The Vancouver Canucks had a name circled for a potential bargain, and now that option is off the board.
On Sept. 1, the New York Rangers signed former Seattle Kraken forward Eeli Tolvanen to a one-year, $1.5 million deal, taking away a player who had been viewed as a sneaky fit for Vancouver. That price tag matters.
Tolvanen was projected by AFP Analytics to land a two-year, $7.333 million contract, which would have carried a $3.666 million annual average value. Instead, the Rangers got him for well under $2 million.
For a player who could produce in the 35- to 40-point range, that’s a tidy piece of business.
Tolvanen’s recent numbers show why he was appealing. He finished 2025-26 with 12 goals and 36 points in 78 games, followed by 23 goals and 35 points in 81 games in 2024-25, and 16 goals and 41 points in 2023-24. That kind of scoring is useful on its own, but what really separates him is the edge he brings away from the puck.
He has 985 career hits, which works out to an 82-game average of 191. Last season he recorded 187 hits, after posting 210 in 2023-24 and 237 in 2024-25.
For the Canucks, that would have been a major addition. Only Kiefer Sherwood’s 210 hits topped that total on Vancouver last season.
That physical element is part of what made Tolvanen such an interesting target. He’s a two-way player who isn’t shy about finishing checks, and on a Canucks roster that was not overly physical last season, that kind of presence would have stood out. Given Vancouver’s minus-100 goal differential, a player who can help make life harder for opponents at the net front would have fit the need.
Tolvanen’s motor, physical play, and scoring touch made him look like the kind of low-risk swing that could have helped. Now the Canucks have to look elsewhere, even with $17.81 million still available in cap space.
With less than a month before the start of the 2026-27 season, Vancouver still has time to make moves. But if the goal is to avoid another finish in the bottom five, they likely need more help than they have right now.
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