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After examining the NHL Champion Boston Bruins recently, it’s only right we look at the team they beat, the #1 team in the regular season; the Vancouver Canucks.

Building off as phenomenal season as the Canucks had this past season is never an easy task, but the last three winners have found a certain amount of success (if not just regular season) in the following season. (Detroit in 07-08′, San Jose in 08-09′, Washington in 09-10′)

That being said, it’s not easy, and it will take another phenomenal off season by GM Mike Gillis if the Canucks want to repeat their success.  The biggest challenge to Vancouver will be to figure out it’s free-agent issue. Of the 24 players whose numbers counted against the cap last year, only 13 of them are under contract this coming season. With 11 UFA and RFA players, this team has some huge holes to fill.

With the new cap bump, Vancouver has 18 million to sign these 11 players, so I fully expect them to stick to resigning their players rather than dabbling heavily in free agency. The keys to success in the resign phase will be to first, resign Kevin Bieksa. In a series that saw more than its fair share of soft play, Bieksa was a stud and his effort echoed his hard words throughout. They’d be far worse off by losing him. Second, I’d expect them to bring back Raffi Torres and Chris Higgins. You can’t put a value on what guys like that bring to a team. If you can score goals, play physical, and get under your opponents skin, you have a place on any NHL team.

Third, this team is going to have to add to their defense through the Draft and through free-agency. With 4 players under contract (Hamhuis, Edler, Ballard, and Rome) and 5 entering some form of free agency (Bieksa, Sweatt, Salo, Erhoff, Alberts) there’s little chance they can resign all of these players. With Ballard and his 4.2 million dollar contract all but guaranteed for 4 more seasons, Gillis will have to get creative to fill a top 4 squad. Salo, Erhoff and Bieksa all made 3 million plus a piece last season, and will more than likely demand around the same amount.

Bieksa will be back for close to 4 million, meaning Salo and Erhoff are probably cost prohibitive. Alberts is a steal at under 2 million so expect him back, but that means they have to resign 2 players for less than 4 million combined (unless they want to hamstring the offense).  If it were me (and it’s not) I’d look to sign a big physical defenseman like Anton Babchuk for around 1.5 million, and add a responsible D-man with a good amount of upside. I’d take Andy Greene for less than a million.

Now, these are pie in the sky proposals, and odds are both guys will be swooped up by their own teams, but that being said, my analysis of their holes remain.

If they deal with those issues, Canucks fans will only have to bite their fingers and hope that their superstars can build off their 2010 campaign and sustain in the playoffs. For my money, I have the Canucks finishing 3rd in the West, and only about 10-15 points ahead of the Wild and Calgary.

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