2021 UFA's signings (Discussion)

[hammertime]

I'm more interested to fill our lineup with Podkolzin, Lind, Gadjovich, Rathbone. Re sign Hamonic, Edler possibly re sign Sutter cheap. use next season as a development year. We go into 2023 with capspace and a team that is ready to take the next step. 

 

I personally feel our PP is crying for Gadjovich infront of the net. He may only play 10 mins a night but with effective deployment he could be money. 

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by hammertime

[c00kies]

8 hours ago, VancouverHabitant said:

If it were up to me, I would go after David Savard.  
 

He is criminally underrated because he plays in an obscure market for the Blue Jackets.  
 

He would instantly become the best dman on our team (yes Quinn will be better in a couple of years). 

He's like a Chris Tanev, in fact I think Toronto might go for him as a rental since he shouldn't cost as much as Ekholm and others.

[DownUndaCanuck]

Even looking at our own UFAs, I really don't know how JB is going to squeeze everyone in unless the cap goes up (which it easily may not).

Assuming the cap is the same, according to Cap Friendly we're right up against the cap at the moment. Coming off the books in the off-season are:

- Sutter

- Pearson

- Gaudette

- Hawryluk

- Edler

- Benn

- Hamonic

- Hughes

- Chatfield + Juolevi (same cap hit)

- Demko

- Pettersson

 

Assuming 12 forwards, 6 defencemen and a goalie, that (plus Baertschi and Spooner gone) equates to $26M to sign who we need to.

 

We need to sign:

- Pettersson

- Hughes

- Demko

- Gaudette

- Juolevi

 

And that's at an absolute bare minimum, leaving with a lot of roster holes including 2 x top-6 defencemen.

 

Say we luck out, Petey takes a 7M deal, Hughes a 6.5M deal, Demko a 4.5M deal, Gaudette a similar 1M deal and Juolevi a 2M deal (and that's very conservative), that leaves us 5M in wiggle room and our roster looks like:

 

Pettersson - Miller - Boeser

? - Horvat - Hoglander

Virtanen - ? - Motte

Roussel - Beagle - Gaudette

 

Hughes - Schmidt

Juolevi - Myers

? - ?

 

Demko/Holtby

 

Of course the ED will shake things up (hopefully take Roussel/some plug and free up cap space) but we can't rely on it to help us. With just 5M in cap space to sign a 3rd line center, 2nd line winger and 2 defencemen, we'll be hard-pressed.

 

Even with the cheap route out of throwing Gaudette/Virtanen/Podkolzkin on our 2nd line wing, and Chatfield as our 5/6th defenceman, we're down to about 3M to sign a 3C and 5/6th defenceman. Personally I'd like to get Hamonic back for a couple of seasons, a Benn-like 2 year x 2M deal, leaving us with 1M to sign a 3rd line center....probably not happening.

 

Of course a lot can happen but that's the easy way out - no trades/signing UFAs, just let our current UFAs walk, throw kids right into the mix and see what happens. Sadly I think this is what JB is going to do. We won't have a horrible team, we still have a good core, but Podz and Hogs with Bo is a very different dynamic, far from a shutdown line, lacking a top PK center will hurt us and our defence will be much thinner, although I believe with Rathbone etc. in the wings our D can handle it.

[Angry Goose]

19 hours ago, NUCKER67 said:

I like this, maybe the days of signing guys like Eriksson, Roussel and Beagle to big contracts are over. Looking forward to seeing Lind, Focht, Podkolzin, Rathbone and Woo in the coming year or two.

 

But, does this also mean that Sutter, Pearson and Edler won't be re-signed?

 

 

Yes, they're over (generally speaking).  Canucks had no wave of prospects pushing for jobs at the time, plus JB was trying to build a hard working culture.

 

Look at what happened with Tanev and Markstrom.  JB won't re-sign guys unless fit into the teams plans

[KKnight]

I think it would be smart to start letting the prospects fill the positions. Saying that, we do not have a reliable 3rd line center in our system. So, if the opportunity came to get that for a decent price, I would be all over that. 

 

Lowry/Laughton or if you want a cheap 1 year deal - someone like Bozak. 

 

David Savard would be nice as well, would help us tremendously. 

