Canucks and the Cap

• Alex Auld - $675,000 (with 24% rollback - $513,000)
• Todd Bertuzzi - $6.933 million ($5.269 million)
• Ed Jovanovski - $5.25 million ($4 million)
• Ryan Kesler - $925,000 ($703,000)
• Trevor Linden - $2 million ($1.52 million)

(Note: I know Kesler isn't listed on the TSN site, but I'm almost 100 % sure he's signed for the season.)

With the exception of Markus Naslund and Brad May who are unrestricted free agents, the remainder of the 2003/2004 team are restricted free agents. Assuming that the restricted free agents accept their qualifying offers, and taking into account the proposed 24% rollback, the Canucks will have $28 million committed in salaries before the free agency season begins.

Markus Naslund, who is coming from another NHL first-team all-star appearance and has been the Canucks' heart and soul in the last few seasons, is bound to get a lot of offers for close to the maximum salary (20% of the team-by-team cap or approximately $7.8 million per year). But even if he re-signs in Vancouver, the Canucks will be able to keep their core players and have a couple of million dollars to upgrade the team and sign another player or two - a great position to be in considering their closest rivals (ie. Avs and Red Wings) can't re-sign or have to buyout key roster players to fit under the cap.Tomorrow, I'll share some of my armchair quarterback ideas on how the Canucks should upgrade.