Tom Benjamin has a post on the Canucks cap position, noting the club is currently well over the ceiling but are enabled in their over indulgence by the LTIR exemptions of Pavel Demitra and Mathieu Schneider.
Take it from a Flames fan, folks - betting on LTIR to stay under the cap is dancing with the Devil. last year, Calgary was flush against the upper limit thanks to Sutter's failure to buy out Rhett Warrener before the year began. The broken warrior remained on the Flames cap hit all year long, albeit "exempt" via LTIR. Which meant it wasn't an issue...right up until the point when it was. Cap space isn't static as players cap hits tend to shrink as the season progresses. That also means that any extra cap space tends to "expand" in relation to the maturity of the year as well.
But the Flames didn't really have cap space all year. They began the season with Dustin Boyd on the farm because he could be demoted without being exposed to waivers. Sutter was able to employ some more LTIR exemptions thanks to Bertuzzi, Giordano and Langkow injuries (plus move out a bit of salary in Lombo and Prust) to deal for Jokinen and Leopold at the deadline, but those moves came back to bite him in the ass when the schedule caught up to the club at the end of March. Not only was Dustin Boyd once again subject to a demotion of convenience, but the team was forced to play several meaningful games short a number of men - in the midst of a NW division title race, no less.
The Canucks are a team prone to injury and for good reason - they travel a lot. They could be in line for a disaster similar to the Flames if Gillis doesn't do something to clear out some of the bloat.
