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Booth’s ankle injury may make buyout speculation moot

David Booth

Even if the Vancouver Canucks wanted to use one of their two compliance buyouts on forward David Booth, it’s not clear if they’d be allowed.

You see, Booth suffered a rather serious ankle injury in March, and an injured player cannot be bought out.

“When you break your ankle, your ligaments kind of naturally tear as a consequence of the torque,” Booth’s agent, Mike Liut, told the Vancouver Sun recently. “So David had a fracture and he’s got pins and some hardware in there. If you have ever seen someone who tears up their ankle, I mean, it takes a long time for the ankle to go back to normal. It’s a long process. I’ve seen guys with a high ankle sprain out for three months with no surgery and no cast. When they say a high ankle sprain, they should say a high ankle torn ligament because that’s really what it is. It’s just a matter of to what degree.”

The Canucks may want to bring Booth back next season anyway. The 28-year-old has two years left on his contract, with a cap hit of $4.25 million. In 68 games with Vancouver, he has 17 goals and 15 assists. (Over 82 games, that’s equivalent to approximately 20 goals and 18 assists.)

The most likely buyout candidate on the Canucks is defenseman Keith Ballard, with two years remaining at a cap hit of $4.2 million.

The buyout window opens 48 hours after the Stanley Cup finals ends and goes until free agency starts on July 5.