With the Vancouver Canucks’ misfortunes compounding seemingly by the day, there is increased pressure to push the team in the right direction. Last season, when Carson Soucy went down with an injury, and the Canucks started playing .500 hockey, Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin traded for Nikita Zadorov on November 30th.

As shown at that time, this management team has been quite decisive in improving the roster via trade. In order to make any acquisition, the Canucks would need to create cap space. With the roster they sported on Tuesday against the New York Rangers, the Canucks had $420,000 in cap space. To make moves in the coming weeks, the Canucks would need the necessary cap space and roster spots to do so. How could they go about doing that?

Here is the current roster:

Jake DeBrusk-Elias Pettersson-Kiefer Sherwood
Dakota Joshua-Pius Suter-Conor Garland
Danton Heinen-Teddy Blueger-Nils Höglander
Arshdeep Bains-Aatu Räty-Max Sasson

Quinn Hughes-Filip Hronek
Carson Soucy-Tyler Myers
Erik Brännström-Noah Juulsen

Kevin Lankinen
Arturs Silovs

Unhealthy Scratches:
Brock Boeser
Vincent Desharnais

IR:
Thatcher Demko
Derek Forbort

Uncertain:
JT Miller

JT Miller’s status is a bit of an uncertainty. Puckpedia has him listed under Injured Reserve (IR), but this seems to be innacurate. The Canucks announced Miller would be taking a leave of absence, and the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement details out the following about personal leave of absence.

Parsing the language in the CBA can be tricky, but in this case, it’s rather straightforward. As long as Miller has been approved by Gary Bettman, he can be designated as a Non-Roster Player. That means he does not take up a roster spot but does count against the cap. Essentially, he is on IR but doesn’t need to miss a certain number of days or games. Players on IR must miss a minimum of 7 days from the date they are placed; this does not apply to Miller.

Let’s assume that Miller has been granted non-roster player status and the Canucks are operating on a 22-man roster. Neither Boeser or Desharnais are on IR, and can return at any time. Of the two, Desharnais is seemingly closer to playing in a game. The Canucks also have four players that do not require waivers to be sent to the Abbotsford Canucks: Bains, Räty, Sasson, and Silovs. A key to generating more space is swapping out a few of these players with those currently inactive or on IR. For instance, if Demko comes back, Silovs can be sent to Abbotsford and the Canucks’ cap space climbs to $1.27 million. Further space can be generated when Boeser is healthy enough to play and, presumably, Sasson is sent to Abbotsford as well. Let’s assume that Forbort is activated off IR at the same time the previous two moves are made. That would put the Canucks at a 22/23 roster and $2.19 million in cap space. Miller’s daily cap hit still counts, but this would keep a roster spot open for him when he is ready to return.

Now that I’ve brought up daily cap hits, let’s talk about these numbers and cap accrual. With the Canucks spending many consecutive seasons operating in Long Term Injury Reserve (LTIR), or not in a position where accruing cap space mattered, it would be prudent to give everyone a refresher on what cap accrual actually is. The simplest explanation is that the cap is calculated daily and the space you don’t spend each day you get to keep. Figuring this number out is actually fairly basic math.

(Maximum Salary Cap divided by Number of Days of the NHL Season) minus (Cap Hit divided by Numbers of Days of the NHL Season) equals Daily Cap Accrual

Three different cap numbers have been presented in this article. Here’s the daily accrual rate for those numbers after Sasson was recalled and Lekkerimaki sent to the AHL:

88,000,000/192=458,333.333
87,532,501/192=455,898.443
458,333.333-456,150.177=$2434.89

On Thursday, November 21st, the Canucks added $2434.89 to their usable salary cap.

88,000,000/192=458,333.333
86,682.501/192=451,471.359
458,333.333-451,723.094=$6861.97

With Demko back and Silovs in the AHL, the Canucks add $6861.97 per day.

88,000,000/192=458,333.333
85,812,501/192=446,940.109
458,333.333-446,940.109=$11,393,22

With Boeser back and Sasson in the AHL, the Canucks add $11,393.22 per day.

