This July 1 may be the least exciting free agent frenzy day hockey fans have seen in a while, considering the rising salary cap has given all 32 NHL teams an extra $9.5 million in space to re-sign their players. Tack that on top of their reputation around the league for having a shattered locker room and the years of rebuilding ahead of them, and the Vancouver Canucks are really going to have struggles bringing in unrestricted free agents this summer.

Despite the challenge of Vancouver not being a destination for free agents, that isn’t going to stop the next Canucks General Manager from swinging big to improve their new team. Although, it’s not a star-studded unrestricted free agent class.

The forward crop projected to be available on July 1 that have at least 35 points this season are Alex Tuch, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Anthony Mantha, Charlie Coyle, Mats Zuccarello, Patrick Kane, Viktor Arvidsson, Claude Giroux, Vladimir Tarasenko, Bobby McMann, Mason Marchment, Anders Lee, Erik Haula, Boone Jenner, Corey Perry, Jamie Benn, Jack Roslovic, Eeli Tolvanen, and Ilya Mikheyev.

There are a few from that group; only Tuch, McMann, and Tolvanen are under 30. And it’s safe to rule out veteran players like Ovechkin, Malkin, Zuccarello, Kane, and Giroux, as those players aren’t likely to change teams. There are going to be a few from that crop that might value money over winning and decide to sign in Vancouver; however, there’s a player not on that list that the Canucks could be interested in.

In his latest episode of 32 Thoughts – The Podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman gave our two predictions, one connecting the Canucks to Minnesota Wild centre Michael McCarron:

“My second prediction is – I think I may have mentioned this before – Vancouver makes a big run at McCarron,” Friedman said. “But I think there will be more. He’s been phenomenal. He’s been fantastic. And I think he’s the type of player that the Canucks will look at. But there will be others.”

While this isn’t a report, purely speculation, we thought we’d introduce McCarron to Canucks fans and see if that’s a player they should be after if he makes it to July 1.

McCarron is a 31-year-old, right-shot centreman from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, USA. He was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in the first round (25th overall) of the 2013 NHL Draft. Once joining the professional ranks in the 2015-16 season, he split the following three seasons between the Canadiens and their AHL affiliate. McCarron would then play the next season and a half solely in the American League with the Laval Rocket before he was traded to the Nashville Predators organization in exchange for Laurent Dauphin.

It was more of the same for McCarron with the Predators organization, splitting the following two seasons between the NHL and the AHL. To this point of his career, McCarron had a career high of seven goals and 14 points in the 2021-22 season. But then he made the full-time leap as an NHL regular in the 2023-24 season, playing 70 games for the Predators and scoring 12 goals and 10 assists for 22 points – all of which still stand as career highs – and totalling 100 penalty minutes.

Canucks fans may recognize him from their first-round series against the Predators in the 2024 playoff run. McCarron played a depth, shutdown role, spending most of his 5v5 minutes against the Pius Suter-JT Miller-Brock Boeser line. He did an admirable job defending that line, controlling just under 45% of the shot attempts, and was only on the ice for two of that line’s three 5v5 goals against. McCarron logged nine hits and won 56.6% of his draws in that series.

The next season, McCarron played a similar role, logging heavy defensive minutes while still registering five goals and nine assists for 14 points and a whopping 102 penalty minutes. Now entering his contract year, McCarron remained the same defensive-minded, physical player that carved him out an NHL role. Those efforts earned him serious recognition around the league, and the Wild acquired him for a 2028 second-round pick.

This was viewed as a fairly steep price for McCarron’s player type. However, it has worked out for the Wild. Averaging just 12:40 minutes in the regular season, McCarron scored three goals and two assists for five points in 20 games, with 40 hits and 20 penalty minutes. And this postseason, he has scored some big goals for the Wild.

He scored the go-ahead goal late in Game 3 against the Stars.

And the game-tying goal in a pivotal Game 5 win.

Safe to say, the Wild are happy with their purchase. Defensively, McCarron was tasked with playing mostly against the Stars’ third line. While analytically their line was slightly outplayed and out-chanced, production-wise, McCarron came out ahead, as he was on the ice for four 5v5 goals for and only two against.

