On Tuesday, the NHL announced that the salary cap ceiling for the 2016-17 will be set at $73 million, with a cap floor of $54 million.
According to
CapFriendly, the Canucks currently have 21 roster players signed at a cost of just over $63 million—12 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies.
That number does not include Anton Rodin or Philip Larsen, nor does it include the restricted free agents who have been qualified and are expected to be re-signed.
After some uncertainty earlier in the week, we have word that Emerson Etem will be qualified:
Etem is also among the list of players who are scheduled to appear at the Canucks' draft party on Friday, which would seem to indicate that he is part of the team's plans for the future.
The draft party will also mark Erik Gudbranson's first appearance in Canucks colours. He is now in Vancouver and met up with his new teammates this morning.
In his latest article,
Ben Kuzma of
The Province offers a few tidbits on what to expect this week, after he spoke with Jim Benning.
If you missed it, the Arizona Coyotes' courtship of Alex Goligoski was a raging success. After giving up a fifth-round pick to Dallas for the negotiating rights of the soon-to-be unrestricted free agent, the Coyotes brought Goligoski out to the desert and quickly convinced him to sign a five-year deal with a cap hit of $5.475 million a season.
It's interesting to me that the 30-year-old went along with the plan, without even waiting to see if he'd get a similar offer from a more competitive team. After a decent playoff run in Dallas this year, it doesn't seem like he was all that worried about maximizing his postseason opportunities during what will almost certainly be his last big contract.
Kuzma asked Benning if he'd trade Dan Hamhuis' negotiating rights for a pick.
“We would do something like that, but we haven’t had any calls,” was the reply. “And that whole situation with Dan I would say is still fluid. We’re going to see at the draft when we’re talking to other teams if there are players who make us better and then we can circle back with Dan and try to get something figured out. There’s nothing that has changed on that, we’re still trying to figure it out.”
I think this means that the Canucks are pretty sure that Hamhuis is not going to be in a big rush to join another team as soon as the free-agency window opens on July 1. Benning and company probably have the luxury of seeing if they can make another blue-line upgrade before determining if they want to make Hamhuis an offer—and how much they're willing to pay.
Right now, I'd say the odds of Hamhuis returning are probably 50/50.
The salary-cap figure also impacts whether or not Milan Lucic and/or Loui Eriksson will be re-signed to their current teams, or if they'll hit unrestricted free agency.
The Kings and Lucic are definitely meeting:
The expectation is that this will be the moment for the take-it-or-leave-it offer, which will leave the ball in Lucic's court as he decides whether or not to re-up. It certainly sounds like both sides would like to get a deal done.
The Bruins are dragging their heels a bit more with the Loui Eriksson situation.
For his part, Eriksson will be at the NHL Awards in Vegas tonight, where he's nominated for the Lady Byng Trophy along with Anze Kopitar and Aleksander Barkov. Funny that the Canucks are looking at Eriksson and Lucic to fit the same opening on their team, when their playing styles are polar opposites!
I did a series of prediction slideshows for
Bleacher Report for most of the major awards towards the end of the regular season, around the time that votes were being cast.
Here are the players I picked to win. Let's see how I do tonight:
• Hart—Patrick Kane
• Vezina—Braden Holtby
• Selke—Patrice Bergeron
• Calder—Artemi Panarin
• Norris—Erik Karlsson
• Adams—Barry Trotz
My top threes lined up with the actual finalists in most cases, but I missed a few.
• For the Selke, I had Sidney Crosby third and Ryan Kesler fourth, but Kesler was named a finalist.
• For the Norris, I had Kris Letang third and Brent Burns sixth, but Burns was named a finalist.
• For the Jack Adams, I had Joel Quenneville second and Gerard Gallant fourth, but Gallant got the nomination.
• I was off the farthest on the Calder, where my ranking was Panarin-Dylan Larkin-Jack Eichel, but the actual nominees are Panarin-Connor McDavid-Shayne Gostisbehere. I ranked McDavid and Gostisbehere lower because neither played a full season with his team.
All Signs Point to Dubois
To wrap up today, a quick note on the draft, where the signs are certainly pointing to Pierre-Luc Dubois being the player the Canucks are aiming to take in the five-spot.
First, from Kuzma:
“We’re content and we’re getting a good player at No. 5 and it doesn’t matter what happens at No. 3 or No. 4,” stressed Benning, who is high on Dubois. “There are six players we really like.”
Second, the Canucks website has wrapped up its prospect profiles feature today with Dubois—saving the best for last?
The website also asked five writers to predict who the Canucks would take at No. 5. All five chose Dubois.
If Dubois gets scooped up before the Canucks pick, then they'll have to go to Plan B. But if he's still on the board and Benning chooses to go in a different direction, that'd be a real surprise.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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