Salary Cap Deep Dive: Vancouver Canucks

Navigating the salary cap is one of the most important tasks for a front office.  Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful.  Those that don’t often see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2024-25 season.  This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL.  All cap figures are courtesy of PuckPedia.  We’re currently covering the Pacific Division, next up is the Canucks.

Vancouver Canucks

Current Cap Hit: $86,793,708 (under the $88MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Aatu Raty (one year, $837K)

Potential Bonuses
Raty: $32.5K

Raty was one of the key pieces acquired in the Bo Horvat swap but his opportunities at the NHL level have been relatively limited so far.  He has played in the bulk of Vancouver’s games thus far this season (which bodes well for his games played bonus) but strictly on the fourth line.  As a result, he’s heading for a short-term bridge deal, one that shouldn’t cost much more than this one.

Signed Through 2024-25, Non-Entry-Level

F Brock Boeser ($6.65MM, UFA)
D Erik Brannstrom ($900K, RFA)
D Derek Forbort ($1.5MM, UFA)
G Kevin Lankinen ($875K, UFA)
D Noah Juulsen ($775K, UFA)
F Pius Suter ($1.6MM, UFA)

Boeser seemed like a candidate for a longer-term deal a couple of years ago but wound up with what amounted to a second bridge contract.  That has worked out well for him as he had his best offensive performance last season and has started strong this year.  That should have him in line to add a couple million or so per year to his next deal, one that will be close to a max-term one this time around.  Suter didn’t have much success on the open market last time but basically produced at the same level last season as his first three years and is off to a better start this season.  He’s not the type of player who should be commanding a massive raise but a multi-year agreement with a price tag starting with three should be reachable.

Forbort received this deal in free agency in the summer and he was hoping to rebuild some value after a tough, injury-riddled year in Boston.  However, the early going this season has been tough and injury-riddled.  At this point, another drop in money might be coming his way while he’ll likely want another one-year deal.  Brannstrom was non-tendered by Ottawa over the summer and has already cleared waivers this season which doesn’t bode well for his situation.  His arbitration eligibility makes him a likely non-tender again but he could plausibly land a small raise to get back into seven figures.  Juulsen has largely been a seventh defender with Vancouver, a role he’d probably have with several other organizations.  Accordingly, teams will want him at or near the league minimum salary he’s currently making.

Lankinen didn’t get the type of contract he wanted early in free agency, resulting in him waiting it out.  That seven-figure deal didn’t come but he has been a terrific fit with the Canucks which should give hit market value a big boost if he can keep it up.  A jump back into the $2MM range might be an option for him but if he wants to stay in Vancouver, he will probably have to accept less than that.

Signed Through 2025-26

F Teddy Blueger ($1.8MM, UFA)
G Thatcher Demko ($5MM, UFA)
D Vincent Desharnais ($2MM, UFA)
F Conor Garland ($4.95MM, UFA)
F Danton Heinen ($2.25MM, UFA)
F Kiefer Sherwood ($1.5MM, UFA)
G Arturs Silovs ($850K, RFA)
D Carson Soucy ($3.25MM, UFA)

Garland has seemingly been on the trade block off and on for a couple of years now but overall, he has been relatively consistent with Vancouver.  Over the first three seasons of this contract, he has recorded at least 16 goals and 46 points while his maximums over that stretch are 20 and 52, respectively.  While they didn’t have much luck finding the right trade for him, his contract isn’t a significant overpayment by any stretch but the price tag and term remaining made it hard to move for full value.  While his smaller stature would work against him to a point on the open market, it’s quite possible that Garland is able to command a similar contract to this one next time out both in term and salary.

Heinen had to settle for a PTO a year ago but had more success in free agency back in July with this deal.  As long as he can provide some secondary scoring and hold a regular role in the middle six, they should do fine with it.  Blueger took a small pay cut in June to remain with Vancouver despite matching his career-high in points.  If he can hold that uptick in production, he could push past the $2MM mark on his next deal, a mark he reached at the end of his time with Pittsburgh.  Sherwood impressed in his first full NHL season last year, earning this deal in July.  He’s playing on the third line and is on pace to shatter the NHL record for hits in a single season.  We’ve seen players like this before command sizable deals on the open market so if he keeps this up, doubling this and then some is a realistic outcome.

Last year wasn’t a great one for Soucy who dealt with some injury trouble.  He’s a veteran fifth defender who can play up in a pinch but not contribute much offensively.  The market for those players is more stagnant so while it’s possible he could land another raise in 2026, it’s likely going to be of the marginal variety.  Desharnais only had one full NHL year under his belt as he reached free agency which likely limited his market to an extent.  He’s being deployed as more of a depth defender with Vancouver and if that holds, he’ll be hard-pressed to command much more than that with a lot of teams trying to keep the back-of-the-roster spots cheaper now.

