The trade that sent Dakota Joshua to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a 2028 fourth-round pick was consummated on Thursday morning and announced in the early afternoon, clearing $3.25 million off the Vancouver Canucks’ cap sheet.

Ever since mid-May or so, when Canucks hockey operations really dug into their offseason planning and began to work through various scenarios for this summer, the club has been in the market to shed a salary-cap commitment or two. That effort intensified over the course of this week, as we previously reported.

In considering their options, the two names we’d repeatedly heard were out there on the trade market were Joshua and centre Teddy Blueger.

These weren’t players that the Canucks were necessarily eager to trade. Given the cap math and the severity of their needs down the middle, however, they were players that they understood they might have to consider moving in order to gain the salary-cap flexibility required to upgrade at centre and reimagine their forward group.

With Joshua off the books, however, Blueger is effectively off the block for now. He could still be the next cap domino to fall if the right opportunity to upgrade at centre presents itself, but the club values the penalty killing and reliability that Blueger offers in their bottom-six forward group at a position of significant need.

Here’s what we should expect the Canucks to do next, in the wake of the Joshua trade.

Trade value and the new reality in the cap growth era

Joshua, 29, was signed to a sharp two-way contract as a Group VI unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2022. A big-bodied forward with legitimately soft hands in front of goal, Joshua turned himself into a screaming value, finding chemistry with Conor Garland and playing top-six minutes for the Canucks during the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Signed last summer to a four-year extension, however, Joshua endured a nightmare campaign following a testicular cancer diagnosis, which required surgery. In attempting to jump onto an already moving train, Joshua just never quite got caught up. And right when it seemed like he might, he sustained another lower-body injury.

Vancouver’s desire to shed Joshua’s salary had more to do with cap math and prioritizing the centre position than it did the organization souring on the player. That said, Joshua was often viewed as a player who required a fair bit of coaching and work in order to motivate, something that spilled into public view during the 2023 preseason when his fitness level was directly called out by then-Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet.

While team sources insist that this was a deal that Vancouver made reluctantly, one wonders if, given the rapport and trust level between Joshua and Tocchet, there’s some hypothetical possibility that the club would’ve been more reluctant to move off Joshua’s contract if the head coach had remained in Vancouver.

In any event, the club moved aggressively this week to explore all options to shed Joshua’s salary, and ultimately found a taker. Toronto, the team that originally drafted Joshua, is coached by Craig Berube, who is both a close personal friend and confidant of Tocchet, and who previously worked with Joshua during their shared time with the St. Louis Blues.

If the return seems a bit light at first blush, it’s very much consistent with what teams were able to net for big-bodied middle-six forwards on the trade market throughout this summer. In fact, Vancouver arguably did better than most teams making similar cap-shedding deals this offseason.

The Canucks, for example, were on the other end of a similar deal when they bought Evander Kane from the Edmonton Oilers for a fourth-round pick in late June. The Seattle Kraken parted with a third- and a fourth-rounder when acquiring Mason Marchment from the Dallas Stars. Both Kane and Marchment have far longer track records of top-six production than Joshua has, and Joshua has more term remaining on his deal.

In total salary cap liability, the Canucks effectively save $4.625 million (over three years) by swapping out Joshua for Kane in a pair of similar but unrelated deals.

The Joshua return just further illustrates the extent to which the cap growth era has warped the trade value for various players. We’re only a few years removed, after all, from teams having to pay exorbitant fees in order to shed multiyear cap liabilities on the trade market. Now, in this current climate, the Canucks were able to net positive value for a player who struggled with injuries and form last season, and has three years remaining on his contract.

The Canucks’ cap options

In modelling out the Canucks’ available cap space, we might reasonably view the club as having about $3 million, give or take a few hundred thousand, depending on the precise composition of the players you’d include on the roster, with a vacant spot remaining on the 23-man.

From what I can gather from team sources, however, the Canucks view themselves as having about $4 million in cap space to work with in the wake of the Joshua deal.

How do we square that difference?

It’s simple. I’m trying to fill a 23-man roster, whereas the Canucks may be more comfortable rolling with an open roster spot to open the season. Certainly, that would be consistent with how the club operated last season, especially during homestands.

While the new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) extending the NHL/NHLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) will make it more difficult to toll cap space going forward beginning in the 2026-27 campaign, for this upcoming season, the Canucks should still be able to utilize paper transactions and toll space without regard for a playoff salary cap.

Entering the year with some additional cap space would give the Canucks the ability to grow what’s available to them ahead of the NHL trade deadline. So they can add onto what flexibility they carved out Thursday, with an eye toward seizing a larger opportunity to more durably upgrade at centre. That’s the sort of flexibility that was front of mind for the club, as it endeavoured to open up cap space on the trade market over this past week

Jack Roslovic and the UFA options

The next question is whether or not Vancouver decides to go fishing in the unrestricted free agent bargain bin and pursue one of those available players who have slipped through the cracks and may be available at a reduced price.

This is a fishing hole that the Canucks have actively utilized over the past two offseasons, signing the likes of Pius Suter, Daniel Sprong and Kevin Lankinen in late July, August and September, respectively.

Jack Roslovic’s name is of particular interest here. CHEK TV and The Athletic’s Rick Dhaliwal reported that there have been talks between the Canucks and Roslovic’s camp, which matches what I’ve heard.

Is there a match between the Canucks and Jack Roslovic?

There have been talks with the Canucks and his camp. https://t.co/uSfVyADjMy

— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) July 17, 2025

I would add that in the event the Canucks opt to pursue Roslovic, they’d likely do so on a multiyear deal — probably two years — as opposed to just doing a one-year show-me type contract. That would be consistent with how the club approached talks with Suter in the summer of 2023.

Roslovic is a player that Vancouver has pursued on the trade market in the past, dating back to his time in Columbus, and they believed they’d be priced out on him when the market opened. There’s a lot of admiration for Roslovic’s speed and his ability to pitch in at centre (although he’s viewed as a versatile option capable of playing centre, and not a full-time top-nine calibre pivot). There’s also an understanding that he’s repeatedly struggled to maintain consistency throughout his NHL career, so we’ll see where this one goes.

Big picture, while the Canucks are monitoring some of the available unrestricted free agents, Roslovic among them, I don’t believe they view what remains on the open market as representing “the answer” to what the club needs to do to upgrade down the middle of its forward group for the long-term.

There are players who could help, and if the price point makes sense and that player can be brought in without additional acquisition cost, it’s something the club will explore. Ultimately, Vancouver’s needs at centre are still going to require a bigger swing to address to the organization’s own satisfaction. And that most likely comes from a bigger swing on the trade market.

(Photo: Jason Mowry / Getty Images)