In a vacuum, the fact that negotiations on Brock Boeser’s first non-entry level NHL contract are threatening to drag into training camp is not good news.

But given that the majority of young, talented restricted free agents are in the same boat just waiting for each other to re-sign and set the market, it seems less dire than it would otherwise.

Brayden Point, Mitch Marner, Mikko Rantanen, Matthew Tkachuk, Kyle Connor, Patrik Laine and Travis Konecny all remain unsigned, and that’s just the forwards.

Things haven’t gotten too messy between the Canucks and their star forward either, like they have in other situations. Marner has threatened to play in Switzerland, while Edmonton Oilers’ forward Jesse Puljujari straight up signed in Finland, pouring more kerosene on the dumpster fire in Alberta’s capital.

Comparatively, the latest news from the Boeser camp—that they are looking for a four-year pact in the $7 million a season range—has to be viewed as mostly a positive.

A four-year deal would take Boeser one year away from unrestricted free agency. And while that definitely comes with some concerns—which we’ll get to in a second—it’s more than likely a good scenario for Vancouver.

Yes, Boeser could take a one-year qualifying offer and then walk away. And, if he engineers his deal the way Timo Meier of the San Jose Sharks did (the last year of Meier’s deal pays him $10 million in salary, meaning that’s the price of any qualifying offer), the Canucks could be in a bind.

But Benning has already said that he’d like to avoid a Meier-style situation, which should make any short-term contract palatable in terms of a qualifying offer. Of course there is still the fear that Boeser could still just insist on signing for a year or go to arbitration and then leave the very next season.

To that, our argument is two-fold. First, $7 million is a fair price for Boeser. Earlier this offseason, we predicted it would be higher than that, with the Toronto Maple Leafs’ William Nylander deal (and its $6.9 million average) seemingly inflating the market.

Boeser has scored at better than a 30-goal pace for both his seasons in the league. That’s fairly rare. Meier is a phenomenal player who was better than Boeser last season. But it was also the first year he showed that he had that in him. Plus, he was playing with more talented players. Meier signed a four-year deal worth $6 million against the cap per season. That’s a bargain, but the inflated actual salary is scary.

A long-term deal is another scenario, but we’re seeing a recent trend of young restricted free agents being hesitant to sign such deals. And why not? The cap keeps going up and the market is seemingly re-set with every new star. If Boeser is hesitant to lock himself into a long-term pact at this stage of his career, that would make a lot of sense.

The Canucks would probably like to see a couple injury-free seasons from the forward before they commit to that as well.

Secondly, if Boeser isn’t eager to commit long-term to what Benning and the Canucks have built four years from now, then it’s safe to say it’ll be an unmitigated disaster. In which case, they’d probably have to rebuild again and are better off selling Boeser for parts.

We can’t see that happening (Benning can’t botch this young core in such a short time period, can he?), and Boeser seems quite happy to be a part of the Canucks’ future.

It’s very tough to see Boeser wanting to bolt in four years. So if the price point is $7 million a season for four years, we’re not sure why it isn’t signed yet (other than maybe the team’s lingering cap issues).

Follow @ncaddell on Twitter