This means that shortly before the  NHL Trade Deadline, the Canucks should have between $5-5.5 million in cap space. That is only attainable if they are over $1 million in available cap space, though. At their current rate, they are not gaining enough to make any significant additions. That being said, there are ways for the Canucks to make a meaningful upgrade now and maintain enough cap space for another, or multiple, at the deadline.

The previous scenarios already detailed out some different internal options on gaining cap space by just waiting for players to get healthy. For the basis of this exercise, the scenario where Demko returns, Silovs is sent to the AHL, Boeser is still scratched, and Sasson remains in the NHL is used. That puts the Canucks at $1.32 million in cap space. At this juncture, the Canucks will need to send out players for salary matching purposes. The two best candidates are Höglander and Desharnais. Höglander should still hold trade value despite his disappointing start to the season and near-constant residence in the coaching staff’s dog house.

Desharnais is signed for next season and has been inconsistent at best. The two’s current combined cap hits total $3.1 million. If we allow for that $0.32 million in space beyond $1 million, that gives a total of $3.42 million in space to fit in a player. Sprinkle in some draft picks and prospects, and you’ve got the makings of a trade. Other possible trade pieces are Forbort or young players such as Bains and Räty. Carson Soucy has struggled this year, but he still has the coach’s trust and full trade protection. For the purposes of this exercise, we won’t create actual trade scenarios and just deal in cap and roster space.

On Wednesday, November 20th, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli suggested in an interview with Sportsnet 650 Halford & Brough that the Montreal Canadiens’ Mike Matheson would be a good fit for the Canucks. Matheson carries a $4.875 million cap hit and is signed for another season. The Canadiens have only one retention slot left (each team is allowed to keep up to 50% of a player’s cap hit for the duration of a contract three times. The Canucks are currently retaining salary on Ilya Mikheyev and Tucker Poolman, as examples) and are unlikely to use it on a contract with term unless significantly compensated. An option that has been recently utilized is having another team act as a third party retainer in exchange for a mid-round draft pick. Retention, though, is an option and one we’ll utilize in order to fit him into the Canucks’ cap sheet.

Mike Matheson (two years at $4.875 million) for Vincent Desharnais (two-years at $2 million) & Nils Hoglander (one-year at $1.1 million and signed for three more years at $3 million) (plus 0.37m in cap space we’re keeping free)

The Canadiens, or a third party, would need to retain Matheson at 31%, which would bring his cap hit down to $3.36375 million. The Canucks would be at slightly over $1 million in cap space afterwards, allowing them to accrue enough to make moves at the trade deadline.

When Boeser and Miller are ready to return to the team, and Sasson is sent to Abbotsford, the roster would look like this:

Pius Suter-JT Miller-Brock Boeser
Jake DeBrusk-Elias Pettersson-Kiefer Sherwood
Dakota Joshua-Teddy Blueger-Conor Garland
Danton Heinen-Aatu Raty-Arshdeep Bains

Quinn Hughes-Filip Hronek
Mike Matheson-Tyler Myers
Carson Soucy-Erik Brannstrom
Forbort/Juulsen

Kevin Lankinen
Thatcher Demko

That would have the Canucks at a 22/23 roster, $1.92 million in cap space, and a daily accrual rate of $10,019.53. The Canucks would be able to further increase their daily accrual by sending down Bains and Raty on days off. Doing so increases their rate to about $3.58 million or $18,526.52 for the days they are off the roster. This would still put them on track to have closer to the upper end of the estimated $5-$5.5 million in cap space at the trade deadline.

The actual prospect and draft compensation of such a trade would need several details to be worked out. Retention, taking on Desharnais’ contract, value of Hoglander, the other team’s view of the Canucks draft picks, Canucks current position in the standings in regards to their draft pick potential, and/or Canucks using future draft picks instead all factor in to what a top-4 defenceman would actually cost. However, as shown here, it is possible for the Canucks to make a move in the coming weeks and still accrue enough cap space to make more additions later in the season. Mike Matheson is just one example. If you’re interested in seeing other scenarios with different players, comment below, maybe I’ll take some of your suggestions, and make different roster configurations.