Signing Loui Eriksson is considered to be Jim Benning’s biggest mistake with the Vancouver Canucks. This may be the year it finally catches up to him as GM.
From the moment he touched pen to paper and agreed on a six-year/$36 million dollar deal, Loui Eriksson was never the player Jim Benning expected him to be for the Vancouver Canucks.
Instead of being the guy capable of 25-30 goals a year for Vancouver, he was nothing more than a shadow of his former self and appeared to have agreed only to come to the west coast to slowly fade away. That much became abundantly clear very early on, and only more so as time passed with each season.
But the way the contract was structured by Benning, made Eriksson pretty much an immovable object stuck in the Canucks’ main roster. He’s a $6 million dollar mistake that’s clogging up the system and quite possibly destroying this team’s potential for another two seasons. In other words, this may be the year that that ridiculous contract finally catches up to Benning and the Canucks.
According to Frank Seravalli of TSN, the NHL and NHLPA have come to a tentative agreement on Phases 3 and 4 of the NHL’s Return-to-Play plans. Things have not been completely finalized but to my understanding, it has been agreed that the salary cap for next season and beyond will remain flat at $81.5 million until the hockey-related revenue returns to $4.8 billion (the amount projected for this 2019-20 season before the pandemic).
So what does that mean for the Canucks exactly? Salary cap Hell.
According to CapFriendly, Vancouver will have a touch over $18 million dollars US to play with, but Benning will have his work cut out for him with a handful of big names in line for even bigger raises.
The Canucks’ No. 1 goaltender Jacob Markstrom and his camp likely won’t even pick up the phone for anything less than $6 million. Chris Tanev is another UFA that can demand top dollar, probably something in the $5-6 million range on the open market. Tyler Toffoli is another guy who will be in high demand. These three players alone could cost the entire team savings.
Not to mention, RFA’s like Jake Virtanen, Adam Gaudette, Troy Stecher, and Zack MacEwen are all on expiring contracts that need some upkeep. Each player deserves the big bucks, but unfortunately, there just isn’t enough money to go around.
How does that Eriksson contract look now, Canucks nation? It’ll make it nearly impossible for Benning to get himself and the Canucks out of this situation and in fact, Eriksson’s contract could force Vancouver to take another step back next season.