Mailbag Part 2: Cap Recapture, Roster Moves, and Looking to the Future

I honestly don’t know what the hell is going on with the cap recapture thing anymore. It doesn’t make sense to me on any rational level why the Canucks would end up being the only team that ends up getting punished as a result of this rule. The rest of the league can talk about tinfoil hats all they want, but it’s hard to look at the history of the Gillis-era Canucks and come away thinking the rest of the league didn’t have it out for them.

I agree with you, but unfortunately I don’t have a better answer than that.

If Jim Benning thinks he’s built a cup contender then things are much worse than I thought. I would hope that no sane person would look at the Canucks’ roster and think “Stanley Cup or bust”.

I think Jim Benning took stock of his position as GM and where the Canucks are at in their life cycle and rightly concluded that he won’t be around next season if they don’t make the playoffs. There’s no need to make it more complicated. He’s trying to keep his job and I don’t think anyone can blame him for that. Whether or not he did enough remains to be seen.

My opinion on this matter is more or less the same as the one I had regarding Brendan Gaunce and Tanner Kero. They simply don’t have the room, and they shouldn’t feel any sense of loyalty to a roster that’s been as bad as the Canucks’ has been over the past four years. The decisions the Canucks have made over the summer so far aren’t ones I would have advised, but they’re right to try something else. I’ve always believed there should be a lot of turnover after any losing season and I’m glad they finally seem to feel that way, too.

I think Eriksson is either getting traded or sent to the minors because I just can’t see this situation dragging out for another season. Other than that, I won’t be all that surprised if there isn’t a lot of movement. They might decide to move on from Gaudette rather then send him down the minors, and I could see them trying to find a taker for Nikolay Goldobin as well, but ultimately I think they’ll be happy to start the year with 14 forwards and Adam Gaudette in the minors if they have to.

I honestly don’t know. The Canucks have a tendency to telegraph their roster decisions through the media months in advance and all signs pointed to the Canucks re-upping on Schenn. It seems odd to me that they’d build up such a positive storyline over the course of the season only to let him go in free agency. It’s no loss when you consider the other pieces that remain on the roster, but it is a bit puzzling.

Travis Yost has a great tweet about how to manage an NHL team that I think applies in this situation:

I think for all the strengths Jim Benning brought with him to the Canucks front office, creativity and negotiation skills have been an area of weakness. They’ve been in the bottom-half of the league at the very least when it comes to getting the most out of their cap space, and that’s being generous. Fans should hope that if Benning is replaced or an addition is made to the front office, cap management is an area that gets addressed. A smart executive can pinpoint teams that need to reach the cap floor, or may have interest in players on the roster that aren’t living up to their cap hit. So, ultimately, I think my answer is just that I hope they bring along someone who’s smart enough to manoeuvre their way out of the potential cap trouble they’ve put themselves in.

As far as what that might look like, I think Myers’ deal is potentially moveable in the second or third year of his deal assuming they can get him to waive. Unless a team is really willing to take a risk on Brandon Sutter, they’ll probably have to send an asset back the other way to move out him out or simply wait out his deal. Schaller, Tanev, and Markstrom are all coming off the books next year and the smart play would be to find cheaper replacements in free agency. They haven’t completely handicapped themselves yet, assuming someone with a more progressive outlook comes along that can sort things out.

I understand the sentiment. Ultimately, I think GMs complain about the cap because they want more relief to save them from their poor decisions. It’s hard to blame them for that. I think most people would like their jobs to be easier. I do agree, though. The easiest way to get out of cap hell is to not get yourself into it in the first place.

I don’t have an issue with that at all. Bachman didn’t handle himself very well when he saw NHL action this year, and the goal in Utica should be to do everything possible to develop DiPietro properly. Everything else is secondary. Kielly can back up in Utica if DiPietro struggles or just needs to get reps in in Kalamazoo, and McIntyre is a fine call-up option in a pinch if things go south with the big club. No need to overthink this one. Hopefully they can find a taker for Bachman.

45 contracts would be nothing out of the ordinary. Plenty of teams straddle the line with 48 or 49 contracts at points in the season, so even if the Canucks sign and retain all their RFAs I don’t think they’ll be close enough to the limit for this to be a major concern.

So far the only rumour that has legs is that he may be headed to the Leafs, which would seem to make sense on paper assuming he takes a discount. I also wouldn’t be surprised if he ends re-signing in Vancouver for less than his qualifying offer if he can’t find any other suitors.

I think they would probably be in roughly the same ballpark. Historically, Beagle has been better at faceoffs and comes with more pedigree, but Gaunce has the edge when it comes to the underlying shot-based metrics. Even if Beagle is technically a minor improvement, I doubt that improvement is worth the difference in dollar value and cap space.

My guess is that they want to make sure they get a Boeser deal done now before they do anything else. His deal could conceivably put them right up against the cap, and we knew signing Myers was a priority so I think they’re going to go down the list of players they need to get signed and get to Teves and/or Rafferty once more important matters are settled.

I could go either way, to be honest. I think there are more than a few players the Canucks would like to move on from, but to be frank, they don’t seem to have the best handle on what their players are worth and I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t like the deals that are out there. This is a front office that reportedly didn’t want to include Ben Hutton in a Tyson Barrie trade, so I think counting on them for a lot of roster movement is probably a recipe for disappointment. The three most likely candidates to be traded are Eriksson, Goldobin, and Sutter; in that order, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re stuck finding a place for one or even all three within the organization.