York Newbury: Canucks Win Two in a Row

Trade Pouty.

Trade Pouty.
- Reubenkincade

He'll be fine when Miller is gone lol

"What a time to be alive."

I like the normal start time, I could watch the whole game. Not that I've wanted to much as of late. You know, after watching an entire game last night, I'll wait until after the Nashville game, I'm starting to think trading EP40 to shore-up a good top six center and a top four dman is the way to go.

The entire group is shit, and I'm still in the trade Miller crowd as you know the real Miller will always be in there, but they need to start a bit of a do-over with these guys.

Trade Pouty.
- Reubenkincade

Would rather they don't. However, this is from the Sabres writer at the Athletic:

Pettersson is in the first season of an eight-year contract worth $11.6 million per year. His no-trade clause doesn’t kick in until the second year of that contract, so he presents a rare chance for the Sabres to acquire a star-level player without worrying about whether the player will block the deal.

Pettersson is in the middle of a down year. He’s missed time with injury and has just 30 points in 42 games. But he’s also a player who had 89 points last season and 102 the year before that. The Sabres don’t have a forward on their roster with Pettersson’s superstar ceiling. The Canucks currently have more than 50 percent of expected goals when Pettersson is on the ice at five-on-five, and this would be the sixth straight season he hit that mark. His offensive upside and ability to play a two-way game would instantly take Buffalo’s forward group to another level. He would slot in as the Sabres’ No. 1 center and allow them to either make Tage Thompson their No. 2 center or put Thompson on Pettersson’s wing.

Pettersson also has familiarity with Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin. The two were teammates for Team Sweden at the World Juniors. When the Sabres played the Canucks last week, seeing Quinn Hughes and Pettersson on the ice at the same time had me thinking about what it might be like to see Dahlin and Pettersson manipulate opposing teams in the offensive zone.

I know Pettersson is having a down year. But no player is perfect, and we’ve heard plenty about how challenging it is to lure proven, top-of-the-lineup talent to Buffalo. The perpetual losing, small market, high taxes and lack of a certain type of tree are all roadblocks. Well, Pettersson doesn’t have a no-trade clause and has a pre-existing relationship with the Sabres captain. That’s a unique opportunity.

His cap hit is large, so there’s risk. But he’s 26 years old and Buffalo has plenty of cap space. Adams also has the assets in the organization to put together creative and compelling offers for Vancouver.

That’s the bigger question in this deal. What would it take? Earlier this season, Friedman theorized the Canucks could have interest in Dylan Cozens and Bowen Byram. Cozens is having a second straight down season and makes $7 million per year. His 63-point season two years ago is still an enticing reminder of his potential, though. A right-handed center with that offensive upside will always be in demand. Cozens has shown flashes of being the type of hard-nosed, two-way player who can be a top-six fixture. The Sabres wouldn’t be eager to trade him, but every good trade hurts a bit.

Byram wouldn’t be easy to trade, either. He’ll be a restricted free agent at the end of the season and has been a top-pair defenseman for the Sabres this season. But depending on the type of contract he wants, it could be tough to justify paying three left-handed, offensive defensemen big money. With Owen Power already under contract at $8.3 million per year and Dahlin under contract for $11 million, the Sabres have to figure out how those three all fit financially and on the ice.

Maybe the Sabres could explore the idea of Power in a trade like that. He, JJ Peterka and Jack Quinn are all young players with enough NHL experience to appeal to contending teams like the Canucks. Buffalo also has plenty of top prospects to sweeten the deal, and its 2025 first-round pick looks like it has a strong chance to be in the top five of the draft order. The Sabres would seem to be well-positioned to make a trade like this, and it’s probably a risk worth taking for a franchise that needs another difference-maker.

People in the comments wondering why the Canucks would trade Petey, but say they'd also package Cozens + Power + pick to get him. I think that'd be the only way Petey goes. Then they flip Miller and Brock, and use those assets to get a good young center away from a team.

