Kiefer Sherwood's Massive Asking Price on New Contract Revealed

Kiefer Sherwood, Vancouver Canucks forward, takes a shot

The Vancouver Canucks are in sell mode—specifically on their pending unrestricted free agents—as we learned earlier this week. One of those is Kiefer Sherwood, whose name we've heard on the rumor mill all season.

Wrapping up a two-year, $3 million deal ($1.5M AAV), Sherwood is off to the best start of his career, with a team-leading 12 goals through 24 games. That's a 40-goal pace for the hard-hitting forward, who set his previous best last season with 19 goals.

But given that massive breakout, he is looking for a huge raise on his next contract, more than tripling his current AAV. Sportsnet insider Nick Kypreos laid out what Sherwood is asking for, as the former NHLer joined Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen, who wondered if the Senators could get involved:

He is looking for $5 million or north of that, on a six-year deal. I'm not sure if that's too rich for Ottawa... But when you talk about a rugged type of player like that, there will be a lot of teams looking at Vancouver for Kiefer.

Sherwood is a late-bloomer, as he'll be turning 31 later this season, but this is three straight years he's improved his scoring, and it hasn't affected the physical aspects of his game either. After setting an NHL record last season with a whopping 462 hits, he already has 99 this year, on pace for well over 300.

Sherwood is looking to more than triple his salary

Before this expiring two-year, $1.5M AAV deal, Sherwood spent his previous four years (after his ELC expired) on minimum-salary contracts ($750K to $775K). So his next deal will be life-changing money, and the Columbus, Ohio native is going to make sure he capitalizes on this opportunity.

Whether it's the Senators, or any other team, whoever acquires him will have to pony up big-time if they hope to keep him long-term.

Thomas Drance wrote in The Athletic that the Canucks would be seeking either young players or at least a second-round pick in return in any trade for Sherwood. But insider David Pagnotta says he's hearing that it would take a "first-round pick PLUS" to land him.