Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin seems to like shaking up his team at the end of January. Since becoming the GM of the Canucks, he has made big trades on either Jan. 30 or 31, first dealing Bo Horvat on Jan. 30, 2023, to the New York Islanders, then acquiring Elias Lindholm on Jan. 31, 2024, from the Calgary Flames, and yesterday (Jan. 31, 2025), trading J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers and acquiring Marcus Pettersson and Drew O’Connor from the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Related: Canucks Had to Trade J.T. Miller
All in all, the Canucks removed three players from their active roster on Friday with Miller heading to New York and Vincent Desharnais and Danton Heinen off to Pittsburgh. In return, they added Filip Chytil and Victor Mancini from the Rangers and Pettersson and O’Connor from the Penguins, making Friday the biggest trade day (more accurately, evening) in Allvin’s history as Canucks GM.
With all that said, let’s meet the latest members of the blue and green, who fans will see quickly in their new colours on Sunday against the Detroit Red Wings – minus Mancini, who might be on his way to Abbotsford.
Filip Chytil
The main piece of the Miller trade, Chytil was drafted 21st overall by the Rangers in 2017 out of HC Zlín of the Czechia league. He quickly transitioned to North America the following season, making the team out of training camp and debuting in the NHL on Oct. 5, 2017, against the Colorado Avalanche. He ended up playing only two games before being sent down to the American Hockey League’s Hartford Wolf Pack where he spent most of the season until his return on March 26, 2018 against the Washington Capitals. He scored his first NHL goal a couple of days later against the Tampa Bay Lightning and finished the season with a goal and three points in nine games.
Chytil made the jump to the NHL full-time in 2018-19 and has only seen the AHL once in the past seven seasons. He is now closing in on the 400-game mark with 75 goals and 164 points in 378 games, highlighted by a career-high 22 goals and 45 points in 2022-23. He was also a standout in the 2022 Playoffs where he had seven goals in 20 games, helping the Rangers to the Eastern Conference Final.
Unfortunately, Chytil has a long history of injuries, with at least four documented concussions on his resume. His latest kept him out for almost the entire 2023-24 season, where he played only 10 games before returning in the playoffs against the Carolina Hurricanes on May 9, 2024. Canucks fans know all too well the risk of having players with a history of this injury as Tucker Poolman and Micheal Ferland have seen their careers end prematurely because of it. Hopefully, that does not become the case with Chytil, because at 25 years old, he still has a lot of upside to his game.
When healthy, Chytil is a dynamic and fast skater with size (6-foot-3, 209 pounds) and hands. He is capable of scoring 20 goals in this league, and has been one of the Rangers’ top point producers at five-on-five for forwards who play an average of 14 minutes a night. He also centered the team’s highly effective “Kid Line” with Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko during his 22-goal season when he looked poised for a bigger role before his latest concussion.
Now, with Miller gone, Chytil will get the opportunity to be the Canucks’ second-line center and might even get onto the first power-play unit with Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and Jake DeBrusk. With his skillset, he could return to the form that had everyone thinking he could be a fixture in the Rangers’ top six alongside the likes of Artemi Panarin and Chris Kreider. Fans definitely hope that’s the case with what the Canucks gave up to get him.
Victor Mancini
While Mancini might feel like a throw-in, he’s anything but, and could become a sneaky-good acquisition for the Canucks down the road. Drafted in the fifth round (159th overall) in 2022 by the Rangers, the now-22-year-old right shot is looking like a bit of a steal so far in his short career. Recently finishing a three-year stint in the NCAA with the University of Nebraska-Omaha, he made his NHL debut this season on Oct. 9 against the Penguins and already has a goal and five points in 15 games. He hasn’t been with the Rangers since Dec. 14, but has a solid three goals and 10 points in 23 games in the AHL playing for the Wolf Pack.
A lot of analysts and prospect experts weighed in on Mancini in the hours after the Canucks acquired him, and everything said should have fans excited about his future with the team. Former Canucks defenceman Frankie Corrado was especially glowing in his review saying, “Mancini is more than just a throw in for the Canucks. Big, strong, physical, can skate, mobile, isn’t afraid to carry the puck and can do it well. A raw talent, late bloomer who will still have to prove it but has all the necessary skills to do so. Saw him in person earlier this year and was impressed.”
