Canucks & NHL News, Rumours, and & Fantasy GM | Playing out the stretch.

[StreetHawk]

To me you are looking at Columbus and Buffalo.

Both make sense for a need of a good young RHD with the ability to trade good young Fs.

You fix one problem and create a hole elsewhere. After Hronek, you have 2 more years of Myers who turns 37 when his deal is up. At best then, probably #3 RHD if he were to continue on. And no clue if Mancini is any better than a 3rd pairing guy, which for a guy drafted where he was, is a good career. May just have to sign someone and hope to do better than what they have shown, ala FLA.

Then they are searching for another RHD. At some point, have to show some patience and develop their guys.

 

[Vector]

Willander has a ton of value. What would be some good targets to look at? Assuming we'd go after a under 25 Centre with potential.

Semi-curated, but not really, list using this criteria.

Leo Carlsson
Trevor Zegras
Mason McTavish
Logan Cooley
Connor Bedard
Adam Fantilli
Cole Sillinger
Marco Kasper
Anton Lundell
Quinton Byfield
Marco Rossi
Jack Hughes
Dawson Mercer
Tim Stutzle
Dylan Cozens
Macklin Celebrini
Matthew Beniers
Shane Wright
Zach Bolduc

 

[Ernie]

I would easily trade a first and Willander for McTavish. I don't mean to say that I don't value Willander, or think that he will bust, but Willander is far from a certain thing, and McTavish is a good two-way centre that is on pace to score 58 points over a full season. And he's 22, and has scored 138 points in his first 224 games in the NHL, which over your 20-22 year old seasons, is great production.

The reality is that Anaheim wouldn't even consider making this type of trade. Perhaps they would if Willander had already had a good first rookie season.

Moving Willander just creates another hole. Myers can't be the #4 forever and I don't think Mancini project's to be a top 4 defender. As much as I like the player, moving EP25 would make more sense as Markus Pettersson is signed for 6 more seasons and is firmly entrenched in the 2nd LD position after Hughes. You also have Mynio and Kudratsev in the system on the left side.

 

[StreetHawk]

Semi-curated, but not really, list using this criteria.

Leo Carlsson
Trevor Zegras
Mason McTavish
Logan Cooley
Connor Bedard
Adam Fantilli
Cole Sillinger
Marco Kasper
Anton Lundell
Quinton Byfield
Marco Rossi
Jack Hughes
Dawson Mercer
Tim Stutzle
Dylan Cozens
Macklin Celebrini
Matthew Beniers
Shane Wright
Zach Bolduc

Wallander should be like Matenyk of CBJ who started in the A and ultimately made the NHL team and despite a July bday, is going to actually accrue a year towards ufa if he remains on the club for the remainder of the season. CBJ could have delayed his callup and kept him under the half season on the roster needed to accrue the year.

So, I think it's hard to convince a team to trade an NHL roster player for someone who is just on the cusp of making the NHL. Outside of a couple of players, like Kasper/Wright/ those are all NHLers next season.

 

[ephmrl]

Not sure why people are talking about trading Willander. The right side of the defence is thin past Hronek and an aging Myers. WIllander will be on the roster next season and Mancini will either be the 7D or developing in Abbotsford.

If they're trading a D prospect it'll be a LD, where there is a bit of a logjam now. If EP2 is untouchable (which he should be right now), that leaves Kudryatsev and Mynio as trade options to pair with the 2025 1st for a 2C.

 

[Canucks LB]

Exactly what I thought was gonna happen.

Willander being available alongside the 1st round pick for a young C.

The issue is why not just overpay sam Bennett a stupid amount and keep willander, why do we have to trade one of our best prospects to fix a f***ing bullshit situation that JT and Petey put us in

 

[Canucks LB]

Semi-curated, but not really, list using this criteria.

Leo Carlsson
Trevor Zegras
Mason McTavish
Logan Cooley
Connor Bedard
Adam Fantilli
Cole Sillinger
Marco Kasper
Anton Lundell
Quinton Byfield
Marco Rossi
Jack Hughes
Dawson Mercer
Tim Stutzle
Dylan Cozens
Macklin Celebrini
Matthew Beniers
Shane Wright
Zach Bolduc

Those are the only players I would trade Willander in a package for.

 

[JT Milker]

Exactly what I thought was gonna happen.

Willander being available alongside the 1st round pick for a young C.

The issue is why not just overpay sam Bennett a stupid amount and keep willander, why do we have to trade one of our best prospects to fix a f***ing bullshit situation that JT and Petey put us in

Bennett is not signing here.

