We've barely reached mid-July, and already the chatter is shifting to how some members of this year's hot crop of restricted free agents won't be brought under contract before the regular season begins.
I highly doubt that'll be the case with Brock Boeser. The negotiation seems like it has been amicable enough so far, and with all the hoopla surrounding the Canucks' 50th anniversary and the team's desire to push for the playoffs, it seems unlikely to me that the organization is going to want to start the year without one of its top scorers.
If you'd like to check in on Boeser, Wednesday is game day for Da Beauty League, but it looks like it won't be as easy for those of us who aren't in Minnesota to catch the action this year. Based on the info that's on the website, the team rosters look like they'll be more fluid from week to week than we've seen in the past, box scores from Week 1 weren't posted on the site — and it looks like the games aren't streaming on YouTube this year.
Colour me disappointed. It has now been five days since I was last in a rink. I need hockey!
For comparison's sake, a couple more mid-level RFA forwards have been signed over the past two days. Jakub Vrana inked a two-year deal with Washington with a cap hit of $3.35 million per season and Colorado signed J.T. Compher to a four-year contract with a $3.5 million cap hit.
Vrana, 23, was drafted 13th overall in 2014, one year before Boeser. He spent a season and a half in the AHL before making the jump to the Capitals. In 176 NHL games, he has 80 points, but he's trending upward: he contributed a solid 24-23-47 in 82 games last season.
Compher, 24, was drafted in the second round by Buffalo in 2013, then dealt to Colorado as part of the Ryan O'Reilly trade in 2015. After three years at Michigan, Compher spent half a season in the AHL before joining the Avs. In 156 NHL games, he has 60 points. Last season, he played 66 games and had 16-16-32.
In addition to being younger, Boeser's numbers are on another level from those two players. In 140 career NHL games, he has 116 points, including 56 in 69 games last season.
If you subscribe to The Athletic, I'd recommend checking out
Dom Luszczyszyn's latest article, where he grades the "contract efficiency" of every team in the NHL.
The explanation of his methodology made my head spin a bit, but his team charts are pretty easy to understand. He gives the contracts of each team's healthy skaters a letter grade based on how his model projects a player's value to his team using his 'game score value added' metric, then extrapolates that into an overall team ranking.
Certain types of players are not included: goalies, players on entry-level contracts, and unsigned RFAs like Boeser, for example.
Lots of assumptions need to be made in order to attach a numerical value to players, so there's plenty of room for debate. Still, it's interesting to see where teams land.
Carolina sits at the top of the list. So, just a year and a half into his tenure as owner, it looks like Tom Dundon's out-of-the-box approach to team building is working well both on and off the ice. At the bottom? Detroit. I know Ken Holland has a lot of friends in the hockey world—and maybe some of the contracts he gave out while he was with the Red Wings were at the behest of ownership—but it still surprises me that the Oilers were so eager to bring him into the fold to try to overcome their own roster challenges.
In the Pacific Division, Vegas has by far the best team score—second, behind the Hurricanes. Calgary and San Jose are next, but sit closer to the middle of the pack. Then, Edmonton's a few spots further down and the list is rounded out by the Ducks and Canucks, who are 24th overall, then the Coyotes and finally the Kings in 30th.
Overall, the Canucks get a "C" — tied with Buffalo, Anaheim, the Islanders and the Rangers. According to Luszczyszyn's model, five Vancouver players are tied for the best contracts on the team with "B" grades—Bo Horvat and four recent acquisitions: Josh Leivo, J.T. Miller, Micheal Ferland and Oscar Fantenberg.
But just when you think that maybe Jim Benning is getting the hang of things, there's Tyler Myers, sitting with a "D" rating alongside Loui Eriksson before he has played his first game in a Vancouver uniform.
The Canucks also have two "D+" contracts, belonging to Brandon Sutter and Jay Beagle. And they get dinged for their $11.2 million in dead money—three years at just over $3 million in Roberto Luongo's cap recapture plus two years at just over $1 million for Ryan Spooner's buyout.
Speaking of Spooner, it's now official. He'll be taking his talents to Europe next season.
In the big picture, the Canucks do have some positives that don't factor into this model: another year of Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes on their entry-level contracts and, at a total cost of $4.7 million, a very reasonably priced quality goaltending tandem of Jacob Markstrom and Thatcher Demko. And even though the Myers signing still raises red flags, it is reassuring to see that both Miller and Ferland show well against the values of their contracts. I tend to get bogged down by the overabundance of forwards on the roster, but we should see a significant on-ice upgrade up front next season.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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