Demko was the runner-up for the Vezina last season and it looked like a long-term deal with a sizable raise would soon be coming his way.  But the continued knee struggles dating back to the playoffs will hinder his market and likely take the types of deals that Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman ($8.25MM) received off the table.  It wouldn’t be shocking for both sides to want a short-term agreement at a small raise to give Demko time to prove that he can fully get past the injury issue.  Silovs is the presumptive backup of the future after a solid run in the playoffs in relief of Demko although he’s off to a rough start this year.  If Silovs can do well in that role next season (assuming Lankinen moves on), doubling this price tag with arbitration rights could be the minimum increase.  But if he struggles or stays in a third role, he’ll stay around that price tag for his next deal.

Signed Through 2026-27

D Quinn Hughes ($7.85MM, UFA)
D Tyler Myers ($3MM, UFA)

Hughes skipped the bridge deal and went straight to this one, though it was two years shy of a max-term deal to help keep the cap hit lower.  While Vancouver is certainly benefitting from that now, Hughes will hit the open market at 27.  At that point, a max-term contract is all but a certainty considering he has emerged as a premier offensive blueliner.  That deal could plausibly come in around $11MM per season if he keeps this up.  Myers took a 50% cut from his last contract to remain with the Canucks for what should be a decent value deal for now as long as he can have some success on the second pairing.  That said, he’ll be 37 when this expires and will quite likely be going year to year from there at a lower rate than this, assuming he’s a little further down the depth chart at that time.

Signed Through 2027-28 Or Longer

F Jake DeBrusk ($5.5MM through 2030-31)
F Nils Hoglander ($1.1MM in 2024-25, $3MM from 2025-26 through 2027-28)
D Filip Hronek ($7.25MM through 2031-32)
F Dakota Joshua ($3.25MM through 2027-28)
F J.T. Miller ($8MM through 2029-30)
F Elias Pettersson ($11.6MM through 2031-32)

Pettersson would have been owed a qualifying offer of $8.82MM with salary arbitration rights back in the summer and could have easily elected to file for a hearing, get what he could get, and hit the open market at 26 with seven NHL seasons under his belt.  That leverage helped earn him this extension back in March, ensuring he’d remain with the Canucks for the long haul.  For the price they’re paying him, they’ll need him to produce at the 100-point level he reached in the 2022-23 season.  He didn’t get there last year and is at a lower rate so far this season.  Pettersson is a number one center on a lot of teams but this is a contract that puts him in the elite tier, one he hasn’t been able to stay in with much consistency just yet.

There are some justifiable questions about the sustainability of Miller’s deal, one that expires when he’s 37.  While he’s playing like a top-liner now (and has been for a few years), he might not be by the end of it.  That said, he’s providing a fair bit of surplus value in the early going of this agreement so Vancouver should wind up doing relatively well with it over the life of the contract.  DeBrusk received this deal in free agency back in July.  While he has notched 25 goals or more three times in his career, he also only cracked the 50-point mark once which makes this contract a bit of a potential overpayment although that’s also par for the course for most notable UFA agreements.

Joshua was a part-time player when he first joined the Canucks but quickly emerged as a reliable and physical bottom-six forward who can take a regular turn on the penalty kill and chip in with double-digit goals.  That helped earn him a substantial raise (he was at $825K before) as he’d have been one of the more sought-after role players had he made it to the open market.  Hoglander had a breakout year last season, notching 24 goals despite barely averaging 12 minutes a game of ice time.  The Canucks opted for the early extension, a decision that hasn’t worked out well so far, leading to some teams inquiring about his potential availability for a trade.  He’ll need to hover around the 20-goal mark per season if he’s going to beat his new price tag in his first trip through unrestricted free agency.

Buyouts

D Oliver Ekman-Larsson ($2.347MM in 2024-25, $4.767MM in 2025-26 and 2026-27, $2.127MM from 2027-28 through 2030-31)

Retained Salary Transactions

F Ilya Mikheyev ($712.5K through 2025-26)
D Tucker Poolman ($500K in 2024-25)

Best Value: (non-entry-level) Hughes
Worst Value: Pettersson

Looking Ahead

While the Canucks could have placed Demko on LTIR and gave themselves some early-season flexibility, they’ve elected not to do so in the hopes of banking enough cap space to make an addition at the trade deadline.  Now with Demko back and if they can stay relatively healthy for the next few months, they might be able to do just that.  That said, they’ll be hard-pressed to make a splash until closer to the March 7th deadline as they haven’t banked much space so far.

Looking to the offseason, Vancouver already has nearly $76MM in commitments for 2025-26 and a long-term deal for Boeser (or a similar replacement) will take up a big chunk of what they have to work with.  As a result, it won’t be easy for GM Patrik Allvin to make any other big moves until the 2026-27 offseason when a lot of contracts will come off the books, giving them some flexibility to try to reshape the roster if needed at that time.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.