VANCOUVER – February 23rd,2022
As the trade deadline approaches us the trade rumors are starting to pick up as well. There’s a tone of chatter around many Vancouver Canucks players regarding potential trades out and a lot of talk about potential trades to bring new players in.
The Canucks have pretty much 3 untouchable players who can’t be traded. That list of players consists of star center Elias Pettersson, franchise defensemen Quinn Hughes and their number one goalie Thatcher Demko. Many hockey insiders would also consider Canucks captain Bo Horvat to be an untouchable as well, but they also think that only happens if the Canucks can come to terms with an extension with Horvat before then.
JT Miller along with Bo Horvat have expiring contracts at the end of next year and will become UFA’s and Brock Boeser has an expiring deal as well, but he will be an RFA. Miller has been the best Canucks forward the last 3 seasons he’s been here for and undoubtable would be looking for a raise from his current 5.25-million-dollar cap hit. Captain Bo would also be looking for a raise as he became the captain 2 years ago and has been on a steady uphill of development. Boeser though is an RFA, and the Canucks have more control over his future then the other 2, however, his qualifying offer is at 7.5 and would be making more money then both JT and Bo.
The Canucks still have a month to decide what there going to do and it all depends on how the contract situations play out for each player. The Canucks are also receiving calls on other players like Connor Garland and Luke Schenn and still are actively trying to move Jaroslav Halak’s contract.
After losing out on some key Re-signings for their UFA’s 2 years ago I doubt the front office of the Canucks will make the same mistake again and let either of Miller or Horvat walk for nothing.
The Canucks playoff hopes are pretty much done now with 30 games remaining in the season and for a playoff spot they will need to go better then 20 and 10 and with the very hard schedule remaining it will be very difficult.
The best thing this team can do is build for the future and trade away the assets that have value for them. President of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said the Canucks need to clear cap space to sign their key players so looking deeper into that we can assume he wants to keep the top players and move out some bad contracts within the bottom six. If that’s the case that Connor Garland is the most likely candidate to get traded because of his value and contract.