What I'm hearing about Pius Suter's market, Canucks' approach to free agency

New York Times

17 hours ago

The Vancouver Canucks spent Sunday filling out their roster for development camp, and regrouping after the NHL Draft.
The club was thrilled with its 2025 draft class, as most teams are in the immediate aftermath.
In particular, the Canucks were happy with the outcome from their process. They're confident that first-round pick Braeden Cootes is a special person, with an opportunity to be an organizational fixture for years to come. There is also excitement about second-round selection Aleksei Medvedev, the London Knights netminder who goaltending scout Ian Clark insisted on throughout the scouting process.
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As the attention turns to the upcoming free-agent frenzy, there is some frustration that the Canucks have been unable to meaningfully tend to their significant short-term needs at centre to this point. Vancouver acquired winger Evander Kane last week to add some heaviness and skill to the forward group, but there's still a gaping hole in the middle of the top six.
The Canucks had an understanding dating back two months that the unrestricted free agent market was unlikely to yield a high-impact forward. Vancouver's hockey operations leadership had also understood that attempting to fill short-term needs on the trade market would represent improving their team 'the hard way.'
Aside from a trio of trades for John Gibson, Charlie Coyle and Noah Dobson, there was surprisingly little major player movement over the weekend. Most of the acquisitions fell into the Jordan Spence, Declan Chisholm or Justin Sourdif tier of minor deals.
Like the leaguewide cash crunch in the fall of 2020, or the cap crunch conditions that teams operated in throughout the flat cap era, we're now seeing a talent crunch gum up the NHL marketplace.
Simply put, there is more available cap space in the system at the moment than there are high-quality unrestricted free agent players on whom to spend it. Teams have enough cap flexibility that, to this point, there's limited external pressure to proactively fix roster problems or to trade NHL-level contributors for cap-neutral asset capital like draft picks or prospects.
And given how much market desirability is impacting contractual outcomes, every team is scrambling to identify the players open to being part of their organization. Everyone is terrified of falling too deep into a Chicago or San Jose-like scorched-earth rebuild.
As I worked the phones on Sunday to try to get a sense of where the Canucks stood ahead of July 1, the word of the day from the organization was 'caution.'
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The Canucks need to be careful in navigating their way through what remains of the so-called silly season, and balancing their short-term goals with the long-term reality of a franchise that's both in transition and under significant pressure to build momentum next season.
Some of the players who will be available could help Vancouver now, but they're unlikely to be especially efficient additions.
As much as the Canucks want to improve their roster and try to win now, there's an understanding that overpaying for short-term upgrades could inhibit their ability to make a more impactful move down the line, when the leverage is greater, and the options more impactful.
This is the time of year, after all, when mistakes get made.
Conscious of that, and the significant pressure the organization is feeling to improve, the Canucks are going to spend the next 48 hours or so trying to be selective.
It's fair to be skeptical. It's been well over a decade, after all, since anybody won a cent betting on the Canucks being selective with the long view in mind.
Whether they're intent on managing expectations locally, or more actively recalibrating their short-term goals in light of their options and the sky high prices in free agency and on the trade market, that's the balance the Canucks are attempting to judiciously weigh as the clock ticks down toward July 1.
Every time I ask my industry contacts about pending unrestricted free agent Pius Suter and what his market value could look like, the number gets a little bit higher.
It's like the opposite of Jose Canseco's 40 time.
What was $3.2 million ('he could double his salary') at the deadline, rather quickly became '$4 million or more' after Suter's 'ka-ching' goal-scoring run late in the season.
Now, over the past two weeks, the conversation has morphed from 'maybe $4.5 million with term,' climbing all the way to between $4.5 million and $5 million, which is the figure an executive on Sunday evening suggested that Suter could realistically land on the open market. And that was before the new Morgan Geekie comparable.
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Clearly, the market has broken heavily in Suter's favour.
Not only have centres continued to demand a significant premium on the trade market and at the draft table, but most of the older pivots with name-brand value — Matt Duchene, Claude Giroux, John Tavares, Brock Nelson and Sam Bennett — have already extended with their teams.
Outside of Mikael Granlund, Suter is probably the most credible top-six centre option still unsigned as July 1 approaches. It's also worth noting that Suter scored more goals this season (25) than Granlund did (22).
