We've stated it before and we'll state it again - no team has faced as much adversity as the Vancouver Canucks through the first quarter of the 2024-25 NHL regular season. What other team can claim a combination of bereavement, a cancer diagnosis, a first-of-its kind hockey injury, and a team captain taking an indefinite leave of absence for personal reasons?
Now, you can throw in the likelihood that Filip Hronek is going to be out for a while, thanks to an injury he suffered in the final minute of Wednesday's night game in Pittsburgh. All in all, it's impressive that the Canucks find themselves in a playoff spot ahead of Friday's slate of games, when considering the amount of key absences they've suffered with already this season.
Even before Hronek's injury, the Canucks were apparently looking for help on the blue line. The defensive unit just hasn't been as collectively effective as last season, but highlighted by the struggles of Tyler Myers and Carson Soucy in particular.
In fact generally speaking, the Canucks are expected to be in the mix to find help to strengthen their roster, such is the commitment to contending for the Stanley Cup come playoff time. With this in mind, it seems like a good time to review the NHL trade deadline and look at some of the key information surrounding it.
When is the NHL trade deadline?
First things first there's the actual date for the trade deadline, which this season is on Mar. 7, at 12:00 p.m. PT. There's every chance the Canucks will be active well before this date, but it's still important to keep an eye on even though the deadline is still more than three months away.
It should be noted that trades can still take place between teams following the Mar. 7 deadline. However, the major difference is that any players traded after the deadline, cannot play for their new team until next season.
Another aspect to consider, is the size of NHL rosters. Limited to 23 players prior to 12:00 p.m. PT on Mar. 7, teams can then expand to as many as they want post-deadline, albeit up to a limit of 50 contracts.
Canucks' salary cap position
In addition, teams must still remain cap-compliant, which brings us to the Canucks' financial situation. As per PuckPedia, at the time of writing they currently have $793,451 of cap space.
Further, the Canucks are projected to have $2,644,835 of cap space at the deadline, although there are moves they can make to change this amount. A lot of fans will be well aware that Patrik Allvin has been constantly shuffling players between Vancouver and Abbotsford, in an effort to accrue more cap space.
Allvin and the Canucks have also resisted the urge to use Long-Term Injured Reserve for this reason. This is why Thatcher Demko, J.T. Miller and Derek Forbort's salaries remain on the payroll, despite all being absent through injury or -- in the case of Miller -- the aforementioned leave of absence. (It will be interesting to see what the team does with Hronek, given his significant cap hit of $7.25 million.)
Yes, we appreciate this has caused some issues for the Cancucks in respect of roster strength. At the same time though, as the trio begin to return, other players can be assigned to Abbotsford to also help with the cap space situation.
One finally aspect we'd like to touch on in respect of the deadline and any moves made, is the contract makeup for players. More specifically the no movement (NMC) and no trade clauses (NTC), which gives certain players the power to hold some control over whether they change teams or not.
A NMC stops a player from being traded, placed on waivers, or assigned to the minors without their consent. Meanwhile, a NTC limits any potential trades only.
You can expect there to be plenty of speculation involving the Canucks moving forward, with the frequency only increasing as we edge closer towards Mar. 7. As much as you make a case the team will improve with the return of Demko, Miller, Forbort and Hronek, fans should still expect them to attempt to make a significant trade to further boost the roster.