Tanev might get poached by another team
Salary cap constraints mean Canucks' valuable RFA defenceman an attractive
target for clubs
BY JIM JAMIESON, THE PROVINCE MAY 16, 2013
The Canucks say they need to get younger next year, for salary cap reasons, but it appears their top young
player is not going to be re-signed cheaply.
With the NHL salary cap dropping by $5.9 million next season, a number of teams - the Canucks among them will be scrambling to find ways to reduce their salary commitments under the new fiscal constraints.
So getting pending restricted free-agent defenceman Chris Tanev, 23, locked up for a modest raise is unlikely.
It's thought by some in the hockey world that, with this dramatic lowering of the cap, some NHL clubs may be
more encouraged to tender offer sheets to unsigned RFAs, with the thinking that cap-crunched clubs will be
less able to match.
Tanev, who just finished a three-year contract that paid him a $900,000 salary at the NHL level, would be an
attractive target for clubs that decide to buck the trend and go after other teams' unsigned RFAs. In Tanev's
case, another club could offer him up to $3.36 million in annual salary - and surrender just a second-round pick
in compensation.
Denver-based player agent Kurt Overhardt, of KO Sports Inc., says it could be "a perfect storm" for offer sheets
with the cap going down so much, but said many NHL clubs will suffer cap issues - and that will affect the
number of clubs in position to make RFA offers.
Contract offers - or offer sheets - can be tendered to RFAs by teams other than their own, beginning July 5.
If the player signs the contract offer, his original team has seven days to match it and keep the player (and
inherit the contract), or opt for compensation instead.
The compensation is awarded in draft picks and is determined by a schedule, its value increasing with the
average annual salary of the offer.
Tanev - a classic late-bloomer who was signed as an undrafted free agent out of U.S. college but has
progressed to where he is one of the Canucks' most reliable defencemen - should attract some serious interest
from potential offer-sheet suitors.
Not only is he a coveted right-hand shot, the team went down the stretch and through the playoffs with a record
of 5-8-1 without him due to a high ankle sprain.
According to the offer-sheet compensation grid this summer, an offer over $1,682,194 and up to $3,364,391,
which is right in Tanev's contract wheelhouse, brings just a second-rounder.
At that price, a young player of Tanev's profile - an excellent puck mover who thinks the game at a high level would appeal to a number of NHL clubs looking to upgrade their back end.
The first that comes to mind is the Edmonton Oilers, whose new GM, Craig MacTavish, coached Tanev two
seasons ago on the Canucks' AHL farm club in Chicago and was a big fan.
MacTavish said last month, when he took over in Edmonton from Steve Tambellini, that the franchise needs to
become more aggressive in its management style, and that the Oilers would see six to eight new faces on its
roster next season.
As well, the Oilers have a history of not shying away from tendering offer sheets, having signed (and kept)
Dustin Penner from Anaheim and Thomas Vanek (matched by Buffalo) in 2007.
Don't be surprised if there are others interested.
Besides Tanev, other Canucks RFAs of note are forwards Dale Weise and Jordan Schroeder.
Offer sheets have been a relatively rare occurrence in the NHL.
That's because they are almost always matched by the original club. As a result, not many teams bother to
make them, because they expect it will be futile and only generate bad blood with the other team for inflating its
player's salary.
It will be very interesting to see if the coming summer is different.
OFFER SHEET COMPENSATION
(In average annual salary)
. $1,110,249 or below: no compensation.
. From $1,110,249 to $1,682,194: a third-round pick.
. From $1,682,195 to $3,364,391: a second-round pick.
. From $3,364,392 to $5,046,585: a first-round and third-round pick.
. From $5,046,586 to $6,728,781: a first-round, second-round and third-round pick.
. From $6,728,782 to $8,410,976: two first-round picks, plus a second-and third-round pick.
. Over $8,410,976: four first-round picks.
RECENT OFFER SHEET HISTORY
. 2013: Calgary signs Colorado's Ryan O'Reilly to a two-year, $10-million contract. Colorado matches.
. 2012: Philadelphia signs Nashville's Shea Weber to a 14-year, $100-million contract. Nashville matches.
. 2010: San Jose signs Chicago's Niklas Hjalmarsson to a four-year, $14-million contract. Chicago matches.
. 2008: St. Louis signs Steve Bernier to a one-year, $2.5-million contract. Vancouver matches.
. 2008: Vancouver signs St. Louis forward David Backes to a three-year, $7.5-million contract. St. Louis
matches.
. 2007: Edmonton signs Anaheim's Dustin Penner to a five-year, $21.25-million contract. Anaheim declines to
match and takes Edmonton's first-, second-and third-round draft picks in 2008 as compensation.
. 2007: Edmonton signs Buffalo's Thomas Vanek to a seven-year, $50-million contract. Buffalo matches.