It’s been a journey for McCarron. With all the hype and pressure of being a first-round pick, McCarron struggled to live up to that expectation. But that didn’t discourage him. He continued working on his craft, tweaked his style of play into something that would help him become an everyday NHLer, and is now heading into free agency, where he will be sought after.

With all of that in mind, the question remains…

Heading into next season, the Canucks have only two true NHL centremen under contract: Elias Pettersson and Marco Rossi. Then, there are a lot of question marks. Can Filip Chytil stay healthy? Will they re-sign Teddy Blueger? Can Aatu Räty develop enough to become an NHL regular? Is Max Sasson better suited for the wing? Can Braeden Cootes make the jump? If they draft a centre with their pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, will he be in the mix? Regardless of the answers to these questions, McCarron brings something none of the players above do: size.

McCarron is listed at 6’6″, 232-lbs. Ever since the Canucks traded Dakota Joshua and let Nikita Zadorov walk, they’ve been lacking a physical force in their lineup night in and night out. They kind of addressed it when they acquired Curtis Douglas, but as much as Canucks fans love the player, we aren’t sure he’s a full-time NHL player to this point. McCarron has proven he can be a steady bottom-six defensive forward, contribute a tad offensively and use his big frame for physicality.

His 205 hits this season were the 19th most in the league, and he missed three games this season. McCarron is also not afraid to stand up for his teammates and drop the gloves. His seven fighting majors rank has him in a tie for 10th league-wide in that category. On top of that, he’s not afraid to go up against some of the toughest opponents in the league. He fought Logan Stanley (x2), Ross Johnston, Tyler Tucker, Darnell Nurse, Corey Perry and Mark Kastelic this season.

On top of his toughness and physicality, McCarron’s defensive acumen would help the Canucks’ penalty kill, which ranked dead-last (71.5%) last season. McCarron was a first-over-the-boards penalty killer all season, averaging the 18th most shorthanded minutes (2:18) per game among NHL forwards this season.

Having a player who can instill fear in the opposition, stand up for the young players on the team, while also being able to shut other teams down offensively, are all the traits teams look for in a bottom-six player. That will be someone the young players will look up to in the locker room as a guy who worked for his position in the league. Could he be a leader? Potentially, we can’t comment too much on that. However, McCarron wore an A for the London Knights in his junior days, for two seasons in the AHL with the Laval Rocket, and one season with the Milwaukee Admirals.

Financially, there may not be a team willing to spend more to bring in a guy like McCarron. Yes, all 32 teams are seeing a $9.5 million increase to their books, but would they be willing to overspend the way the Canucks could? It all just comes down to whether McCarron’s desire to win outweighs the money.

Over his nine-year NHL career, McCarron has earned $9.76 million on his NHL contracts. And it’s probably less considering all the time he spent in the AHL making that watered-down salary. So, with his value at the highest it has been in his career, he likely wants to take advantage of that and cash in to set him up for life after hockey.

Another thing to consider is the past NHL Trade Deadline. Aside from size and physicality, he and Blueger have similar roles: bottom-six, defensively responsible centremen. However, Blueger could not garner the Canucks a return, while McCarron, because of his size, was able to net a second-round pick. The players Vancouver brings in who aren’t going to be a part of their future need to have value on the trade market. Due to McCarron’s size alone, he will always have value on the trade market.

Say you sign McCarron to a higher-than-normal AAV, but a shorter-term contract, they could sell him off in a few years for a return. For a team that’s just starting its rebuild, signing players with the mindset of being able to flip them in the future is the exact type of profile Vancouver should be considering this offseason.

Plan and simple, the Canucks need to target players who are going to make them harder to play against. Going out this summer, targeting a player with a 6’6″, 232-lb frame, who isn’t afraid to throw the body or drop the gloves, and can play those heavy, defensive, shutdown minutes would singlehandedly make the Canucks harder to play against. Teams don’t want to be viewed as an easy opponent when opposing teams come into town, and adding a guy like Michael McCarron would certainly help the Canucks shed that reputation they developed in the 2025-26 season.

So if he becomes available on July 1, McCarron should absolutely be a top target for the Canucks to sign in free agency this summer.

What do you think, Canucks fans? Would you want to see the Canucks bring in Michael McCarron? Let us know in the comments below!