Salary cap too tight
NHL free agency is coming Wednesday, but Canucks general manager Jim Benning has only about $2.8 million US to spend
Don’t expect any July 1 fireworks from the Canucks on Canada Day. Barring a Kevin Bieksa trade to open up some salary cap space, it looks like a quiet day for the Canucks as the signing window opens for NHL free agents.
The Canucks are tight to the league’s salary cap of $71.4 million US for next season and appear to have insufficient room to even sign the necessary players to make up the usual 23-man roster for next fall.
Keep in mind they are not as hamstrung as it might appear, as the Canucks don’t have to be in compliance with the cap until the season begins next October. So they could go out and sign a free agent and deal with compliance issues later in the summer. NHL teams can actually be as much as 10 per cent above the cap number during the off-season, but that’s not a hole you want to put yourself too deeply into.
Canucks GM Jim Benning acknowledged he doesn’t expect the club to embark on any shopping sprees on Wednesday.
“We’re close to the cap so we don’t expect to be too involved,” Benning said. “But we’re going to stay on top of it and if we see an opportunity we’ll have a look at it.”
Benning said that could include a forward or a defenceman, depending on the player.
The Canucks have about $2.8 million US in cap space left — included in that calculation is the $800,000 US in annual retained salary from former goalie Roberto Luongo’s contract — and the need to sign a combination of four forwards and defencemen to get to the usual 23 players. That amount isn’t likely to get the aforementioned done, even assuming that unrestricted free agents Brad Richardson and Shawn Matthias walk away.
A Bieksa deal is expected sooner or later. An agreement looked to be in place with the San Jose Sharks, but that fell through at the NHL draft.
Whether he goes to the Sharks or another team, a deal would give the Canucks $4.6 million US in breathing room, assuming no NHL contracts come back in return.
Such a deal would also allow the Canucks some latitude to browse the free agency market — at least the second tier of the market.