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Vancouver Canucks: Salary Cap Set, Ronalds Kenins and Alex Friesen Signed

June 23, 2015, 2:25 PM ET [598 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a salary cap!

The NHL announced on Tuesday morning that the salary cap ceiling for the 2015-16 NHL season will be $71.4 million, with a floor of $52.8 million.

That's about as positive a scenario as the league's general managers could have hoped for based on the market conditions.




The cap goes up by $2.1 million from last season, and that means the players' full five percent escalator was used. More money in the pot for everybody, but a greater likelihood that all players will have to return a good chunk of their wages back to the league again next year as part of the 50/50 revenue-sharing agreement that forms the centrepiece of the current CBA.

General Fanager shows the Canucks with $66.4 million in cap space committed to 18 players next year—11 forwards, five defensemen and two goalies.

That leaves just over five million dollars to play with—to cover five more players. The league's minimum salary next year is $575,000, so it'd cost $2.875 million to fill those spaces with minor-leaguers. Not a lot of wiggle-room if they plan to do any upgrading at all.

Chances are, the team's 23-man roster on opening day will include 13 forwards and eight defensemen. Up front, RFAs Linden Vey and Sven Baertschi need to be re-signed, which would bring us to 13. On the back end, we're expecting to see Yannick Weber, Frank Corrado and Adam Clendening back in the fold. And Jacob Markstrom will need a new deal.

Is that it? Is that our team for next year? Or will Benning and company get creative by trading some roster players to make more room for youth?

One thing we know now is that Ronalds Kenins will be back in a full-time role as an energy forward. His new contract is a one-way deal and is included at $575,000 in the General Fanager numbers; sounds like the final value will be a bit higher.




I'm happy to see Kenins back at a reasonable price tag, and don't mind the one-way deal.




Pass It To Bulis reports that Alex Friesen's deal is two-way, and for two years. The 24-year-old was originally selected in the sixth round of the 2010 draft.

This past season, Friesen worked his way into the Comets’ top-six, centring the second line by the end of the season and into the playoffs. He scored a respectable 30 points in 60 games, good for 7th on the Comets in scoring, but it was his grit, hard work, and two-way play that earned attention. The 5’10″ forward also has a tendency to get under the skin of his opponents.


I need to get Friesen and Alex Grenier straight in my head. Friesen's the small center who will be a long-shot to make the Canucks out of camp; Grenier's the hulking winger who should get a good long look.

Both will likely be on hand when Prospects Camp gets underway at Shawnigan Lake next week.

One player we won't see again in Canucks colours is goaltender Joacim Eriksson. As expected, the 25-year-old Swede has made the decision to return to Europe.




Some local writers seem concerned that this move will hamper the Canucks organization's depth in net, but it sounds like Eriksson wasn't in the team's plans.




Eriksson's probably not a guy with fond NHL memories. He heads back to Europe with a career goals-against average of 9.99 at the NHL level thanks to those 36 nightmarish minutes when he surrendered six goals on 31 shots to the Anaheim Ducks in the Canucks' 9-1 loss during the darkest days of the Torts era—January 15, 2014.

Considering five of the six goals that Eriksson allowed happened while the Canucks were shorthanded, he really never had a prayer. Too bad for him that there's not some sort of allowance for power-play goals in GAAs, like there is in plus-minus.

Bottom line—the Eriksson move's not especially impactful. Eddie Lack and Jacob Markstrom aren't playing in Utica next year as neither would clear waivers, so the goalie trade we've been waiting for still needs to happen.

The only wrinkle now is that the Canucks will need to a minor-league netminder to share duties with Joe Cannata on the Comets. That could happen through this trade, or by signing a free agent.

I wonder if we'll see any deals go down today, now that the salary cap issue has been settled?
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