlikely. Maybe the Canucks start token negotiations out of respect, and out of Demko’s past statements about wanting to stay. But as soon as a raise starts entering the conversation, it gets tricky to justify without seeing more of Demko’s recovery.

Honestly, from where we’re sitting, it seems more likely that Demko is traded this offseason than signed to an extension. And for largely the same reasons that we have listed above.

Finally, we hit a player that might actually receive an extension this summer.

The city of Vancouver fell in love with Sherwood this season, and with good reason. He provided so much bang-for-buck with 19 goals and 40 points for just $1.5 million. And he provided even more bang-for-bang in breaking the NHL record for hits in a single season.

If the Canucks can keep him around without doing much more than doubling his current salary, we have to imagine they’d love to do so, now or in the future. A $3 million cap hit will be decidedly below the league average by the time the 2025 offseason concludes. Give Sherwood that and some term, and you might just have a deal.

From Sherwood’s perspective, this season blew his previous career highs out of the water. As much as he’d like to repeat that in 2025/26, that’s not something that can be counted on – not for a guy who is 30 years old and was in the AHL as recently as 2022/23. Sherwood and his camp would be wise to attempt to negotiate based on this past season as soon as they’re able to, and the Canucks will probably be willing to meet them at least halfway if they do.