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Vancouver's Guide To 2015 Free Agency

You've learned to not expect much correct? Good, you won't be disappointed.

By Yankee Canuck
Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports

This likely rounds out the day's activities for Benning. #bargainbinshopping

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And right out of the gate sounds like Benning wasn't just giving lip service to Weber at the end of last season.

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A quick recap of the past week for Vancouver heading into the start of the silly season:

1. Traded Eddie Lack for picks and didn't trade Kevin Bieksa to San Jose because Doug Wilson is a fraud, making him a Duck instead earlier today.

2. Re-signed Linden Vey (here), Jacob Markstrom (here) & Alex Biega (yo). In fact, signing Biega to a $600,000 deal on the same day they dealt a ten year veteran because of his $4.6 million dollar deal may tip you off on the priorities at the moment.

3. Extended qualifying offers to pending RFAs Sven Baertschi, Adam Clendening, Frank Corrado & Alexandre Grenier while passing on Peter Andersson, Cory Conacher, Joacim Eriksson (who was KHL bound already), Brandon McMillan, Ryan Stanton, Yannick Weber and Michael Zalewski.

Not much left to the imagination here. Benning has $8.2 million left in cap space and has to get five more souls under contract to hit the typical 23-man roster before October.

The goalies are set...no seriously, stop laughing, shut up.

On the blueline, moving away from Weber (who still may sign as a FO) and Stanton means youth will be served in the form of Corrado and Clendening. Not sure how he'll fill the Bieksa hole, either with one or two cheap plugs or an affordable veteran option. Following the Bieksa trade Benning mentione he's looking for a mobile "puck moving" defenseman, though the market will dictate what that means exactly before Benning will.

Up front the pending promotions for Horvat and Baertschi to join the top six means the organization needs to address the departures of Brad Richardson and Shawn Matthias in the bottom six.

The high priced names - Mike Green, Cody Franson, Andrej Sekera and Matt Beleskey - are likely out, though we can fantasize about hometown discounts for Franson until he signs for $5 million somewhere else. Even "affordable" options will most likely get a pass, such as the departing Richardson or the once again available Mike Santorelli. If conventional wisdom sticks, Benning will let the other GM's toss their money around first and then sweep in for some more budget-friendly options to shore up the holes.

Then again, maybe the shifting landscape in the Pacific has changed their plans and a bigger splash could be in play to keep them in pace within the division. It's possible with their extra cap space after the Bieksa deal, though honestly, if ever there was a time to fully commit to a rebuild without actually saying the nasty word out loud and scaring ticket buyers, 2015-16 may be it.

We'll keep you posted on the breaking deals, feel free to toss rumors in the comments. Don't worry, one day we'll have our fun again.

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