Ranking the Canucks' top 13 trade assets: What trade chips could be in play?

New York Times

2 days ago

The Vancouver Canucks want to improve significantly in the wake of a wildly disappointing 2024-25 campaign, which went decisively off of the rails.
Unfortunately for the Canucks, however, there are about 25-30 other NHL member clubs that will similarly enter this offseason with significant plans to rapidly improve, and several of those teams have more purchasing power — in terms of cap space — and valuable future assets with which to draw from in pursuing star-level contributors at the top of the lineup.
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With the NHL's silly season about to grind into full gear in the weeks ahead, let's take an inventory of what sorts of assets the Canucks could potentially utilize on the trade market in pursuit of the significant offensive upgrades that the club requires in their top six. What follows is our ranking of Vancouver's 13 top trade assets, including our best-educated guess on the availability of those assets.
Status: It's complicated
Stats: 64 GP, 15 G – 30 A – 45 Pts
Storyline: After a disappointing stretch run during the 2023-24 campaign, and a tough go of it during the club's 2024 Stanley Cup Playoff run, Elias Pettersson's form continued to deteriorate in the first year of his new maximum term, $11.6 million annual average value mega contract.
Pettersson's pace was off, his shot velocity was down, his relationship with J.T. Miller was a distraction to the point that the team deemed their partnership unworkable and he played with little joy and even less juice. It wasn't the version of Pettersson that we've become accustomed too, or that the club committed to when they got his autograph on that fateful deal.
At the start of the next league year on July 1, Pettersson will gain a full no-move clause. The club doesn't view that deadline as something altogether that meaningful — the club was able to get positive value for both Miller and Carson Soucy despite both players possessing full no-move or no-trade protection, respectively — but it's a factor to be mindful of. It will further limit Vancouver's options, if the decision is made in the future to part ways with the club's struggling superstar centre.
Does the organization believe that Pettersson can find his game and bounce back? Can he lead this team to success in the Stanley Cup playoffs? Can the club really find a better option that hoping for the best, given that they already need at least one top-six centre?
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Given that Vancouver's priority is returning to contention, and given the virtual impossibility of acquiring a centre with higher upside this summer, holding onto Pettersson feels like the most likely course of action. It's not an especially straightforward call, however, given just how concerning Pettersson's showing was last season.
Status: Essentially untouchable
Stats:39 GP (NCAA), 2 G – 22 A – 24 Pts
Storyline: Willander is a high-pedigree, blue-chip prospect with the position and handedness that many teams would value at a premium.
He looked a bit raw at times during his freshman campaign with Boston University but was significantly more polished and efficient as a shutdown, all-situations ace during his sophomore season. He also performed well for Team Sweden at the World Juniors, a prominent stage where prospects can leave a lasting impression on NHL evaluators.
Of course, the reasons that rival teams would covet Willander are also the exact reasons why the Canucks would be deeply reluctant to trade Willander, especially now that he has signed an entry-level contract. Tyler Myers is 35; he won't be able to play top-four minutes on the right side forever — that's where Willander is a key long-term successor. It's also generally rare to see Grade-A prospects of Willander's calibre moved these days unless they're players like Rutger McGroarty or Cutter Gauthier, who weren't willing to sign with the teams that drafted them.
It would probably take an opportunity to land a young superstar forward for the Canucks to even entertain the idea of including Willander in a trade.
Status: Essentially untouchable
Stats: 23 GP, 10-8-3 .889 sv%
Storyline: Thatcher Demko endured a nightmare 2024-25 campaign injury-wise. The 29-year-old puck stopper didn't make his debut until December 10th, as a result of an unprecedented knee tear sustained during the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs. He struggled on his return and looked out of rhythm, relative to his usual extremely lofty standard, and then sustained two additional injuries that resulted in long-term absences.
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Entering the final year of his contract, Demko has indicated a willingness to sign an extension this summer. The club is open to that too, club sources indicate, provided that the risk on his next deal — which is significant — is shared between the player and the team. In other words, the Canucks are willing to roll the dice on a Demko extension. The organization still believes strongly in the 2024 Vezina Trophy nominee as a player and competitor, but the significance of the risk that his run of injuries now presents will have to be priced into his next deal.
