After the Vancouver Canucks chose not to buy out Brandon Sutter over the weekend, I think I've finally pieced together the details on their 'Plan B' for salary-cap compliance, if Micheal Ferland doesn't start the season on injured reserve.
It begins with this article from James Mirtle at
The Athletic
Mirtle divides all 31 teams into five categories, based on the amount of salary-cap pressure they're facing. He lumps the Canucks and eight other teams into the second-most-challenged group, which he calls "Very Tight (aka Cap Heck)" — but that's based on the assumption that Ferland starts the season on LTIR.
However — Mirtle is a Torontonian who has seen the Maple Leafs manipulate their cap situation on a day-by-day basis over the last couple of seasons. Referencing some other teams, like Vegas, he mentions that clubs can start the season with "a bare minimum 20-player roster."
This was a new idea for me. I thought teams had to be compliant with a full 23-player roster.
I checked the official documents which, as usual, were clear as mud. I couldn't find anything on this topic in the new Memorandum of Understanding that was signed this summer — which is basically a supplemental document for the 2012 Collective Bargaining Agreement. In that CBA, there's simply a reference to the fact that teams can carry a maximum of 23 players and a minimum of 18 skaters and two goaltenders — with some additional details surrounding injured players.
If the Canucks can start the season with as few as 20, then they should be fine.
According to
CapFriendly, the club currently sits at just over $83 million, with 23 players signed.
Based on this new math, they could put Loui Eriksson and Sven Baertschi on opening-day waivers and not replace them. The way the roster is currently laid out, they'd start the season with 13 forwards, 6 defensemen and two goalies for a total of 21 players. But the demotion of Eriksson and Baertschi would save 2x$1.075 off the cap, for a total of $2.15 million.
Subtract that from $83 million and you're at $80.85 million, $650,000 below the cap ceiling. Not enough to add an extra body, since the minimum is $700,000, but definitely enough to be compliant without making another move.
Jim Benning didn't mention any names when speaking with
Ben Kuzma from
The Province earlier in the week, but he did say this:
“I’m OK with having extra guys that we might send down,” said Benning. “In a flat-cap world, I don’t think there’s any risk of anybody getting picked up (waivers) and if they do, good for them. Those are things that are on the table.”
If the club does need to play with a less-than-full roster, the location of its farm team, and where both NHL and AHL games are played, become more important. The Leafs have been able to be nimble because their AHL club is located in the same city. They can move players up and down on a daily basis when necessary.
Since we still have no clear vision of what the upcoming season will look like including when or where games might be played, it's tough to try to speculate on what a good minor-league setup would look like for Vancouver.
What we do know is that, according to Mirtle's calculations, 12 teams are facing at least some salary-cap challenges. Eleven of those 12 were part of the return-to-play over the summer — only Buffalo was not. And the three that are in his 'Cap Hell' were three of the four conference finalists — Tampa Bay, Vegas and the Islanders.
It makes sense that the teams that were closest to winning it all are also the ones with the biggest financial commitments. But this new financial landscape could certainly create opportunities for lower-ranked teams with more flexible budget situations. That'll be just one of many new variables in day-to-day hockey operations that clubs will need to manage if and when the season gets rolling.
So — with that settled, a couple of notes from overseas to wrap up today.
• First: former Canucks defenseman Oscar Fantenberg has signed on with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL.
I feel like I'm almost obligated to insert a Calgary Flames joke here. I'd say that Fantenberg wasn't of interest to Brad Treliving because he already played 15 games for Calgary before Vancouver signed him as a free agent last summer.
• Sticking with SKA, the bigger news is that Canucks first-rounder Vasily Podkozlin has been demoted to the club's VHL farm team after a couple of healthy scratches with the big club.
We often hear about Russian prospects seeing their KHL opportunities limited if they decline to extend their contracts and look like they're aiming to bolt for North America.
Rick Dhaliwal of TSN
spoke with SKA GM and VP Roman Rotenberg this week, who offered some clarity on the situation.
First, COVID:
“When covid hit our team, Vasili was getting lost of ice time up to 25 minutes, he also got tired and was playing too much. We are sending him to VHL to get ready for the National junior team, get in shape, work hard and become a leader. We believe in him, the coaching staff does as well, we are working with him to be a leader.”
Second, at age 19, it's not easy to generate offense in a men's league:
“He gets many scoring chances, he needs to improve his shot and he will. Improve the shot and a faster release and he will score more, he plays well to create the chances, he just needs to score more and he will.”
And third, Rotenberg has faith that Podkolzin will still develop into an impact player. Needs to work on skills and work ethic, like many prospects.
“100%, I see the potential. He does a lot of things right, he is just not scoring. He needs to work harder, very simple and he knows that.”
Russia's World Junior team will be coached this year by Igor Larionov, who has spoken highly of Podkolzin in the past and suggested that he could end up being team captain.
Our first look at hopefuls for the Russian team will come at Finland's Karjala Cup. That's now just over a week away, running from Nov. 5-8, and will see Russia competing against Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic.
In addition to Podkolzin, the Russian roster also includes 18-year-old Dmitry Zlodeyev, the Canucks' newly drafted sixth-rounder from 2020. He's part of the Moscow Dynamo organization, and has been off to a good start this season, playing in both the junior-level MHL as well as eight games in the VHL.
This is probably a sign that I need to roll out those more in-depth profiles of this year's Canucks draftees. With offseason news starting to slow to a trickle, I'll start on those soon.
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