[wildcam]

9 hours ago, Captain Canuck #12 said:

That looks to be the reality of our situation.  But I think you have to fit Tryamkin in there too.  Adding him to the D would fit well with Benning's plan to fill in holes with our own prospects rather than free agents, and his salary should be lower than any potential UFA D-men.  He's also got the pro-experience advantage over other possible internal D additions, like Rathbone or Woo (or even Juolevi).

Yes forgot Trymkin for sure... 2 x 1.7 million

[wildcam]

40 minutes ago, KKnight said:

I think it would be smart to start letting the prospects fill the positions. Saying that, we do not have a reliable 3rd line center in our system. So, if the opportunity came to get that for a decent price, I would be all over that. 

 

Lowry/Laughton or if you want a cheap 1 year deal - someone like Bozak. 

 

David Savard would be nice as well, would help us tremendously. 

Lowry 6'5 plays big role for jets he will sign somewhere in 1.5 - 2.5 million range....

[wildcam]

7 hours ago, BigTramFan said:

I am on board with this kind of plan. It may not be as exciting as targeting a Hamilton or Pietrangelo, but I think re-upping Edler, Hamonic and even Benn is a smart move. Hopefully Tryamkin factors into the plan too.

 

I think Edler will cost between $3m-4m but as long as its for one year, this is worth it. He is a beast, plays the hard minutes and will buy some time to help Juolevi develop into that same role for us. Hamonic I would resign for up to 3 years if we can keep his cap hit around that $2m mark. He is complementary to Hughes and we don't exactly have many RHD in our system. Hamonic is only 30 years old. I assume both of these guys will be signed after the ED.

 

Hughes will hopefully be signed for about $6m on a 3 year bridge deal.

 

Benn I would only resign as a player to meet the exposure requirements of the Seattle ED (probably not selected). Even a couple of years at around that $1.1m mark means that he can be waived if necessary. But he essentially protects Schmidt and Myers from needing to be exposed, and also provides good depth and versatility as a 7-8th Dman.

 

Tryamkin will likely cost us $1.5-2m for a 2-3 year deal. He could the big, crunching, top 4 defensive partner for Hughes in the long term, in addition to ruling the PK for years to come. Or he may not be. But it is worth signing him to find out.

 

Chatfield doesn't really factor into my future plans. I am not convinced at the NHL level. Rathbone and Woo get another year to marinate in the AHL and in 1-2 years they need to be pushing Edler and Hamonic out of the lineup.

 

Possible D lineup for next season (looks familiar):

Edler Schmidt

Hughes Hamonic

Juolevi Myers

(Benn Tryamkin)

(Rathbone, Woo) - AHL

Rathbone will be NHL ready next season for sure, great skater and hockey smarts, soon will be #4 guy, very offensive....

Hughes -- Schmidt - Rathbone , very offensive D men -- Schmidt is playing much better now, adjusted to new team..

Woo -- Needs 1 - 2 more years for sure..-

Next year rookies - Podkolzin 6'2 - 210 lbs, play beside Horvat....

Rathbone, Juolevi --- 

Lind -- 35- 40 games

Gadjovich - 25 games

Jasek - 15

Edited March 16, 2021 by wildcam

[Elias Pettersson]

Not sure why people keep putting Chatfield into our top 6 next year.  He isn't going anywhere near this team next year.  Both Juolevi and Rathbone are already ahead of him and we can always re-sign Benn if we need to.

 

As for cap space, Holtby can be bought out with only a $500k cap hit for next year, so we save $3.8 million.  Also, Eriksson can be bought out saving us another $2 million in cap space.  That's almost $6 million in extra cap space right there.  Plus Virtanen could be traded to free up another $2.5 million.  So we go from $23 million to $30 million in cap space which gives us plenty of room to re-sign Petey, Hughes and Demko and still have around $12 million left over to sign Tryamkin, Hamonic (or David Savard), a 3C and bringing in Podkolzin, Lind, Gadjovich.

 

Hoglander   Pettersson   Boeser

Miller           Horvat         Podkolzin

Motte          Lowry           Lind

Gadjovich   Beagle         Hawryluk

Roussel                          MacEwen

 

Hughes        Hamonic (Savard)

Tryamkin     Schmidt

Juolevi         Myers

Rathbone

 

Demko    UFA

 

Eriksson - $4 million cap hit

Luongo - $3 million cap hit

Holtby - $500k cap hit

 

Virtanen - traded or picked up by Seattle

Gaudette - traded or picked up by Seattle

Ferland - LTIR

 

Pearson - gone

Sutter - gone

Baertschi - gone

Edler - gone

Benn - gone

 

That's around $78 million total.  Which is totally doable.  If Benning wants to keep Edler then we would have to hope to get Hamonic at a cheaper price.  Or maybe we try and get rid of Loui in the summer.  

