Since the season ended for the Vancouver Canucks, what they have been doing can be considered a resounding success. General manager Patrik Allvin continues to impress, showing his desire to find sustained success for the team was more than just words.
Allvin came out swinging big, as he tied the gruff Filip Hronek down to a long-term deal. He's also re-signed Mark Friedman, Teddy Blueger, Tyler Myers and Dakota Joshua to extensions, all representing team-friendly deals.
Perhaps best of all though, Allvin worked his magic in being able to find a trade partner for Ilya Mikheyev. It was imperative for the Canucks to get Mikheyev's final two years off the books, and they only had to retain 15 percent of his salary to do so.
As a result of all these moves, the Canucks find themselves in an arguably better than expected salary cap position. At the time of writing they have just four pending unrestricted free agents still to deal with, as well as one restricted.
As per Cap Friendly, the Canucks have $12,040,833 of projected cap space for the 2024-25 campaign. However, as things stand they will likely also have another $2.5 million to play with, courtesy of Tucker Poolman and the final year of his salary being on Long-Term Injured Reserve next season.
However, despite this extremely healthy position, the Canucks will still have to make a major decision. We're talking specifically about choosing between who to make a more concerted effort to re-sign, between Elias Lindholm and Nikia Zadorov.