So, now at the lowest point they have been, probably since the arrival of the Sedins, where do they go from here?

May 7, 2013; San Jose, CA, USA; San Jose Sharks center Patrick Marleau (12) falls down as he scores the game winning goal against the Vancouver Canucks during the overtime period in game four of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs at HP Pavilion. The San Jose Sharks defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

There are a number of options that may happen in the off-season, either individually or a combination of a number of them.

1.  Fire the GM – The biggest distraction around the City of Vancouver since about game 3 of last year’s playoff against the Kings, when it became apparent that the crease was not big enough for both Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider.  GM Mike Gillis had the opportunity to go through a draft, a summer and a trade deadline, but couldn’t get his asking price, which was widely regarded as too much to take on the salary of Luongo as well as giving up assets.  He is still a top level goalie but his contract was overwhelming for many teams.  And the teams that were interested didn’t want to give the Canucks what they were asking for.  Is botching the crease enough to warrant firing the GM?

2.  Fire the Coach – Alain Vigneault has been at the helm for 7 full seasons, and has taken one of the top teams in the league past the second round just once, when they went to the 2011 finals.  Now, with 2 straight first round exits has his time in Vancouver run out?

3.  Trade a Goalie, but which one? – This was supposed to be the year that Cory Schnieder asserted himself in the Cancuks’ crease.  It simply did not happen, due to injury and inconsisent play.  He was good in the regular season, but couldn’t get the job done in the playoffs.  Luongo was a good teammate and supported his team as best he could, but you could see his frustration at being second fiddle.  The question is, could the Canucks trade Schneider instead of Luongo?  His contract is more tradeable and he might get a bigger return because there isn’t so much invested in him.  Luongo was the goalie when they had their best season, but hasn’t lived up to expectations since then.  One has to go, but which one.  Is Luongo a buyout candidate?  Surely someone would need a goalie of his calibre, but can they afford it?

4.  Blow up the Team – It might seem like a rather drastic step, but with just 17 players under contract for next year, the Canucks are over the $64.3M salary cap already. They have 12 players making $4M or more.  Just trading a goalie is not going to help them get out of the mess they are in. The core is intact, but they are expensive.  You would have to think David Booth and Keith Ballard would be trade bait, but finding a taker and getting something decent in return might be a bit too much.  They have two amnesty buyouts, and they might have to use them this summer.

The Canucks are a team over a barrel.  With no cap space, they can’t fill in with even minimum salary players without getting rid of some big tickets.  Goaltending is a serious problem and coaching and management hasn’t done much about it in over a year.

February 27, 2013; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov (30) and right wing Jakub Voracek (93) celebrate win against the Washington Capitals at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers defeated the Capitals, 4-1. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

This week’s acquisition of Simon Gagne had put the Flyers right up against the Cap for this season.  They have pretty much no flexibility to add at the deadline without taking away a roster player.  There is some Long Term Injury Relief space available due to Chris Pronger‘s injury, but that isn’t likely an option.

But forget about this year.  How about next year?  With 19 players signed, the Flyers are less than $3M below the cap.  They don’t have a backup goalie signed and restricted free agents include Zac Rinaldo, Erik Gustafsson and Harry Zolnierczyk, not to mention UFAs Gagne, Mike Knuble, Ruslan Fedotenko and Jody Shelley, Matt Walker, Kurtis Foster, Brian Boucher and Michael Leighton.

Even worse, when you project ahead to 2014-15, the Flyers have already committed $43M to just 10 players.  At that time the will also have to resign (or move) the following players:  Claude Giroux, Brayden Schenn, Sean Couturier, Tye McGinn (all restricted free agents) as well as Matt Read, who could become an unrestricted Free Agent.  Also, Kimmo Timonen‘s contract extension also expires at that time.

The Flyers’ Long Term Salary Commitments:

The problem stems from a number of long term contracts that are in place.  Pronger’s deal is still in effect until 2016-17, and there is nothing they can do about it because of the confusion brought about by the over-35 rule.  And since he is injured, he cannot be bought out as an amnesty buyout.  Danny Briere is locked in at $6.5M until the end of the 2014-15 season and with a no-movement clause isn’t likely to be interested in going anywhere, although he becomes a probable buyout candidate due to his actual salary of $3M and $2M over the next two years.

Of the 10 players they have signed past 2013-14, 7 of them have some sort of no-trade clause in their contract. And that list of 10 players includes Pronger and his albatross contract.

It is tough to visualize just how much of a mess the Flyers are in.  They may have to part with one or more key building blocks such as Schenn or Couturier because of the number of long term commitments they have, or they are going to have to buy out someone with a big ticket either this summer or next as part of the amnesty buyout period.  As stated earlier, the most likely candidate for that would be Briere, who would only have 1 year left in the summer of 2014, but even that might not be enough, depending on where the cap ends up that year.  GM Paul Holmgren has dug himself a hole that he might not be able to escape from.

This means the Flyers’ window of opportunity could be closing, at least for this particular core of players.  And as inconsistently as they are playing now, it doesn’t look like this will be their year.  But that is what people were saying about the Los Angeles Kings last season.