Canucks considering trade Boeser?
Rick Dhaliwal: Matt Sekeres said that he has been told the Vancouver Canucks are exploring the possibility of trading forward Brock Boeser.
Thomas Drance: There are better ways for the Canucks to navigate their salary cap situation than to trade Brock Boeser.
A Boeser trade would be motivated by the potential return and not by the salary cap,
Do believe that the team may rate Toffoli higher than Boeser now though.
Cam Robinson: “There is no way you trade Brock Boeser just to make room to re-sign Tyler Toffoli. He’s younger, better and an in-house developed asset.
You consider moving Boeser if you can get a young, cost-controlled, right-shot, top-4 defender who has top pairing upside.”
Canucks will be being with a cap crunch for a few years
Thomas Drance of The Athletic: The flattening of the salary is going to be challenging for the Vancouver Canucks for the next few seasons.
The Canucks will $20 million coming off the books after this year and next, but Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes will need after next season, Brock Boeser after 2021-22 and Bo Horvat and J.T. Miller after the following season.
Next season they have to deal with Roberto Luongo‘s cap-recapture penalty, Ryan Spooner‘s buyout, burying Sven Baertschi‘s contract, and bonuses from Pettersson and Hughes – totaling about $8 million.
Heading into the offseason they’ll have about $16.3 million in cap space for eight players.
They have UFAs in Jacob Markstrom, Tyler Toffoli, and Chris Tanev.
RFAs include Adam Gaudette, Jake Virtanen, Troy Stecher, Tyler Motte and Zack MacEwen.
Re-signing Markstrom and Toffoli are their top priorities. It’s hard to say how the free agent market will play out this offseason. Could they get both signed around $5.5 million? If they can, there likely isn’t room to bring back Tanev.
It seems unlikely that Loui Eriksson would walk away from his contract once he receives his bonus. It would take a good asset for a team to take on Eriksson’s contract. His contract is basically buyout proof because of the signing bonuses. Burying is contract in the minors would save the Canucks $1.075 million.
Buying out Brandon Sutter would save them $2.33 million next season, but adds $1 million in 2021-22.
The Canucks could also look at trading defenseman Jordie Benn. He wouldn’t net a big return but could gain them some cap space.
Any trade of Baertschi would likely mean they are taking back at least some salary, or retaining salary.