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

Semi-curated, but not really, list using this criteria.

Leo Carlsson
Trevor Zegras
Mason McTavish
Logan Cooley
Connor Bedard
Adam Fantilli
Cole Sillinger
Marco Kasper
Anton Lundell
Quinton Byfield
Marco Rossi
Jack Hughes
Dawson Mercer
Tim Stutzle
Dylan Cozens
Macklin Celebrini
Matthew Beniers
Shane Wright
Zach Bolduc

The bolded are the only ones I believe could be obtainable AND who I would give Willander up for.

But I'm not keen to do it for Rossi given his size.

Wright has been criticized before on his compete level.

Of all of them, McTavish is the one. And he seems like a Tocchet player.

 

[quat]

Can't listen to the show right now to confirm (and I haven't seen it posted on social media), but from the trade board:

The idea that Willander was now a possible trade candidate popped up a couple of weeks back with the talk about him possibly returning to school for another year. Not sure I'd make the assumption that Junior and Mancini will continue to improve as has been discussed of late. I get why they're doing this (from a point of lacking any trade chips of value), with a massive hole at Centre up front, but it's massively risky to assume your two rookie defenders are going to works out.

Smells like how coming into this season was on defense.

Or maybe they like what they see on the farm from Kuds and the other prospects?

 

[Hodgy]

Moving Willander just creates another hole. Myers can't be the #4 forever and I don't think Mancini project's to be a top 4 defender. As much as I like the player, moving EP25 would make more sense as Markus Pettersson is signed for 6 more seasons and is firmly entrenched in the 2nd LD position after Hughes. You also have Mynio and Kudratsev in the system on the left side.

Ya, totally fair. But I'd still do the trade for McTavish because our "hole" up front is much bigger than it would be on the backend without Willander.

But, ideally, yes, we trade EPII, Mancini, Mynio or Kyudratsev.

 

[credulous]

The bolded are the only ones I believe could be obtainable AND who I would give Willander up for.

But I'm not keen to do it for Rossi given his size.

Wright has been criticized before on his compete level.

Of all of them, McTavish is the one. And he seems like a Tocchet player.

why does everyone think mctavish and wright are available? those two are as close to untouchable as anyone in the league imo

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

Like any negotiations, mgmt likely starts with a package.

I think they start with Kud given is age, production in the AHL, ability to move the puck and "less" needed skillset internally compared to other younger dmen (EP2, Mancini, Mynio).

Hoglander has ticked up the last bit to have hopefully raised his value somewhat. Given he's still relatively young, scored 20g last year and signed for a few years at a good cap hit compared to the increasing cap, he could be a trade candidate.

So Hoglander, Kud + 1st could be this year's Raymond, Ballard + 2nd.

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

why does everyone think mctavish and wright are available? those two are as close to untouchable as anyone in the league imo

Fine. We'll take Carlsson instead.

 

[Snatcher Demko]

why does everyone think mctavish and wright are available? those two are as close to untouchable as anyone in the league imo

Yeah, very hard to envision why ANH and SEA would ever trade these guys.

FWIW I think we should keep Willander. In a couple of years you have Hronek, Willander and Mancini as RHD. Maybe Lekk could be tradebait...

 

[StreetHawk]

Fine. We'll take Carlsson instead.

Reality is fine and expectation of the other club. Wallander, IMO is likely to begin in the A if there is hope for him to develop his offensive game. Needs to become more confident handling and moving the puck.

If you give up a C who is an NHLer, can you afford to take that step back without upgrading the roster in another area?

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Not sure why people are talking about trading Willander. The right side of the defence is thin past Hronek and an aging Myers. WIllander will be on the roster next season and Mancini will either be the 7D or developing in Abbotsford.

If they're trading a D prospect it'll be a LD, where there is a bit of a logjam now. If EP2 is untouchable (which he should be right now), that leaves Kudryatsev and Mynio as trade options to pair with the 2025 1st for a 2C.

I'm not in the camp of wanting to move Willander either, but I suspect the logic is - if the Canucks feel they have two legitimate NHL d-men in Mancini and D-Petey, and the rest of their core defenders locked up beyond this season (Hughes, Hronek, MP3, Myers), they may feel that Willander is the best chip available to them to try and acquire a top six forward if they cannot entice one on the free agent market.

Again, I'm not in the trade Willander camp either - for the right deal that knocks my socks off, maybe - like an equivalent C prospect of the same age. But I think Willander is going to be an excellent player for a long time, and not someone I'm keen to move. Defense wins championships.