. 2006: Philadelphia signs Vancouver's Ryan Kesler to a one-year, $1.9-million contract. Vancouver matches.
© Copyright (c) The Province
Bad contracts can be assets for GMs
Rich teams might be able to charge for their compliance buyout services under
new CBA
BY JASON BOTCHFORD, THE PROVINCE MAY 16, 2013
As second-round playoff hockey begins simmering around the NHL, there is still no joy in Mudville.
It's been nine long days since the Vancouver Canucks last played, and would anyone be surprised if there are
nine more before there's word on Alain Vigneault's future?
OK, that could be a bit much. At least the wait to learn Vigneault's fate is keeping fans distracted from the cruel
and unusual punishment of another summer of Roberto Luongo speculation.
If it's any consolation, the players at the Luongo poker table should have changed. After the embittered, some
would say personal, negotiation with the Toronto Maple Leafs, it's unlikely the Canucks or the Leafs will be
willing to go back down the Luongo road.
The Leafs have their guy in James Reimer - they think - and the Canucks should have options.
And not just the Philadelphia Flyers, who were kicking Luongo trade tires at the deadline. There will be a lot of
moving goalie chairs soon - maybe even in Pittsburgh, where Marc-Andre Fleury is playing his way out of town.
Plus, the poker game's changed. For example, if the Florida Panthers now want to dump Scottie Upshall's
ridiculous contract on the Canucks, Vancouver will listen. The Panthers would just have to make it worth their
coin, by sending a worthy asset west.
That's thanks to the new CBA, which permits teams two compliance buyouts, allowing general managers to
pay their way out of bad contracts without them counting against the salary cap.
The buyout period begins 48 hours after the Stanley Cup final ends and it lasts until July 4, the day before free
agency.
There has been a lot of speculation around Vancouver that the Canucks will use their buyouts on Keith Ballard
and David Booth, but there's almost no chance that's happening. They may use one, and if they do, it will
probably be on Ballard.
They aren't likely to use both on Ballard and Booth because the buyouts are too valuable a tool for rich teams
to buy assets.
In a nutshell, the league's welfare teams can send their contract problems to rich teams, who will make them
go away. The rich teams charge an asset or two for what will be a buyout service.
Take the media-generated hypothesis that the New York Islanders could be a landing spot for Luon-go. Of
course, you'll have to ignore for a moment the reality that the Islanders have shown zero interest in Luongo.
But if they did, they'd struggle to wrap their penny-pinching heads around that massive contract. If it's seen as a
poison pill for the loaded Leafs, just imagine what Luongo's deal looks like to a franchise which has lost around
$100 million in a decade.
But the pill becomes more palatable if the Canucks take on Rick DiPietro, whose deal has eight years left and
is dragging down the Islanders' franchise like a sea anchor. What would getting out from under the DiPietro
headache be worth to the Islanders? Several draft picks? A Nino Niederreiter?
The Canucks could then buy out DiPietro, and in this theoretical, made-up world, everyone is happy.
It's why the Canucks will explore trading Ballard by retaining salary, which would count against their cap. That's
another provision under the new CBA to foster trades.
Ballard getting paid $4.2 million a year has no value, but if $1-2 million per year is picked up by Vancouver,
there's a chance to create a small market. The Canucks get an asset back, and unload Ballard without using
one of their compliance buyouts.
There doesn't appear to be a scenario whereby Ballard returns, even with a new coach. The Canucks don't
have the salary cap space to gamble on a $4.2-million depth defenceman for another year.
Booth is a different story. He played 12 games this year. He scored one empty-net goal. He has two more
years with a $4.25-million cap hit and is seen as a prime candidate for a compliance buyout.
There was some talk last week that the team was leaning toward buying him out, but as of now, they are
bringing him back. He's big, fast and rushes the net. These are all things most believe the Canucks need more
of, not less. Given the free agent market, there's little chance the Canucks can replace Booth, though they do
have interest in David Clarkson.
Complicating the issue is the high ankle sprain Booth suffered in March. He went home to Michigan after the
surgery, and it's believed that's because he wasn't going to play again this season, even on the off-chance the
team went on a long playoff run.
Teams can't use compliance buyouts on injured players, and, right now, Booth is still injured. That probably
won't change in June.
The Canucks will rationalize Booth's return by pointing out that he played just four games this year with a
legitimate centre. And in those four games, Ryan Kesler wasn't doing him any favours.
They are not wrong. The team's failure to have enough centres means Booth's lack of production this year is as
much on the Canucks as it is on him.
