Ah, the NHL Trade Deadline. Where the future champions get sorted out from the also-rans. Where the rebuilds rise above the retools.
Where accrual becomes ‘the accrued.’
We’ve been on this beat all season long. The Vancouver Canucks, led by GM Patrik Allvin, came into 2024/25 with a stated goal to stay under the salary cap as much as possible for the purpose of accruing as much extra cap space as possible.
Then they put in the work.
You may recall the preseason trade with Colorado to get Tucker Poolman’s contract off the books. Or perhaps the veritable call-up yo-yo that Arshdeep Bains and Aatu Räty found themselves on at the start of the year, and that a bunch of other Abbotsford prospects got to experience throughout the season. The quick shedding of unnecessary contracts like Daniel Sprong’s, and then Vincent Desharnais’ and Danton Heinen’s. The running with a shortened roster during certain injuries.
It was all done in the name of accrual.
Well, on that front – and maybe only that front – we can call this a Mission: Accomplished.
The 2025 Trade Deadline is upon us, and the Canucks have, indeed, successfully accrued some cap space.
(Technically, they haven’t actually ‘accrued’ anything, but in actuality limited their spending to the point that they now how an excess about of room left until they hit the cap ceiling, but that’s all beside the point. For a refresher on how that all works, check out our February cap update. To just get to what it all means, keep reading.)
If you were to head over to our friends at PuckPedia right about now (that being Tuesday evening), you’d see that the Canucks are listed as having a “Projected Cap Space” of $2,257,759. Ignore that. For our purposes – those being discussing the Canucks’ spending opportunities at the 2025 Trade Deadline – that number is essentially meaningless.
Of far more interest are the “Current Cap Space” of $9,633,103 and the “Deadline Cap Space” of $10,321,182.
Those are the practical numbers. They state how much, in terms of annual average value of contracts (otherwise known as AAV or ‘cap hits’) a team can add to their roster. The first number is for right now, and the second number is if they can manage to keep this exact same roster configuration until Friday.
And what that really means is that the Canucks have room to add about $10 million worth of AAVs/cap hits to their roster. (If that seems like a lot, know that the Columbus Blue Jackets are both in a playoff position and have up to $80.69 million in space themselves. And if that doesn’t make any sense to you, refer back to that article we linked above.)
And what that really really means is that they should add about $10 million to their roster, or at least a good chunk of it. In fact, one might even say they have an onus to, at this point (so long as Quadrelli let us keep ‘onus’ in the headline.)
This, we can explain in terms anyone can understand. It’s a real ‘use it or lose it’ situation.
Cap space does not roll over. Performance bonuses that go over the cap can be rolled into the next season, but it doesn’t work the same way with accrued space. If the Canucks do not use that cap space in 2024/25, they don’t get any extra for 2025/26. It’s just gone.
Past the Trade Deadline, there really isn’t much to spend cap space on, either. It provides a cushion for injury coverage, but then teams are only allowed four post-deadline recalls, anyway. The Canucks literally couldn’t spend $10 million on call-ups, even if they tried. Some space should probably be kept on hand for this purpose, but it doesn’t need to be much.
Same goes for any NCAA free agents the Canucks might add. Those do require cap space, and once the performance bonuses get involved, it can sometimes be a surprising amount of cap space. But we’re not talking anything like $10 million – not unless the Canucks sign all of the top free agents, and keep them on the roster for the rest of the season. But that would be silly.
No, the only real way to spend that accrued space at the deadline is the old-fashioned way.
Trades.
Now, everyone is pretty set on it not being a good idea for the Canucks to rent any pending UFAs at this particular deadline. But the Canucks may still look to add useful pieces to their roster for both this season and future ones, and now they’ve got a large amount of space with which to do that. Suddenly, after so many years of cutting it close to the cap, salary is no longer much of an issue, and larger contracts can be targeted.
(And, hey, while we’re on the subject, let’s take this time to mention that all of this talk of cap space is dependent on the Canucks not losing any salary from their roster…but it is, in fact, likely that they do, through the selling of pending UFAs, and maybe in large quantities. If that comes to pass, nothing we’ve said here changes, there is just even more space to spend.)
Obviously, making strong hockey trades is the optimal way in which the Canucks can spend this cap space. But let’s imagine that none of those trade talks work out, and the Canucks decide to save their ‘useful player’ shopping until the summer. What do they do with their cap space then?
Whatever they can to derive some value from it. Whether that be accepting short-term cap dumps to teams trying to add at the deadline, or offering to be the middleperson on a retained salary trade for two other teams, there are options here. It might only result in a few mid-round draft picks being thrown the Canucks way, but it’s better than nothing.
The truth of it is that the Canucks don’t need to spend that cap space. They could just sit on it. Many teams do, each and every year.
But these are the Vancouver Canucks. They’re one of the most valuable franchises in the NHL, and they know it. The ticket prices being what they are, this is a market in which the expectation is – and should be – that the team spends to the very tip-top of the salary cap ceiling. If not on players that make the team better right now, then at least on transactions that make the team better in the long run.
As of now, the Canucks have yet to do so. But they’ve got a couple of days, and plenty of space, to rectify that.
Get ready, hockey fans! The Daily Faceoff Deadline is happening on March 7th from 11 AM to 4 PM Eastern, and you won’t want to miss it. We’ll be LIVE, breaking down every trade and big move as it happens, with instant reactions and expert analysis from the Daily Faceoff crew. Plus, we’ve got special guests lined up throughout the show, offering exclusive insights from some of the biggest names in the game. From blockbuster trades to surprise moves, we’re covering it all. Tune in to the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel and follow Daily Faceoff socials on March 7th to catch all the action!
