LATEST | Insider reveals Ethan Bear's price tag: Talks are slowly progressing

The Canucks acquired him knowing he'd be a restricted free agent at the end of the campaign. Coming off a $2.2M deal, Allvin joked about the fact that he should be awarded a raise, and since then, the talks have gone radio silent, and no progress has been made.

The expectation was that Ethan Bear was looking at two outcomes. A one-year deal at a similar AAV takes him to free agency with full autonomy next year, or a 3-year deal where the Canucks buy some of his UFA years.

Rick Dhaliwal made quite the statement in that area today. The belief going around was that Bear could command a raise somewhere in the 3's, and Dhaliwal was crystal clear:

From the latest report, the two parties aren't far apart. However, it wouldn't be a far-fetched guess to say that the Canucks are waiting to see how their salary cap situation unfolds in order to try and make a longer-term offer.

Ever since the Nucks acquired Bear, he's taken a big role in their d-core, and nothing changed even after Tocchet took over. If the Canucks attempted to lock him up for 3 or 4 years, would an offer between $3M and $3.5M be reasonable for the Canucks?