Tucker Poolman’s tenure with Vancouver has been rough, to say the least. Concussion and migraine troubles have limited him to just 43 games in his three seasons with the team, 40 of those coming two years ago. For the rest of the time, he has been on LTIR, allowing the Canucks to spend over the cap by his $2.5MM AAV but his presence there has restricted them from accruing in-season cap space. Accordingly, that has limited them when it comes to trying to bank cap room for late-season additions.
Speaking with Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston following yesterday’s trade deadline, GM Patrik Allvin acknowledged that he has attempted to move Poolman’s deal but hasn’t been able to find a taker. It’s not a matter of his contract having value as the Canucks would need to incentivize a team to take it on but evidently, teams aren’t willing to do so or Vancouver hasn’t been offering up enough of an incentive – likely in the form of a draft pick – to take it on.
Poolman has one year left on this one at that $2.5MM price tag so Allvin will need to continue working on this into the summer. Already without their top two selections and their fifth-rounder in the upcoming draft in June, it stands to reason that they might be hesitant to part with another selection from this class to get a team to take Poolman’s contract on but they have all but their third-rounder for 2025 so moving a pick from that group might make more sense.
One of the other challenges of being in LTIR for the entire season is that any performance bonuses earned roll over as an overage penalty to the following season. Fortunately for the Canucks, that shouldn’t be much of a concern this year as they’ve been more of a veteran-heavy group but they will have to rely on some of their cheaper prospects to fill out their roster next season. Those players will likely have bonuses which will provide a bigger impetus for Allvin to find a taker for Poolman’s contract in the coming months.
Vancouver has 11 UFAs after this season, The Poolman contract for one more year at 2.5 is hardly a crisis.
The fact the Canucks gave a scrub like Poolman a $2.5 million dollar per year extension is exactly reasons why they were so cash strapped at the deadline they couldn’t even maneuver around 750k to sign Kessel. Terrible mishandling of the team by the previous GM.
Was a FA signing not an extension….2.5 for a decent dman on the open market is a alight overpay but they liked the guy. He’s never been healthy in VAN so hard to call him a scrub.
The witless talents of Jim Benning continue to weigh the franchise down.