TSN Radio Vancouver 1040: Jacob Markstrom‘s agent Pat Morris TSN 1040: “He’s reached a growth with the #Canucks, and it’s been a successful run up the ladder in Vancouver. Everything Jacob tells me, Vancouver is home..other than when he’s back in Sweden. And he’d like that relationship to continue, if it can.”
- TSN Radio Vancouver 1040: Morris continued: “Any deal we try to do, we don’t try to update the press. The people in Vancouver, the media…oh my god, you guys on a daily basis… *laughs* Living in Toronto, you think it’s bad, but you guys are very prominent on the list of being very avid discussers of issues.”
- TSN Radio Vancouver 1040: “We’ve had deals settled 1030a the day of free agency, so there’s not really any clock ticking or pressure point right now. When the time is right, the time is right. Hopefully that’s in Vancouver for both sides. If not, it’ll be explored at the right time.”
Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet: A Q&A with the Vancouver Canucks GM Jim Benning. Benning on if he’s confident that they can sign Jacob Markstrom to a contract extension before he hits the open market.
“He likes Vancouver and has been here a long time. He’s been with (coach) Travis Green a long time. He likes the guys on the team and the guys like him. We’re going to get that figured out so he can remain playing for us.”
The Canucks have Sven Baertschi‘s contract buried in the minors, Ryan Spooner‘s buyout, and Roberto Luongo‘s cap-recapture penalty. Benning notes they have some expiring contract coming up and he’s not worried about potential cap constraints,
When asked if they’ll be looking to add a top-six winger at the deadline, as he mentioned back in December.
“I’m not saying that. I’m going to be in the marketplace. But I’m not necessarily going to sacrifice draft picks to make the team better for two months. I hope that we keep competing and win our share of games because I want to make the playoffs. But on rentals, I’m going to be careful that we’re not going to be giving up high draft picks or the prospects we’ve worked to develop just for help for a couple of months.”
Thomas Drance of The Athletic: A Q&A with the Vancouver Canucks GM Jim Benning. Benning on the trade deadline.
“As far as the trade deadline is concerned, it’s still a month away. We got Brandon Sutter back here the last two games before the break, and we’re hoping in the next couple of weeks that we’re going to get Micheal Ferland back. It would be nice to see what our group looks like healthy — we won’t have Josh Leivo obviously, he’s going to be out for a period of time yet.
We’ll see with how we perform here in February. And injury-wise, where we’re at. I think that will give us a better idea of what we need to do heading into the deadline.”
Benning when asked where they sit with contract talks for pending free agents like Jacob Markstrom, Chris Tanev and Troy Stecher, and if it changes their priorities before the trade deadline.
“We’ll see where the players are, but I don’t want to comment on contract negotiations that we’re having with the players. The ones that we are, as soon as we get those players signed, we’ll be so happy that you guys will be the first to know!
I’m not going to start commenting on where we’re at. As soon as the contracts are done, we’ll announce the deals and we’ll be good to go.”
Benning said that an offseason priority is to get Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson signed to long-term extensions this offseason. He doesn’t expect it to happen before July 1st.