Would rather they don't. However, this is from the Sabres writer at the Athletic:



People in the comments wondering why the Canucks would trade Petey, but say they'd also package Cozens + Power + pick to get him. I think that'd be the only way Petey goes. Then they flip Miller and Brock, and use those assets to get a good young center away from a team.
- NewYorkNuck

- Pacificgem

Ya, I think adding a pick would definitely push it over the line. Especially if it was this year's 1st round pick (protected). Could easily use that pick to flip for someone else.

Ya, I think adding a pick would definitely push it over the line. Especially if it was this year's 1st round pick (protected). Could easily use that pick to flip for someone else.
- NewYorkNuck

Building a top four defense should be first and foremost on any teams list that wants to win, once that's done, you build down the middle of the ice with good top two/three centers. Goaltending is at the top of the list, but I'm speaking about skaters.

Powers would perfectly compliment Hughes, Hronek, and the young guys like D-Petey and hopefully Willander. Also, by trading both EP40 and Miller you get a couple decent centermen back. Keep building from there.

Vegas has this model, their defense is really good and then their centermen are good, not really superstars, just good players. Eichel, Hertl & Karlsson aren't MacKinnon or McDaivd but Vegas won a Cup with Eichel and Karly at center.

"What a time to be alive."

I like the normal start time, I could watch the whole game. Not that I've wanted to much as of late. You know, after watching an entire game last night, I'll wait until after the Nashville game, I'm starting to think trading EP40 to shore-up a good top six center and a top four dman is the way to go.

The entire group is shit, and I'm still in the trade Miller crowd as you know the real Miller will always be in there, but they need to start a bit of a do-over with these guys.
- Pacificgem

Woa, woah, woah, didn’t you hear the plan yesterday?
Canucks just need to start winning, 2 in a row now,
That will build a winning culture.
That culture will spread faster than an STD in the Red Deer Arena.

Keep the faith!

Building a top four defense should be first and foremost on any teams list that wants to win, once that's done, you build down the middle of the ice with good top two/three centers. Goaltending is at the top of the list, but I'm speaking about skaters.

Powers would perfectly compliment Hughes, Hronek, and the young guys like D-Petey and hopefully Willander. Also, by trading both EP40 and Miller you get a couple decent centermen back. Keep building from there.

Vegas has this model, their defense is really good and then their centermen are good, not really superstars, just good players. Eichel, Hertl & Karlsson aren't MacKinnon or McDaivd but Vegas won a Cup with Eichel and Karly at center.
- Pacificgem

If the Canucks were trading both Petey and Miller, the other center would have to be a high upside guy. Marco Rossi's name seems to always be floating around, although he's pretty small for a center but apparently very responsible defensively. A D core of these guys seems pretty legit:

Hughes - Willander
Power - Hronek
DPetey - X

If the Canucks were trading both Petey and Miller, the other center would have to be a high upside guy. Marco Rossi's name seems to always be floating around, although he's pretty small for a center but apparently very responsible defensively. A D core of these guys seems pretty legit:

Hughes - Willander
Power - Hronek
DPetey - X
- NewYorkNuck

A 5'8" soft Swiss center, that would send Reuby over the edge.

A 5'8" soft Swiss center, that would send Reuby over the edge.
- Pacificgem

Works for me

Works for me
- NewYorkNuck

Sorry, he's Austrian, same poop.

He'll be fine when Miller is gone lol
- LordHumungous

I thought you said yesterday trading Miller was not happening?

Elias Pettersson has been credited with an assist on Conor Garland's second goal of the night.

That's his third point in January.

Ty Yorkie

Also 0-2 against the Preds this season

Would rather they don't. However, this is from the Sabres writer at the Athletic:



People in the comments wondering why the Canucks would trade Petey, but say they'd also package Cozens + Power + pick to get him. I think that'd be the only way Petey goes. Then they flip Miller and Brock, and use those assets to get a good young center away from a team.
- NewYorkNuck

If Petey fetches a boat load keep Miller. Squeeze Boeser hard on his next deal or trade him if he won’t sign. Hardball time & cap is king to get more pieces.

