The Vancouver Canucks announced a slew of roster moves on Monday afternoon, including a few that will help them maximize Tucker Poolman’s LTIR relief. General manager Patrik Allvin revealed that the club would be calling up Vasily Podkolzin in a paper transaction; his $850,000 in performances bonuses can be captured in the LTIR pool.
In two other moves, the Canucks also assigned Akito Hirose and Cole McWard to the Abbotsford Canucks, and then subsequently announced their opening night roster as follows:
- Elias Pettersson
- J.T. Miller
- Dakota Joshua
- Brock Boeser
- Conor Garland
- Sam Lafferty
- Nils Hoglander
- Pius Suter
- Phil Di Giuseppe
- Teddy Blueger
- Anthony Beauvillier
- Vasily Podkolzin
- Andrei Kuzmenko
- Carson Soucy
- Quinn Hughes
- Filip Hronek
- Noah Juulsen
- Guillaume Brisebois
- Tyler Myers
- Ian Cole
- Casey DeSmith
- and Thatcher Demko.
After Vancouver had acquired Sam Lafferty and cut Christian Wolanin and Jack Studnicka, the Canucks were able to submit a roster that was $2.43 million over the cap. By swapping Nils Aman with Podkolzin, they were able to generate an extra $42,000 – leaving them just shy of the maximum $2.5 million they can get from captured LTIR cap space.
Any cap space not added to the pool by today (Oct. 9) cannot be accrued for future use, so the Canucks were wise to get that squared away while they still can. Since Podkolzin got sent to the AHL long ago, it’s unlikely he remains with the NHL squad past opening night. From there, the Canucks will likely bring back Aman and send the Russian prospect back to Abbotsford.
Nothing like some cap circumve- I mean cap gymnastics just before the start of the season, am I right? The Canucks maxing out their cap space with a roster like this one is a head-scratcher, but that’s the result of having players like Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Tyler Myers.