VANCOUVER – There is a lot to criticize about how general manager Jim Benning has managed the Vancouver Canucks’ salary cap, but there is no question about the boss’ heart.
With his players struggling through a COVID-19 outbreak that has shut down the team and sickened some of their children and spouses, too, Benning said Friday it would be wrong to cause further upheaval by trying to make trades ahead of Monday’s National Hockey League deadline.
Nineteen players, including most of the second-tier trading chips Benning possesses, are on the NHL protocol list after testing positive for the novel coronavirus over the last 11 days.
[snippet id=5039904]
Amid this suffering, Benning predicted the trade deadline will be a quiet one for the Canucks.
“I think it’s more the human side of things,” the GM explained. “They’ve dealt with a lot in the last couple of weeks, getting the virus themselves and running through families and stuff. And I just don’t think (trading them) is the right thing to do at this point in time.
“Given what our team and the individual players have gone through these last couple weeks, I don’t expect us to be doing a whole lot at the deadline. But we still have a couple days before the deadline’s here. We’ll make calls and talk to other GMs to see if there’s something out there that makes sense.”
In any non-pandemic season, most of the Canucks on expiring contracts would have had some appeal as deadline “rentals.”
Benning’s trade hand was weakened by re-signing veteran two-way winger Tanner Pearson, who would have been the Canucks’ most valuable trade asset had the team not agreed Thursday to keep him for three more seasons at $3.25 million.
[snippet id=4167285]
Veteran centre Brandon Sutter is among the players ambushed by COVID-19 and has also had family members get sick. Experienced defencemen Alex Edler, Travis Hamonic and Jordie Benn might have been appealing to other teams, but all have movement restrictions in their contracts and Hamonic and Edler are on the COVID list.
Any goodwill among critics that Benning generated with his compassion, however, was probably undone by his assertion during Friday’s virtual press conference that not only do the Canucks not have a salary-cap crisis looming this summer but that his team is actually in a “good situation.”
The extension for Pearson, a reliable middle-six forward who is likely to slide toward the bottom of the lineup over the course of his new deal, further tightens cap pressure on the Canucks. CapFriendly shows the Canucks with just $17.5 million of available cap space next season and Vancouver needing another six to eight players.
Most of that money will be spent on second contracts for restricted free agents Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, who are expected to sign bridge deals rather than precedent-setting long-term extensions with the Canucks.
[snippet id=5037373]
CapFriendly’s figures do not take into account any buried or bought-out contracts, and include the final season of Loui Eriksson’s disastrous $36-million contract.
“I don’t foresee any cap problems this summer,” Benning said. “All the teams are going to be living in a flat-cap world for the next, you know, upcoming seasons. It’s a problem for the whole league; I don’t think we’ll be any different. I think we’re in a good cap situation. We’ll get our young players signed here that we need to get signed, and we’ve got some other young players that are going to be ready to come step in and play, so I don’t think we have any cap issues.”
The Canucks have operated in long-term injured reserve all season and been undermined by expensive contracts for depth players whose impact has diminished since Benning signed them: Eriksson, Sutter, Antoine Roussel, Jay Beagle and now even backup goalie Braden Holtby.
Benning defended the deal for Pearson, the 28-year-old who struggled this season with just 11 points in 33 games before injuring his ankle on March 17.
“I think he’s important to our group,” the GM said. “He’s a glue guy in our room. He’s an experienced player that knows what it takes to win. He’s a good pro. He and Bo (Horvat) have been real good together. I think we got a good deal.”
The Canucks do have a handful of young prospects expected to play next season on entry-level (or equivalent) deals: Nils Hoglander, Vasily Podkolzin, Olli Juolevi and Jack Rathbone, possibly Kole Lind.
Benning said he hasn’t heard of any current players who may not want to finish this season once the Canucks emerge from their COVID-19 shutdown.
[relatedlinks]
