It was a true dream come true type of film.

Then, a few hours later, Bains and teammate Erik Brännström were reassigned to Abbotsford for the second time this week.

What gives? Well, if you don’t yet understand this process of temporary reassignment for the purpose of additional cap accumulation, we better make sure that you will have understood it by the end of this article. Because, for Bains in particular, this will last the whole season.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way right away: Bains’ game has nothing to do with his “demotion.” Head coach Rick Tocchet had praised the young forward’s play even before his exploits on Saturday night. The same can be said for Brännström, who received a lot of positive attention from Tocchet and Co. and who – although he didn’t score an actual point – was instrumental on two goals for the Canucks last night.

Speaking of actual points, the real point here is that Tocchet has made it clear that if given the chance, he wants both Bains and Brännström on the active roster and in the lineup. Which confirms that their double demotions this week are almost entirely related to cap management and not performance. As a result, Bains was fired the morning after the biggest match of his life.

Instead, it all comes down to capping the buildup. We’ve already gone into a pretty extreme pre-season lengths to explain the entire regularization processand we will refer people to this work if they wish to gain a deeper understanding of the concept. What Bains and Brännström’s situation allows us is an in-season case study in the how and why of buildup.

To present a fairly complicated process in the simplest way possible, we must start with the counterintuitive truth that the NHL salary cap is calculated daily. Every day of the NHL regular season schedule – and we’re talking every day here, not just game days – a calculation is made for a team’s cap compared to the daily cap allowed. It’s probably easier to imagine the daily cap allowed based on the NHL’s total annual cap ($88 million this year) divided by the number of calendar days (192 for 2024/25).

Now, cap hits for players on the roster are also counted daily, using the same basic formula. And if the team’s daily cap is less than the daily cap, the team can essentially keep the difference as accumulated cap space, to be spent later.

Technically, this accumulation is also counted daily. So, if a team’s total cap (i.e., the combined annual AAVs of the players on its roster) were $87 million, that team would be shown as being $1 million under the cap of $88 million, but would earn about $5,208 per day. ($1 million/192) as long as they remain in this situation.

It doesn’t sound like much, but it adds up. This daily addition is exactly why the Canucks send Bains and Brännström to Abbotsford between game days.

Let’s make some quick estimates.

As of Saturday night, with Bains and Brännström in the lineup and on the ice, the Canucks had a total of $87,605,097 in annual hits. That’s just $394,903 below the cap, which, divided by 192, gives the Canucks a daily accrual of just $2,057.

On Sunday morning, the Canucks sent out Bains ($816,667 AAV) and Brännström ($900,000 AAV). This reduced their Sunday cap to $85,888,430, which is now $2,111,570 under the cap. Divide that amount by 192, and the Canucks are now taking in about $10,998 per day.

There is no real reason to estimate what this will be on the day of the deadline, as the amount changes daily. But it’s the addition that really counts, in the end.

Now, given that the Canucks will face the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night, one has to assume that Bains and Brännström will be recalled and reinstated in the lineup as of Monday morning. So, this amount of $10,000 will only be accumulated on Sunday. But the same amount was also accumulated on Thursday and Friday of last week, during the previous demotion of Bains and Brännström.

Then the Canucks returned to that $2,057 accumulation for Monday. Then, if nothing changes, we can probably expect Bains and Brännström to be sent back to Abbotsford for Tuesday’s off day, before being recalled once again on Wednesday, in time to face the New York Devils. Jersey.

It occurs to us at this point that we are only covering the financial side of the team here, and that is not the only consideration. Brännström is fortunate to have a one-way contract, meaning he receives the same salary whether he is in the NHL or assigned to the minors. These back and forths have no impact on its results.

This is not the case for Bains. He is still on his entry-level contract, which is two-way, and his salary when assigned to the minors is only $70,000.

This means that when Bains is on the NHL roster, he makes around $4,253 per day, and then when he is assigned to Abbotsford, he only makes $365 per day. We don’t imagine Bains will complain about this, but it’s worth mentioning that the guy is going to make a few thousand dollars less on Sunday than he did on Saturday.

So how long will this whole regularization thing last? The short answer is: all season, for as long and as often as the option is available.

Right now, the Canucks can accomplish this because, despite having both Dakota Joshua and Thatcher Demko on IR, they are still under the cap. The absences of Joshua and Demko open up roster spots, but those spots don’t need to be filled on non-game days. This, in turn, allows for the yo-yoing of people like Bains and Brännström.

For Bains, it could take a year. He is currently exempt from waivers until he completes three professional seasons (he is currently in his third) or plays 80 games in the NHL (he currently has 12).

Technically speaking, if Bains dressed in 68 of the Canucks’ remaining 75 games this year, he would lose his waiver waiver in March or April. But he’s unlikely to suit up that often, and so we can count on Bains being exempt – and therefore eligible for endless demotions and promotions – for the entirety of the 2024/25 season.

This is not the case for Brännström. A veteran of 270 NHL games since the 2018/19 season, Brännström is truly not exempt from exemptions. We know this, because the Canucks have already waived him once this year, moments after acquiring him from Colorado. He passed unclaimed.

And that, having suffered unclaimed waivers, created a temporary waiver-waiver for Brännström. When a player “allows” waivers, they can be assigned and reassigned freely afterward until they have spent either 30 cumulative days on NHL training, Or played ten games in the NHL.

Brännström, who has only played four games for the Canucks and is now regularly sent off on days off, will be some time before he has to be placed on waivers again. At this point, we have to assume that the Canucks will make him a permanent spot on their roster or have already brought him back to Abbotsford before.

The only thing that’s really going to get in the way of this yo-yo of accumulation is available roster space. Joshua is expected to return within a few weeks. When he is activated, he will need a spot on the active roster. This likely means one of Bains or Brännström will be demoted again, but this time they won’t be instantly called up on game days, as their spot on the 23-man active roster will now be occupied by Joshua.

To be clear, this doesn’t stop the Canucks from scoring. Joshua’s cap hit has always been counted on the books, so if he comes back into the lineup and, say, Bains is fired, then Bains’ AAV still comes off the books and that amount starts to accrue daily.

The difference here is having the space to bring Bains back for the next game day.

In other words, until Joshua returns to the lineup – and likely during any other lengthy player absences throughout the season – we can expect the Canucks to take advantage of their reassignments so to accumulate more daily limit. In reality, there’s no reason not to, and the potential benefits of having more money to spend as the 2025 trade deadline approaches speaks for itself.