Now with the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline passed, this is the final group the Vancouver Canucks will ice as they push toward the final spot in the Wild Card standings.
The club currently sits one point behind the Calgary Flames for the final playoff spot, with the St. Louis Blues and Utah Hockey Club not far behind, trailing Vancouver by one and two points, respectively.
Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin met with the media following the trade deadline and discussed the trade market from his perspective of it and his look on the team moving forward:
“Yeah, definitely was an interesting market with some of the moves here. The biggest reason I felt that we didn’t do any moves here today was [that] there was not a whole lot of market return on our players. Unfortunately, that didn’t really make sense for [us].
“[There’s] 21 games left, and every single one is going to be a playoff game. It’s just going to get harder and harder, and we’re going to continue with the next game and talent here. Great to see some of the younger players getting an opportunity here to be part of this stretch run here as well. They earned it and deserved to be part of this.”
While the Canucks didn’t make a trade on actual trade deadline day, the club moved Carson Soucy to the New York Rangers in exchange for a third-round pick. Here are Allvin’s comments on what went into his decision to move on from the defenceman:
“Well, a couple of things. The improvement here of some of our younger defencemen in D-Petey, [Victor] Mancini coming aboard. [Kirill] Kudryavtsev’s play down in Abbotsford, Sawyer Mynio coming in next year, and potentially Tom Willander here as well. So we felt the competition that we have created here was not a guarantee to have Carson in the lineup every day, and conversations with his agent over a couple of weeks led up to this decision for us yesterday.”
This management regime has become famous for trading players for assets and then immediately flipping them for players to help the current team. Allvin was asked if that third-round pick acquired for Soucy was intended to be used in similar fashion or as a stand-alone asset:
“Yeah, I would say a stand-alone. For a third-round pick, there was really nothing available there. I think there was some discussion from my end [that] if there was a bigger package that makes sense for us moving forward, to be part of that. But not for any rental players at this time.
The Canucks didn’t do any selling or any buying today. Which makes their decision to accrue salary cap space to have the room to make an impact add at this deadline all the more puzzling. If the team wasn’t going to be sellers and push for the playoffs, why didn’t they use that space?
“Well first, if we would have positioned ourselves a little bit better, that definitely would have made it easier. I guess the market is always tough to read, but with so many teams still involved, you can see some of the players that got moved, the prices were high. I also didn’t want to give up some of our younger players that most of the teams were asking for. I didn’t feel we’re in that position to give up the younger players that we have developed here now over the last couple of years that we’re seeing with the big team here. So that’s why I felt where we are, this group is capable to compete here, with the help of Quinn Hughes and [Thatcher] Demko coming back here too.”
Allvin stated that the club were not comfortable adding, considering the high acquisition cost for pending free agents around the league. But with the hot market, he stated that there really wasn’t a market to trade any of their free agents, either. Allvin was asked why the prices were too high to acquire players, but not high enough to sell any of his:
“Yeah, good question. I think that’s a question you might want to ask the other teams. I think definitely leading up to today, my conversation with other teams made me aware that there might be a situation as we are here today, that we didn’t do any moves. I made some players’ agents aware that this seems to be a market for some of the players. You can also see that some of the players that were dealt, they have certain playoff experience. Some of the players have performed well in bigger games, and I think that’s what some of the teams are looking for.
The Canucks’ biggest expiring asset that would have netted an exciting return, was Brock Boeser. But apparently, Allvin didn’t like any of the returns:
“If I told you what I was offered for Brock Boeser, I think I would have to run out of here because you would not believe me.”
Since they weren’t able to trade Boeser, is there still hope the team can extend the American sniper?
“We continue to talk here. I have a great relationship with Brock’s agent, so he’s been informed for months [on] where this might end up. Definitely not a surprise, I don’t think for either one of us that Brock is still here. Late last night, I just informed him that this, unfortunately, seems to be where it’s trending. I would imagine that Brock is extremely hungry to finish off strong here and prove that he’s that he is a good player in this league, and we’ll continue to talk.”
There were rumours that the club spoke with Boeser earlier today regarding a contract extension ahead of the trade deadline. However, those talks did not get far as Donnie & Dhali’s Rick Dhaliwal reported that the two sides remain far apart. Here’s what Allvin had to say regarding those negotiations:
“We talked briefly last night. But again, leading up to this, I had conversation with his agent, made him aware that this might happen, that he’s still going to be here. As of last night and even this morning, when I informed Tocchet about a potential lineup [for tonight’s game], that’s the reason why he was out there skating, that there wasn’t any deals there.”
The other Canucks forward that is a pending UFA is Pius Suter. Here’s what the GM said regarding his outlook on the player:
“Pius has been used in a lot of different positions and handles that Swiss Army Knife really well for us. [He] is a respected player around our staff here. He has expressed interest in staying, and we’ll see if we can figure out a way that both sides feel good about it.”
Despite not improving the team for their playoff push or building toward the future today, Allvin didn’t sound too disappointed with today’s outcome:
“Disappointed? I think you guys know us; I don’t think I use this day as a defining day of how you build a team. For us, it’s a continuation from day one. I believe I could still make a trade tomorrow; if I do tomorrow, that player can play in the playoffs, but I’m happy with the players we have. And again, like, if there wasn’t any market value, I think that’s up to the other teams, how they view our players.”
However, Allvin knows that it would be a disappointment for the team not to make the playoffs this year, considering the success last season:
“I think it’s disappointing. You always want to make the playoffs. You always want to be in playing those big games. That being said, we’re sitting here, as many other teams, having 20 really important games. I think that’s great. I know roster is one thing, but the other day, I was informed that we had the fifth-youngest team on the roster [in the league] with the trades we did leading up to here. For different reasons, too, we handled some of the adversities. That’s my point. I think you learn through adversity what you have in certain individuals, and if you can continue to build on that. I do think that some of the players felt the pressure of expectations going up in this market. But again, I think that’s something we got to learn how to handle as a group and as a team. I guess we evaluate the season more once it’s over.”
We’ll end off with one of the Allvin’s final quotes of the day:
“I wasn’t necessarily looking to add an older player just to get into this year’s playoff. I think it was a bigger picture for us.”
It was hard to refrain from giving an opinion today as we listened to this press conference. But this just is too confusing not to touch on.
We can probably agree that with the state of the current team, adding a rental player at the cost of young assets or draft picks is the right decision. And while it’s frustrating not to see them use the accrued cap space for this very moment, Allvin was right. Given where they are, it just didn’t make sense because of the situation the team has put them in.
That’s fine.
But that last sentence, “I think it was a bigger picture for us.” If that’s your stance, focusing on the bigger picture, why were there no moves to focus on that “bigger picture”? Boeser, sure, longest-tenured Canuck, scores goals, don’t want to diminish playoff hopes too bad, hold onto him and hope to extend him later – even though Allvin disrespected him by some of his answers today.
But Suter? Forbort? Not moved? In this market? That’s some catastrophic asset management if you’re truly thinking “bigger picture”.