 

[vancityluongo]

Willander does have a lot of value, but posters need to understand that we are targeting a similar piece but at centre, but one that is also in their early to mid twenties and has progressed well (i.e., the asset is far more de-risked than Willander). So you just aren't going to get the kind of player back for Willander that some on here expect, or you are going to have to add.

even beyond the lhd/rhd thing, this is why i'd keep willander over d-petey jr. (dpj). but let's look at the side thing for a second:

hughes - hronek
m.petey - xxx
xxx - mancini/xxx

if we accept this as the general framework for the defense two years out after myers retires, unless there's a separate move to bring in an rhd for the top-4, idk how we can look at the left vs right side and decide that we deal from the right.

further to that - as much as we're all in love with dpj, it's because he is proving that he can hold his own in nhl games right now. he is inherently derisked relative to willander. that impacts trade value. to your point, we need an impact centre, but we absolutely cannot be taking risk on a potential bust (ie. cayden lindstrom) because we need that return to play as a 2c asap.

unless they've soured on willander for whatever reason or they're that enamoured with dpj that they think any realistic return isn't worth it - i'd rather take some risk on d by keeping the more unproven player (albeit, at the more premium side of the ice) rather than giving that up in the return or needing to add other assets to compensate for it.

 

[beachcomber]

Management should all be fired if they trade Willander. That type of trade has Cam Neely written all over it.

 

[credulous]

i don't have any problem with them trading anyone on the roster or in the system beyond hughes (and maybe pettersson but only because i'm skeptical they can get value for him) but i don't see a realistic trade for a good young 2c. if they swap their pick and willander for something like nicolas roy or mavrik bourque or shane pinto i'll really question the competence of this management team

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

Moving Willander just creates another hole. Myers can't be the #4 forever and I don't think Mancini project's to be a top 4 defender. As much as I like the player, moving EP25 would make more sense as Markus Pettersson is signed for 6 more seasons and is firmly entrenched in the 2nd LD position after Hughes. You also have Mynio and Kudratsev in the system on the left side.

The problem is you have to give to take. McTavish is a legit second line center at only 22, with potentially to be even better. If he's available and Anaheim wants Willander, we'd be crazy not to make that trade. While it may hurt us trying to find someone to eventually replace Myers, it's going to hurt us a lot sooner if we have a giant hole at center.

It all boils down to either cross our fingers and hope Chytil isn't knocked out by a stiff breeze or accept losing Willander. I'd much prefer trading Lekkerimaki, but I don't think he'll command the same return.

 

[Ernie]

The problem is you have to give to take. McTavish is a legit second line center at only 22, with potentially to be even better. If he's available and Anaheim wants Willander, we'd be crazy not to make that trade. While it may hurt us trying to find someone to eventually replace Myers, it's going to hurt us a lot sooner if we have a giant hole at center.

It all boils down to either cross our fingers and hope Chytil isn't knocked out by a stiff breeze or accept losing Willander. I'd much prefer trading Lekkerimaki, but I don't think he'll command the same return.

Lekkerimaki is an elite shooter and that would be trading from a position of weakness, not strength. They'll be looking to squeeze some scoring from him next season.

 

[NoShowWilly]

It is a f***ing illness how many assets this organization spends considering where they have stood in the league for the last decade.

Just keep paying to get rid of guys, never sell guys, pay top end assets to chase guys, let quality walk away often after paying for them because their is no plan.

 

[Baby Pettersson]

It is a f***ing illness how many assets this organization spends considering where they have stood in the league for the last decade.

Just keep paying to get rid of guys, never sell guys, pay top end assets to chase guys, let quality walk away often after paying for them because their is no plan.

Still boggles my mind they didn't recoup any value at the deadline. Which then could be flipped this offseason to properly fix this team. But no let's just let a bunch of UFAs walk for nothing.

 

[FuzzyTitus]

I get why people think trading EP2 over Willander makes more sense, but I have a feeling management won't part with EP2 until Hughes is locked up long term (or at least commits informally to sign an extension).

Losing Willander sucks, but trading EP2 and losing Hughes would be catastrophic. At least you have a 1RD in Hronek.

Smart move would be to wait until July 2026, Hughes is Extended, then EP2 becomes a trade chip (with 2 years NHL run time). But no way ownership let's them wait that long.

Sign Marner/Ehlers, and maybe Lekk is somewhat of a luxury. Realistically need Lekk + big name UFA.