Which Canucks will stay, which will go after July 1st?

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – While the Canucks return to Rogers Arena to clean out their lockers today, GM Mike Gillis has some tough decisions to make about who stays and who goes.

July 1st is just around the corner and Gillis has four defencemen who will become unrestricted free agents: Kevin Bieksa, Sami Salo, Andrew Alberts, and Christian Ehrhoff.

“The two big ones are Bieksa and Ehrhoff,” explains Rick Dhaliwal with News1130 Sports. “They’re going to come with a pricetag. They’re not going to be cheap.”

“Bieksa will get a raise, so will Ehrhoff,” he predicts. “They’ve played so well in the playoffs. But can he keep both? Does have have to sacrifice one to sign the other?”

It wouldn’t surprise anyone if Salo retired. As for Keith Ballard:

“At what point does his agent pick up the phone and call Vancouver and say ‘What’s going on with my client? Why isn’t he getting a chance?'” says Dhaliwal.

Is Roberto Luongo going to stay?

“It’s a love-hate relationship with Roberto Luongo,” says Dhaliwal. “The hockey fans in this city were one game short of a Stanley Cup championship for the first time. He’s been up and down since he’s been here”

“He’s had great games, not-so-great games… You can bring up the Chicago series of the past (or) his Boston series when he allowed 20 goals ini seven games.”

The bottom line is Luongo has 11 years left on his deal with the Canucks.

“He’s not going anywhere,” says Dhaliwal. “You can’t move that contract anyways… So, he’s virtually impossible to move.”

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