Team: 2020-21 Vancouver Canucks

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 2, 2020

Published: Jul. 2, 2020

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

With no CBO's and a possible multi-season flat cap, some have brought up the idea of mutual contract termination for players with bad contracts.

For Loui Eriksson that would mean he'd be forfeiting $5 million total over two years after his 2020 bonus is paid, despite his cap hit being $6m each year. $5 mill is hard to walk away from for any player, and especially when the team also has the option of a regular buyout that pays out 2/3's of the remaining cash value to the player. However, Loui's contract won't be bought out as it saves the team very little cap space over the two seasons because of it's bonus structure.

Instead, Benning can inform Loui he'll be earning his remaining salary riding the bus in Utica for 2 years. It's a dick move by management, but in this case Loui might consider the termination so that he could then be free to sign with any other NHL team. Even signing a couple $1-1.5 million, 1 year deals would make up at least some of that $5 million he'd be walking away from, but he'd be in the NHL playing in a much more hospitable situation on a team that wants him. For a player that's earned an estimated 56 million over his career, is he going to choose an extra 2 to 3 million to play in the minors for two years, or earn a little less and continue playing in the NHL?

I think there's a decent chance a mutual termination happens, not just for Loui, but also other bad veteran contracts that have had most of the cash already paid out.