The Vancouver Canucks were active on trade deadline day. In general manager Patrik Allvin’s own words, they were “involved in most of the players that were available.” They just didn’t consummate a single deal.
While other teams swung for the fences with major moves, the Canucks took their cuts and struck out, failing to land a single player that they targeted.
Jake Guentzel went to the Carolina Hurricanes the day before the deadline for a collection of prospects, conditional picks, and a roster player. Tyler Toffoli went to the Winnipeg Jets for second and third-round picks. Jason Zucker went to the Nashville Predators for a mere sixth-round pick.
There were also non-rentals that the Canucks were rumoured to be interested in, such as Frank Vatrano, Pavel Buchnevich, and Alexander Barabanov. Those players didn’t get traded at all.
Allvin suggested that the trade market wasn’t that deep, even as it appeared to be a buyer’s market, with players moved for seemingly cheap prices.
“I don’t think there was a lot of quality players available,” said Allvin.
"We already parted ways with a lot of draft picks."
The issue for the Canucks wasn’t just the acquisition cost. Theoretically, yes, the Canucks could have offered second and third-round picks for Toffoli or bettered the Predators offer for Zucker. They even could have offered up better prospects to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Guentzel.
A plethora of other obstacles stood in their way. For one, they had already traded away so many draft picks to build the current team that trading away more picks could have been costly in the long run.
“For us, we already parted ways with a lot of draft picks leading up to this point,” said Allvin. “Any chance for us to improve with a reasonable cost, not setting the future back, we definitely would have looked at it but, unfortunately, it didn’t work this time.”
In the upcoming 2024 NHL Entry Draft, the Canucks don’t have their first, second, fourth, or fifth-round picks, though they do have a fourth-round pick from the New Jersey Devils. They also don’t have a third-round pick in the 2025 draft.
So yes, the Canucks could have traded their third-round pick in 2024 and second-round pick in 2025 — the exact package that the Jets used to get Toffoli — but it would mean having just a fourth, two sixths, and a seventh in the 2024 draft and no second or third-round picks in the 2025 draft. Beyond just limiting their ability to find future stars in the draft, it would have further depleted their draft and prospect capital, hindering their ability to make deals in the future.
"We also weren't willing to part ways with future assets."
The Hurricanes were able to spend freely from their prospect pool because they have one of the deepest pools in the NHL. Their seventh-best prospect might be the third-best prospect in another system, so they could afford to part ways with a few to land Guentzel.
The Canucks, with their shallower pool, didn’t have that same luxury.
“There was definitely a big demand and ask for our younger players,” said Allvin. “I didn’t feel that where we are, that I wanted to give up [Tom] Willander, [Jonathan] Lekkerimäki, [Elias] Pettersson, [Aatu] Räty, [Max] Sasson, [Arshdeep] Bains, [Vasily] Podkolzin — those are the guys of the future here and we feel strongly about those young players.”
Here’s the thing: as much as Allvin rattled off a list of prospects he and the Canucks believe in, there’s little indication that other teams were interested in any of them beyond Willander and Lekkerimäki, who the Canucks are not willing to trade. You just have to look at Sasson’s inclusion in that list — an undrafted 23-year-old centre having an unremarkable season in the AHL — for that to be readily apparent.
Hunter Brzustewicz moved the needle for the Calgary Flames in acquiring Elias Lindholm, but beyond that, the Canucks simply didn’t have the quality mid-tier prospects in their pool that the Hurricanes used to acquire Guentzel. And with so many draft picks already traded away, deepening that prospect pool will be a challenge for the Canucks.
“There were a couple of intriguing players available and we were in those discussions and, for whatever reason, they didn’t end up here,” said Allvin. “But we also weren’t willing to part ways with future assets or the young players that we have that we believe can come in and help us here over the next couple of years.”
"It definitely made it more complicated to bring in players with salary."
Above all else, there was the Canucks’ salary cap situation — the overarching issue exacerbating all of the other issues.
The Canucks had a small amount of cap space available to make a trade and could have made a bit more room by waiving someone like Phil Di Giuseppe. But in order to add a player like Guentzel, Toffoli, or Zucker, they either needed to make a lot more cap space by including a contract going the other way in a trade or they needed to loop in a third team to retain additional salary.
“Being in LTIR…in order to facilitate a trade for us, we need to move a player out to get a player in, so obviously that’s a tougher situation than accruing cap space during the year,” said Allvin, later adding, “It definitely made it more complicated to bring in players with salary. That means you’re going to take out a player with salary or pay a third party.”
Either one of those would have significantly increased the asking price in a trade, adding more picks and prospects that the Canucks either didn’t have or didn’t want to part with.
Zucker went for just a sixth-round pick but that’s without any salary retention, meaning the Predators are paying full freight on his $5.3 million cap hit. That’s something the Canucks couldn’t even come close to doing.
"We always try to be ahead of things."
All of those obstacles left the Canucks unable to add the top-six winger that they believed they needed. Still, Allvin felt the Canucks could justify their inaction because of the moves they made earlier in the season.
“Looking at our team and where we are sitting here today with 89 points with the group we have,” said Allvin. “The pickups we did during the year — [Sam] Lafferty, [Nikita] Zadorov, and [Elias] Lindholm — we felt that we strengthened our team and played really well.”
“We always try to be ahead of things,” said Allvin, “even getting players in earlier, so they have a chance to adjust.”
"I think Phil is a great person and a well-respected player."
Even with all that in mind, however, there was one addition they could have made to their roster without losing a single prospect or draft pick: signing Phil Kessel.
In his 17-year career, Kessel has 413 goals and 992 points in 1286 regular season games. He’s added 34 goals and 83 points in 100 playoff games, winning three Stanley Cups in the process. But Kessel also hasn’t played since April 24, 2023 and was a healthy scratch for that final Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Canucks chose not to offer Kessel a contract after he worked out with their AHL affiliate over the past month.
“I think Phil is a great person and a well-respected player. What he has done in the league — a three-time Cup winner — he wanted to come back to play,” said Allvin. “With being in LTIR, roster complications, and how we want to play, unfortunately, at this point, it wasn’t a fit for us.”
That last reason seems telling: “how we want to play.” As much as the Canucks signing Kessel would have been a great story, there was always that lingering question of where he would fit in the lineup.
At this point in his career, Kessel isn’t a top-six forward but the Canucks don’t want to play the style of game that would allow Kessel to be sheltered on the fourth line and used as a power play specialist. They want a fourth line that they can throw on the ice at any time against any opponent.
“Hopefully, [the fourth line] can find that identity again of being hard to play against and play with speed,” said Allvin. “I think that line here over the last stretch of games with Teddy [Blueger], Sam Lafferty, and [Phil] Di Giuseppe has played pretty good.”
So, that’s it. The trade deadline came and went without a single move from the Canucks. Is that a mistake from this front office, especially with so many rival teams loading up, or was standing pat the right decision?
