It wasn’t that long ago that the Vancouver Canucks had one of the bleakest salary cap situations in the NHL. The roster was riddled with big contracts with no easy way out, but that has changed in a big way.
Since taking the job, general manager Patrik Allvin has done a great job at cleaning things up financially. The Canucks cap table today looks much more manageable, and they have money to play with.
After this past weekend, which featured a pair of trades, the Canucks freed up even more cap room by dealing away J.T. Miller and his long-term $8 million AAV contract. They also got rid of Danton Heinen and Vincent Desharnais, who cost $4.25 million combined through the end of next season. In all, that’s more than $12 million in salary that they moved out.
The players they brought in are on much more affordable contracts. Filip Chytil, Marcus Pettersson, Drew O’Connor, and Victor Mancini combined cost just over $10 million. Chytil is the highest-paid player in the group at $4.4375 million per season.
The result is lots of financial flexibility. As it stands right now, the Canucks can fit an AAV of $9.4 million per Puck Pedia, and they’re projected to be able to fit an additional $16.566 million in AAV at the trade deadline.
This is slightly misleading, as they’re currently carrying just 20 players on the roster because it’s an off day. This means more daily cap space and a higher projection from PuckPedia. However, they should be able to fit roughly $12.1 million in AAV at the deadline, even when carrying more players.
Daily transactions will change this number, but it will remain relatively the same, barring another major trade.
The AAV the Canucks can add right now and at the deadline. (PuckPedia)
While part of that has been freed up through trades, the Canucks management staff has also made sure to maximize every available dollar of cap space this season. From opening night on, they’ve been sending down waiver-exempt players on off days before recalling them the next morning. This helps as cap space is accrued daily.
The Canucks are two points outside of the playoffs right now. With so much deadline cap space, they could package future assets, like prospects and draft picks, to make a big addition for the stretch run.
The club is lacking a top-six centre, and this could be a target area if the Canucks wanted to use their available cap space.
With the salary cap projected to jump by nearly 10% across each of the next three years, the Canucks also have the room to fit long-term contracts on their books or re-sign any expiring deals they may acquire. The increased salary cap will help them absorb a growing Oliver Ekman-Larsson buyout penalty while still improving their roster.
They’ll first need to decide on the current pending free agents on their roster. Those include Brock Boeser, M. Pettersson, Kevin Lankinen, Pius Suter, and any other pending UFAs they may acquire. They’re projected to have $25.925 million to re-sign those players before going to the open market for more upgrades.
All of this money gives the Canucks a ton of options. They can go for a big name at this year’s deadline or can wait until the summer and go after a big free agent like Mikko Rantanen or Mitch Marner. Cap space is one of the most valuable assets in the NHL, and the Canucks suddenly have a bunch.