In everyone’s favourite middle-of-the-week feature, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman had a nugget about the Canucks and one of their prized potential assets ahead of the 2018 trade deadline.
Per Friedman’s 5th thought in his 31 Thoughts column, his hunch is that the Canucks might make a push to move pending unrestricted free agent defenceman Erik Gudbranson. In Friedman’s words:
Call it more of a hunch, but I can see Vancouver making an increased effort to move Erik Gudbranson. It’s unlikely they re-sign him to what he can get on the market, and there is little point to keeping him on the roster if he’s not part of their future. A fresh start would benefit Gudbranson, too. It just hasn’t worked out for team or player.
This comes just a day after Friedman was on friend of the blog Andrew Walker and Scott Rintoul’s show on Sportsnet 650 discussing the unfolding situation with the Canucks and Gudbranson. In that segment, Friedman suggested that if there are teams interested in acquiring Gudbranson, they might start calling Canucks general manager Jim Benning soon.
Friedman goes on to add that soon, in this instance, might mean that the process starts on the other side of the holiday roster freeze, when teams are free to make roster transactions.
This isn’t the first time Friedman’s hit the local airwaves to discuss Gudbranson’s future, but as he alludes to, the Ben Hutton part of this equation is a new wrinkle that likely speeds up the process for the Canucks too if they want to deal Gudbranson.
Canucks head coach Travis Green sat Hutton for last night’s game to facilitate Gudbranson’s return. It’s the first time Hutton’s been a healthy scratch in his NHL career, in this, his third season. It’s an ugly situation, all the way around.
Gudbranson, 25, is playing on a one-year deal signed this off-season with the Canucks for $3.5-million. Rumour has it, Gudbranson’s camp still have their sights set on a long-term extension north of the $4-million range, which might put him out of the Canucks price range, hence the trade speculation.
Aside from the logistics of the situation, there’s also the reality that the Gudbranson acquisition just hasn’t lived up to its expectations through its first year and a half. He’s been injured for significant chunks of time, but even when he’s been in the lineup, he’s been far from the minute-munching, hard to play against, rugged, stay-at-home defenceman that Benning sold him as upon acquiring him.
At the beginning of the season, reports suggested that the Canucks would wait until February to decide what to do with Gudbranson. At this rate, January is starting to feel more and more likely. And that’s probably for the best, for everyone involved.