The Vancouver Canucks got ahead of the game by adding Elias Lindholm over a month before the trade deadline, but apparently aren’t done making moves. President of hockey operations Jim Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin are still in the market for a defenceman to bolster their depth and are closing in on signing Phil Kessel who is a free agent right now. While it appears they are done with the blockbuster trades, the weeks leading up to the deadline could still be interesting to follow for Canucks fans. With that said, here are three moves (not necessarily trades) that they should make before March 8.
Add a Solid Depth Defenceman
The Canucks will essentially have a deadline addition in the form of Carson Soucy around March 8, but they could still use another solid depth defender for the stretch run and into the playoffs. Names like Chris Tanev, Ilya Lyubushkin, and Alexandre Carrier have been speculated as targets, and they all have a few things in common: toughness, shot-blocking and what many people call “hard to play against”.
The preference of every Canucks fan is probably Tanev, but the Calgary Flames don’t seem to be wavering from their ask of a first-round pick. Teams are reportedly offering second-rounders instead, but even that will be difficult for Allvin and Rutherford to muster considering they don’t have a first or a second until 2025 at the earliest. They of course traded their first in the Lindholm deal and their second to the Chicago Blackhawks in October 2022 as a sweetener to take Jason Dickinson off their hands.
Unfortunately, Tanev might be staying in Calgary until the Flames are firmly out of the playoff race. Since acquiring Andrei Kuzmenko, they have gone on a bit of a heater and are now three points out of a wild card spot. Selling might be on the back burner for Craig Conroy and company as a result.
As for the other names floating around, Carrier and Lyubushkin would add a similar element to the Canucks’ defence, but might still require a second-round pick going the other way. Carrier appears to be a younger Tanev; calm, cool and low maintenance. He does his job out there with very little pomp and circumstance and would be the perfect depth defenceman to cycle in and out of the lineup. Lyubushkin is the bigger option at 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, and could be had for a cheaper price tag, considering he went to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the 2022 Trade Deadline for Nick Ritchie and a conditional pick.
Related: Canucks News & Rumors: Soucy, Woo, Hoglander & More
While he’s not been officially connected to the Canucks, Erik Johnson of the Buffalo Sabres also checks all the boxes of what Allvin and Rutherford want to add. He is a veteran with a lot of playoff experience (and a recent Stanley Cup) and would bring the same attributes of size, physicality and shot blocking to the table – at a much lesser cost. I could see a playoff team acquiring him for as little as a fourth or fifth-round pick.
Explore Trading Ilya Mikheyev
Since signing with the Canucks in 2022, Ilya Mikheyev has only scored 23 goals in 96 games. Injuries and inconsistency have plagued the Russian winger, and with the upcoming plethora of unrestricted and restricted free agents in the offseason, his contract is starting to become a bit of an albatross. This season, he started great with 10 goals in his first 28 games but has gone ice-cold since then. His last goal came nearly two months ago on Dec. 17 against the Blackhawks, and he has gone an eye-popping 22 games without popping one in the net. That’s just not good enough for a guy getting paid $4.75 million average annual value (AAV) for the next two years.
While Mikheyev is good defensively and adds value to the penalty kill, $4.75 million is far too much to pay for those attributes. The Canucks need that money to re-sign Elias Pettersson, Filip Hronek, Elias Lindholm, Dakota Joshua and Teddy Blueger, so something has to give. Maybe Allvin can relieve the pressure by trading another underwhelming Russian forward. Unfortunately, he too has a modified no-trade clause (NTC), meaning a trade could be difficult to pull off. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try and see what’s out there. With Mikheyev being shuttled down to the fourth line and Nils Hoglander looking more and more like a top-six winger by the day, maybe it’s time to move on and replace him with someone on an entry-level contract (ELC).
Call Up Vasily Podkolzin & Reunite Him With JT Miller
American Hockey League (AHL) life is treating Vasily Podkolzin very well right now. He has a career-high 14 goals and 26 points in 37 games (coincidentally the same totals as his rookie season in the NHL, albeit in 79 games), and is on pace for 25 goals and 46 points. With every passing game, his confidence keeps growing and he is looking more and more like the player the Canucks drafted 10th overall in 2019. He is still a madman on the forecheck, but he’s added a more consistent offensive game and a surprisingly lethal one-timer on the power play.
It’s only a matter of time before Podkolzin gets the call back to the NHL. However, it seems the Canucks are intent on giving him the Hoglander treatment and keeping him there even when injuries strike the forward group. Linus Karlsson is the designated call-up man right now, but if a move is made to jettison a player like Mikheyev, Podkolzin should be the first name on Allvin’s lips when he calls down to Abbotsford. When that happens, he should be placed with his old friend JT Miller in the top-six and on the second-unit power play so that fans can witness his new weapon at work. He played his best hockey in the NHL with the Canucks’ leading scorer, and I think he would thrive on his wing right now.
As a result, Lindholm would move back to Pettersson’s line with Hoglander, and Suter would go down to the fourth line with Sam Lafferty and Nils Aman – assuming Mikheyev is traded. In an ideal world, Podkolzin would be called up regardless, but I don’t see that happening unless Mikheyev is moved.
Canucks Won’t Be Quiet At the Deadline
The Canucks probably won’t be major players on March 8, but I would expect Allvin and Rutherford to make at least one more move before then. Look for a small addition to the blue line and maybe a deal to free up some cap space for roster call-ups like Podkolzin. Regardless of what moves they make, they are in a position that not many fans and analysts expected at this point of the season, first in the NHL. Even if they make zero moves at all, they are still a Stanley Cup contender that might be even better than their 2010 and 2011 counterparts that won the President’s Trophy twice and went to the Stanley Cup Final.
The Canucks are back at it tonight against the Detroit Red Wings as they start a brief two-game homestand.
