Eeli Tolvanen remains unsigned more than five weeks into free agency, and the Vancouver Canucks are being pushed to be the ones who finally sign him.
Per Ryan Clark of The Hockey Writers, the Canucks should be targeting Tolvanen to help address one of the worst offenses in the league.Â
Vancouver scored more goals than only the Calgary Flames last season, and Clark projected Tolvanen’s next deal at two years, $7.2 million, a number the Canucks can easily absorb.
Per PuckPedia, Vancouver has nearly $18 million in projected cap space.
His Market
Bleacher Report’s Lyle Richardson ranked him the second-best free agent still available, behind only 34-year-old Vladimir Tarasenko.
That gap in age is part of the pitch for Vancouver specifically. At 27, Tolvanen would fit a rebuilding timeline in a way an aging veteran like Tarasenko doesn’t, and the Canucks aren’t trying to compete in 2026-27 but still need to try to put together as good a team as they can right now to inspire some confidence among their younger players.
Eeli Tolvanen cranks home the power play one-timer, opening the scoring up for the Kraken!#SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/dairLBI5iu
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) January 6, 2023
A one-year prove-it deal in the $4 million range is realistic if Tolvanen wants to rebuild his value before testing the market again next summer, rather than lock into a multiyear number now.
His Career
Tolvanen was a first-round pick by Nashville in 2017 who never developed into the star that draft slot suggested, eventually getting waived and claimed by Seattle in December 2022.
Since then, he’s settled into a physical, secondary-scoring role, posting 41, 35, and 36 points over his last three seasons while missing just six total games in that span.Â
He set a career high with 23 goals in 2024-25 before dipping to 12 goals and 36 points last season on a Kraken team that finished 27th in the league in goal scoring under its third head coach in three years, a context that makes his down year look more like a byproduct of a bad situation than a real decline.
Make that 21 goals on the season for Eeli Tolvanen as he buries the empty netter!#SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/pjeLgesmQN
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) March 15, 2025
He was also Seattle’s second-leading hitter with 187 last season, giving him a physical element Vancouver’s forward group is short on.