© Copyright (c) The Province
Mike Gillis looks to build stronger, better Vancouver Canucks
by JEFF PATERSON on MAY 14, 2013 at 10:26 AM
BY HIS OWN admission, Vancouver Canucks general manager Mike Gillis knows he has a heavy workload
ahead of him this summer. He has to try to make his team a Stanley Cup contender again after being bounced
in the first round of the playoffs. But simply acknowledging the task doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to
happen.
“We didn’t get the results we needed to get; we need to improve and we need to get different,” Gillis vowed at
his season-ending news conference at Rogers Arena just days after the Canucks had been eliminated in four
straight games by the San Jose Sharks. “And we’re going to do that.”
Gillis doesn’t have a lot of wriggle room under the league’s diminishing salary cap to make much of a splash in
free agency, and the organization doesn’t have any prospects prepared to step into the lineup and make an
impact. So if the Canucks are going to get better—particularly up-front—before they assemble for training camp
in September, it appears that Gillis will have to explore the trade route. And if there are any black marks on the
general manager’s record in his five years at the helm of the hockey club, they are his draft history and his
ability to pull off trades that have significantly improved the Canucks roster.
As the architect of the organization since the spring of 2008, Gillis has had reasonable success adding free
agents like Dan Hamhuis, Jason Garrison, Mikael Samuelsson, Raffi Torres, Chris Tanev, and, prior to his
devastating eye injury, Manny Malhotra (who was a terrific addition to the Canucks leadership group and a
face-off wizard). So adding key contributors from the open market to the core group he inherited hasn’t been
the issue for Gillis.
Putting together trades that have helped the hockey club, however, has repeatedly been a roadblock. Acquiring
seldom used defenceman Keith Ballard from Florida for Michael Grabner and a first-round pick on the eve of
the 2010 National Hockey League draft has set the franchise back. His other high-profile moves, bringing in
David Booth and Zack Kassian, have yet to pay dividends or make the Canucks appreciably better. Add to that
list his disappointing deadline deals each of the past two seasons: picking up Derek Roy and, before him,
Samuel Påhlsson. You can trace the sketchy trade history back to the first move Gillis made two months after
taking the job in 2008, when he acquired Steve Bernier from Buffalo, hoping that the big winger would find a
home on the team’s top line with Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Sprinkle in Andrew Alberts, Shane O’Brien, Ryan
Parent, Nathan McIver, and Lawrence Nycholat and they are more of the same.
Trades have not been Gillis’s forte as a manager. His best move was bringing in defenceman Christian Ehrhoff
when the San Jose Sharks found themselves in a salary-cap crunch in 2009. And Gillis had some success at the
trade deadline in 2011 when he added Chris Higgins and Max Lapierre to round out the roster for the Canucks’
run to the Stanley Cup final later that year. But both Higgins and Lapierre are coming off disappointing seasons
and both have disappeared in each of the past two playoffs.
And now Gillis finds himself under a league-wide microscope as he tries desperately to peddle the onerous
contract of goaltender Roberto Luongo—a deal more than a year in the making—and he probably needs to make
at least one other significant swap to bolster his not-so-talented talent pool.
“It will become clearer as we move through the summer and we see what’s available and we come to some
conclusions on our existing players, and there will be some difficult decisions to make,” Gillis said. “I think the
landscape is going to be very different this summer. There is very little supply of players out there, and we have
players under contract. I think there are going to be greater opportunities throughout the summer.”
With a raft of no-trade clauses on his roster, Gillis has his work cut out for him. But it’s clear that returning the
same core group and merely filling around the edges won’t make the Canucks better.
As difficult as it may be, this management group has to roll up its sleeves and get to work orchestrating a deal
that will alter the look and feel of the hockey club.
“Sometimes risk works out in your favour and sometimes it doesn’t,” Gillis explained of his trade philosophy.
“In assessing the risk, you’re always at the mercy of human frailty in this business. You do things to try to
achieve and compete for the Stanley Cup that may not necessarily work out every time. But the ones that do
work out are fantastic. In terms of bold moves, I think we’ve been prepared to act on every opportunity we’ve
been presented. We’re not afraid of making decisions; I’m not afraid to make decisions in this business, but you
do it with the understanding that some are going to work and some aren’t.”
During the past five years, Canucks fans have seen enough of deals that are oversold by the organization but
ultimately underdeliver. In another sport, three strikes—Ballard, Booth, and Kassian—and you’re out. Sticking
with the baseball analogy, Canucks management has to step up to the plate, swing for the fences, and knock a
deal out of the park. It’s likely the only way the Canucks can improve over the summer.
Trades don’t happen as often as they used to in hockey, but they do still occur. And it’s time for the Canucks to
wheel and deal.
A city, a franchise—and even Gillis’s job security—are all depending on it.
