Who says the fun stops in the NHL after July 1? It's arbitration time!
Players who are eligible have until 2 p.m. PT on Friday, July 5 to announce whether they'll be filing.
5:00pm ET today is the deadline for players with Arbitration rights to notify the Central Registry, NHLPA and their club in writing, that they have elected for Salary Arbitration.
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) July 5, 2019
We currently show 85 unsigned RFA players who are Arbitration eligible.https://t.co/sAB3zDLJK6 pic.twitter.com/GeCZQe4bds
Teams also have a brief window available just after that to take players to arbitration, but those occurrences are relatively rare.
The Canucks are doing well on this front. Coming into the week with three arbitration-eligible players, they inked Tyler Motte to a new deal on Tuesday and got Josh Leivo signed on Friday morning.
One-year $1.5-million for Leivo. #Canucks
— Irfaan Gaffar (@sportsnetirf) July 5, 2019
Acquired from Toronto last December when the Leafs needed to make space on their roster after finally signing William Nylander, Leivo was a savvy acquisition by Jim Benning—even if the Canucks do have too many forwards.
Leivo averaged a career high 15:57 per game after joining the Canucks. His most common linemates were Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson, and he also averaged 2:37 of power-play time per game. He had 10-8-18 in 48 games, though just four of those points came with the man advantage. He also managed to stay relatively healthy, missing just three games in January with a back injury and one in March due to illness.
Originally drafted in the third round by the Leafs in 2011, Leivo is now 26 and will be an unrestricted free agent next year, after this contract expires. It's his first deal with a cap hit of more than $1 million per season; his last deal was also for one year, at $925,000.
Leivo's fancy stats are pretty good, too—but he's the player that's probably most at risk of losing his top-six spot with the addition of J.T. Miller and the mythical top-six winger that Jim Benning is still hoping to sign. On the bright side, Leivo is relatively inexpensive and should offer a nice backup option in case of injuries or if Miller doesn't pan out as hoped.
That leave just one arbitration-eligible player on the Canucks' roster still unsigned—Reid Boucher. He'll be 26 by the beginning of next season, and played last year on a two-way deal that carried a $725,000 cap hit at the NHL level, and $300,000 in Utica.
Boucher had his best AHL season yet with the Comets in 2018-19, leading the team with 31-31-62 in 56 games and representing them at the All-Star Game for a second-straight year. Those 31 goals tied him for sixth overall in the entire league, even though he missed some times due to injury near the beginning and the end of the season.
Boucher was called up by the Canucks just once last year—for five days during a California road trip in late November. He didn't dress against the Sharks on November 23, then saw just 5:28 of ice time against the Kings the following night.
Even if Boucher files for arbitration, his case isn't one that's going to break the bank for Vancouver—especially considering he'll almost certainly be bound for Utica again next season.
While we're on the topic of Utica, a couple more notes there:
• On Thursday, the Canucks announced that they'd signed winger Justin Bailey to a one-year, two-way contract. He turned 24 on July 1 and he's a big body, listed at 6'4" and 214 pounds, but his low penalty totals suggest that he doesn't play an especially physical game.
A native of Buffalo, Bailey is the son of former NFL linebacker Carlton Bailey. He was drafted in the second round out of the OHL by the Sabres in 2013. He has since bounced back and forth between the NHL and the minors—his best year saw him play in 32 games with the Sabres in 2016-17, where he had four points.
Last season, he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers for another minor leaguer, Taylor Leier. There, he continued to bounce back and forth between the Flyers and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for the rest of the year, ultimately playing 11 NHL games. Bailey became an unrestricted free agent last week, when the Flyers declined to offer him a qualifying offer on his two-way contract worth $715,000 in the NHL.
I expect we'll see Bailey in Utica next season.
• Congrats are in order for the Comets, who took home the AHL's Eastern Conference award for outstanding community service at the league's board of governor's meeting in South Carolina on Thursday.
BREAKING: The Comets have been named @TheAHL’s Community Service Excellence Award winner!
— Utica Comets (@UticaComets) July 5, 2019
More: https://t.co/qMnxPcikhm pic.twitter.com/nzm4q0GyfK
This is the second community service award for the Comets in their six-year history.
Now, back to the bigs. With the Leivo deal done, the Canucks still have a few RFAs without arbitration rights who need new contracts. Brock Boeser and Nikolay Goldobin head up that list, which also includes defensemen Josh Teves and Brogan Rafferty and forward Francis Perron.
Here's the latest on Boeser:
The #Canucks and Brock Boeser are getting closer to a new contract but still work to be done and neither side budging. Deal is there to be made, get this thing done #Canucks
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) July 4, 2019
.@benkuzma: I've learned the Boeser camp will do a 4 year deal with the #Canucks
— TSN Radio Vancouver (@TSN1040) July 5, 2019
Finally, an off-ice note.
After winning the Canucks for Kids Fishing Derby last month in Haida Gwaii, Jake Virtanen is now on a family vacation to Finland, reconnecting with his roots.
Given all the success that the Finnish national team has enjoyed lately—most recently, with wins at both the World Juniors and World Championship—I'm hoping some of that winning spirit infuses itself into Jake while he's there!