Thanks to a series of injuries and a tight salary cap situation, the Vancouver Canucks had to play their season opener on Wednesday with a shortened bench. While the team had six defencemen after calling up Akito Hirose, they only had 11 forwards.
That led to some creative line-juggling to spread the minutes around for head coach Rick Tocchet and his staff, which seemed to work out, as they dominated the Edmonton Oilers in an 8-1 win. It helps that the Oilers were also playing with 11 forwards for similar reasons.
The Canucks won't have to play short a forward in their next game, however. Even though they're still up against the salary cap and there's no guarantee any players will return from injury before their next game on Saturday, the Canucks were still able to call up Jack Studnicka from the AHL.
With the call-up, Studnicka won't count against the Canucks' salary cap, allowing him to join the roster and step into the lineup without the Canucks going over the cap. A little-known rule in the NHL's Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) allows for exactly this scenario.
In Article 50.10(e), the Roster Emergency Exception, the CBA states that if a team is forced to play a game with fewer than the minimum 18 skaters and 2 goaltenders, they can call up a player with a cap hit of no more than the league minimum plus $100,000.
For this season, the league minimum salary is $775,000, so the maximum cap hit of a player called up using the Roster Emergency Exception is $875,000.
Studnicka, with his $762,500 cap hit — below the league minimum because it was signed before the minimum salary was raised — fits well below this limit. If the Canucks face further injuries and must call up more players using this rule, potential candidates include Arshdeep Bains, Aatu Räty, Sheldon Dries, Matt Irwin, and Christian Wolanin.
With his strong preseason performance, it looked like Studnicka was going to make the Canucks' opening-night roster until they acquired Sam Lafferty in a trade. He'll have to settle for potentially playing in the Canucks' second game of the season.
Once a player returns from injury and gives the Canucks 18 skaters, however, the "roster emergency" ends and Studnicka will have to return to the AHL.
