Friedman Confirms Two Canadian Teams Are Eyeing Blockbuster Trades

As the new NHL season approaches, many teams are motivated to make moves to either make their team better or be able to get under the salary cap.

Two of these teams are the Vancouver Canucks and the Ottawa Senators. On the 32 Thoughts Podcast, Friedman revealed the following.

The Canucks and Senators are interesting situations for completely different scenarios.

With a bit over a month left till the 2023-24 season, the Canucks sit almost $5 million over the cap. However, this number is a bit inflated as it counts all potential LTIR players. It appears that Tucker Poolman will be hitting the LTIR once again but Tanner Pearson is skating and looks to make a return.

This means that the Canucks would be roughly $2.5 million over the cap which would mean they would have to move somebody out.

The top candidates include Conor Garland and Tyler Myers but there is also a chance that a better player like Brock Boeser gets moved out for assets in return instead of paying to move a player out.

The Senators are in a bit of a different predicament. They currently sit a tad shy of $1 million under the cap but they need to resign Shane Pinto. Pinto scored 20 goals and 35 points last season as a rookie and will likely take another step next year.

The Senators need to resign him and considering how he is better than a $1 million player, he will push them over the cap.

This means that the Senators need to move out some cap space to sign Pinto. They have a few options but the most likely one seems to be Mathieu Joseph who carries an AAV of right under $3 million for the next three years. While it would hurt to depart with a player like that, it would mean the Senators stay invested in Pinto and another roster spot opens up for a guy like Ridly Greig.