[mll]

3 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

Not sure why people keep putting Chatfield into our top 6 next year.  He isn't going anywhere near this team next year.  Both Juolevi and Rathbone are already ahead of him and we can always re-sign Benn if we need to.

 

As for cap space, Holtby can be bought out with only a $500k cap hit for next year, so we save $3.8 million.  Also, Eriksson can be bought out saving us another $2 million in cap space.  That's almost $6 million in extra cap space right there.  Plus Virtanen could be traded to free up another $2.5 million.  So we go from $23 million to $30 million in cap space which gives us plenty of room to re-sign Petey, Hughes and Demko and still have around $12 million left over to sign Tryamkin, Hamonic (or David Savard), a 3C and bringing in Podkolzin, Lind, Gadjovich.

 

(...)

Benning did not get the approval from ownership to buy out players per Satiar Shah.  Canucks are still operating with a reduced staff.  Ownership might not want to fork out that kind of cash when they’ve been laying off employees and asking others to take paycuts.  

[Elias Pettersson]

7 minutes ago, mll said:

Benning did not get the approval from ownership to buy out players per Satiar Shah.  Canucks are still operating with a reduced staff.  Ownership might not want to fork out that kind of cash when they’ve been laying off employees and asking others to take paycuts.  

The buyout on Holtby saves them $1.9 million.  That's what a buyout is for.  Why would Aquilini not want to save money?  They can just pick up a UFA for $1 million to replace Holtby and the savings is still $900k.

[mll]

47 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

The buyout on Holtby saves them $1.9 million.  That's what a buyout is for.  Why would Aquilini not want to save money?  They can just pick up a UFA for $1 million to replace Holtby and the savings is still $900k.

Was apparently not an option this past-off season.  Buying out a player creates cap space - ie more room to spend money but also costs ownership more.  Here it’s a 500K buyout cap hit but at a cost to ownership of 3.8M over 2 years.  It creates an additional 3.8M to spend.  So it’s not really saving money as that 3.8M in additional cap space will likely be used up. 

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by mll

[Coconuts]

I'll be surprised if Holtby is bought out tbh, I figure he's either gone via the expansion draft or we simply ride out the second year. I could be wrong, but I'll be surprised if ownership allows buyouts. 

 

I could see us paying someone to take on 50% of Loui's deal as opposed to buying him out, we'd actually get 1m more in cap space that way and wouldn't be left with his eating up our cap space in following years. Taking on a year of 3m is much different than taking on a year of 6m. Wouldn't be surprised to see Rouss traded at 50% either, at 1.5M he might actually provide utility to a team. 

 

Sutter either comes back or is replaced, but one way or another that 4.3M probably gets mostly eaten up by a 3c. 

 

I'm not as sold on moving Jake, he's struggled this season but one season of disappointing offensive production doesn't make a guy useless. Having a middle six tweener at his price isn't the end of the world, he's certainly more useful than Rouss. 

 

Tough decisions coming for sure. 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Coconuts

[Elias Pettersson]

36 minutes ago, mll said:

Was apparently not an option this past-off season.  Buying out a player creates cap space - ie more room to spend money but also costs ownership more.  Here it’s a 500K buyout cap hit but at a cost to ownership of 3.8M over 2 years.  It creates an additional 3.8M to spend.  So it’s not really saving money as that 3.8M in additional cap space will likely be used up. 

 

This is not correct.  Holtby's cap hit is $4.3 million but he is actually owed $5.7 million in real dollars (base salary) by the Canucks for the 2021-2022 season as per CapFriendly.  By buying him out, Aquilini only needs to pay him $3.8 million over the next 2 years, thus a $1.9 million savings overall.  We can get a backup UFA for $1 million this summer which would still save Aquilni $900,000.

