TSN: Farhan Lalji talks about the Vancouver Canucks and thinking of being a playoff team. They already traded J.T. Miller, but could there be other big moves in store, like an Elias Pettersson trade. What else could the Canucks be looking to do before the trade deadline.
“When the Vancouver Canucks traded J.T. Miller three weeks ago, it was certainly a thought that maybe this team was looking forward to the future. But in the hours that followed, the moves, that followed would indicate that the Canucks still are thinking about now and getting into the playoffs. And that’s where they currently find themselves in the standings following the Four Nations Face-off break.
Now before we get to what Vancouver’s needs are heading into the trade deadline, let’s start with Elias Pettersson. Because certainly the belief was when this team got rid of Miller, that that would bring out the best in Pettersson. And we certainly haven’t seen any level of improvement from the Canucks star center, who was soon to be their highest paid player.
And even at the Four Nations Face-off playing for Sweden, there was no uptick in his performance. In fact, he got bench for the final 15 minutes of the third period of Sweden’s final game. So do the Canucks revisit trade conversations around Pettersson?
I’m sure they will kick the tires, but they will be selling very low if they decide to do that before the trade deadline. So I wouldn’t expect that to happen, but maybe that does happen between now and the NHL draft, once the season comes to a conclusion, because there would potentially be more buyers at the table for a player like Pettersson.
Or do they wait and hope that a summer with full training and full health at that point could certainly bring out the best in Pettersson and improve his skating, but again, that’s a gamble to take for a player that is going to be paid over 11 and a half million dollars per season.
So with that said, what are the connects needs heading into the deadline? Well, they need some offense, especially without Pettersson. And if you’d have asked me prior to the Miller trade, I would have suggested this team needs defense, but the addition of Marcus Pettersson has certainly stabilized Vancouver’s top-four on the blue line.
So with Pettersson and Chytil, maybe the need is for some center depth, but they could also use some assistance on the wings. You’ve got Brock Boeser, who’s a pending unrestricted free agent, so there is some concern about what his future is going to look like. The club and Boeser really haven’t engaged in significant contract discussion.
So will they potentially move on from Boeser? Will given the fact that this team needs offense, they are ranked 23rd right now in the league in terms of goals per game, Boeser can give them that, and he’s essentially their built in rental. So it doesn’t make sense to move off from him, but it also doesn’t make sense to let him walk away on July 1st. So I’ll be interested to see what happens there.
But the biggest need for the Canucks right now find some offense for this team, that even in the last four games, heading into the break when they were 3-0-1, average, just two goals per game in regulation.”
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