Vanek feels at home playing for Vancouver
ST. PAUL, Minnesota — Given the choice, Thomas Vanek would be just fine staying home. And home this season for the winger is with the Vancouver Canucks.
“Hopefully, I can stay,” Vanek said. “Hopefully, we can make it two wins in a row [at Minnesota Wild today], heading into the bye week with some momentum and get something going.
“Any time you start with a team, you want to finish the year with the same team.”
Vanek changes cities like he’s a 20-something au pair, juggling work and world travel. He has been on seven teams since 2013. It hasn’t been by design.
Some situations left him with fonder memories than others. In two of those seasons, he was traded to teams with playoff aspirations at the deadline. Once it worked out remarkably well, and once was a faceplant.
“It’s always hard to join a team during the season,” Vanek said. “One time, I joined Montreal [in 2014] and it worked out perfectly for me. It was a good team with a great goaltender. We made a good run. To be a part of something like that is really fun.”
The flip side was a year ago in Florida. The Panthers went on a 4-13-1 run after acquiring him.
“It was a little bit dysfunctional there with whatever was going on with that organization at the time,” Vanek said.
Too bad, because up to that point, Vanek had been having a great season in Detroit. He is again this year with the Canucks.
He has as many assists this season as producers such as Tyler Seguin and Joe Thornton (19) and Vanek’s 31 points puts him on a 57-point pace for the season.
Vanek is second on Vancouver in goals and assists. Since signing with the Canucks in September for $2 million, he has done everything anyone could have hoped for, including mentoring Brock Boeser, whose playmaking has made significant strides. Boeser credits Vanek for some of it.
Unfortunately for Vanek, the Canucks are now 10 points out of the playoffs and getting back in the race looks implausible, if not impossible.
If there’s no long, unexpected winning streak on the near-horizon, it backs the Canucks into a corner. They’ll have to trade him.
Vanek turns 34 this week and is a pending unrestricted free agent. The Canucks’ rebuild isn’t in any position to be losing players to free agency without aggressively trying to get compensation before the deadline. Some have pushed the idea that the Canucks should keep Vanek. He’s been a fit, and fits in the NHL can be hard to find.
But rebuilds need draft picks, the currency that is most effective in accelerating the reconstruction of roster. Plus, if Vancouver really doesn’t want Vanek for a couple of years, they can chase him in the offseason.
All of it means Vanek will be on a showcase tour for then next five weeks, give or take a couple.
Friday’s two-assist performance in Columbus was a good start. The Blue Jackets could use a big boost offensively, and are running this season with the worst power play in the league. They need some creative playmaking and Vanek could be a cheap add.
On the surface, it would seem to be an awkward fit. But Vanek has been incredibly invested in Vancouver, and that would go over well with Columbus head coach John Tortorella. That said, Vanek doesn’t lay out to block shots, so maybe it’s not a match made in Tortorella heaven.
You shouldn’t need a complex mathematical equation to determine Vanek’s worth on the market. Last year, he was traded for a third-round pick and a minor league defenceman. In 2014, he was moved from the New York Islanders to the Canadiens for a second-round pick and a middling prospect. This season, he’s worth a third-round pick, but maybe if the chips fall right, the Canucks can get that pick into the top 62.
There could be several bigname scoring forwards moved before the Feb. 26 trade deadline. The Buffalo Sabres are expected to move Evander Kane. The Habs could flip Max Pacioretty.
Vanek could be a nice consolation prize for the contending teams that don’t land a big fish.