Jeff Paterson is a talk-show host on Vancouver’s all-sports radio Team 1040. Follow him on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/patersonjeff/
Roberto Luongo ‘unlikely’ to be back
with Canucks: GM Mike Gillis
MONTE STEWART, CANADIAN PRESS | 13/05/09 | Last Updated: 13/05/09 11:29 PM ET
VANCOUVER — Mike Gillis had reason to be angry, but instead he was a picture of calm.
With the disappointment of Vancouver’s first-round exit from the Stanley Cup playoffs still
fresh, the Canucks general manager displayed a resolve Thursday not to veer too sharply from
the current course.
Gillis said it’s time to reset the organization, but he wants to retain the team’s veteran core while
introducing bigger, stronger and younger talent.
“Five years ago, we came in here and reset this organization, and it’s time to do it again,” Gillis
said during a season-ending media availability at Rogers Arena.
Gillis spoke publicly for the first time since the Canucks were eliminated Tuesday night by the
San Jose Sharks. The 4-0 sweep came a year after the Canucks were ousted in the first round by
the Los Angeles Kings.
Related
Vancouver fell well short of its goal of returning to the Stanley Cup finals, where it came within a
game of winning the coveted silver chalice in 2010-11.
Gillis said he, his support staff and the Aquilini family, which owns the team, will do a review of
every element of the organization — including the performance of head coach Alain Vigneault —
before any decisions are made.
“Like anybody else, he’ll be evaluated for the way this season went and the way that the last two
seasons have gone, particularly the playoffs, with myself at the forefront,” said Gillis, who later
expressed support for the coach.
Gillis called the just concluded campaign the most challenging of his five seasons at the Canucks’
helm. He said the lockout and subsequently shortened season prevented him from making
trades that were to his liking.
“When I look at every other team, this was such a messed up season from start to finish,” said
Gillis.
A long off-season and traditional pre-season should offer him more time to do the deals he
wants. Roberto Luongo’s future is one of the most pressing matters, because a trade could bring
in young talent or draft picks, and a buyout of the remainder of his 12-year deal worth US $64
million could free up dollars needed to sign high-end free agents.
Gillis said it’s unlikely that the veteran goaltender will be with the team next fall.
“Who knows what’s going to happen?” said Luongo. “I think we’re all aware of what the situation
is. We want to make sure that everybody is taken care of.
“My main goal is to be a starter, I want to play, and I feel that I have, still, a lot more years in
me.”
Gillis also wants to ensure that the Canucks have the big, skilled and physical players that will
help the club adapt to what he indicated is a rougher game. The shift is not temporary and the
style will continue in the future, he added.
“When I took this job, we decided on a style of play that resulted in great success and, clearly,
the landscape has changed — and we have to address those changes moving forward,” said
Gillis, who leaned towards small and fast players with his draft picks and trades.
But Gillis also wants to ensure that the NHL still enables gifted stars like the Sedin twins to work
their artistry.
“I believe you have to have skill in the game,” said Gillis. “When people have the privilege of
watching Daniel and Henrik for a year for how they play the game, and how good it is, I don’t
know why we’d want to see that eliminated from the game.”
Despite Gillis’s concerns about the direction in which the game is going, many clubs have
enjoyed the fruits of an era of young stars who use more skill than brawn.
Only one Gillis draft choice — Cody Hodgson, who has since been traded to Buffalo — has gained
regular employment in the league thus far. The GM said it has been difficult to draft NHL-ready
players because of the team’s success, which has resulted in later points on the draft list.
But he vowed to introduce more young players into the lineup.
“We are going to have to get younger,” said Gillis. “In this league, that’s the way it has to work in
this day and age, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
However, Gillis indicated he does not envision drastic changes. While some observers have
suggested changes are necessary to the group’s core of veterans, Gillis would prefer to keep it
relatively intact.
“I think we need to supplement our core group as best we can and then look at the possibilities
down the road,” said Gillis.
Captain Henrik Sedin would prefer to see modest changes rather than the dissolution of the
core. Centre Ryan Kesler and defenceman Kevin Bieksa shared his view.
“I think our core’s strong,” said Kesler. “We believe in each other, and I think our core is better
than anyone in the league.”
“I still believe in the group that we have here, in the core group,” added Bieksa. “I still feel that
we have a lot of good years left in us. But it’s about winning games in the playoffs and doing the
right things at the right times.”
Players also expressed support for Vigneault, the team’s all-time winningest bench boss, who
was not present at the availability. The coach has guided the Canucks to the Stanley Cup finals,
led Vancouver to a pair of Presidents’ Trophy titles and won six division crowns, including the
last five in a row.
In seven seasons, his clubs have also smashed team single-season win and point totals almost
routinely, and he earned 2007 NHL coach of the year honours.
“Guys respect our coaching staff,” said Kesler. “We felt that they gave us a game plan. We didn’t
execute.”