Canucks offseason trade candidates: Loui Eriksson

The Vancouver Canucks need to clear cap space this offseason. Can they find a way to move out the final two years of Loui Eriksson’s deal?

It’s imperative for the Vancouver Canucks to create some cap room this offseason, but that’s obviously much easier said than done.

General manager Jim Benning decided to hand out lucrative long-term deals to the likes of Loui Eriksson, Brandon Sutter, Jay Beagle and Antoine Roussel. And unless he finds a way to clear out at least two of those contracts, Benning stands to lose multiple impact players in free agency.

No. 1 goalie Jacob Markstrom is in need of a new contract. The 30-year-old pending UFA has expressed his desire to stay in Vancouver, but that’s not a guarantee because of the club’s difficult cap situation.

Troy Stecher, Jake Virtanen and Adam Gaudette are pending RFAs, while workhorse blueliner Chris Tanev is slated to enter unrestricted free agency. Trade deadline rental Tyler Toffoli is also set to hit the open market, but it’s hard to envision Vancouver retaining him.

That brings us to Eriksson.

Nobody needs to be reminded that Eriksson hasn’t lived up to the six-year, $36 million contract that Benning gave him in the 2016 offseason. Injuries, inconsistent offence and disagreements with head coach Travis Green have led to a disappointing tenure in Vancouver for Eriksson.

In 245 games over four seasons with the Canucks, Eriksson has 38 goals and 89 points. 2018-19 marks his best year with Vancouver thus far (11 goals and 29 points).

It’s obvious that Eriksson needs a fresh start, and the cap-strapped Canucks have to try and make it happen. Eriksson only has two years left on his deal, and the 34-year-old is only owed $4 million in both base salary and signing bonuses over the 2020-21 and 2021-22, per CapFriendly.

The only teams that could realistically take on Eriksson are clubs who are wealthy in cap space (the Ottawa Senators, Los Angeles Kings and Montreal Canadiens come to mind), or ones who are willing to swap out one bad contract for another.

Benning would have to add a sweetener if he were to trade Eriksson away. But with no first-round pick in either 2020 or 2021 (because of the J.T. Miller trade) and no second-rounder this year, his options are limited.

But sometimes, a team just has to cut its losses. The cap-strapped Winnipeg Jets awarded Montreal a top-nine forward in Joel Armia for taking on the final year of Steve Mason‘s contract two years ago. The Carolina Hurricanes landed a future 20-goal man in Teuvo Teravainen from the Chicago Blackhawks for taking on Bryan Bickell‘s deal in the 2016 offseason.

If Benning has to give up a decent roster player or grade-B prospect for the sake of opening up cap space, then so be it. At the end of the day, you need enough money to keep your core in place — even at the expense of future assets.

If trading Eriksson means giving up, say, a third or fourth-round pick and/or a quality prospect like Will Lockwood, Petrus Palmu or Aidan McDonough, then Benning has to take this opportunity.

The Vancouver GM is the one who decided to hand out these expensive deals in the first place. It’s now up to him to maneuver his way out of a tricky salary cap situation while keeping the Canucks’ top players together.