The Wild and Fiala making some progress
Michael Russo of The Athletic: The Minnesota Wild and RFA forward Kevin Fiala have made some progress lately on a new contract.
He’s scheduled to have an arbitration hearing on August 17th and they are hopeful to get a deal done before then.
If a deal is not reached before the 17th, Fiala can choose between a one- or two-deal deal.
Canucks notes on RFAs Dickinson, Pettersson and Hughes, as well some potential low-cost options
Thomas Drance of The Athletic: (mailbag) If they get to salary arbitration, it’s unlikely that Jason Dickinson would get much more than $2.75 million.
If the Vancouver Canucks and Dickinson do a short-term deal, he’ll likely get between $2.2 and $2.8 million. If they go long-term, the number likely goes up.
The Canucks don’t have the short-term salary cap space to do a big, long-term deal for both Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes. They could do Pettersson on a five- to seven-year deal at $10 million and $6 million for Hughes on a bridge deal. Maybe they look at Hughes at $7.5 million for six years and Pettersson at $7.5 million on a bridge deal. They don’t have the room to give Pettersson $10 million and Hughes $7.5 million.
Brock Boeser is owed a $7.5 million qualifying offer next season, so any extension likely starts at that number.
They likely won’t have the room to bid on Colton Parayko or John Klingberg next offseason if the two hit the open market.
Potential low-cost forward free agent options or PTOs that might interest the Canucks could be Tyler Ennis, Dominik Kahun, Ryan Donato, Derick Brassard and Evgeny Svechnikov.
A left-handed depth defenseman could also be of interest with options possibly being Ashton Sautner and Slater Koekkoek.
Some blue line depth options for the Oilers
Kurt Leavins of the Edmonton Journal: It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Edmonton Oilers invited undrafted 20-year old defenseman Simon Kubicek to their main camp. He is right-handed and has a big shot from the blue line.
Would expect the Oilers to bring in at least one more veteran defenseman on a deal around $950,000. Two options could be Slater Koekkoek and Jordie Benn.