Garland is in a funk right now and has been underwhelming to his standards. He was earmarked to be a mainstay on the third scoring line along with Horvat or Miller and Hoglander... but when Miller regressed back to wing, he is left with Dries. He is a victim of circumstances as he is not a playdriver by himself. lets see how he does with Strudnika
Garland is a nice player for the right price and in the right mix. Bottom line though is that he is too expensive to be a third line winger and, if they keep Kuzmenko and Horvat, I don't see them using him often in the top 6. If you're paying $5M for a third line player he better be able to play centre and be one of the better 3Cs in the league.
That said, if they are determined to do a faux rebuild and let Kuzmenko and Horvat go, I can see them keeping Garland to fill a role in the top 6, with Miller moving back to centre
Coyotes absolutely fleeced us in that trade. Set the team back years.
They would likely have to pay more to get rid of OEL than they would get for Garland. Think about that for a moment.
I used to think the Neely trade was the worst in Canucks history. It doesn't even come close to the OEL trade. It's just sad.