With six draft selections and a minor trade, the Vancouver Canucks may be deeper than they were when the weekend started, but they are in no way an improved hockey club. Oh sure, in time, the players added to the fold may help the Canucks. But as far as putting a better product on the ice next season is concerned, the quest for upgrades has simply been kicked down the road.
Now, to be fair, the decentralized draft environment did not produce the league-wide trade activity so many had hoped for. So it’s not like the Canucks sat on the sidelines while those around them were wheeling and dealing. Sure, there were a couple of moves that got the hockey world buzzing, but the two days of draft weekend didn’t produce the fireworks that had been anticipated. In that regard, the Canucks weren’t alone when it came to unfulfilled hopes of draft day deals.
Still, the 15th overall pick that had been burning a hole in their pocket for weeks was one of the team’s best trade chips. And instead of finding a way to package it for short-term help at centre ice, the Canucks played the long game and stepped to the virtual podium to select Seattle Thunderbirds pivot Braeden Cootes.
The Sherwood Park, AB native checks a lot of boxes for the Canucks. But the kid just turned 18 in February and is likely three years away from his National Hockey League debut. He’s even further from being a meaningful piece of the Canucks puzzle.
That leaves the front office facing the same issues today that it has for months now. How does it adequately fill the gaping holes at the top of the team’s lineup?
The trade route hasn’t entirely dried up as an option. But all 32 teams are likely to focus much of their energy over the next 48 to 72 hours on free agency. So, trades will have to wait. According to PuckPedia, the Canucks have a shade over $7M to spend on the open market. With a rising salary cap and a thin free agent pool, the Canucks will surely find themselves having to outbid other suitors for the services of Mikael Granlund, Jack Roslovic and possibly Andrew Mangiapane. All of them can play, but do any of them move the needle and fit the bill to make the Canucks better?
It’s also fair to ask if any are better than Pius Suter? And, of course, the Canucks already had Suter in the fold and yet the object of the exercise remains to improve the roster not just keep it intact. The same can be said of Brock Boeser.
At this juncture, it certainly appears and feels as though both Suter and Boeser will test the market. It doesn’t close the door on either player returning, but the Canucks have to brace themselves for the idea that both players will find the kind of deals they’re looking for elsewhere.
That leaves Vancouver with the very real uncertainty attached to both Elias Pettersson and Filip Chytil at centre ice and Jake DeBrusk, Conor Garland, Kiefer Sherwood and newly acquired Evander Kane on the wings as the team’s top offensive producers. It’s so clear how much help this franchise needs to put a competitive team on the ice in October.
Realistically, the Canucks might be able to land one of their free agent targets, but it’s hard to see them doing much more in those muddied waters with the limited resources they have to spend. And that will quickly put them right back in trade mode to address their most pressing issues for next season and beyond.
So while the draft and free agency may provide distractions for a few days, they do little to change the conversation around the Vancouver Canucks. They remain a team that must be prepared to shed assets to find solutions to their problems.
To this point, they clearly haven’t been prepared to pay the asking prices on the trade market. However, when the dust settles in a few days on free agency and the Canucks have a clearer picture of the landscape around them and a better sense of a track to the playoffs, they’ll likely be left with no choice but to pull off a sizable trade or two. As it was last week and still remains today, the trade route seems to be their best – and possibly only – path to instant improvement.
It all boils down to how willing the Canucks are to part with a package of players and prospects to bring about meaningful change.
