By Graham Burns
The Vancouver Canucks had a disappointing end to a frustrating season when they were bounced from the playoffs in the first round. After a season where the team expected to be Cup contenders, but included a 13-game losing streak in the second half of the season, it was clear some changes needed to be made throughout the roster. Here we will review the moves that Vancouver made throughout the off-season and what the roster should look like heading into the preseason.
| Monday, September 7, 2020 | Vancouver Canucks send Isac Lundestrom, Boris Katchouk, Marek Hrivik, Eric Cernak to the San Jose Sharks for Mikhail Grabovski, Michael Ferland, NAS 2028 Rnd 2, SJS 2030 Rnd 2 |
The first deal of the off-season for the Canucks helped to set the team's plan for the roster into motion. The trade sent four top-end young assets to San Jose for elite scorer Grabovski and a couple smaller assets. Grabovski has had 30 goal seasons the last two seasons and has a great cap hit for that kind of production. With Vancouver moving 4 premium assets in this deal, the wheels were set in motion to improve the pro roster at the expense of the depth of assets in Vancouver's system.
| Tuesday, September 8, 2020 | Vancouver Canucks send Janne Kuokkonen, Vincent Trocheck, VAN 2026 Rnd 1, BUF 2026 Rnd 2 to the Buffalo Sabres for Jonathan Toews, Robert Thomas, BUF 2025 Rnd 3 |
The next day Vancouver pulled off another massive trade sending young stud forward Vince Trocheck, prospect Kuokkonena with a 1st and a 2nd to get superstar Center Jonathan Toews and stud young forward Robert Thomas. Toews is a perennial 70 point scorer and replaces the veteran leadership the team lost when Perry left for UFA, but with an upgrade in skill. The price was high in having to move former 8th overall pick Trocheck, as well as Kuokkonen and a 1st, but by getting young dynamic offensive threat Thomas along with Toews, this was a trade that made too much sense for Vancouver.
| Tuesday, September 8, 2020 | Vancouver Canucks send Corey Perry to the Columbus Blue Jackets for $3,250,000 |
| Tuesday, September 8, 2020 | Vancouver Canucks send Mark Giordano to the Buffalo Sabres for $3,250,000 |
Two trades involving soon-to-be UFA's rights. Vancouver couldn't afford to keep either under their cap structure and added cash for workouts
| Friday, September 11, 2020 | New York Rangers send Keaton Ellerby to the Vancouver Canucks for Michael Ferland, Rasmus Andersson, VAN 2027 Rnd 2 |
The next big trade out of Vancouver was one that took advantage of the cap issues the Rangers were in. Ellerby is a dynamic #1 Dman who scored 22 goals last season. He will likely start on the second pair with Gardiner and Johnson continuing their law firm defensive first pairing. The price from New York was three B assets, bot most importantly for New York, ones that were farm bound.
| Thursday, September 17, 2020 | Seattle Kraken send DET 2025 Rnd 1 to the Vancouver Canucks for Joonas Korpisalo |
Completed just days before the Entry Draft, Korpisalo was thought to be the future in goal for Vancouver, but when Seattle offered the 17th pick in the draft for him, Vancouver jumped at it. Seattle turned around and dealt Korpisalo for 2 future 1sts and a prospect, so time will tell if Vancouver jumped too early in moving Korpisalo.
| Friday, September 18, 2020 | Vancouver Canucks send Brandon Whitney, Philip Larsen to the St Louis Blues for Kevin Poulin, Libor Hajek, OTT 2025 Rnd 2, NAS 2026 Rnd 2 |
With the acquisition of Ellerby, Larsen became expendable and Vancouver followed up the Korpisalo trade by bringing in a goaltender further into the development cycle. Poulin has only one year of pro experience, last season when he incredibly played all 82 games for St. Louis. His numbers were not great behind a struggling Blues team, but the Canucks think he can be their #1 after the Irving era has ended. Vancouver's previous "next goalie" in Whitney was also dealt to St. Louis where he will slide into their backup role.
FNHL Draft
In the draft, Vancouver made 4 selections:
#17 - D Ville Heinola - A two-way Dman who will spend at least one season on the farm
#23 - D Cam York - Another two-way Dman who is likely at least 2 years away
#34 - LW Samuel Fagemo - A scorer who will need a few seasons of maturing before he has a shot at a top-6 role
#94 - Arturs Silovs - A goalie who will be the backup for Utica, has a long way to go but some promise of getting there.
| Tuesday, September 29, 2020 | Vancouver Canucks send Jakob Chychurn, VAN 2027 Rnd 1 to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Sean Couturier, Devon Toews |
The last of Vancouver's big off-season trades, this one came late in the process. Vancouver sent another 1st round pick out the door, packaged with 22-year old stud Dman Chychrun to bring in Couturier and Toews. Toews has a future in the league, but was subsequently dealt to Pittsburgh for $11 mill in workout cash. So Couturier is the main piece here, giving Vancouver their 3rd 60+ point Center on the team. Much like Horvat and Toews, Couturier brings a two-way game which means one of these Centers should always be on the ice for Vancouver. In a off-season that was about pushing their chips into the middle for an attempt to win the cup, this trade sets up Vancouver's final lineup heading into the season:
LW Jordan Staal (82) - C Bo Horvat (82) - RW Mikhail Grabovski (80)
LW Elias Pettersson (78) - C Jonathan Toews (82) - RW Brock Boeser (78)
LW Dwight King (76) - C Sean Couturier (80) - RW Zach Stortini (76)
D Jake Gardiner (83) - D Erik Johnson (83)
D Keaton Ellerby (82) - D Dylan Samberg (75)
D M-E Vlasic (77) - D Dan Girardi (77)
10/13/2020 - 981 words
