The Canucks never attempted to trade for
Jake Guentzel’s signing rights.
While Canucks brass loves the player and would’ve found a way to make it work if Guentzel had made it to free agency, and been open to coming out West, the club was concerned with how adding a $9-$10 million cap hit to the books might impact the team’s balance. All along they preferred the younger, more affordable option of Jake DeBrusk to punch up their top-six forward group.
Obviously the Canucks kept a tight lid on information surrounding their intentions in free agency, to the point of breaking nearly all of their own signings themselves, but multiple team sources indicated to
The Athletic once the dust settled on Monday that one of the reasons Vancouver didn’t try to trade for Guentzel’s rights is that DeBrusk was their primary top-six forward target all along.