Pacific Notes: Canucks, Eriksson, Miller

While Vancouver hasn’t had a lot of success in the standings in recent years, they have managed to accumulate some depth along the way.  However, Canucks are now at the point where they need to clear out some of that depth, argues Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre.  With that in mind, he suggests that wingers Ryan Spooner and Tim Schaller could be buyout candidates when the window to do so opens up next month.  Spooner had a particularly rough season with just nine points in 52 games, hardly a good return on a $4MM contract.  Meanwhile, Schaller was expected to be a regular in the bottom six but wound up playing in just 47 games and had a minimal impact.

More from the Pacific:

• Still with the Canucks, TSN’s Ray Ferraro speculates (audio link) that the Senators could be a team that has some interest in winger Loui Eriksson. While his $6MM AAV is a concern, he’ll only be owed $9MM over the final three years of his deal after his signing bonus is paid on July 1st.  For a team with a tight budget like Ottawa, that could certainly be appealing, especially since Vancouver would need to include a sweetener for taking the contract off their books.  Eriksson had 29 points this past season, his highest in three years with the team and indicated earlier this month that he and head coach Travis Green do not always see eye to eye.
• With several significant contract extensions kicking in next season plus center William Karlsson being in need of a new deal, the Golden Knights are likely to move at least one regular player to free up some salary cap space. Jesse Granger of The Athletic suggests (subscription required) that defenseman Colin Miller makes some sense to move out.  Vegas has put together a decent group of prospects on the back end while Miller has been productive in his two seasons with the team.  He’s signed for three more years at a reasonable rate of $3.875MM so there should be several suitors if he’s made available.