couldnt afford 2nd t
Joined: Sep. 2021
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The Canucks already had an avenue to become cap compliant prior to making this trade. Michael Ferland is LTIRetired. So this trade wasn't about becoming compliant. What happens now is that they can place Ferland on IR instead of LTIR, and keep things open to make a big acquisition later in the season or at the trade deadline.
They can assign Stillman to the minors, and they will get back 1.125M in cap space. That gives the Canucks 436k worth of cap space, with a 21 player roster. While 1 healthy scratch is tricky, we have seen teams use that slim of a roster over the last few years due to the salary cap.
That allows the Canucks to bank that 436k towards the trade deadline. With LTIR, they wouldn't have been able to bank that cap space. Additionally, they have the option of acquiring a star player earlier in the season, because they can still place Ferland on LTIR after acquiring that player.
That might explain why this didn't cost that much. Vancouver didn't HAVE to make this move to become compliant. They wanted to make the move to gain more flexibility over their cap.
I suspect they will waive Stillman, because he wasn't good last season, they don't need him, and his cap hit exceeds the buried cap threshold. If they waive for example Kyle Burroughs, they will only get back 750k in cap. If they waive Stillman, they will get back 1.125M in cap. No one is likely to claim Stillman anyways, so instead of sitting in the press box, he can play top minutes in the AHL and get called up when needed. With the benefit that Vancouver banks more cap space by waiving him instead of a cheaper player.