Former Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby will be an unrestricted free agent for the second time in three years.
Tuesday, Rick Dhaliwal first reported that the Vancouver Canucks are buying the Holtbeast out of the final year of his contract, giving the team several million in salary cap savings a day before the start of free agency.
The Canucks finished dead last in the North Division last year, putting up a record of 23-29-4.
By Ian Oland 5 days ago
The Vancouver Canucks are one of several NHL teams that have been overhauling their roster this summer despite not having much money available to spend. So general manager Jim Benning has gotten creative.
The Canucks traded their 2021 first-round pick to ship out $12 million of salary — Loui Eriksson, Jay Beagle, and Antoine Roussel — to the Arizona Coyotes for Oliver Ekman-Larsson and the rights to RFA Conor Garland (who could end up with an AAV of $4 to $5 million). Vancouver also bought out Jake Virtanen, netting $2.5 million of savings next season, and added RFA center Jason Dickinson from the Stars for a third-round pick.
Now, a year after signing Braden Holtby as an unrestricted free agent, the Canucks are looking to move their backup netminder either via buyout or trade after Thatcher Demko locked down the starting spot. Holtby has a cap hit of $4.3 million.
Last night was the Battle For Vegas, a charity softball game played by professional athletes to raise money for developmental disorders and autism causes. The game was well represented by Las Vegas athletes, with Raiders running back Marcus Allen captaining one team and Knights forward Reilly Smith captaining the other. But the highlight of the night and its biggest star was a player not from Vegas at all — at least not anymore.
Folks, it’s Nate Schmidt. Here comes a Schmidtuation Update.
By Peter Hassett 7 days ago
Former Capitals forward Jay Beagle will have a new home after a massive multi-player deal between the Vancouver Canucks and Arizona Coyotes on Friday before the start of the 2021 NHL Draft.
The deal will see Beagle, Loui Eriksson, Antoine Roussel, the ninth selection in tonight’s first round, a second-round pick in 2022, and a seventh round pick sent to Arizona in exchange for defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and forward Conor Garland.
The deal allows the Canucks to clear a bunch of contracts that they did not have in their future plans while also adding one massive contract in Ekman-Larsson and a talented, young scorer in Garland.
By Chris Cerullo 1 week ago
Former Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby had his worst statistical season as a pro with the Vancouver Canucks during the 2020-21 season. Serving as Thatcher Demko’s backup, Holtby posted a 7-11-3 record with a 3.67 goals against average and a .889 save percentage.
But hours before NHL teams must submit their protection lists for the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft (5 PM), the Holtbeast is reportedly a coveted player as some league GMs see value in the 2018 Stanley Cup champion as both a player and a leader in the locker room. Holtby’s season stats also seem skewed when considering how dysfunctional and bad defensively Vancouver was.
Braden Holtby is behind one of the greatest saves in NHL history. Nicknamed The Save, Holtby reached his stick out and turned away an Alex Tuch one-timer in Game Two of the 2018 Stanley Cup. The Save preserved the Capitals’ late lead and propelled them to four straight wins, clinching the franchise’s first ever Stanley Cup. There was nothing Holtby had done in the past nor would do in the future that would ever elipse the importance and brilliance of that stop.
With that context established, Holtby did his absolute best to outdo himself in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday. Holtby, who signed a two-year deal with Vancouver Canucks over the offseason, went absolutely mad scientist and turned himself into a human windmill to make a pad save on Wayne Simmonds FROM UPSIDE DOWN ON HIS BACK.
The NHL announced on Saturday that the Vancouver Canucks will be allowed to begin practicing again on Sunday, April 11, and return to action on Friday, April 16 in a game against the Edmonton Oilers. The return comes after the Canucks postponed eight games due to a severe COVID-19 outbreak.
A COVID-19 variant swept through the team causing nearly the entire roster (21 players) and four staff members to test positive for the disease, including all four former Capitals players: Braden Holtby, Nate Schmidt, Jay Beagle, and Travis Boyd. The Washington Post described the Canucks’ outbreak as “the worst in the NHL this season — and perhaps in North American professional sports since the start of the pandemic.”
After an investigation, the Canucks said that the source was a single person who contracted the virus in a “public exposure location.” The investigation was conducted by club officials and Vancouver Coastal Health.
By Eliza Kravitz 4 months ago
The NHL’s struggles with coronavirus aren’t over yet. After a month-long lull, COVID is now ravaging one team in particular: the Vancouver Canucks.
On Saturday, the NHL announced that fourteen Canucks players are on the “unavailable due to COVID protocol” list.
By Peter Hassett 4 months ago
The Vancouver Canucks reportedly re-signed Thatcher Demko to a five-year, $25 million extension on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old goaltender rose to fame during the 2020 playoffs due to an injury to starter Jakob Markstrom. Down 3-1 in a second-round series against the Vegas Golden Knights, Demko was spectacular and helped the Canucks win three straight games before losing in Game Seven.
Demko was handed the starting job this season. He was cold to start the year but has heated up recently. In March, Demko started 11 of 13 games. He won eight of those decisions and posted a .937 save percentage, leading to the huge extension.
By Ian Oland 4 months ago
The Vancouver Capitals are at it again!
Monday, Vancouver claimed Travis Boyd off waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs. According to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston, the Leafs were trying to save cap space ahead of the April 12 trade deadline by stashing Boyd on their taxi squad and only going with a 20-man roster.
That plan, uh, did not work.
