With the final roster due on Monday, October 6th, it’s time to look at the Vancouver Canucks‘ salary cap situation heading into the season.

There are several camp battles and trade rumours that could change the Canucks’ salary heading into their season opener on Thursday, October 9th, against the Calgary Flames. The maximum roster size for the regular season is 23 players, with a minimum of two goaltenders required. Using the information available and players still at camp, it’s possible to map out different cap scenarios.

There are currently 28 players remaining at training camp, with three of those (Nils Höglander, Guillaume Brisebois, and Jet Woo) confirmed to open the season on Injured Reserve.

Forwards: (14)
Arshdeep Bains, Teddy Blueger, Brock Boeser, Filip Chytil, Braeden Cootes, Jake DeBrusk, Conor Garland, Evander Kane, Linus Karlsson, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Drew O’Connor, Elias Pettersson, Aatu Räty, Kiefer Sherwood

Defencemen: (9)
Derek Forbort, Filip Hronek, Quinn Hughes, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Victor Mancini, Tyler Myers, Elias Pettersson, Marcus Pettersson, Tom Willander

Goaltenders: (2)
Thatcher Demko, Kevin Lankinen

Injured: (3)
Nils Höglander, Guillaume Brisebois, Jett Woo

Of the remaining players, 16 have a cap hit of over $1.0 million AAV and are locks to make the opening starting roster. These players’ combined cap hit is $79.7625m.

Höglander and Brisebois both have a cap charge while they remain on Injured Reserve. Höglander’s is $3.0m while Brisebois’ is much lower at $0.08802m. The reason Brisebois has a cap charge while Jett Woo does not is that Brisebois spent time on the NHL roster last season, and Woo did not. Brisebois’ cap charge is a percentage of his total cap hit, $0.775m AAV, of the number of days he spent on the roster last season. Combining their cap hits gives a total of $3.08802m.

It should be noted that Höglander’s expected recovery timeline is about two months, while nothing has been officially stated about Brisebois. When Brisebois is healthy, he will be waived and sent to Abbotsford, freeing up his small cap charge. The Canucks, however, would need to free up a roster space for Höglander. They do not get any cap relief from him being out of commission.

The Canucks also have two “dead” cap charges in the form of the Oliver Ekman-Larsson buyout, $4.766667m, and Ilya Mikheyev retention, $0.7125m. This is a total of $5.479167.

With a maximum salary cap of $95.5m for this upcoming season, the Canucks salary breakdown looks like this: $95.5m – ($76.25m + $3.08802m + $5.479167m) = $7.170313m in salary cap space

Waiver-Exempt: Lekkerimäki, Mancini, Pettersson, & Willander
Waiver-Eligible: Bains, Karlsson, Räty, & Joseph
Junior or NHL Only: Cootes

Jonathan Lekkerimäki: $0.918333m
Victor Mancini: $0.87m
Elias Pettersson: $0.838333m
Tom Willander: $0.95m
Arshdeep Bains: $0.775m
Linus Karlsson: $0.775m
Aatu Räty: $0.775m
Pierre-Olivier Joseph: $0.775m
Braeden Cootes: $0.975m

Including all four waiver-eligible players on the roster increases the roster size to 20/23 and decreases the cap space: $7.170313m – $3.1m = $4.070313m

That leaves three roster spots available for a combination of Lekkerimäki, Cootes, Mancini, Pettersson, and Willander. The average cap hit of these five players is $0.910332m. Taking that number and then attributing it to the final three spots is equal to a $2.730996m cap hit. That would further reduce the Canucks cap space from $4.070313m to $1.339317m. Rounding up, that leaves the Canucks with approximately $1.34m in cap space to start the season.

Another wrinkle thrown into all this is that both Forbort  and Joseph have missed the last several practices and games with injuries. Head Coach Adam Foote has stated their priority is to have Forbort healthy to play in game one but was not as forthcoming with Joseph’s status. Since the last day to place a player on waivers in order to remove them from the roster before the finalization date is Sunday, October 5th, and the Canucks did not place anyone on waivers, this indicates that they are either two waiver-exempt players will be sent to Abbotsford or, most likely, one of Forbort or Joseph will be placed on injury reserve and only one place is sent to the AHL.

From the moves the Canucks have not made, there’s a clear indication that they will start the season with 14 forwards and seven defencemen configuration. Of the three waiver-exempt defencemen, Tom Willander has had the least impressive camp and is just starting his professional career.

Combining the Canucks latest practice lines, take Foote’s word about Forbort playing against the Flames, and assume Blueger’s absence from the latest practice is a maintenance day,  that leaves an opening night roster of 23 players looking like this:

DeBrusk-Pettersson-Boeser
Bains-Chytil-Garland
Kane-Cootes-Lekkerimäki
O’Connor-Blueger-Sherwood
Karlsson/Raty

Hughes-Hronek
M.Pettersson-Myers
Forbort-Mancini
E.Pettersson

Demko
Lankinen

IR: Hoglander, Joseph, Brisebois, Woo

This line-up would have around $0.47m in total cap space to start the season.

With the Canucks starting the regular season so close to the salary cap, adding anyone from outside the organization would require an equal cap hit to be removed.

If the Canucks enter the season with a reasonably healthy roster (knock on wood), they’ll be in a good position to make additional roster additions as the season progresses. They even have the cap flexibility to make a roster addition now without drastically altering their cap flexibility. The injury to Höglander opened a roster spot and allows them to carry all their preferred waiver-eligible players. Extrapolating that out to Forbort or Joseph starting the season on IR added another spot. They can freely shuffle their waiver-exempt players from the minors and NHL, with the decision on where Braeden Cootes will play being the only one that is binding after nine NHL games.

At this point, the Canucks would enter the season with around $0.47m in cap space, with a full 23-man roster. Their flexibility, however, is greatly limited. Sustaining another injury would require utilizing a roster below the maximum or entering into long-term injury reserve. That said, with Lekkerimäki, Pettersson, and Mancini still waiver-exempt, the Cootes decision looming, and the unknown injury status of Forbort and Joseph, the roster is far from settled. The line-up that is submitted on Monday may look quite different in just a few weeks time.

With the Canucks announcing that Mancini and Willander have been sent to Abbotsford, the team is now at a roster size of 23 players. This makes them compliant for tomorrow.

DeBrusk-Pettersson-Boeser
Bains-Chytil-Garland
Kane-Cootes-Lekkerimäki
O’Connor-Blueger-Sherwood
Karlsson/Raty

Hughes-Hronek
M.Pettersson-Myers
Forbort-E. Pettersson
Joseph

Demko
Lankinen

IR: Hoglander, Brisebois, Woo

This puts the Canucks at $1.33m to begin the regular season. If anyone else is placed on IR and another player is recalled, then the Canucks will be around $0.47m.