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Vancouver Canucks Offer for Christian Dvorak Leaked Publicly by NHL Insider

Originally posted on Hockey Latest | By Daniel Lucente | Last updated Jul 3, 2025 4:50 PM ET

The cat is out of the back, the Canucks were all-in for Christian Dvorak, and now the salary and term they offered him has been leaked by an NHL insider.

The Vancouver Canucks kept Brock Boeser, but lost a piece to their depth up the middle on Wednesday when Pius Suter signed with the St. Louis Blues as a free agent.

Elias Pettersson, Filip Chytil, and Teddy Blueger are the Canucks' top three centres. Then there is a steep drop-off down the middle with Nils Aman, Aatu Raty, Max Sasson, and Ty Mueller all having yet to prove themselves at the NHL level.

But NHL insider Rick Dhaliwal reveals the Canucks did put forth a strong effort to fill the gap. Vancouver made a strong push for Christian Dvorak, some suggesting they had offered a three-year, $4 million-per-year deal.

'The Canucks' No. 1 priority on July 1st was not Brock Boeser. It was Christian Dvorak,' Dhaliwal said on Wednesday's edition of Donnie and Dhali. 'The Canucks got into a bidding war with Philadelphia over Dvorak. He wasn't going to be second-line centre, he was going to be third-line centre.'
'The Canucks really went after Christian Dvorak hard, some say they offer 3 years/$4 million per season.'

Dvorak chose a one-year deal with the Flyers instead

Dvorak ultimately signed a one-year, $5.4 million deal with the Flyers, leaving overall term and dollars on the table by going to his new American team.

Dvorak scored 33 points (12-21-33) in 82 games for Montreal last season and career-highed at 38 points in 2019-20 for Arizona. With the lean market for centres, the Canucks' offer proved to be too little.

Mikael Granlund was the top free-agent centre who signed for $7 million annually with Anaheim, with Vancouver losing out on him as well.

Now, Vancouver is left with not much to choose from. Jack Roslovic is unsigned, but there aren't many reliable second-line centres for them to sign. A trade would be a possibility, but it won't be straightforward.

If management isn't able to make it work, the Canucks will have no choice but to enter next season relying on Pettersson to rebound and Chytil to stay healthy. Depth behind them remains a major issue, and losing Dvorak could be a costly price to pay.

This article first appeared on Hockey Latest and was syndicated with permission.

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