How Canucks can get below the salary cap after Suter signing
The Vancouver Canucks can get below the NHL’s $83.5 million salary cap to start next season, but it’s going to be a tight squeeze.
Canucks GM Patrik Allvin added Pius Suter to his payroll last week, and although the Swiss centre makes a relatively affordable $1.6 million per season, it could complicate matters somewhat.
The great unknown at this moment, at least publicly, is the health of Tanner Pearson.
The 31-year-old Canucks winger hasn’t played since suffering a hand ailment on November 9. The bizarre injury turned out to be season-ending following a reported series of surgeries that have kept him on the sidelines.
“I’m just trying to get my hand back. I’m just trying to go home and be a dad and be with my kids and be able to play at the moment,” Pearson said on April 15.
But less than three months after Pearson’s comments, Allvin was sounding rather optimistic.
“The indication I got from his agent and from our medical staff is that the hand is healed, and Tanner is working really hard to be in his best shape and participate in training camp,” Allvin said on July 4.
While everyone hopes that Pearson can resume his career, his presence could push the Canucks over the cap. Pearson will count $3.25 million against the cap if he’s healthy, whereas his cap hit would come off the books entirely if he remains on long-term injured reserve (LTIR).
The Canucks’ roster, as currently constructed, is under the salary cap with both Pearson and Tucker Poolman on LTIR. But for the purpose of this exercise, let’s assume Pearson is healthy and ready to go for opening night, leaving just Poolman on LTIR.
The projected 23-man roster below, with Pearson on the books, is $1.07 million over the cap.
The Canucks are over the cap if Pearson is healthy (CapFriendly.com)
There are multiple ways the Canucks can get below the cap, though none are particularly appealing.
The easiest way to do it would be to carry 22 players instead of 23, given that NHL teams are only allowed to dress 20 players per game. Send down Nils Höglander and his $1.1 million cap hit, and you’ve solved the problem. The same thing could be achieved by sending down Pearson, as teams are permitted to bury a maximum of $1.15 million in the minors next season.
The Canucks could also make a trade, whether that involves Tyler Myers and his $6 million cap hit or swapping out someone else on the roster.
Vancouver doesn’t have a lot of trade candidates, however. Höglander could be the odd man out, but given he doesn’t yet need to clear waivers in order to be sent to Abbotsford, trading the 22-year-old doesn’t accomplish much cap-wise.
They could try to trade Pearson, though that would likely involve moving a draft pick with him, similar to what they did in the Jason Dickinson trade one year ago.
Brock Boeser and Conor Garland have been often mentioned in trade rumours in recent months, but their cap hits ($6.65 million for Boeser and $4.95 million for Garland) make them difficult to move.
Then there’s the possibility of an injury in training camp, which always seems to happen in Vancouver.
Expect this to be a storyline to follow as we get closer to the beginning of Canucks training camp, which opens in Victoria on September 21.
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