Vancouver wants to get back to contending with the big dog teams in the Pacific Division next season, and their potential edge in net with a tandem of Demko and Kevin Lankinen is viewed as a weapon internally towards that end. The club's preference, clearly, is to retain Demko and workout a favourable extension.
If that proves to be untenable, however, the club did sign Lankinen to a five-year extension a few months ago, and goaltender Artūrs Šilovs has been a star performer in the Calder Cup playoffs after a difficult, inconsistent year at both the NHL and AHL levels. Depending how extension talks unfold and what Demko's market value is around the league, this could be a fascinating situation to monitor this off-season.
Make no mistake though, the club knows that they're better off with Demko in the fold — provided that he stays healthy. Retaining him is clearly the club's top choice.
Status: Essentially untouchable
Stats: 24 GP, 3 G – 3 A – 6 Pts
Storyline: The Canucks are starved for genuine top-six talent. Lekkerimäki may not hit that level immediately next season — it's unrealistic to think he can immediately replace all of pending free agent Brock Boeser's production — but it isn't farfetched to think that he could contribute 15-20 goals in a middle-six NHL role in 2025-26 if things break right.
Lekkerimäki's first taste of North American hockey this season has been mostly successful, despite his inconsistent playoff performance with the Abbotsford Canucks. He scored more than half a goal per game in 36 AHL regular season games. He wasn't a big producer during his 24 NHL games, but he showed exciting flashes at times, and his defensive play was surprisingly reliable and risk-free.
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Lekkerimäki needs to pack on extra weight this summer to withstand the physical rigours of the NHL, but he's close enough to the big leagues and has a high enough ceiling that Vancouver probably isn't willing to part ways with him, especially since smaller wingers often aren't rated as highly on the trade market by teams as they perhaps should be.
Status: Available
Storyline: It'd be pretty surprising if the Canucks held on to this year's No.15 pick.
Jim Rutherford already stated that his front office is more likely to get its shopping done on the trade market rather than free agency. Vancouver would almost certainly prefer trading the No.15 pick to service the club's forward needs rather than its top prospects. Logically, it makes sense: Whoever you draft at No.15 probably won't be NHL-ready for 3-4 years, whereas the likes of Willander, Lekkerimäki, and Elias Pettersson the defenceman could help Vancouver as soon as next season.
2025 isn't considered to be the strongest draft class, but first-round picks aren't created equal — the Canucks' No.15 pick will be more valuable than some of the late first-round picks that other clubs may shop ahead of the draft.
Status: Available for the right price
Storyline: Vancouver intends to be aggressive this season. This is a management team that's keen to swing the bat, and add top-end talent to their lineup this summer. And that won't be easy to do without some level of pain.
Could that include the club trading more than the 15th overall pick in 2025? Might they consider trading a conditional (lottery protected) 2026 first-round pick?
It's definitely possible, but it would require a special, young star-level contributor to hit the market this summer. Think more Jason Robertson than Pavel Zacha, in terms of the quality of player we're talking about here.
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This one seems like a far more remote possibility than the Canucks parting with their 2025 first-round pick. If a unique opportunity to add a truly elite young goal scoring forward this summer, however, the Canucks could plausibly be tempted to fire all available weapons.
Status: Untouchable
Stats: 28 GP, 1 G – 3 A – 4 Pts
Storyline: The Canucks are sky-high on physical young defender Elias Pettersson and enter the offseason steadfast in their refusal to consider trading him. The club values the rare profile, in terms of his nasty physical play and combination of size and skating ability, but he's an untouchable because he combines all of that with a precocious brand of authority that he's brought to a locker room in need of character contributors.
As much as Vancouver is willing to make some gut wrenching decisions in order to improve themselves this summer Pettersson, the defender, is off the table.
Status: Available for the right price
Stats: 72 GP, 8 G – 15 A – 23 Pts
Höglander landed in Rick Tocchet's doghouse this season and slumped to just 25 points in 72 games, a far cry from his 24-goal breakout in 2023-24. The silver lining is that he was one of the Canucks' best wingers from January onward, especially from a play-driving perspective.
