3 cheaper right-shot veteran free agents the Vancouver Canucks should explore to fill their third-line centre position

His 0.990 PDO is also indicative that he could probably earn some better goals for and against rates.

In his 602 minutes of five-on-five, Stepan’s Hurricanes have had 370 scoring chances while only giving up 191 scoring chances against.

Stepan is playing in a Hurricanes system that gives him the opportunity to dominate in a fourth-line role and he is knocking it out of the park.

He’s a cheap option who may have another few good years as a bottom-six centre. Perhaps the Canucks want to give him a chance at playing in a third-line role and setting the standard for what is expected defensively in the bottom-six.

Stepan can kill penalties but he has been the sixth-most used forward for the Hurricanes this season. It’s not a specialty of his but maybe he will earn more time on the penalty kill on a different team. His faceoff prowess is surely a good boost to kick off any penalty kill.

As for counting stats, Stepan has five goals and six assists (five primary assists) through 72 games with a 9:08 average time on ice.

Noel Acciari, 31 years old, 5’10”, 209 lbs, St. Louis Blues / Toronto Maple Leafs

Our next centre has never been a high-paid centre and that is not likely to change as we turn towards the 2023-24 NHL season.

Noel Acciari is a solid bottom-six centre who is good in the faceoff dot and brings some veteran savvy to the penalty kill.

He has averaged about 1:40 of penalty kill time per game, he has won 54.1% of the 600+ faceoffs he has taken this season, and his shot chart fits the mould of what Tocchet is looking for in the bottom-six.

Tocchet likes Dakota Joshua because of his willingness to bang in the corners and funnel pucks into high-danger areas. As you can see from the shot charts above, that part of the ice is where Acciari likes to shoot the puck.

Acciari is also 11th in the NHL for hits and is consistent with his physicality. He has thrown five or more hits in 23% of his games this season.

This player feels like a Tocchet guy and won’t be very expensive, as he is coming off of a one-year, $1,250,000 contract.

Acciari is more of a third-line centre than Stepan. This season, Acciari has averaged 14:16 of ice time, has 13 goals and eight assists. He’s probably getting a small raise on his $1,250,000 but we don’t see it being over $2,500,000.

Nick Bjugstad, 30 years old, 6’6″, 210 lbs, Arizona Coyotes / Edmonton Oilers

He’s bounced around a bit after his big six-year, $24,600,000 contract expired in 2021. Nick Bjugstad is a 6’6″, right-shot centre who is currently playing for the Edmonton Oilers after being swapped from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for a third-round pick and a defence prospect.

The most notable thing about Bjugstad is obviously his size but when you go under the hood a bit, it’s pretty interesting to see what he has done to keep himself in the NHL. After 10 NHL seasons of not being a penalty killer, in year 11, Bjugstad has become a shorthanded minute muncher. Averaging close to two minutes of penalty kill time per night this season.

He’s probably the best scorer of the trio of names we’ve mentioned in this article but did benefit from playing up the lineup in Arizona before being dealt to Edmonton.

Even on the poor Arizona Coyotes team, Bjugstad showed well in his own zone and does a lot of his offensive damage near the net.

We also saw Bjugstad matchup against different parts of the opposition’s lineup after he was moved from Arizona to Edmonton. In Arizona, Bjugstad was a second-line centre who primarily matched up against the opposition’s top lines. In Edmonton, he is playing the third-line centre role well and is on a playoff-bound team.

Bjugstad is the youngest of our three names — he will turn 31 this summer. With all of that being said about the big centre, we do expect that Nick Bjugstad will get the biggest contract out of our three names. He’s likely looking at himself as a third-line centre for the coming few seasons and will likely earn something north of $1,500,000, potentially closer to $3,000,000 due to the free agent class being so weak this summer.

Now, in conclusion, these three players aren’t going to save the franchise and it’s also very possible that one or two of these guys fall off from their play this season. The Canucks aren’t going to find the perfect fit for their third line in free agency this season but they could end up finding a good piece as they continue to build towards becoming a playoff team.

Paying for leadership is a thought that has been thrown out the window but having some veteran NHLers join this group and help steer the ship in the right direction certainly wouldn’t hurt and these three names aren’t going to cost you an arm and a leg.

Which name do you think would be the best fit with the Canucks next season?