With the holiday freeze approaching in the NHL, we have seen a couple of minor trades and one major trade involving the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames.
Vancouver and Calgary were both looking to clear cap space in this tight salary cap world the NHL is living in. Knowing the importance of shedding dollars and bringing in dollars, the Canucks pulled off two savvy moves that set the tone for the rest of the trade season.
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First Vancouver traded Anthony Beauvillier and his $4.15 million salary to the Chicago Blackhawks. Remember the Blackhawks needed a roster spot to fill after the whole Corey Perry situation.
With Beauvillier’s money out of the way, and no retention necessary, the Canucks were able to pull off the deal with Calgary for Nikita Zadorov and his $3.75 million cap hit.
Canucks President Jim Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin knew the importance of dollar-in and dollar-out. Not to mention in terms of real dollars how much the Canucks were saving on this deal as well.
And from the Calgary side of things, the Flames were able to shred a contract and a player who did not want to be there, and in the process not retaining any of his contract moving forward. Remember teams are only allowed to retain three contracts during the season when they make a trade.
So instead of burning one of those retention spots on Zadorov, the Flames were able to find a team that could take on his whole salary. Add in the Flames still have unrestricted free agents in Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, and Chris Tanev who could be on the move, Calgary was in a bind.
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Luckily, the Canucks helped them on the Zadorov deal. The Flames might not be so lucky when the other three move. Calgary will have to retain some money to help out those teams up against the salary cap that are in contention to win the Stanley Cup.
So the importance of cap space in this era is being worked to its full potential. We have seen teams in the past use LTIR (long-term injured reserve) to help them get through a season. Most notably the Vegas Golden Knights and Tampa Bay Lightning. Whether people like it or not, it is allowed in the CBA.
And we know the Canucks are looking to shed even more salary to have even more cap flexibility.
Whether it is Andrei Kuzmenko or Conor Garland, the Canucks want to move some more salaries out as The Fourth Period’s Dave Pagnotta stated on NHL Network Radio.
“And unfortunately for him (Kuzmenko), he’s kind of the odd man out. Teams have been kind of knocking on the door to get a sense of what it is the Canucks would be looking for him. Yes, as we’ve seen the reports ,and I think Elliotte Friedman mentioned this as well, either over the weekend or at some point today, that we all know that the Canucks are looking to shed some more money and to give themselves more tap flexibility.
You just mentioned $5.5 million cap hit per season. They would like to lower that. They’re not going to get rid of the full hit because I think it’s a combination of giving him away, which they don’t want to do, and the unlikelihood that a team would take on that full hit. But if they can drop that a couple mil, they wouldn’t mind doing that.”
As NHLRumors.com has written earlier in the season, the Canucks and Montreal Canadiens were talking about Conor Garland and how Montreal could be a third party broker in that deal.
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There are teams out there willing to be third-party brokers in order to make the dollars work on trades like the San Jose Sharks, Washington Capitals, Calgary Flames and to point, Anaheim Ducks, and Canadiens.
Again that is why having an understanding of the salary cap is so important. Again it is not fun to talk about, but it is the reality of the situation until the salary cap goes up next season.
Look for more of these type of deals moving forward as teams maneuver themselves into better situations to add a difference maker at the trade deadline.
