Vancouver Canucks set to lose defenceman to free agency

The Vancouver Canucks are in a completely pivotal year for the organization, both with their on ice play and with their impending roster decisions. The team has signed star forward Elias Pettersson, but is also facing multiple pending free agents on defence including Filip Hronek, Tyler Myers, and Nikita Zadorov. According to a new report from Elliotte Friedman, Zadorov will likely be priced off the Canucks.

The Canucks will be facing a cap crunch themselves with the several new contracts kicking in, and Friedman believes Zadorov will be priced out of the equation in Vancouver. Zadorov's currently 28 years old and coming off a contract value of $3.75M, and he's likely looking to cash in for longer term north of $5M. At that price range, Zadorov is almost sure to hit the market in the offseason.

The Canucks will have a hard task ahead of them to retain enough of their free agents to repeat this level of success next season. Even the Canucks know this, evident by the fact they've gone all-in with their trade deadline acquisitions this year. It'll be interesting to see how they play out this offseason, and if they've done enough to go far in the playoffs this year in a gauntlet of the Western Conference.