Canucks in terrible predicament, may have trouble re-signing key players

The Vancouver Canucks have put themselves into an awful situation regarding their cap space. The team recently re-signed Tanner Pearson to a 3-year, $9.75 million deal, and now will struggle to find the money to sign key players including Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes.

After signing Pearson, the team now has locked up nearly 30% of their salary between Tyler Myers ($6M), Loui Eriksson ($6M), Tanner Pearson ($3.25M), Jay Beagle ($3M), Antoine Roussel ($3M), and Jake Virtanen ($2.25). This is a very tough pill for most Canuck fans to swallow as they will have to deal with the stress of trying to figure out how the team will re-sign two fan favorites.

In a year when they have to sign two of the most important contracts in this franchise's history, the Canucks have opted to invest almost 30% of next year's cap on the following:

Myers ($6M), Eriksson ($6M), Pearson ($3.25M), Beagle ($3M), Roussel ($3M), Virtanen ($2.25M)— Mr Booth (diehard Leafs fan!) (@MrBooth_7) April 8, 2021

Along with this, Tyler Toffoli signed with the Montreal Canadiens last offseason after breaking out with Vancouver. He is only making $1 million more than Pearson at $4.25 million, and you have to bet that most Canuck fans would rather have Toffoli than Pearson. Toffoli currently has 19 goals and 30 points compared to Pearson's 6 goals and 11 points.

There is a recurring theme in the Canucks organization of failing to look towards the future as they already failed at bringing back multiple core players last offseason including Jacob Markstrom, Chris Tanev, and Toffoli. It doesn't really make sense to sign Pearson to a new deal when they are already struggling with the cap.

The Canucks are currently 5th in the NHL's North Division and 8 points out of a playoff spot, along with being shut down due to COVID-19 related problems.

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