Monday Mailbag: Cap Trouble, Jim’s Drafting, and Petey’s Potential

There are a few reasons. The first is that the relief they’ll get from placing Roussel is artificial – they’ll have to clear space to be cap compliant when he returns from injury, so placing him on LTIR doesn’t fix the problem, it just delays the inevitable by a few months. The second issue is the upcoming Pettersson and Hughes contracts. The Canucks currently have a projected cap hit of $35.2 million in 2021 locked up in 7 players, plus the 3-odd million in Luongo cap recapture penalties. That’s without factoring in the inevitable raises for Boeser, Virtanen, and Stecher.

Let’s just say for the sake of argument that Boeser gets $7 million, Stecher gets 4, and Virtanen takes a 2.8 bridge deal. (These are just ballpark estimates, the point here is to illustrate the problem rather than predict salaries with 100% accuracy.) That gives the Canucks 49 million dollars locked up in 10 players. If Pettersson gets a deal just above the Sebastian Aho range – let’s say $9 million – that’s 58 million dollars dedicated to 11 players, leaving the Canucks with 23 million dollars to sign two goalies,  4 forwards, and five defensemen – one of whom is Quinn Hughes. That’s an average of 2.09 million dollars going to the remaining 11 players, which isn’t a lot to work with.

When you consider the players the Canucks have to sign over the next few years, the space they have to do it, and the fact that the Canucks haven’t seemed to be able to get a single significant player signed for under market value in the Jim Benning era, cap space looks like a valid concern that can’t be simply hand-waved away by saying “they’ll figure it out”. That may very well be true, but until they actually make a move or two to alleviate their cap space issues, it’s going to be a talking point.

We’re actually going to Disney World, and my girlfriend would never forgive me if I didn’t issue that correction. I don’t know how much of a difference that makes, but it’s worth noting nonetheless.

I went to Disneyland when I was 8 and my favourite ride was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, so I’m excited to do that again. I also love animals, so I figure the entirety of Animal Kingdom will probably be a blast.

Aside from that, you have to understand that I’m 100% irony-poisoned and so my main focus is on the extremely dumb, tacky, and antiquated shit I can giggle at. I insisted on visiting the Hall of Presidents so I can see the Hillary Clinton wax statue that had to be quickly and shoddily converted into a Donald Trump statue; and I’m also looking forward to the Carousel of Progress and Living With the Land, which I have heard are also good for the kind of cheap, mean-spirited laughs I live for.

I don’t follow either team nearly well enough to give a good answer, but I will say that everyone involved in handling the Whitecaps sex abuse scandal should probably just be fired into the sun – figuratively of course.

If anything, he’s the Bryant Reeves of the Canucks. That’s why people hated the “Big Country” nickname so much.

To be honest, the Canucks have so many players on the roster at the moment that I can’t really imagine them being even the slightest bit interested in the waiver wire this season. Until a move or two is made, I’m going to assume there isn’t going to be someone out there that would warrant a pick-up.

I agree with the point you’re making, but I’m not certain this is the best example. It’s not as though any of these players have gone on to make an impact in the NHL, and I was fan of the Kole Lind pick at the time, so I think it’s still a bit too early to judge the Canucks on that one.

We can, however, begin to judge Benning on how the Canucks fared in the 2014, 2015, and 2016 drafts, which are frankly a mixed bag. The 2014 class looks pretty good, but most of the spoils are now playing for other teams. Boeser was a home run, albeit in a deep 2015 class. 2016 looks almost completely fruitless, although Juolevi and Lockwood are still capable of surprising people. If Gaudette and Demko work out, things will look pretty good. If not, you’ve got a pair of first-round disappointments in Juolevi and Virtanen, a core player in Boeser, and some decent support pieces that are all playing elsewhere. I think Benning’s drafting prowess has definitely been exaggerated, largely because the Canucks were historically awful before he got here, but it’s still going to take at least another year or two before we can truly judge the scope of his record.

It’s most likely that either Ken Holland’s asking price is too high, or the offers on the table for Puljujarvi from other teams haven’t been enough to pique his interest. With a new GM in charge and coach behind the bench, I also wouldn’t be surprised if Puljujarvi and his agent capitulate on their demand for a trade and he shows up to camp. The Oilers still need plenty of help on the wings and if Puljujarvi can take the next step it’s undeniable that the team could use him.

I remember it well. I started watching the Canucks during the Messier era and was a fan in earnest by the time Harold Druken scored his overtime goal to give the Canucks their first playoff berth in five years. Naslund was my second-favourite Canuck at the time (behind Todd Bertuzzi) and would remain that until his departure. I’m 26, not 12. Nice try.

That will depend on how the team looks and how the hypothetical new GM feels about Green. In most cases, a new GM means a new coach, especially if the decision to axe the GM has come following a losing season. There are exceptions, though. Mike Gillis got a full buy-in from Alain Vigneault in 2008 and I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a similar situation arising with Green.

It depends on what you mean by all-time. Before Elias Pettersson had so much as donned a Canucks uniform for the first time I believed he had the potential to be the best player in their history. Is that enough for him to qualify as an all-time player? If so, then yes, I think there’s a chance. I also think it’s a little early to go too far down that rabbit hole. Let’s see how he fares over the next couple of years before we start putting him in the same category as the game’s all-time talents.