LATEST | Phil Kessel's price of acquisition may be too much for the Canucks

The Canucks have released a statement and announced that Phil Kessel would be in town for the next little while. The veteran is hoping to prove that he still belongs at the game's highest level and was granted the opportunity to skate with the Abbotsford Canucks.

While Phil Kessel remains a free agent and is expected to sign a contract the cost of his acquisition have not been fully analyzed:





While it looks like the Canucks could sign Kessel to a league minimum contract, Kessel's cost will actually go beyond the money on his contract.

The Canucks can only keep 23 men on their NHL Roster and once Jett Woo is sent back down, they'll have one open spot for Carson Soucy who remains on the Injury Reserve for the time being.

Once Soucy heals and gets back to playing, the Canucks will have no other choice but to send a player down, meaning one of their players would have to go through waivers. One of Mark Friedman, Phil Di Giuseppe, Sam Lafferty, Noah Juulsen or perhaps Nils Aman who've all been scratched at one point or another this season.


The Canucks' only option to retain every players' services without risking any of them to waivers, would be to wait until the trade deadline to either sign Kessel, or activate Soucy from the IR. At which point there will no longer be a maximum to the roster, but the salary cap will still be in effect.