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Bear needs to be activated off LTIR - your proposal was to trade Myers. That has to happen in December to have the cap space to activate Bear. Cap space is also pro-rated btw. If a team is always at the cap - with 22% of the season left they only have 22% of 82.5M left. 6M pro-rated is still considerably more than 1-2M pro-rated which would allow his new team to spend the difference to improve elsewhere.

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Klingberg was only worth a 4th round pick at the deadline. It's not evident to put up decent numbers on bad teams. Teams also only have 3 retention spots - ie they can't just retain on any contracts but need to decide where they'll get the best return. Arizona only has 2 as they are already using one on OEL. They got a 3rd round pick to play 3rd party broker for Kane - ie more than what Klingberg was able to return. Still think that the better bet for any team is to use their cap leverage to get a pick out of Vancouver because there's no guarantee Myers will retain any trade value at the TDL. Hoping that things are just going to work out is not a risk I would take because what if teams decide they won't play along and instead realise that they have the cap leverage.

The trade would be in season when Bear is ready to come back. Teams already have their rosters. Teams aiming for the playoffs probably won't have the cap space so it leaves the rebuilding teams that are looking to add futures. It's hard to put decent numbers on bad teams - ie he might have no trade value at the deadline. Anaheim hoped that Klingberg would have trade value and they only managed to move him for a 4th round pick. Arizona got more for acting as 3rd party broker. Arizona also with only 2 retentions spots.

The buyout window closes after the draft on 30 June - the day before free agency.

Teams would notice that Vancouver needs to clear cap space to activate Bear and can make them pay for it. Vancouver has no leverage. With how cap strapped the league is there's probably only the rebuilding teams that have some 6M lying around and they'll likely want futures in return to help out.

It's a real a real challenge to have a player come back from LTIR mid-season. They can't replace him with a player at the same cap hit because they have to keep the cap difference available to be able to activate him. Once he comes back they need to find the 2M in cap space to activate him. If they replaced him with a 2M player and demote that player to the AHL they would only clear 1.15M - ie his 2M replacement even once demoted would still be on the cap for 850K which then doesn't allow to activate Bear unless they find the 850K elsewhere.

Rutherford named him in his end of season letter as part of their group of upcoming players with Kuzmenko/Hronek. They might just want to retain him and this injury makes the Canucks' cap situation more challenging.

Per Garrioch Ottawa will file for team elected arbitration. The deadline is today 5pm ET. It allows teams to by-pass the qualifying offer process. His QO is 9M. Ottawa can then hope to drop his award to 85% in arbitration - 7.65M.

He's 1 year to UFA. He signed his QO last year - told them already then he wasn't going to sign long term. Rather than take another 1 year deal makes sense to work with his side to trade him this off-season and recoup some assets. The end of season player pressers a year ago felt like players were taking turns throwing each other under the bus. They really didn't come across as a team that respected each other - can understand why he had concerns staying there long term if it was that way in the room. When Bowness was hired that off-season he talked of culture issues and went on to strip the C from Wheeler. His presser after their elimination was him saying he's disgusted and throwing the team under the bus.

Speed and size seems to be the most desirable asset in the playoffs. If Washington is willing to give up picks means they are still trying to go for it. Would they really see Garland as the missing piece to get them back into the post-season and help them win another Cup. He's undersized and there's no indication he can overcome his size in the post-season - he had 2pts in 8 games in the bubble. Wouldn't they actually be better off to just buy Mantha out and go after someone with playoff experience/size. Ovechkin is not getting any younger. It's 6 years ago so who knows if they still think that way but MacLellan still the GM. Back then he listed size and physicality as 1 of the 5 key reasons they finally won a Cup. He acknowledged that the league was trending towards speed and skill but he felt it was their heaviness that countered the speed of their opponents.

Vancouver creates cap space and gets the C3 they need for a mere 3rd round pick. That's a really good deal for Vancouver. It's poor use of leverage for Philadelphia though. The league is cap strapped. It's the opportunity for teams with cap space like Philadelphia to take advantage to gain assets. Garland is akin to a cap dump to Philadelphia as they are rebuilding - Konecny is younger and is available because too old for their contending window. Same for Garland.

There is tonne of interest in Scott Laughton and Philadelphia is torn per Friedman. They want to keep guys like him to help develop their young players but on the other hand with so much interest there might just be an offer that's too good to refuse. Philadelphia is rebuilding as stated by Brière. Garland is already 27 - he's not really a piece for their future. A 3rd round pick seems a bit light for a player that they don't really want to move and that has apparently so much interest on the market. It's really hard to see those type of deals being available. Several teams with cap space are taking of taking advantage of how cap strapped the league is to gain assets. Would think it's the same mindset in Philadelphia especially as they are going the rebuild route.

When he is ready to come off LTIR they'll have to find the 2.5-3M in cap space to reactivate him. The higher the contract the higher the cap space they need to find. The buried cap hit is only 1.15M. If they sign a 2M player as stop gap they'll only clear 1.15M by demoting him with 850K still on the books and still short of the cap space needed to activate Bear. This makes the Canucks cap situation even more challenging.

