Cap space looks like a problem for Canucks on trade deadline day
Vancouver Canucks fans and media spent a lot of time talking about trade targets the past few weeks.
We probably didn’t spend enough time talking about the salary cap.
The Canucks are looking for a scoring winger to play with Elias Pettersson, but have missed out on Jake Guentzel, Tyler Toffoli, and Jason Zucker in the past 24 hours.
Guentzel went for multiple draft picks and prospects, something the Canucks aren’t flush with. But Toffoli? Well the acquisition cost for him was more reasonable.
The Winnipeg Jets landed Toffoli today, in exchange for a 2025 second-round pick and a third-rounder in this year’s draft. That’s not an obscene price, and New Jersey retained 50% of Toffoli’s $4.25 million contract.
But it still would have been too rich for the Canucks to take on without another move. The Canucks need to clear cap space if they want to add another player today.
The Canucks entered the day with enough room to add just a $125,000 cap hit to their NHL roster, per CapFriendly. That’s less than the NHL’s minimum salary, which is set for $775,000 this season.
Here's a look at the Current Cap Space situation of all 32 teams as it stands this morning.
Least Current Space:#Penguins – $0#NHLBruins – $57,500#Canucks – $125,000
Most Current Space:#Blackhawks – $47,237,810#FlyTogether – $40,909,445#LetsGoBuffalo – $34,281,458 pic.twitter.com/cVnl0QOn7T
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) March 8, 2024
They can still add a player if another team retains salary, or if the Canucks trade someone away. They can also clear space by sending a player to the AHL, like Vasily Podkolzin ($925,000 cap hit), who is the only waivers-exempt player currently on Vancouver’s roster according to CapFriendly.
Perhaps that’s what they’ll do to get Phil Kessel on the roster today.
The trade deadline is at noon Pacific Time.