Pretty clear after this game that the Canucks need to bring in at least 2 more solid top 4 dman this offseason.. Hughes is getting overworked, perhaps there is a salary bonus he's trying to get. If we can drop Myers and Boeser or Garland, that frees up 10-11m in cap space. Lots of reports that Gavrikov may end up here but he'd be a second pairing guy as a LHD on this team and I think Hronek is probably better suited with him than with Hughes. We still need to find a solid partner for Hughes, and I just don't think Bear is it. Sounds like Gavrikov is going to command 5-6m, so that only leaves us with roughly 5m to play with.
Option is there to buyout OEL, however the savings from that will likely need to be used for Pettersson's next deal. It also leaves us with a minimum cap hit from the buyout of 2.1m for the next 8 years.
If the team can find a suitable person for Hughes to play with, the back end may be ok for next season. It's a big ask with the limited cap space. Need to find a solid stay at home responsible dman that isn't needed to put up a lot of points. Looking at this years crop of UFA's, not sure who would be most suitable.
Hughes -
Gavrikov - Hronek
Rathbone - Beare
Wolanin - Juulsen
*EDIT* I was to preface this all by first saying that I think Francesco Aquilini and his family are too f'n cheap to actually buyout OEL. That's 20m they'd be asking to pay for a player to NOT play. Literally going to waste 4 years of Pettersson and Hughes career because of OEL being here.