The next big contracts for the Canucks to worry about are the two that will cost around $20 million, that is the Contracts for Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes. These contracts will have a direct impact to how the Canucks manage their cap this summer, and beyond. I will explain my reason behind most of the moves, please feel free to let me know if i'm out to lunch on these or not.
The Pettersson Contract:
I was looking for comparable contracts for Petey and I was thinking that over a long term deal the Canucks could lock him up for 8 years (max. allowable) at a shade under $11 million per season. With Petey currently at a .95 pts per game pace over the course of two shortened season, I feel it is safe to assume he will be paid like some of the top earning young centers in the NHL, players like Jack Eichel $10 million per year, or Auston Matthews $11.634 per year.
The Hughes Contract:
The highest second contract for a defenceman in the salary cap era belongs too Thomas Chabot at 8 years $8 million per year, I believe this is a contract that Hughes will want his second contract to look like. He will cost more than Chabot though, since Hughes has more points per game than Chabot did when he signed his second contract. There is still room for Hughes to impress, and could very well command more money, but i feel this is a good starting point, at least on a shorter 5 year deal as opposed to the 8 that i would hope for.
The Loui Eriksson Salary Dump:
This contract has to go, it doesn't have to be this summer, but at the very least it has to be before the Hughes and Pettersson contracts kick in. I proposed a deal that would see Ottawa acquire Thatcher Demko and Nikolay Goldobin for a pick. I figured that since Craig Anderson is 38 years old and Filip Gustavsson is still a work in progress, Ottawa could use a goalie who is cost controlled, and could develop with the young team. Nikolay Goldobin has worn out his stay in Vancouver and needs a new scenery, he could bounce back and turn his career around in the right situation. BTW he is cheap! The second round pick might be steep, but The Canucks giving up a first should help Ottawa swallow that pill.
The Roussel Trade and Beagle Buyout
Roussel is a great locker room guy and is adored by his teammates, but the Canucks need to shed cap space to make room for cheaper, younger talent. Jay Beagle is another guy that is respected across the league, but his cap hit hurts the team, especially with replacement players who could cost half of what Beagle makes.
The rest is pretty self explanatory, Toffoli re-signs for $5.2 X 4 years to stay on a competitive team. Jacob Markstrom re-signs for close to $6 million a season to stay in Vancouver. Jake Virtanen gets a decent raise to stay with his home town team at a $3.25 million X 4 year deal (3 years is more likely). Adam Gaudette signs a bridge contract to show his worth as a responsible 3rd line center. The Canucks retain C.Tanev by giving him a modest raise (I'd consider signing T.Barrie instead, but depends on the cost).
This sets up the Canucks nicely as their protected expansion list looks like this:
7F, 3D, 1G
E.Pettersson
B.Boeser
J.T. Miler
T.Toffoli
B.Horvat
J.Virtanen
A.Gaudette
Neither Podkolzin or Hoglander require protecting.
Q.Hughes (doesn't require protecting)
T.Myers
C.Tanev (or T.Barrie as discussed above)
One Of - O.Juolevi or B.Rafferty
Cap Compliance Buyout Eriksson and keep the starting goaltender
If the NHL allows for a compliance buyout to maintain the current salary cap them I would definitely do that! but as a Canucks fan i don't feel like we will be given a bone here. If we did a regular buyout, the cap savings wouldn't be very big in the first year, his cap hit would still be 5.667 million year one, 3.667 year two, and 666K for both years 3 and 4.
My opinion, your throwing too much money at a lot of your players.
(eg: Ollie J hasn't even played NHL yet - he's $1.0M not $1.5M, Jake has not hit 20Goals he's a $2.5M or $3M tops).
Hughes and EP, OK yeah pay them but I think you might be a bit high $$$-wise (but it's likely $18M minimum for the two)...
* you could bridge them first and keep some money in the vaults for things like: 3 more players, TDL pickups, COVID 2.0 or things like the Expansion, Strikes/Lockout (assuming they ask for large signing bonus')?
MARKY - US$5M tops (he's a career .911 sv % goalie) not George Vezina and he has injury woes right now. One bright spot, is you can overpay him and then protect TDemko because Seattle won't claim JMark at >$5M...
TANEV (aka Glass Joe - injuries) overpay as well and his possession #'s even playing w/ QH are supposedly ugly.
Lastly, playing with a 20-man roster will get JB and TG fired by US Thanksgiving...
Why?
20 = injuries = loses = lottery = UIC...
Toffoli has isn’t signing that cheap. There are a number of teams that would give 6+ especially on a 4 yr deal.
The other thing that will go lock step is what Makar signs for, if he signs an 8X10 then I would assume Hughes looks for something similar and vice versa.
If the NHL allows for a compliance buyout to maintain the current salary cap them I would definitely do that! but as a Canucks fan i don't feel like we will be given a bone here. If we did a regular buyout, the cap savings wouldn't be very big in the first year, his cap hit would still be 5.667 million year one, 3.667 year two, and 666K for both years 3 and 4.
CBO's/Amnesty buyouts during 2013/14 as per CapF CBA notes above ^ ^ ^ were actually not limited to ONE player but TWO...
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Podkolzin,
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