Here is how much cap space Vancouver Canucks have after Evander Kane trade
The Vancouver Canucks have made their first big move of the offseason, and it took up a big chunk of cap space.
Evander Kane is the newest member of the Canucks, after GM Patrik Allvin flipped a 2025 fourth-round pick to the Oilers in a trade on Wednesday morning. There was no salary retention included in the deal, meaning that Vancouver took on the entirety of Kane’s final year of his current contract, which carries a cap hit of $5.125 million.
That is quite a price tag for a player that missed the entirety of the 2024-25 NHL season with an injury, although he did have a decent playoff run with the Oilers. Taking on the entire cap hit has some implications for the Canucks cap situation.
Before the trade, Vancouver had just over $12 million in cap space to work with. According to PuckPedia, after adding Kane, Vancouver now sits with $7 million in cap room.
After acquiring Kane @ $5.125M, #Canucks have $7M Projected Cap Space with 22 active players (13F/7D/2G)https://t.co/Cp4Rp1Jgbj
— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) June 25, 2025
That isn’t an insignificant amount of space, but it probably tips their hand into the future of some of their pending UFA players. Trading for Kane means that they are most likely not going to re-sign Brock Boeser, who should command an AAV in the $8 million range.
It also doesn’t bode well for re-signing Pius Suter, whose breakout 25 goal season could price the Canucks out of an extension. This will leave a few big holes in the forward group heading into the 2025-26 NHL season.
Adding Kane will help alleviate those losses a little bit, but the Allvin still has plenty of work left to do if he wants to return to the Canucks to the postseason. Whether or not those moves can be made with the cap space available remains to be seen.