Brackett admits to Russo that he got overruled that draft. Doesn't say Benning though. His first draft as the top guy in 2016 was a bit of a mess because several people on staff were making draft lists and he was answering to different voices. They had to take a defenseman and a couple of highly touted big names Brackett wanted didn’t even make the cut of their draft list. The Canucks drafted Olli Juolevi fifth.

Early in his tenure MacIntyre explained that Benning was an open book and would share and discuss anything. He was saying that as a reporter you learn and see so much more than what you can disclose to the public - have to understand what is on the record and what isn't so that trust can be maintained. This idea that media is on one side and the GMs/teams are on another - not how that works with the better reporters. LeBrun explains that it starts with a beer and you develop a friendship over time.

Ian MacIntyre wrote that Benning over-ruled his scouts on the Juolevi pick: https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/canucks-mailbag-whats-going-gm-jim-benning-judd-brackett/ Juolevi was Benning’s choice back in 2016 because the GM wanted a defenceman and loved what he saw from the Finn at the world juniors. He could have chosen Mikhail Sergachev or Charlie McAvoy. Benning is believed to have gone with Brackett’s first-round recommendation ever since.

They actually only have 4 Cs - Johansen, Sissons, Glass and Novak. They have Duchene that can fill in but he's a winger for Nashville. Trenin is still listed as a C but he has actually never played C. Jankowski is not a lineup regular and neither is McCarron - they are AHL call-ups. Parsinnen is a C but he is waiver free and Trotz believes that the road to Nashville goes through Milwaukee - ie he's not guaranteed a roster spot. Trotz talks of how Nashville is stuck in the mushy middle and need to add elite players as he wants to bring a Cup to Nashville. He also says they might have to take a step back to take leaps forward. In every interview he is repeating how cap space is so valuable. Sure sounds like Trotz is looking to take advantage of cap strapped teams to add young high end players. Don't really see Garland as a target. Trotz wants to build an offensive team. For offensive players to play offence there needs to be guys to play defence. Someone has to move the puck from the d-zone to the o-zone so that the offensive guys can take over. Sissson over 1100 face-offs with Johansen next at less than 850 - even accounting for time missed that's quite a difference. Sissons over 625 d-zone face-offs - Johansen their next player less than 220. Short-handed face offs 335 for Sissons. Next Jankowski with 64 (ie 5 times less) who isn't expected to be in the lineup but an AHL call-up. Moving Sissons would create quite the hole in their lineup. If Saros is available then so is Sissons but it's probably not going to be cheap and don't really see Trotz giving up the cap space he values so much for a mushy middle player. Trotz also says he wants to add winners to change their culture and mentor their young players but that's also not Garland or Myers.

They used LTIR to get Toffoli the bubble season. If the season had continued rather than go directly to the playoffs they would have been over the cap because of the extended break.

The solution isn't to put a cap on the playoffs because that would be the unintended consequence - you would eliminate the TDL. The problem is that the Hughes timeline isn't known. What if he never makes it back for the playoffs. The solution isn't to let Vancouver a 1D short come the post-season or to end the regular season - with Hughes injured they might just miss the playoffs if they are in a tight race. How is it fair to prevent Vancouver from replacing him if he has a legit long term injury. The only thing the league can do is monitor LTIR cases closely and ensure that there's no abuse and penalise if there is - which they are doing.

Every team gets 82.5M for their roster. If a team has a 6M player on their books for the full season he uses up 6M of the 82.5M. At the TDL with 25% of the season left he's not going to use up 6M but only 1.5M of the allocated 82.5M as 25% of 6M is 1.5M. That's the whole point of banking cap space. The teams that have banked cap space and add at the TDL are never going to have be cap compliant for the playoffs although they are fully compliant over the NHL season.

Teams out of the playoffs are going to have an issue with that. St Louis got 2x 1st round picks at the TDL. Even Vancouver got a 1st round pick and their best prospect. Remove the TDL and there's no incentive for NYI to trade for Horvat at that cost.

There's barely 20% of the season left at the TDL. It's players getting injured just ahead of the TDL and opening up cap room by going on LTIR that some have issue with. Nyquist was on IR when traded to Minnesota but they had so much banked cap space that they didn't have to put him on LTIR. The league actually sent out a memo to make sure that no team would take advantage of similar situation where they add an LTIR player who can be parked till playoff time. Wasn't the case here and he actually made it back before the end of the season. Mark Stone had his back surgery in February. Him going on LTIR in February allowed Vegas to add for over 6M worth of contracts - still less than Minnesota. Quick who never played in the post-season. Barbashev and Bluegger. The surgery was legit and had a risk that he couldn't make it back. Don't see why they should be penalised because he had recurrent back issues. Landeskog is announced out for the coming season but he made it clear that his aim is to be back for the playoffs. NHLers are always going to do all they can to come back and even play while injured. Tkachuk just played game 4 with a broken sternum. Kucherov wasn't expected back before the 2nd round and his agent Millstein was really unhappy that he came back that early because he could have re-aggravated his injury.