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Vancouver Canucks: Lack Trade to Follow After Talbot's? More from Benning
June 18, 2015, 1:58 PM ET [334 Comments]
Carol Schram
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In yesterday's blog, I talked about the opening of the NHL's buyout window and an ex-Canuck who could be out of a job two weeks from now—Buffalo's Cody Hodgson.

Another ex-Canuck looks like the first to take the hit this year—Matt Cooke of the Minnesota Wild.




Cooke was going into the final year of a three-year contract with the Wild after an injury-plagued 2014-15 season that saw him play just 29 games. Since he's 36, Minnesota would still be on the hook for two-thirds of the $3 million that he's still owed, but can spread that over two seasons—so, a charge of $1 million a year.

According to General Fanager, the Wild currently have 10 NHL forwards, five defensemen and two goalies signed for next season (including Cooke), at a cap hit of $61.2 million. General manager Chuck Fletcher's biggest order of business is clearing cap space to sign impending free-agent goalie Devan Dubnyk, who has a big bargaining chip in his pocket in the form of a Vezina Trophy nomination.

Last year, we saw the news of player buyouts trickle out day-by-day during the two-week window.

Though teams will still have to cover buyout costs and take cap hits on all players this year, without much wiggle-room expected at the salary-cap ceiling, plenty of teams could be looking to create roster space for cheaper players while spreading the pain of albatross contracts over multiple seasons. And yes—the more players get bought out, the greater the competition in the free-agent market on July 1, when they go back into the mix.

Here's the latest on a timeline for a cap number:




Cam Talbot Drives Goalie Market

The closer we get to the draft, the more we hear that New York Rangers backup Cam Talbot is the most-prized goalie among teams who are looking to shore up their netminding this summer.




Talbot stepped out of his understudy role last spring, when he essentially propelled the Rangers to their Presidents' Trophy with a 16-5-3 record while Henrik Lundqvist was out with his arterial injury.

It's not dissimilar to what Eddie Lack did for the Canucks when Ryan Miller got hurt, but Talbot's work was on a bigger stage, in the Eastern Conference, and his numbers were better.

Talbot finished the season with a 21-9-4 record, a 2.26 goals-against and a .926 save percentage, while Lack was 18-13-4 with a 2.45 goals-against and a .921 save percentage.

Earlier, we heard that Ottawa's Robin Lehner was also a primary target for teams looking for goaltenders. Now, word is that the Senators are trying to bundle a forward with their marketable asset in an attempt to clear some cap space.




If Jim Benning's willing to deal Lack on his own, that could make him a more appealing target for one of the teams listed in Dreger's tweet.

Can you imagine if Lack ended up getting dealt to Florida and was back with Roberto Luongo again? That'd be pretty wild. The Panthers do have backup Al Montoya under contract for another year, but they might need an upgrade if they're planning to make good on Jaromir Jagr's promise of a Stanley Cup in 2016.




Jim Benning was on TSN1040 yesterday, where he came right out and said that the Canucks are definitely keeping Ryan Miller.




Here's the link to the Benning interview if you'd like to go through it.




Other than the goalie chatter, just a couple of other interesting notes:




As we expected, Brad Richardson might stick around but Shawn Matthias probably won't:




And I wonder if "yet" is the operative word here:




So far, the chips are falling pretty much as we expected. Now, it'll come down to Benning's negotiating skills in maximizing the return for his assets. He has a week and a day to work his magic before the draft begins.

One other note to follow up from yesterday's blog before I go today:




No word yet on whether Torts will become part of Sully's staff...
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