The Vancouver Canucks start training camp tomorrow, and their goalie situation is a massive question mark.
The team’s starter, Thatcher Demko, is not expected to skate at camp as he continues to recover from a nagging knee injury. Backup Arturs Silovs dealt with knee issues of his own this summer.
While they added the inexperienced Jiri Patera this summer and invited Dylan Ferguson to training camp on a PTO, the Canucks still have a need for another NHL-quality netminder. It seems Canucks management has its eyes set on free agent Kevin Lankinen, but the two sides have reportedly been unable to agree to terms on salary.
The first offer was believed to be worth under $1 million per CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal. That would’ve been a substantial pay cut from the $2 million Lankinen made with the Nashville Predators last season. Dhaliwal has said the Finnish netminder is looking for a contract in the $1-2 million range.
HISTORY‼️
The @PredsNHL set a new franchise record with a 16-game point streak thanks to Kevin Lankinen’s first @pepsi shutout since March 25, 2021! pic.twitter.com/g3OMqP7wAI
— NHL (@NHL) March 22, 2024
If Lankinen was willing to sign for under $1 million, the Canucks could have waived a depth player like Noah Juulsen or Nils Aman, and been cap compliant for opening night.
But the organization will need to up their offer to get Lankinen on board. And with just $191,833 in cap space at the moment, they don’t have the money without performing some salary cap gymnastics.
Each NHL team must start the year with 20-23 active players on their roster. The Canucks currently have 22 with Tucker Poolman and Dakota Joshua on injury reserve. Players on injury reserve do not count towards roster numbers, but their salary still counts against the cap.
As of right now, Demko is not on injury reserve. If he is moved there before the season starts, the team will need to send down a player to call up another goalie, likely Jiri Patera who is currently next in line, if they want to remain cap compliant.
The problem with LTIR
There is a relatively easy, although far from painless, solution to this problem and the key rests in the NHL’s long-term injury reserve. The Canucks could move Poolman, who hasn’t played since 2022, to LTIR. That would allow them to exceed the cap by his $2.5 million salary, facilitating a Lankinen signing.
But if they do that, the Canucks won’t be able to accrue cap space throughout the season. Because NHL salary cap space is calculated on a daily basis, if the Canucks can start the season below the limit without using LTIR, they’ll accumulate a decent amount over the course of the season. If they start the season using LTIR, they will not be given this privilege.
Accumulating cap space would allow the team to add another player midseason and potentially open the door for a big move at the trade deadline. Not being able to do so is a competitive disadvantage.
General manager Patrik Allvin has made it clear that he would greatly prefer to not use LTIR to begin the season and accumulate cap space instead.
“We’re happy where we are right now. As always, if something comes up… we’ll definitely look into the options,” Allvin said in an interview with Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre.
“But once you get into LTIR, once you set the roster, basically that’s what you have.”
Another option
So what is the solution?
The most straightforward answer is to trade Poolman to another team with cap space, but it would surely cost the Canucks a draft pick as a sweetener. The problem is that Vancouver’s prospect pool is already relatively bleak, and the team didn’t pick in the first two rounds at this year’s draft.
If the Canucks aren’t willing to pay the price to deal Poolman, they’ll either need to bite the bullet and move him to LTIR, or risk losing some of their current players on waivers.
The team could free up cap space by reducing their roster size from 22 down closer to the minimum of 20. This would mean putting bubble players like Aman ($825,000), Juulsen ($775,000), or Phil Di Giuseppe ($775,000) on waivers and sending them to the AHL.
While they risk another team claiming one of their depth pieces, the Canucks would free up roughly $800,000 for each player sent down. They would need to send two to Abbotsford to free up the space needed to sign Lankinen. The team could then offer Lankinen a contract worth close to $1.8 million for next year.
There are options in front of the Canucks but none are painless. They’ll either have to risk losing some of their skaters, deal away an asset, or handicap themselves financially. There is no perfect choice.