If Petey fetches a boat load keep Miller. Squeeze Boeser hard on his next deal or trade him if he won’t sign. Hardball time & cap is king to get more pieces.
- Nighthawk

Pretty quiet on all VAN trade fronts the last few days.

Pretty quiet on all VAN trade fronts the last few days.
- VanHockeyGuy

Lull before the storm. I’m kinda tingling with anticipation on a few things.

Are they finally over the divide & down to playing hockey? Can taste a big trade in the air.

Lull before the storm. I’m kinda tingling with anticipation on a few things.

Are they finally over the divide & down to playing hockey? Can taste a big trade in the air.
- Nighthawk

Maybe they don't feel they're sellers anymore? Go for the playoff push!

Maybe they don't feel they're sellers anymore? Go for the playoff push!
- VanHockeyGuy

Cam Robinson

“Sources indicate that many teams expect Brock Boeser to be available at the deadline barring a serious Canucks turnaround.

If he does stay through this season, he'll likely be available on July 1, and a healthy group will be vying for his services on a long-term deal – something the Canucks appear wary of doing at this time.”

Cam Robinson

“Sources indicate that many teams expect Brock Boeser to be available at the deadline barring a serious Canucks turnaround.

If he does stay through this season, he'll likely be available on July 1, and a healthy group will be vying for his services on a long-term deal – something the Canucks appear wary of doing at this time.”
- Pacificgem

Perfect, get a bidding war going for him, get a get return, promote Lekker

Maybe they don't feel they're sellers anymore? Go for the playoff push!
- VanHockeyGuy

PO’s never left the picture contending a whole other matter. Boeser goes before he’s a home team rental. Hardball 5/7m

I’m with Lefty & fill out the top 4D. That is the short & long term approach.

EP/Hog/Desharnais for Power/Cozens/Quinn/2nd

Garland Miller Boeser
Debrusk Cozens Quinn
Joshua Bleuger Leki
Heinen Suter Sherwood
DiG

Hughes Hronek
Power Willander
EP Myers
Forbort Soucy

Not sure if this has been posted, but pretty exacting piece from the Globe and Mail on a conversation with Rutherford:

Jim Rutherford, president of hockey operations for the Vancouver Canucks, made a career as a small 5-foot-8 goaltender by overcoming any obstacles in his way, but he’s facing one now that he can’t seem to get past. He has two star players who apparently can’t stand one another: top centres J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson. And it’s put him and the organization in an unfathomable bind.

In the past, he has always felt like he could find a solution to any tricky situation, Rutherford told The Globe and Mail during an interview on Monday, “and I felt like for a long time that there was a solution here because everybody has worked on it, including the parties involved.”

“But it only gets resolved for a short period of time and then it festers again and so it certainly appears like there’s not a good solution that would keep this group together.”

While that may not come as a huge surprise to the Vancouver market – both players’ names have been connected to trades amid reports they have repeatedly clashed – it is still sobering to hear when the president of the team confirms it. And then when he admits there is no solution that is likely to make anyone happy, well, then, reality really does sink in.

Vancouver Canucks willing to consider trades if the fit is right, GM says

Of course, personality differences exist in every NHL dressing room. For as long as the league has existed, there have been situations where players haven’t liked one another. You would think that in this case, an alpha male who likes to push his weight around like Miller, 31, and a more sensitive and soft-spoken player like Pettersson, 26, could put their differences aside for the good of the team. But apparently not.

“We’ve had those conversations and I think the parties understand that and I think they’ve tried,” Rutherford told me. “As you know, sometimes emotions get deep and as much as people try sometimes you can’t get over it. It certainly appears that’s what’s going on here.”

It is, to put it mildly, a problem that could end up impacting the Canucks for years.

“We’re talking about two of our top players,” Rutherford said. “Certainly, our two best forwards. It can really be tough on a franchise – not only present but into the future – when you’re planning on peaking this team into a contending team and then you find out that’s not going to happen. Or at least it’s not going to happen with the group we have now. Then you have to put together a new plan.”

