The Vancouver Canucks had a huge need at centre coming into free agency, and now we know how close they were to landing a big veteran name with Christian Dvorak ultimately shunning them to sign with the Philadelphia Flyers.
Coming into the off-season, many expected the Vancouver Canucks to lose Brock Boeser in free agency and get aggressive trying to fill their need at centre beyond 1C Elias Pettersson.
However, with Boeser coming back, they gained more confidence in their pursuit, with the lineup once again looking dangerous, but unfortunately, we now know of one veteran that the team missed out on landing.
According to a report from Elliotte Friedman, the team were in hot pursuit of veteran centre Christian Dvorak, but in the end, he decided to sign a one-year deal worth $5.4 million for 2025/26 with the Philadelphia Flyers in free agency.
In his report, Friedman noted that Vancouver offered Dvorak term, but at 29-years of age, he wanted to take a chance on a one-year deal and see if he could improve his next contract in the summer of 2026.
This past season, Dvorak tallied 12 goals and 33 points for Montreal in 82 games played, inking a one-year deal worth $5.4 million as a result, and while it's not clear what the AAV was on the Canucks offer, the team wanted to give him term.
Instead, Vancouver will head into the season with their centre depth as Pettersson, Chytil, Raty and Blueger, and while they can certainly make some noise in the Western Conference, don't be shocked if we hear more about them trying to acquire a centre as the year moves along.
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