Former teammate of Guentzel shuts down what might be the Canucks' biggest worry

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Cooper Godin
June 20, 2024 (1:22 PM)

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One player the Canucks have been linked to for a while now is Jake Guentzel, who is set to hit the market as an unrestricted free agent on Monday, July 1st.

Patrik Allvin and the Canucks attempted to acquire him before the trade deadline in March, but ultimately, the Penguins decided to ship him to the Carolina Hurricanes for the remainder of the 2023-24 campaign.

The Canucks certainly won't be alone in their pursuit for Jake Guentzel once the market opens and while some are concerned about regression on a potential long-term contract, given that he turns 30 in October, one person who isn't worried is former Vancouver defenceman Frankie Corrado.

On a recent edition of Sekeres and Price, Frankie Corrado doesn't believe that Jake Guentzel is going to fall off in any means and that the first four years of a seven-year contract he wouldn't worry because the pending UFA forward still has plenty of productivity left in his game.

"I don't think Jake Guentzel is, was, or is the fastest player. When I played with him, I never found him to be, you know, a player with blazing speed. So, I don't think, like, the legs are going to significantly fall off, and that's going to be catastrophic for him. Like, I think his speed is his speed, whereas someone like Mikheyev, very different player, obviously. But when the legs fell off, that was...that's' it. Like that's what he had. So that's not going to be an issue for him." Corrado said.

He added, "He's a shooter...his game has always been based around how do I get my shot off? How do I kind of think about getting into positions to get my shot off? As long as you're playing with, you know, someone who can distribute the puck and, someone who can find you and, you know, an offensive zone kind of scheme that finds quiet areas of the ice, you should be fine, and at least that's probably...listen, there's going to be term attached to this contract, I would imagine that's the case for half, like half of the contract. There's half of that contract that I wouldn't really even be afraid of. And I think there's a good example this year is what Steven Stamkos was able to do. Different players, different ways they attack the game, but Stamkos is what, 34? And he just had, you know, a point per game season where he scored 40 goals and he's been often injured. Jake Guentzel has not really been, you now, like, he hasn't been injured to the extent that Steven Stamkos has been. So I, I don't worry about it, especially in, you know, if it's a seven year deal, which would be a long time, years one, two, three and four, I don't worry about it. And I think for, you know, the Canucks, it's like they're trying to be good you know, now. So you're trying to catch that lightning in a bottle and see if you can grab the last four to five years of Jake Guentzel's, you know, high productivity."

Guentzel, a native of Omaha, Nebraska, is coming off his seventh straight 20+ goal season and has recorded 30 or more in each of the last three years. His production is exactly what the Canucks need in their top six forward group and he could be the perfect player to have alongside Elias Pettersson.

In 67 games this season with Pittsburgh and Carolina, Jake Guentzel put up 77 points (30 goals, 47 assists), 22 penalty minutes and was a plus-25. He went on to add nine points in 11 Stanley Cup Playoff games with the Hurricanes.

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