Canucks still want to ditch an expensive contract this summer: report

Instead of shedding salary, the Vancouver Canucks added money to their books ahead of the 2023 trade deadline.

It actually puts them over the salary cap, as currently constructed, for 2023-24, meaning Canucks management will need to do some manoeuvring this summer.

GM Patrik Allvin said he felt “comfortable” with his cap situation after adding defenceman Filip Hronek, who will count $4.4 million against the cap next season. Allvin and Jim Rutherford were interested in Hronek for a “long time” before they traded for him, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

“We were discussing internally and externally here, with our options for this summer,” Allvin said on trade deadline day, regarding the impending cap crunch. “Definitely that was something that we had to consider when we [traded for Hronek]… we’d [need to] be obviously compliant on moving forward. And that’s where I felt there are enough options to do it.”

The Canucks could opt to buy out Oliver Ekman-Larsson, but they could also try moving a big contract in a trade.

“Vancouver hasn’t given up on moving out at least one big contract this summer,” Friedman said in his 32 Thoughts column.

Moving Ekman-Larsson’s contract (four years left, $7.26 million cap hit) without taking bad money back would likely require some form of hypnosis. It’ll likely also be next to impossible to trade the injured Tanner Pearson (one year, $3.25 million).

Other contracts management would probably love to move out include those of Tyler Myers (one year, $6 million), Brock Boeser (two years, $6.65 million), and Conor Garland (three years, $4.95 million).

They also have the option of moving trade-rumour favourite J.T. Miller before his no-movement clause kicks in on July 1.

An Ekman-Larsson buyout would drop his cap hit to just $146,667 next season, but it would rise to $2.3 million in 2024-25, $4.8 million in 2025-26 and 2026-27, and $2.21 million from 2027-28 to 2030-31.

Myers is an intriguing trade option. His cap hit is $6 million next season, but he’ll be due just $1 million after his $5 million signing bonus is paid this summer. That could be an asset for a team trying to reach the cap floor.

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