Vancouver Canucks begin process to buyout Jake Virtanen

The Vancouver Canucks have begun the process of buying out the remainder of Jake Virtanen’s contract.

The club announced Sunday morning that Virtanen has been placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a buyout.

According to PuckPedia, given that Virtanen is 24 years old, his buyout has a 33 percent multiplier on the final year of a contract paying him a base salary of $3-million and carrying a cap hit of $2.55-million. Vancouver will save $2.5-million against the cap in 2021-22 and will have a negative cap hit of $500k in 2022-23.

It marks the end of a tumultuous time for Virtanen in Vancouver.

Drafted 6th overall in the 2014 draft, Virtanen never met the standards needed based on his drat position. While he scored a career-high 36 points in 69 games in 2019-20, his came fell off a cliff last season with a career-low in points scoring just five goals in 38 games.

The Canucks placed Virtanen on leave from the team on May 1 after sexual misconduct allegations arose from a Sept. 2017 incident.

After the buyout, the Canucks will have $15.176-million in cap space.