The Canucks could really benefit from Höglander's combination of speedy play-driving, hard-nosed forechecking, and secondary offence, but the front office needs to have an honest conversation with new head coach Adam Foote to make sure they're on the same page. If Foote believes in Höglander and is willing to give him a longer leash, then the value of keeping Höglander would exceed his modest trade value.
On the other hand, if Foote doesn't view Höglander as a top-nine fixture, then the club may be better off trading him and reallocating his $3 million cap hit. Small, non-elite wingers don't usually carry a lot of value on the trade market, but Höglander's sparkling underlying numbers and the fact that his $3 million AAV is more digestible with the spiking salary cap should make him a more valuable asset than he was six months ago.
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Status: Available for the right price
Stats: 31 GP, 2 G – 6 A – 8 Pts
Storyline: Mancini is enjoying a stellar playoff run as Abbotsford's No.1 defenceman. The hype train is building for him locally, but that doesn't necessarily mean his stock is exploding around the league. He's already 23, which means teams likely wouldn't view him as having a lot of development runway left, nor does he have high-end draft pedigree or standout offensive statistics.
Mancini's enticing combo of size and skating would still make him an appealing project, though, especially as a right-shot defender. And yes, his strong playoff run will help his value. But in trade talks, he's more likely to be viewed as an attractive secondary piece rather than the centrepiece in a package that lands an impact forward.
We imagine that the Canucks would be open to including Mancini in a trade for the right player, given that they already have two exciting, up-and-coming defence prospects with higher potential than him in Willander and Pettersson.
Status: Available
Stats: 82 GP, 8 G – 18 A – 26 Pts
Storyline: Blueger's availability this summer isn't so much about his performance as it is the club's roster and cap situation. Filip Chytil will slot in as the Canucks' third-line centre in the likely scenario that the club adds a 2C this summer. That leaves Blueger occupying the 4C role, which blocks Aatu Räty's path to a full-time centre job in the NHL. Trading Blueger would clear the path for Räty, plus open up an additional $1.8 million of cap space.
In 2023, the Penguins received a third-round pick when trading Blueger as a rental to Vegas. He owns a modified no-trade clause with a 12-team no-trade list, according to PuckPedia, so that would be one hurdle to navigate.
Status: Available for the right price
Stats: 21 GP (AHL), 14-5-1 .908 Sv%
Šilovs is on an incredible heater in Abbotsford, pitching a .930 save percentage through 16 playoff games. That's helping salvage what was otherwise a disappointing NHL showing and a decent but unspectacular AHL regular season in 2024-25.
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In an ideal world, the Canucks would keep Šilovs as their third-string goaltender next season. He's an interesting project because of his raw athleticism and is still young enough to develop into an NHL netminder one day.
The problem is that Šilovs will require waivers to be sent down next season. Šilovs may still be able to sneak through waivers because his overall professional resume has been inconsistent, but Vancouver's front office will have to weigh the risk of him getting claimed against the trade value he may have this summer. The Canucks went through a similar dilemma with Vasily Podkolzin last summer and opted to trade him to Edmonton for a fourth-round pick.
Non-elite goaltending prospects, especially ones requiring waivers, aren't usually a hot commodity, so don't expect Silovs' trade value to be too high. With that said, it's conceivable that a goalie-starved organization may want to roll the dice on his raw talent if the acquisition cost this summer is relatively low.
Status: Available for the right price
Storyline: The Canucks have a host of younger players in the 23-to-26-year-old range who appear to be capable of challenging for a full-time job at the NHL level as soon as next season. These aren't players that are likely to have significant exchange value, although there are talent evaluators around the league that strongly admire some of Vancouver's younger organizational depth pieces.
The Canucks won't give these sorts of players away, but could utilize them as part of a larger package to land the top-six contributor (or two) that Vancouver craves.
Status: Available
What's the value of a second-round pick, or a mid-round pick, or a late-round pick, given the Canucks' priorities and the organizational urgency to get back into the playoff mix next season?
These less valuable picks are, surely, already squarely burning a hole in the pockets of Canucks management.
(Top photo of Nils Höglander:)