Canucks could get $32 million in cap space by Bettman's projection
Over the past decade, the Vancouver Canucks have shown as much grace in handling the NHL’s salary cap as a bull in a china shop.
Despite only having two playoff appearances during that time, the Canucks have been regularly among the league’s richest payrolls. That exorbitant spending has not been effective at all as dollars were spent very inefficiently.
Improving the roster without the ability to add significant financial commitments is a very difficult task, but one that general manager Patrik Allvin willingly walked into when he took the job. However, help may be on the way in the form of a significant increase to the league’s salary cap.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made some encouraging comments at the recent Board of Governors meeting, indicating that the salary cap could rise by as much as $4.5 million. That would be the largest salary cap increase since the 2018-19 season, before the pandemic, when the cap jumped by 6%.
The cap rising to $87-$88 million, the number referred to in Bettman’s “very preliminary projections,” would represent about a $4 million increase on the current $83.5 million limit. While this would be helpful for every team around the league, it would have an outsized impact on teams struggling for cap space like the Canucks.
“Very preliminary projection, but we believe the escrow will be paid off in full and the cap will be somewhere between $87 (million)-$88 million for the following year,” Bettman said.
The escrow that the league’s boss referred to is a debt owed by the players from the past few COVID-19-affected seasons which saw fans barred from arenas. There was some hope that it would be fully paid off last season but when that didn’t happen, it pushed this major salary cap jump back a year.
Why the summer of 2024 is so crucial for the Canucks
As it stands right now, the Canucks have a projected 2024-25 cap hit of about $55.82 million. The contracts of Tyler Myers ($6 million), Anthony Beauvillier ($4.15 million), and others will come off the books, while Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s buyout penalty will rise to $2.34 million.
It’ll give them about $32 million to play with assuming the salary cap does jump to $88 million next year.
That $32 million is going to need to stretch a long way for the Canucks. Both Elias Pettersson and Filip Hronek, two of the team’s most valuable players, are going to need new contracts and ideally, the two sides will be able to come to a long-term agreement.
That is going to cost the Canucks a lot of salary cap space, especially if either takes another step forward this year. A long-term contract for Pettersson will likely fall above $10 million per season and a similar-length deal for Hronek will not be cheap either.
In addition to extensions for Pettersson and Hronek, the Canucks will also need to either re-sign or replace Beauvillier, Teddy Blueger, Nils Aman, Dakota Joshua, Vasily Podkolzin, Jack Studnicka, Myers, Ian Cole, and Casey DeSmith.
While fitting all of these players under the salary cap would be a small victory, the real puzzle for the Canucks is to do so while still leaving enough leftover cap space to improve the team in other areas.