Canucks: Explaining how the team can use the AHL to save cap space
By Bill Huan
The Vancouver Canucks’ cap management has been criticized in recent years, but making $1 million signings provides minimal risk to the team’s salary cap.
It might sound obvious that cheap contracts won’t provide too much risk for the Vancouver Canucks, but signings that are below a certain figure might not impact the team’s cap hit at all.
I recently wrote about potential contracts that Travis Hamonic and Erik Haula could sign, and said that the Canucks should pursue both players since they might be able to be locked up on short-term deals worth less than $1.5 million each. If this were to happen, it essentially means that the team could send either player to the AHL and create almost as much cap room as their contracts are worth.
This is because NHL clubs are able to create up to $1.075 million in salary-cap space if they were to assign a player to the minors. For example, the Canucks were able to save exactly that amount when they sent Sven Baertschi down to the AHL last season, although Vancouver was still left with $2,291,666 in dead money because his contract is worth a total of $3,366,666.
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In other words, a player signed to a deal worth $1.075 million or less basically has negligible impact on a team’s cap hit since they can just bury him in the minors and create cap space that is worth the exact amount of his contract.
This is why it was so frustrating to see a player like Josh Leivo join the Calgary Flames on a deal worth only $875,000, since Calgary could just send him to the AHL if he wasn’t able to fully recover from his injury and have his contract not impact the team’s cap hit at all.
Moreover, it explains why there’s really no point in assigning Loui Eriksson to the minors. Even if the Canucks do decide to send him down, Vancouver will only be able to create $1.075 million in cap space and would still be left with $4.925 million in dead money on their books.
The 2020 offseason has been an unprecedented buyers market, as we’ve seen most players receive contracts worth far less than was expected. Teams should take full advantage of this and sign free agents to cheap deals that pose minimal risk to their cap hit, which is why the Canucks should still be searching for inexpensive options to round out their roster.
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Unfortunately, Vancouver, like most other teams, might be dealing with an internal cash crunch that will limit the amount of money they can spend for this upcoming season. If the Canucks’ ownership group is fine with expanding their budget, however, then there should be no reason why the team won’t pursue more players who are willing to sign cheap, short-term deals.