Well we have to understand that we are still projected to be one of the highest-spending teams next year.Mëds wrote: Factor in an growing cap ceiling and things don't look all that bad at all.
Next season (with Booth, remember) we sit 3rd in the league (behind Chicago and Boston) with $10.1M in cap space and a 17 man roster. Removing Booth gives us $14.35M and 16 players signed. $14.3M in cap space still puts us at 7th highest payroll in the league.
We need to be cognizant, especially when discussing Free Agents, that there will be 20 teams in the league with $20M or more in cap space next season. 5 teams have more than $30M in cap space.
So yeah, the Canucks having some wiggle room is great, but chances are a team like Buffalo ($42M in cap space next season) can offer any UFA more money than we can. It's certainly plausible that second-line/top-6 wingers go for $5M+ this summer.