Interesting times, with a week yet to go before Draft Day(s)! The NHL announced not just an increase in the salary cap, but what that increase will be over the next three seasons. Rich teams are looking for innovative ways to spend it, and smaller teams are trying to take advantage. Vancouver is in the in-between, being a rich team but also selling players. The only question is who, and when. Okay, fine, two questions.

Inside You, There Are Two Deals...

Jason Dickinson isn't a bad player.* The 30-year-old centre has pretty good speed, runs around 50% in the circle, and can kill penalties in a pinch. He'll get you about 25 points in your bottom-six, which is...some. That he is also, apparently, a five-year, $20 million man to the Edmonton Oilers certainly highlights what effect the increased cap space will have on the league.

Darren Raddysh's sign-and-trade let the Tampa Bay Lightning salvage a fifth-round pick for a player they couldn't keep. How delighted he'll be with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the next eight seasons is unknown, but for $68 million, it's worth finding out.

Looking at those numbers can give any of us Olds sticker shock. Since when is $4 million a year the going price for a mediocre, bottom-six centre? And since when are teams giving bottom-six players five-year deals? And wasn't Edmonton in a perpetual cap crunch? And... Wait, where's Jack Roslovic? And as for Raddysh, at least he's been a top-pair defenceman and has a hammer of a shot. But he's also 30 years old and has all of three full NHL seasons under his belt. Toronto currently has $32 million tied up in their top-six defencemen. That's probably going to change soon.

The common thread between these teams is their stars. Auston Matthews has two years left on his contract; Connor McDavid has two left on his. The free agent lists are sparse, to say the least, so a team feeling the pressure to improve finds other ways to do it. How can Vancouver take advantage of that?

Not Everything's A Lesson

For the Canucks, neither of these deals is a good example of what they can do in moving players. Dickinson was already with Edmonton, and Raddysh was unrestricted and had the hammer. If he didn't want to go to a team, he couldn't stop the deal, but he could wait two weeks and sign anywhere else. No one on Vancouver's roster matches those conditions.

Useful as Teddy Blueger is, if he gets offered Jason Dickinson money (can't believe I typed that), it won't be by the Canucks. And given the total lack of interest at the trade deadline, Vancouver's not getting a big return from someone wanting to talk to him early.

Much more interesting is the recent Seattle Kraken - Florida Panthers deal. Mackie Samoskevich brought Florida a later first and an unknown second. Samoskevich is a 23-year-old, fourth-line winger who played some centre in junior. Seattle is almost certainly going to offer him a long-term deal in hopes that, as he ages and gets more opportunity, he will become a good value contract. He's been very productive in limited ice time, so maybe it'll translate, maybe not. But even if it falls through, Dickinson set the salary bar for guys who get limited ice time.

But Some Things Are

Seattle paid a high price, but Samoskevich's age warranted it. Yes, they're taking some risk in giving up two picks, but they also believe they are ready to improve. They want to become playoff regulars and are willing to pay for it. It's not a position that Vancouver will be in for at least four or five seasons, but when they are, they'll need Seattle's currency: draft picks.

Florida isn't a team that's building for the future. Look at their PuckPedia page, and "23" isn't an age that appears until you reach ECHL defenceman Evan Nause. This is a team of 30-year-olds and a few who are close to it. Anton Lundell is their youngest player of consequence at 24. Their first-round picks over the next three years are gone. So, no, this isn't a team thinking of winning in four or five years. Closer to ten.

Don't get me wrong! They're going to ride their current horses until they break a leg, but the team knows that's only so far. Father Time remains undefeated, no matter what the weirdly glisteny billionaires tell themselves.

This is the sort of time frame I want to see the Canucks employ.

Starters, At Your Marks

New GM Ryan Johnson and new coach Manny Malhotra each have three-year deals. That's fine, so long as no one pretends this team will be good in three years. In three years, we want to see progress on the foundation of a team ready to compete. Depth in the minors, young stars establishing themselves under the guidance of a few veterans who know they'll get moved on, that sort of thing. But I also want to see draft picks waiting for us in the future.

We need them now, yes, and I want to see them get some more if they can now. They can come in 2027, 2028, or beyond; I don't particularly care. The ones in the next few years are getting used by the team, ideally on picks, rarely in trade. I don't want to see them bundle later selections so they can move up a few spots, I really don't. Certainly not in this draft, where even the top five prospects are all over the place on scouting lists, never mind the top fifty.

My priority here and anywhere else I've written about the Canucks has been trying to understand management's decisions. No one does things that don't make sense to them, so why did they trade for Erik Gudbranson? Why did they choose J.T. Miller instead of Bo Horvat? Why did they give Bruce Boudreau an option year, shocking the general manager they wanted to hire?

Understanding their decisions is harder with some moves than with others, but they always make sense to the person who does them. What I want from the team is to see understandable moves. I don't want to work hard at this anymore. I'm inherently lazy.  I want it to be not only easy to follow along, but I also want to smile while doing it. Something long-term, outlasting Johnson's and Malhotra's contracts, but earning them renewals. The playoffs can frikkin' wait.

Beyond anything else, I want to see a plan. And I want to see it take shape with this draft, right now.

Let's go!

*I hesitate to call anyone who makes it to the NHL a bad player. Go watch John Scott skate with university players, and you'll see what I mean.