I'm no salary cap guru by any stretch, but it doesn't take one to realize that Mike Gillis may have to spend right up to the cap limit come July 1st. I'll stress my opinion again that I believe that the Sedins should be re-signed. So let's say Gillis does get them locked within the next 9 days or so, and let's project that they don't get their 12 year deal but rather 7-8 years. That would put their annual cap hit closer to $6 million each.
Now add that combined $12 million hit to their approximate $34 million current cap expenditure and they are at $46 million with 10 forwards, 4 defencemen and 1 goalie signed and sealed. (Reference: NHL Numbers). $10 million under the allowable spending. That would mean that Gillis is going to have tough decisions to make in a very short period of time if he wants to ice a better team than last year.
I think it's fair to say that if the Sedins do sign at the aforementioned pricetag, it becomes glaringly obvious that we can narrow down players rumored to sign here, or the potentials. A Cammalleri AND Bouwmeester can not be acquired unless one of them takes a huge cut, or one or both sign a longterm deal of the Sedin variety to give Gillis more flexibility on a yearly average cap hit.
What are the chances of that happening? With Bouwmeester it is possible because of how it was rumored that Gillis was trying to acquire him at the trade deadline months back. He wouldn't sign that kind of player to a short term deal. But even so, he'd still have limited money for another bonafide forward as, on top of it all, there would be 1 top 6 and 1 bottom 6 vacant position to fill there.
I'm torn on the matter. I know the Canucks could use a go-to defenceman like Bouwmeester or Niedermayer. But at the expense of potentially becoming a lower - scoring team? Ergh. How about NOT. I think Mikey should spend the money on the forwards. I still think that Kevin Bieksa, Sami Salo and Alex Edler, with their $3.5 million-ish salaries should do that job.
What do you think?
I also think that if the Sedins do sign there is no way in hell Mats Sundin returns (just in case there's any of you out there who care about what the big Swede does).
This is going to be a crazy 9-10 days. Fasten your seatbelts. We're heading for the crossroads.