 

Braden Holtby Buyout Details

Cost Calculations

BUYOUT DATE	BASE SALARY REMAINING	S.BONUS REMAINING	YEARS REMAINING	BUYOUT LENGTH	AGE	BUYOUT RATIO	TOTAL COST	TOTAL SAVINGS	ANNUAL COST
Jun 15, 2021	$5,700,000	$0	1	2	31	2/3	$3,800,000	$1,900,000	$1,900,000

Cap Hit Calculations

SEASON	INITIAL BASE SALARY	INITIAL CAP HIT	SIGNING BONUS	BUYOUT COST	POST-BUYOUT EARNINGS	SAVINGS	CAP HIT (VAN)
2021-22	$5,700,000	$4,300,000	$0	$1,900,000	$1,900,000	$3,800,000	$500,000
2022-23	$0	$0	$0	$1,900,000	$1,900,000	-$1,900,000	$1,900,000
TOTAL	$5,700,000	$4,300,000	$0	$3,800,000	$3,800,000	$1,900,000	$2,400,000

 

 

[mll]

25 minutes ago, Coconuts said:

I'll be surprised if Holtby is bought out tbh, I figure he's either gone via the expansion draft or we simply ride out the second year. I could be wrong, but I'll be surprised if ownership allows buyouts. 

 

I could see us paying someone to take on 50% of Loui's deal as opposed to buying him out, we'd actually get 1m more in cap space that way and wouldn't be left with his eating up our cap space in following years. Taking on a year of 3m is much different than taking on a year of 6m. Wouldn't be surprised to see Rouss traded at 50% either, at 1.5M he might actually provide utility to a team. 

 

Sutter either comes back or is replaced, but one way or another that 4.3M probably gets mostly eaten up by a 3c. 

 

I'm not as sold on moving Jake, he's struggled this season but one season of disappointing offensive production doesn't make a guy useless. Having a middle six tweener at his price isn't the end of the world, he's certainly more useful than Rouss. 

 

Tough decisions coming for sure. 

Eriksson is not even a lineup regular.  There will be cheaper guys available.  Sutter could well be under 3M on the free market.  Benning has excluded giving up picks to move unwanted contracts. I’d guess that they will just ride out those contracts.

 

[mll]

26 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

This is not correct.  Holtby's cap hit is $4.3 million but he is actually owed $5.7 million in real dollars (base salary) by the Canucks for the 2021-2022 season as per CapFriendly.  By buying him out, Aquilini only needs to pay him $3.8 million over the next 2 years, thus a $1.9 million savings overall.  We can get a backup UFA for $1 million this summer which would still save Aquilni $900,000.

(...)

 

I have the same buyout numbers.  Buying Holtby out is a 500K cap hit and costs 2x 1.9M.  It creates an additional 3.8M in cap space.  Aren’t you using up that cap space created?  Using up that space costs additional money to ownership.

 

Ownership saves 900K only if the remaining 2.8M in cap space after adding the 1M backup remain unused otherwise it’s an additional spending.

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by mll

[NewbieCanuckFan]

10 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

This is not correct.  Holtby's cap hit is $4.3 million but he is actually owed $5.7 million in real dollars (base salary) by the Canucks for the 2021-2022 season as per CapFriendly.  By buying him out, Aquilini only needs to pay him $3.8 million over the next 2 years, thus a $1.9 million savings overall.  We can get a backup UFA for $1 million this summer which would still save Aquilni $900,000.

 

Braden Holtby Buyout Details

Cost Calculations

BUYOUT DATE	BASE SALARY REMAINING	S.BONUS REMAINING	YEARS REMAINING	BUYOUT LENGTH	AGE	BUYOUT RATIO	TOTAL COST	TOTAL SAVINGS	ANNUAL COST
Jun 15, 2021	$5,700,000	$0	1	2	31	2/3	$3,800,000	$1,900,000	$1,900,000

Cap Hit Calculations

SEASON	INITIAL BASE SALARY	INITIAL CAP HIT	SIGNING BONUS	BUYOUT COST	POST-BUYOUT EARNINGS	SAVINGS	CAP HIT (VAN)
2021-22	$5,700,000	$4,300,000	$0	$1,900,000	$1,900,000	$3,800,000	$500,000
2022-23	$0	$0	$0	$1,900,000	$1,900,000	-$1,900,000	$1,900,000
TOTAL	$5,700,000	$4,300,000	$0	$3,800,000	$3,800,000	$1,900,000	$2,400,000

 

 

Benning might need your help in arguing that case before Aquilini:  "look, I made a $3.8 million mistake that I want YOU to pay out of YOUR pocket....are we still friends?"

