Vancouver Canucks gauging prices to dump contracts, focusing on Conor Garland

Tyler Yaremchuk was joined by Frank Seravalli to discuss the Vancouver Canucks’ offseason on the latest episode of Daily Faceoff Live.

Tyler Yaremchuk: As we inch closer to the offseason, one team is not just expected to be active, they’re going to be forced to be active. When you look at the fact that they have no cap space. That is the Vancouver Canucks. I feel like I’ve asked you this question a thousand times over the last calendar year but what the hell are the Canucks going to do?

Frank Seravalli: Well, they need to shed salary. There is no doubt about that, they can’t really be active in anything else because as it stands right now they essentially have negative cap space. So if you’re thinking that the cap is going to be $83.5 million, they’ve still got some people to sign and they’re currently at $83.3 million. Of course, injuries and LTIR could factor into this slightly but the fact of the matter remains, I’m told the Canucks have been active in recent weeks, gauging prices from around the NHL as to what it would take to dump some of their contracts.

The main focal point is that the Canucks are active on trying to move Conor Garland’s salary. You heard Brock Boeser say at the end of the season that he doesn’t really want to be traded. It’s still certainly possible that they find a new home for Boeser. And they always have a break glass in case of emergency play with J.T. Miller before his no-trade clause kicks in on July 1. Garland is someone they’ve really keyed in on with the term remaining on his deal he might provide some flexibility. So Garland is one name that they’ve been focusing on.

But Tyler, they’ve learned that it’s going to be expensive to pull off moves like that and get someone to take on a contract like that at nearly $5 million over the next number of years. It’s a lot to ask and a very steep price so they may have to look elsewhere and get creative and that is something general manager Patrik Alvin has done is kept an open mind throughout the process of what he may have to do over the next number of weeks.

Tyler Yaremchuk: You look at Conor Garland, almost 20 goals last year and that’s not a terrible year by any means but that cap hit and term is what’s going to make it difficult to move. It will be interesting to see what happens in Vancouver over the next couple of months.

You can watch the rest of the episode here…