Mancini might not get a permanent spot in the lineup right away, but he should be a very interesting prospect to watch in the AHL moving forward. With the Canucks needing more two-way defencemen that can move the puck, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the NHL sooner rather than later.
Marcus Pettersson
It didn’t take long for Allvin to use one of the assets he got in the Miller trade to upgrade the top four of his defence corps. Dipping into his old haunt, the Penguins, he acquired a defenceman he has a lot of history with. While Pettersson was drafted by the Anaheim Ducks in 2014, Allvin was there when Jim Rutherford traded for him in 2018 and three seasons after that before he was hired by the Canucks in 2022.
Since arriving from the Ducks, Pettersson has turned into a solid top-four defenceman in the NHL, averaging over 20 minutes a night and a lot of time on the penalty kill. This season, he leads all Penguins defenders with 128:38 shorthanded (averaging 2:44 per game). He also isn’t afraid to put his body into harm’s way, hitting triple digits in hits (121) and blocks (159) last season. While he isn’t known for his offence (only 17 goals and 151 points in 491 games), he is a good skater and puck mover that will be an upgrade on Derek Forbort in the top four. He should also solidify the penalty kill in the absence of Ian Cole, who led the way in shorthanded ice time in 2023-24.
The one question with Pettersson is whether the Canucks will re-sign him before he becomes an unrestricted free agent (UFA) on July 1. Giving up a first-round pick is a high price to pay for a rental, especially when it’s not a guarantee that they will make the playoffs. But with Allvin and Rutherford’s history with him, they might have a leg up in contract negotiations given Rutherford was the GM that signed him to his last two extensions – including the five-year deal he is finishing up right now.
Drew O’Connor
Finally, we have O’Connor, an undrafted free agent that was signed by Rutherford and the Penguins out of the NCAA’s Dartmouth College in 2020. At the time, Rutherford described him as “a powerful skater with good hands,” and someone that could help the Penguins sooner rather than later. Coming off a productive two years with Dartmouth where he scored 38 goals and 59 points in 65 games and won the NCAA’s Ivy-League Player of the Year award, he was definitely a prospect worth taking a flier on.
O’Connor made his NHL debut in the 2020-21 season and ended up playing only 10 games with the Penguins. He spent most of his time in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton where he scored seven goals and 19 points in 20 games. He has only recently become a full-time NHLer, with his coming out party happening last season when he had a career-high 16 goals and 33 points in 79 games. This was after a breakout performance at the 2023 World Championship where he had three goals and eight points for Team USA.
A speedy and versatile winger capable of playing up and down the lineup – similar to Heinen – O’Connor should fit in nicely in the middle six and the penalty kill. He also could slot in the top-six as he’s shown the ability to play with elite players like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, two centers he’s seen a decent amount of even-strength ice time with. According to Natural Stat Trick, he has played 108:12 with Malkin and 88:21 with Crosby, but most of his time has come in the bottom-six with the likes of Kevin Hayes, Philip Tomasino and Jesse Puljujarvi.
When it comes to offence this season, O’Connor has six goals in 53 games, the exact amount Heinen had. He will basically replace Heinen both where he was in the lineup at five on five and on the penalty kill – taking up shop in the second wave after Teddy Blueger and Pius Suter. Again, this is a player Allvin and Rutherford are very familiar with, so they will likely look to re-sign the upcoming UFA if he fits into the roster right away.
Home Debuts Will Come Quickly
Canucks fans will get to see at least three of the new faces at Rogers Arena on Sunday when they face the Red Wings. It remains to be seen where each will slot in, but if I had to guess, I would think Pettersson will lineup alongside Filip Hronek on the second pairing, O’Connor will be in the bottom-six and Chytil will debut on the second line with Conor Garland and either Dakota Joshua or Nils Hoglander. Whatever the case, the Canucks will look a whole lot different than the team that skated off against the Dallas Stars on Friday.