The Canucks have remained in contact with Suter's camp throughout this process, but the two sides haven't been grinding away to find common ground. Given Vancouver's inability to land a significant centre upgrade on the trade market during draft weekend, however, Monday is shaping up to be a key day in determining whether or not Suter will ultimately make it to market this week.
For the Canucks, it's last call on Suter, and I wouldn't be surprised if Vancouver took one final run at retaining the versatile, productive forward, with an understanding that he's surely gone if he makes it to market on Tuesday.
The Canucks have always been big fans of Suter as a player and person. He's earned a significant raise and is coming off a career year. The conversation really centres on that. Was it just a career year, a one-off, or a new level of performance that Suter is likely to be able to sustain?
How the Canucks ultimately decide to answer that question will determine their willingness to meet Suter's price at the 11th hour.
If I were to handicap this one, it seems more likely than not that Suter will go to market. The door remains open just a crack, however, and I do get the sense that Vancouver will engage Suter's camp one last time on Monday before the door shuts for good.
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By 2 p.m. PT, the Canucks will have to tender qualifying offers to their 10 pending restricted free agents to maintain their right of first refusal.
We've already reported that goaltender Nikita Tolopilo will receive a qualifying offer, and there's a variety of higher-profile restricted players like Aatu Räty, Max Sasson and Arshdeep Bains who are obvious tap-ins to be qualified before the deadline.
However, there are a couple of organizational depth players that the Canucks have wrestled with whether or not to qualify ahead of the deadline. I think we can take that as an indication that at least some of the 10 pending RFAs won't be qualified. Players who aren't qualified will become UFAs when the market opens on Tuesday.
There's a tricky balance that the Canucks are going to try to maintain in the days ahead.
This is a club that wants to improve short term, of course, they're the Canucks. I have begun to get the sense, though, in talking through offseason planning with team sources, that there's also an increasing internal recognition that this team is in transition. A realization that, perhaps, exercising some patience may be required.
That recognition is in obvious tension with the fact that there is a lot of pressure, both in the Vancouver market and structurally on the Canucks, to find a way to take a big swing and connect on landing a difference-maker to improve this team. To excite this market. To convince Quinn Hughes to stay.
But the Canucks want to be mindful of not doing something just to do something. Especially if that 'something' costs them an amount or an asset that they would view as reckless.
Based on what team sources told The Athletic on Sunday, there appear to be moves that the Canucks could make to improve this team short-term. However, the most worthwhile among those options could cost them a key asset like their 2026 first-round pick, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Tom Willander or defender Elias Pettersson.
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That's not a price that Vancouver has been willing to pay. I even get the sense that it's a price the Canucks are unlikely to be willing to pay, period, unless the return is genuinely transformative.
We'll have to see if the significant pressure and desire to improve wins out over the rational plan to be disciplined.
For what it's worth, the Canucks do expect the trade market to shake loose somewhat in the days and weeks ahead, especially as some teams move money around to facilitate major acquisitions.
That won't necessarily apply to every team, but management appears to be keeping close tabs on these types of situations in case a scenario presents itself, one that would permit the Canucks to land a short-term, contributing player at a more manageable acquisition price.
In the event, which has been more probable than not for weeks, that both Suter and Brock Boeser walk as unrestricted free agents on Tuesday, I'm hearing that the Canucks will be shopping for a centre when the market opens.
The Canucks would need to send cap commitments out the door to really get into the bidding on Granlund. While I believe that Vancouver would have some interest in the player, all things being equal, breaking the bank to add him doesn't seem to be an especially probable outcome.
Even with a player like Jack Roslovic, a slick-skating, right-handed forward who can play centre and who the Canucks have kicked the tires on in the past, I expect that the market will price out their interest.
The Canucks, it seems, are prepared to roll with Filip Chytil and Räty as top-nine centres to open next season, but I'd also look for the team to be linked to names like Radek Faksa.
Even assuming Vancouver is able to stay disciplined and focus on the long view, the Canucks will still look to strengthen down the middle this week. They just may be looking somewhat further down their lineup than they had hoped to.
(Photo of Pius Suter: Simon Fearn / Imagn Images)