[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by opendoor

You realize that contracts expire, right? And that the Canucks have $15M in existing contracts that expire in a couple of months.

Not saying they'll have the money to go after a guy like Iginla, but your math is way off and you're approaching it from entirely the wrong direction. If you want to figure out how much room a team has you have to add up their committed salary for next year and then make moves from there.

By my estimate (and assuming a couple of prospects will make the team next year), if the Canucks can get rid of Booth, Ballard, and Luongo they'll have about $50M committed to a 14 man roster leaving them $14M for 9 guys. Definitely tight, but 8 of those spots are made up of the following, most of whom can be had fairly cheaply:

-three 4th liners
-13th forward
-one bottom pairing defenseman
-7th and 8th defensemen
-backup goalie

Originally Posted by FAN

I think your math is wrong. Capgeek shows that the Canucks are about $102K over the cap next season with roster spots to fill. If the Canucks buy out Ballard and Booth and trade Luongo, they will be fine. Regardless, keep in mind that any salary coming back from the Luongo trade will likely mean a roster player. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out for the Canucks, but my bet is that they are going to pencil in a couple of their prospects to fill roster spots.

Originally Posted by Bar-Down

Buying out Booth and Ballard 4.2+4.2=8.4 mill

Luongo trade 5.3 mill

So they will free up 13.7 mill.

They are up against the cap right now and the cap is going down by 6 mill so that eats almost half of it.

In the Luongo trade with the cap going down they will most likely have to take salary back.

Also with the Higgins, Burrows, Edler extensions and higher cap hits kicking in next year, that eats an extra 5 mill. 2 mill more on Edler deal, 2.5 mill more on Burrows and 0.6 on Higgins.

So with the 13.7-6mill = 7.7 with cap going down. Then 7.7 - 5 mill in extensions = 2.7 mill left.

Then salary back in the Luongo deal, they will be right up to the cap. Of course they can let Raymond walk but with that money they will have to replace Booth, Ballard and Raymond and a backup goalie with very very cheap guys.

Ugly offseason for VAN.

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

it's been pointed out before but yes very easily they could, basically what Blaster said above and they can pay someone 6+

Ok, let's looks at this:

The Cap for next season is $64 million. The Canucks, as it sits, have $63 million already committed, totalling 8 forwards, 5 D, and two goalies.

Assuming that the Canucks could trade Luongo for a similar deal as Toronto offered at the deadline, where the Canucks would retain half his salary (I still think this is a big if), the Canucks gain $2.66 million in Cap Space.

That would allow them to buy out Ballard and Booth saving another $8.45 million. Put that all together, and the Canucks have 1+2.66+8.45 = about $12 million in Cap space, but would still have 7 forwards, 3 defensemen, and a goalie to pay with that space.

Paying someone like Iginla (let's say $6 million), means that the Canucks would have ~$6 million in cap space left to sign 10 players, plus leave a little bit of wiggle room. That's enough cap space to fill those spots, but the Canucks wouldn't even have the option to call up more than one of there more expensive entry level contracts.

At that point, the Canucks have very little depth on their roster, and likely are a worse team then they are this year, which is already past their prime.

More likely in my opinion, is that the Canucks are forced to buy out Luongo after not being able to trade him. That leaves only one of Booth/Ballard available to buy out. After that, the Canucks would have $10.5 million in space to pay 9 more skaters plus a backup goalie. Signing Iginla for $6 million leaves $4.5 million to sign 9 more players - i.e. less than NHL minimum average - so that doesn't work.

Sorry, there's no way the Canucks can afford to sign Iginla next season, without other teams miraculously helping Vancouver out of their cap hell first.