{"id":3799,"date":"2025-07-17T21:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T21:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/3799\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T21:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T21:29:08","slug":"stanley-cup-champion-eyeing-big-nhl-comeback-and-it-could-be-with-the-vancouver-canucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/3799\/","title":{"rendered":"Stanley Cup Champion Eyeing Big NHL Comeback, and It Could Be with the Vancouver Canucks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Evgeny<\/p>\n

Photo credit: NHL<\/p>\n

A former Stanley Cup champion and first-round pick could be the Vancouver Canucks’ solution for their depth issues they have at the center ice position.<\/p>\n

The Vancouver Canucks are still on searching for some help down the begin-to-emerge-for-patrik-allvin-the-vancouver-canucks’ class=”lien_marqueur” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>searching for some help down the middle this summer after the club missed out on a couple of targets in the first week of the free agency window – Christian Dvorak<\/a> and Mikael Granlund<\/a>, who ended up with the Philadelphia Flyers and Anaheim Ducks, respectively.<\/p>\n

While the free agent market isn’t exactly abundant when it comes to centermen, there is one intriguing option available and it’s someone who knows exactly what it takes to win a championship.<\/p>\n

Former Stanley Cup champion could be option for Vancouver Canucks<\/p>\n

Earlier this summer, Daria Tuboltsev of RG Media reported<\/a>, citing the player’s agent, that former National Hockey League forward and 2018 Stanley Cup champion Evgeny Kuznetsov<\/a> is eying a return to North America and that as many as ten teams had shown interest in him.<\/p>\n

“In my view, there are about ten teams where Kuznetsov could be a real asset-where there’s both room on the roster and cap space. I think we could have clarity within a couple of weeks” Kuznetsov’s agent Shumi Babaev said to RG Media at the end of June.<\/p>\n

Despite his agent expecting to have clarity on where his client may play during the 2025-26 season, the 33-year-old Kuznetsov remains an unrestricted free agent as of July 17th.<\/p>\n

In a recent addition of the Hello Hockey podcast, NHL insider David Pagnotta said that is willing to take a lower salary in the $1-2 million range plus performance bonuses just to be able to return to the league.<\/p>\n

“David Pagnotta: Re Evgeny Kuznetsov: He’s willing to take a million, two million bucks plus incentives, somewhere, for…a contender that’s looking to add” NHL Rumour Report said on X.<\/p>\n

Kuznetsov, a native of Chelyabinsk, Russia, left North America last summer and signed a four-year deal with KHL club SKA St. Petersburg, where he enjoyed some success playing alongside Montreal Canadiens top prospect Ivan Demidov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 39 regular season games with SKA St. Petersburg, Kuznetsov registered 37 points (12 goals, 25 assists), 38 penalty minutes and was a plus-13.<\/p>\n

Shortly after SKA’s first round exit from the Gagarin Cup Playoffs, Kuznetsov and the club mutually agreed to terminate the final three years of his contract, making him a UFA in not only North America, but the KHL too.<\/p>\n

If Kuznetsov is willing to sign for that cheap as David Pagnotta suggests, then the Vancouver Canucks should be jumping all over that, even if it’s just a short term deal in the 1-2 year range, as he would be a solid option for their 2C hole, which would allow Filip Chytil to slide down to the third line.<\/p>\n

Previously on CanucksDaily<\/p>\n

POLL<\/p>\n

1 HOUR AGO\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0104 ANSWERS<\/p>\n

Stanley Cup Champion Eyeing Big NHL Comeback, and It Could Be with the Vancouver Canucks<\/p>\n

Should the Vancouver Canucks try to sign Evgeny Kuznetsov this summer?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo credit: NHL A former Stanley Cup champion and first-round pick could be the Vancouver Canucks’ solution for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,4666,4668,448,4670,82,4667,452,4669],"class_list":["post-3799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-evgeny-kuznetsov","tag-evgeny-kuznetsov-canucks","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-free-agency","tag-sports","tag-stanley-cup-champion","tag-vancouver-canucks","tag-vancouver-canucks-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}