Last year, this situation seemed, well, unimaginable. The Canucks played a feisty, tightly-structured game that took them to the seventh game of the second round of the playoffs, which they ended up losing to Edmonton Oilers, an eventual Stanley Cup finalist. It was a safe assumption that the team would take another step this year, and Pettersson in particular would be back to his old, prolific self. But that didn’t happen.

Pettersson hasn’t looked anything like the player who earned an eight-year, nearly $93-million contract last March, making him one of the top-paid forwards in the league. It’s often seemed like the burden of expectations that come with that sort of deal has been too much. Or maybe it’s been the problems he’s experiencing with Miller that has shaken his confidence. Doesn’t matter. He’s been a shell of his former self.


Miller hasn’t looked like the dominant player who roamed the ice last year either, one of the top two-way centres in the NHL. He missed 10 games this season when he had to step away from the team for personal reasons. Who knows if the situation with Pettersson has impacted his game as well. How could it not if it’s as bad as Rutherford makes it out to be?

But the whole team hasn’t looked like the same either. This year’s version has, in recent weeks, taken down Toronto, Edmonton and Washington – three of the top teams in the league. But then other times, far too often, they have looked disorganized and disengaged. That’s the maddening part about it.

“When you don’t have chemistry, it’s hard to be that consistent team because there’s too much going on in the room for everybody to concentrate on what they’re supposed to do,” Rutherford said.

I asked Rutherford if he means the Miller-Pettersson drama has impacted the entire team.

“Yes, yup,” he said.

Rutherford and his general manager, Patrik Allvin, are uncertain if removing one of either Pettersson or Miller will fix the problem. “We don’t know,” Rutherford said. “We’ll just have to wait to find out. We’ll have to take it a step at a time. If we try and do it too fast, that’s really when you can make some mistakes.”


Of course, the Canucks’ problems are no secret. The entire world knows. This includes general managers who have been circling the team like vultures looking to make away with an outstanding meal for very little cost. Rutherford said he’d been doing the same if he were in their shoes. But he didn’t earn the reputation he has by buying high and selling low.

If the right deal doesn’t come along, it’s conceivable that both players could finish the season on the team. He said he’d rather not have to trade either player.

As much as he wants to fix the problem, he has to be smart about it. He can’t just sell Pettersson and Miller for multiple first-round picks and start over, for one simple reason – superstar defenceman and captain, Quinn Hughes.

Hughes is just 25 and entering his prime as a player. He could win multiple Norris trophies before his career is over. He does not want to be part of any rebuild in Vancouver. A retool perhaps, a rebuild definitely not.

“If we were going to completely start over that means he goes,” Rutherford told the Globe. “And we’d like to figure out a way that he’s here forever.”

What does that look like?

“We’ll have to do the best we can in trades,” Rutherford said. “Whatever assets you get in return, you may turn them into something else. And we have to work our way back into being a contending team.”

Still, any way you look at it, the Canucks are in a vulnerable – scratch that – are in a lousy, horrible, rotten, just-about-as-bad-as-it-gets position. Both Miller and Pettersson are No. 1 centres. In these times, you don’t trade a No. 1 centre and get a No. 1 centre back. “Those deals aren’t going to be there,” Rutherford acknowledges.

“So yeah, if a centre goes out of here we have to get some kind of centre back but it’s not going to be the same as the centre going out. It might not even be a No. 2 centre, but you’d have to do the best with what we have until we figure out how to fill that spot back in.

“And then, of course, you have to get extra things [in any trade] that you can either use in the future to flip for NHL players now or for other positions or things like that.”

This won’t be music to the ears of Canucks fans, but Rutherford is just being honest. It’s not like he asked for this nightmare to be foisted on him because he was bored with winning.

What the Canucks look like at the end of this season is anyone’s guess. Odds are they are going to look at lot different and likely a lot less appealing. At least for a while.

What we've all sort of discussed, but hearing it straight from Ruthy with no beating around the bush makes it certain.