Canucks: How much cap space do they actually have right now?

It’s no surprise that the Vancouver Canucks are in a cap crunch right now.

Entering the 2021 offseason, the team was up against the financial ropes, burdened by regrettable long-term contracts for some of their veteran players, as well as the fast approaching extensions of their RFA superstars in Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes.

The Canucks were able to address the former, offloading the remaining year of Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel and Loui Eriksson to the Arizona Coyotes, while sacrificing their 2021 first-round pick in the process. They were also able to send all of Nate Schmidt’s remaining term and salary to the Winnipeg Jets, while buying out the final season of Braden Holtby and Jake Virtanen’s deals.

Collectively, these moves saved General Manager Jim Benning just north of $24 million against the cap.

Of course, it’s also important to see what the Canucks gained from those transactions.

The other part of the blockbuster draft day deal with the Coyotes involved defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and forward Conor Garland making their way to Vancouver. Arizona retained a small portion of Ekman-Larsson’s salary, but the Canucks are still responsible for a $7.26 million AAV for the next six seasons.

They also took care of business with Garland, who was a pending-RFA at the time of the deal, inking him to a five-year, $24.75 million contract. The 25-year-old carries an annual cap hit of $4.95 million until 2026-27.

And they weren’t done there.

The Canucks were extremely busy at the start of free agency, filling all of their positional needs well before lunch. Benning was able to land a steady, reliable back-up netminder in Jaroslav Halak to provide relief for starter Thatcher Demko, while also acquiring right-handed blueliners Tucker Poolman and Luke Schenn. He also found time to re-sign Travis Hamonic and Brandon Sutter, in addition to adding a handful of depth players to the Abbotsford/Vancouver rosters.

And finally, we can’t forget Jason Dickinson, who kicked off the team’s flurry of moves. Dickinson, who was acquired from the Dallas Stars right before the roster freeze, is expected to fill the third-line centre role but, like Pettersson and Hughes, requires a new deal before he can hit the ice.

In total, considering trades and free agency together, Benning and the front office team allocated $24.235 million towards the cap for the upcoming season, a strikingly-similar number to what he had recouped just a few weeks prior.

As a result, two big questions remain – how much cap space do the Canucks actually have left, and what still needs to be achieved during the offseason?

According to CapFriendly and Puckpedia, the Canucks have just over $14 million in projected cap space for the upcoming 2021-22 campaign. However, it’s important to dive deeper into that number before pressing the panic button.

First and foremost, this figure does not take into account the future of Micheal Ferland.

Ferland, who signed a four-year, $14 million contract with Vancouver in July 2019, has only played 14 games with his new club as a result of numerous concussion-related injuries. The 29-year-old sat out the entire 2020-21 season and, according to Thomas Drance and Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic, definitely won’t be cleared to play next year, let alone for the foreseeable future.

As a result, Ferland is expected to be on LTIR next season, saving an additional $3.5 million against the cap.

Secondly, CapFriendly and Puckpedia are currently projecting the available cap space based on a 26-man roster. It should be noted that all 32 teams are only allowed to have an active roster size of 23 players maximum, meaning that, between now and the end of the preseason, the Canucks will need to send a few players (and their AAVs) down to Abbotsford.

In other words, the organization should be able to recoup around $1.5 to $3 million more towards the cap, depending on who they demote, once they finalize the active roster for the season opener on October 13th.

Given these crucial details, Benning should have between $19.5 and $21 million available (give or take) to lock in Pettersson, Hughes and Dickinson, as well as fellow RFA and defenceman Olli Juolevi, on new contracts.

For Pettersson and Hughes, the speculation continues to grow. Both parties still have approximately seven weeks before training camp to put pen to paper on new deals, and it helps that Hughes can’t be subject to an offer sheet from another club given his 10.2(c) RFA status, but, nonetheless, the uncertainty of the situation is still somewhat nerve-wracking.

In an ideal world, given the expected cap space, Hughes and Pettersson would both opt for shorter-term bridge deals, which would not only allow more flexibility to sign Dickinson and Juolevi, but would provide an opportunity for the two franchise superstars to substantially cash in on their next contracts.

Another option would be for Benning to secure only one player on a long-term deal (ideally Hughes given the previous market for short-term blueliner deals, as well as his overall value and games accrued compared to Pettersson), leaving the Swedish centre with the aforementioned bridge option. It would make negotiations extremely tight for Dickinson and Juolevi, but not impossible.

Fortunately, according to NHL agent J.P. Barry, co-head of the Hockey Division of the CAA that represents Hughes and Pettersson, both players “want to commit to Vancouver”, which should help the negotiations.

However, Barry, who joined Dhaliwal and co-host Don Taylor on “The Donnie and Dhali Show” last week, also indicated the Hughes and Pettersson expect ownership to provide some flexibility when it comes to term and AAV.

It should also be noted that Benning might not have too much say when it comes to Dickinson’s next deal, as the 26-year-old filed for salary arbitration earlier this week. Benning can still negotiate and finalize a new contract before Dickinson’s hearing, which will take place between August 11th and 26th, but Benning will also only have 48 hours to accept or decline the arbitrator’s ruling if it goes that far.

Juolevi also shouldn’t cause too much damage against the cap.

The former first-round selection, who is coming off his three-year, entry-level contract, has only played in 23 regular season games for Vancouver, registering just three points in that span. The 23-year-old will likely fill the sixth or seventh pairing role, especially given the emergence of Jack Rathbone, and should only receive a small raise from his $863,333 AAV as a result.

This offseason has undoubtedly been a huge step in the right direction for this Vancouver franchise, given how Benning has further contributed to their young, highly-talented core, while also constructing a more solid path to the playoffs within the Pacific Division next season.

However, these next few weeks will be even more important, and the outcome of these RFA deals, particularly for Hughes and Pettersson, could drastically impact the internal changes that have already taken place within the organization.

What do you think, Canucks fans? How should Benning approach RFA contract negotiations, given how much cap space he’ll realistically be able to work with? Let us know in the comments!