In yesterday's blog, I was asking for the Canucks to turn their attention to their crop of restricted free agents and start signing those young players to some reasonable deals for next season.
I got my wish, as Vancouver announced the signings of both Linden Vey and Jacob Markstrom yesterday afternoon.
Vey gets a raise from $735,000 to $1 million, on a one-year deal that will keep him a restricted free agent again next summer. After a so-so first season with the Canucks that saw him put up 10-14-24 in 75 games, it'll be interesting to see if the 23-year-old comes back stronger.
It's also interesting to see that Vey is now listed as a right winger on both General Fanager and on Canucks.com. He was a center when he was acquired last year, but didn't show the face-off prowess or defensive acumen needed to excel in that role. I'm guessing this will probably be a permanent change.
Shortly after the Vey announcement, we got word that Jacob Markstrom is also locked up.
A hater could quibble with this contract. At $1.55 million, it's $400,000 more than Eddie Lack will make next season—a relatively small number in the total salary picture, but a more than 25 percent increase in your backup goalie cost. Markstrom's NHL salary last year was set at $1.4 million, so that was the minimum qualifying offer the Canucks were required to make.
The two-year term of the deal takes Markstrom to unrestricted free agency at the end of 2016-17—the same year Ryan Miller's contract expires. That means it could take big bucks to re-sign him if Markstrom does turn out to be the goalie of the future—though it could also give the Canucks a chance to start fresh if this experiment doesn't work out.
At this stage of the game, with the Canucks in a transition phase, I'd prefer to see the team err on the side of caution with reasonably short-term deals rather than locking players up for longer periods of time.
After the Vey and Markstrom signings, the Canucks have $3.6 million in cap space remaining, with 19 players signed and qualifying offers for four more players on the table:
If you'd care to dive into the CBA for details on qualifying offers, you can do that
here.
To summarize:
• players with salaries of $660,000 or less must be qualified with at least a 10 percent raise
• players with salaries between $660,001 and $999,999 must be qualified with at least a five percent raise
• players with salaries of $1 million or more can be qualified at the same salary
Those are base salaries, before signing bonus and such, so here are the numbers in play:
Sven Baertschi: $832,500 + five percent = $874,125
Adam Clendening: $817,500 + five percent = $858,375
Frank Corrado: $575,000 + 10 percent = $632,500
Alex Grenier: $650,000 + 10 percent = $715,000
If those four players all accept their qualifying offers and join the big club next season, that eats up $3.08 million, which would give the Canucks a full roster of 14 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies with just over $500,000 in salary-cap wiggle room.
It's a tight squeeze—but it's conceivable that's how things will shake down if Kevin Bieksa or another veteran isn't moved.
Those numbers help explain why Yannick Weber didn't receive a qualifying offer on Monday. Weber made $850,00 last season but at age 26, he's eligible for salary arbitration.
Weber posted a career-high 11 goals last season—tops among Canucks defensemen—and came into his own as a power-play point man. But there was a good chance that his arbitration award could have been more than the Canucks would have been able to afford. He'll now have a chance to see if he can catch on with another team, but the Canucks continue to keep him in the mix.
Weber was signed as a free agent by Mike Gillis during the summer of 2013, so he didn't cost anything for Vancouver to initially acquire. He also cleared waivers and was sent down to Utica for seven games during that 2013-14 season.
These budget constraints also explain this bit of news, which I also consider unsurprising:
A couple of other quick notes from the farm to wrap up today:
It sounds like the Canucks have their sights set on goaltender Richard Bachman to share duties with Joe Cannata in Utica.
A solid performer with the Edmonton Oilers/Oklahoma City Barons organization, Bachman is being released in order to give goaltending prospect Laurent Brossoit a chance to develop.
Bachman has some history with members of the Canucks organization, so Vancouver could have a good inside track on signing him.
Also, defenseman Alex Biega will be back for another season, most likely with the Comets:
We won't see much, if any, action from the Canucks when the free-agency window opens on Wednesday. But I expect we will keep seeing minor-leaguers getting locked up.
I'm excited about Prospects Camp, which will open on Friday in Shawnigan Lake. Will anybody from our Vancouver Island contingent be making the trip to see our young guns in action and give us an early scouting report on Brock Boeser?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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