[warrchief]

1 hour ago, Elias Pettersson said:

Not sure why people keep putting Chatfield into our top 6 next year.  He isn't going anywhere near this team next year.  Both Juolevi and Rathbone are already ahead of him and we can always re-sign Benn if we need to.

 

As for cap space, Holtby can be bought out with only a $500k cap hit for next year, so we save $3.8 million.  Also, Eriksson can be bought out saving us another $2 million in cap space.  That's almost $6 million in extra cap space right there.  Plus Virtanen could be traded to free up another $2.5 million.  So we go from $23 million to $30 million in cap space which gives us plenty of room to re-sign Petey, Hughes and Demko and still have around $12 million left over to sign Tryamkin, Hamonic (or David Savard), a 3C and bringing in Podkolzin, Lind, Gadjovich.

 

Hoglander   Pettersson   Boeser

Miller           Horvat         Podkolzin

Motte          Lowry           Lind

Gadjovich   Beagle         Hawryluk

Roussel                          MacEwen

 

Hughes        Hamonic (Savard)

Tryamkin     Schmidt

Juolevi         Myers

Rathbone

 

Demko    UFA

 

Eriksson - $4 million cap hit

Luongo - $3 million cap hit

Holtby - $500k cap hit

 

Virtanen - traded or picked up by Seattle

Gaudette - traded or picked up by Seattle

Ferland - LTIR

 

Pearson - gone

Sutter - gone

Baertschi - gone

Edler - gone

Benn - gone

 

That's around $78 million total.  Which is totally doable.  If Benning wants to keep Edler then we would have to hope to get Hamonic at a cheaper price.  Or maybe we try and get rid of Loui in the summer.  

Good line up but I think Miller should play on the top line. Hogs with Pod and Bo will make for a strong puck possession line with a ton of effort.

[higgyfan]

3 hours ago, wildcam said:

Lowry 6'5 plays big role for jets he will sign somewhere in 1.5 - 2.5 million range....

Lowry(27) and Laughton(26) are young guys that continue to improve their game, so will be wanting $ and term.  They are both making around 2.5m this season, so I think they would be looking around +3.5m X 5.  Given their age and continued improvement, it would likely be a solid contract.  Of course, they are still with the team that drafted them, so they may want to stay with said team.

 

The Canucks do not have a prospect that could fill the 3C position and it doesn't look promising for at least 2 years.

 

If only...LE's contract would go away...and then there's Luongo's Retirement Fund.  That's 9.1m right there!

 

 

 

[Coconuts]

44 minutes ago, mll said:

Eriksson is not even a lineup regular.  There will be cheaper guys available.  Sutter could well be under 3M on the free market.  Benning has excluded giving up picks to move unwanted contracts. I’d guess that they will just ride out those contracts.

 

That's why even Eriksson at 50% would require our paying some kind of price. I'm not as sold as Sutter being well under 3m, I think his price tag might surprise people. I figure he'll land somewhere between 2.5-3m. 

 

He has thus far, but what he does going forward is anyone's guess. I'm inclined to believe it's not his preference as he's a pretty straight shooter regarding his thoughts on things, but if it's not an option management doesn't at least consider they're not doing their jobs. It's only a year, but that Loui contract hurts. 

7 minutes ago, higgyfan said:

Lowry(27) and Laughton(26) are young guys that continue to improve their game, so will be wanting $ and term.  They are both making around 2.5m this season, so I think they would be looking around +3.5m X 5.  Given their age and continued improvement, it would likely be a solid contract.  Of course, they are still with the team that drafted them, so they may want to stay with said team.

 

The Canucks do not have a prospect that could fill the 3C position and it doesn't look promising for at least 2 years.

 

If only...LE's contract would go away...and then there's Luongo's Retirement Fund.  That's 9.1m right there!

 

 

 

I think anyone expecting Lowry to come cheap is going to be extremely surprised, even given another likely Covid market. As you said, he's making 2.5m as a prime aged 3c with size. He's also got 15 points in 28 games and over the course of a full season would be on pace to smash his career high 29 points. That price tag isn't getting smaller as a ufa. 

 

I also see Winnipeg allowing 33 year old winger Mathieu Perreault and his 4.5m cap hit to walk before they give up on retaining Lowry. 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Coconuts