SCHOOLED BY A HARD KNOCK
ROSTER: Trade deadline is the real challenge and hard decisions await Vancouver
Jake Virtanen learns he can’t take drills too casually at Canucks prospects camp when he misses a day of workouts after being stapled to the boards
It hasn’t necessarily seemed this way, mostly due to some clunky execution, but the Canucks player personnel decisions this offseason were the easy part.
With younger right-shot, waivereligible defencemen on the rise, the declining, right-shot, third-pairing blueliner was expendable. Trading Kevin Bieksa was a no-brainer.
Zack Kassian has not been a favourite of the new front office since Day one, nor the new coaching staff, and, actually, nor the old coaching staff. The Kassian trade was overdue and really had to be done for all involved to move forward.
The goalie situation was coming to a head, and the Canucks kept the two netminders they believed in the most.
For the Canucks anyway, it was another easy call.
Harder decisions, however, loom. And no date looms larger than the next trade deadline.
As currently constructed, the Canucks are not as good as they were last year. But that hasn’t changed the goals for the organization — make the playoffs.
It’s plausible. Get off to a good start, mix in some stretches of lucky breaks and get pushed by great goaltending and the Canucks have a chance to make it back.
But is that what’s best for the future of this team?
The Canucks also are positioned to exploit NHL executives who are so often taken to the cleaners late in the season, forcing trades they think will better their chances of winning a Stanley Cup.
The prices are always the highest at and near the deadline. At that time of year, the draft is still months away and those first- and second-round picks just don’t have the value to contending teams in March that they do in late June.
The Canucks are set to start this season with five players on expiring contracts, four of whom would be valuable trade assets around the deadline.
But if the Canucks are in the mix for a post-season spot, are they really going to risk it at the deadline and by trading a regular or three? They should. You could make the case they should have done it a few months ago. With no intention of signing Shawn Matthias, the Canucks could have explored acquiring a pick for him around the deadline.
It would not have changed the way the season ended, or the playoffs.
Radim Vrbata is one of the players on an expiring contract. His signing is seen by many as one of GM Jim Benning’s best moves.
The team had a chance this summer to sell high on Vrbata, which would probably have been a shrewd, long-range move.
His value could slide this year if he’s not playing as much with the Sedin twins, a scenario that seems inevitable if the six-game, first-round series against the Flames is any indication.
It doesn’t mean he won’t have value at the deadline. Vrbata is going to score goals, because Vrbata always scores goals.
And at the deadline, that sells. Vancouver could pry a good prospect or a top draft pick, even a first-rounder, from a team looking for scoring down the stretch.
Yannick Weber, and Brandon Prust are others who could get mid-round picks at the deadline. So, too, is Chris Higgins, who does not look like a player who fits the long-term plans of the Canucks.
But no other player will have the value Dan Hamhuis could have around the deadline.
Consider Braydon Coburn went for a first- and a third-round pick in March.
A healthy Hamhuis, who has one year left on his deal, is one of the Canucks who is most likely in line for a bounce-back season. He’s a legit top-four D who could instantly become a difference-maker on a contender.
What kind of haul could you expect for Hamhuis? A big one.
The problem, aside from the Canucks pursuit of another playoff appearance, is that Hamhuis does fit the team’s long-term vision. There are no up-and-coming elite blueliners in the organization, leaving the Canucks defensive top four an area of concern for the next five seasons.
A Hamhuis extension would help buy them some time.
That doesn’t mean they can’t trade Hamhuis at the deadline and re-sign him July 1.
That’d be gutsy. But it’s also the type of thinking which could be a game-changer.