Puzzling Moves for Vancouver Canucks Defense

(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Now that was a strange move today by Gillis to improve the Nucks defense. Added were a couple of San Jose Sharks in Christian Ehrhoff and Brad Lukowich for depth.

Yes, they did have to give up a couple of promising prospects in Daniel Rahimi, who played for the Manitoba Moose last year and first-round draft pick Patrick White.

The reported signing of Matthew Schneider that I wrote about several days ago came to fruition, but try as I might with my net sources, I could not find out the terms.

There are two things Coach V will have to deal with. Firstly, all of these new D-men are left hand shots. Secondly, they are not very physical or big by today's standards. 

One thing in the Nuck's cap salaries does not make sense, hear me out. Ehrhoff's cap hit for this year is around $3M and Lukowich $1.5M.  Throw in Schneider's $1.5-2M (estimate) and you have the Nucks at about $1-2M over the cap.

Keep in mind, also, that if a certain Cody Hodgson were to make the team, he would also command at least an entry level salary of $850K. This cap space is growing like our defense squad.

There definitely is not room for 10 D-men on the roster and their total cap hit will be in the vicinity of $23M. The other problem that I see is that none of these guys are signed to a two-way contract. Correct me if I have missed anyone.

That is not the way Canucks management usually plays with their cap, as they like to have some breathing room. Do I smell a trade brewing here, where one or two of the D-men will be moved to another team?

Could management be thinking that high priced Kevin Bieksa's $3.75M cap hit is bit too much and be packaging him for a top-six impact forward?

All I know is that something is not right with this picture.

Stay tuned. 

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