The Vancouver Canucks had no interest in dragging out the Brock Boeser contract negotiations into the start of the regular season. And, as it turns out, Boeser himself had no interest in doing it either.

After a summer and the start of training camp later, it’s a three-year “bridge” deal with an average annual value of $5.875 million.

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Though it must be noted that, like Timo Meier’s contract before it, Boeser’s deal does carry an inflated actual dollar value in the final year of the contract. That means that the Canucks have to tender Boeser a $7.5 million qualifying offer when his contract runs out. It’s not quite as shocking as the $10 million Meier will receive in his last year, but it’s still notable.

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So while Canucks general manager Jim Benning did a nice job keeping the average value down, there is a chance that Boeser takes two one-year qualifying offers and walks himself right to free agency.

Benning is also likely a major reason why the Canucks weren’t able to sign Boeser to a long-term deal. The team simply doesn’t have the cap space to sign him at a big enough cap hit for him to sign off on a long-term deal. That’s because of some poor Benning deals, like those for Loui Eriksson, Brandon Sutter and Jay Beagle.

On the bright side, we personally don’t see Boeser walking away after five years with the Canucks. He’s developing something special with Elias Pettersson and Vancouver has the makings of an upstart young squad with a bright future around those two, Bo Horvat and Quinn Hughes.

Sure, it could all fall apart real quick and Boeser could be looking for a way out. He also could continue the slightly worrying trend of spending time on IR.

But we’re betting he inks a big deal not long after his recently signed one expires. The Canucks don’t have too much on the books (yet!) three years from now, so careful cap management—especially when it comes to Pettersson’s next deal—will be absolutely essential.

That’s certainly not a given with Benning’s track record, but hopefully he’s learned from his mistakes. In any case, it helps the Canucks take advantage of having Pettersson and Hughes on entry level deals for the next couple of seasons (though only slightly given those bad contracts we mentioned earlier).

Price: B–

Fit: A+

Obviously, Boeser is a key part of the Canucks present and future. He should be set for a big season riding shotgun with Pettersson and either J.T. Miller or Micheal Ferland. Canucks fans should be excited to see what their first line can do this season. 

As far as the price goes, Benning did well to keep the average value down. As far as comparables go, Boeser has produced more than Meier and received a smaller average value. Of course, that extra year for Meier makes a big difference, but less than $6 million is a steal of a an average for Boeser.

The scary thing for Canucks fans now is that there will be a lot of impetus on Benning’s cap management skills going forward. He’ll have to smart and savvy. He’ll probably have to go the Toronto route of paying his star players a massive share of the salary cap and fill out the depth chart with cheap bodies (which is the smart way to build a team in today’s NHL).

That has not been Benning’s MO so far in Vancouver, but with Pettersson and Hughes up for new deals in two years, and Boeser and Horvat not far behind, it’ll have to be.

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