Canucks could add $5 million player at deadline after clever cap move
The Vancouver Canucks are making some shrewd cap moves ahead of their first game of the year.
Management sent defenceman Mark Friedman through waivers yesterday, a move that risked losing him for nothing. It was a transaction that not many saw coming but one that is important in the team’s bigger salary cap picture.Ā Friedman went unclaimed and will report to Abbotsford.
General Manager Patrik Allvin announced today that D Mark Friedman has been assigned to Abbotsford (AHL).
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) October 9, 2024
While they took a risk in that another team could’ve claimed Friedman — a non-zero possibility considering his solid play last year — the Canucks have now set themselves up to make a big move later this year.
When the Canucks set their lineup on Monday, they had just under $500,000 in cap space and were not using long-term injury reserve. Because cap spaces accrue on a daily basis, this would have allowed them to trade for a player making $2.2 million at the deadline.
While that would’ve been good, they can now do even better. Sending Friedman to the AHL takes his $775,000 salary off the books. The team now has roughly $1.25 million total cap space and will accrue a much greater amount every day.
If they stay at this number until the trade deadline, they’ll be able to add a player making over $5 million at the deadline, assuming they keep a similar amount of daily cap space until then.
While injuries and other roster moves will affect that number as the season goes on, the point stands that the Canucks are accruing cap space at a much greater pace now that Friedman is in the AHL. They have more than doubled their present-day cap space with that one move.
This means that if the Canucks are in contention at the trade deadline, Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford will have much more flexibility in the trade market. They acquired players like Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm last year while being handcuffed by their financial situation. Who knows what they could pull off without those handcuffs.
Even without Friedman, the Canucks still have seven healthy defencemen in the NHL. They play their first game of the season tonight against the Calgary Flames.