Now, we are just one week away from the NHL announcing the Vancouver Canucks’ quarter-century team. We’ve gone through who the locks are and who the potential snubs will be, but we thought, why not go ahead and look through some of the best and worst trades of the past quarter century for the team?
If you missed yesterday’s article, where we discussed the six best Canucks trades made since 2000, you can view them here.
However, today is all about remembering the worst of the deals. The trades leave you scratching your head, questioning just where this team would be nowadays or how the course of Canucks history would change had these trades never happened.
Well, let’s get into the six worst Canucks trades made this past quarter-century.
I’m sorry you have to relive some of these Canucks fans.
1. Oliver Ekman-Larsson
To Vancouver: Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor GarlandTo Arizona: Antoine Roussel, Loui Eriksson, Jay Beagle, a 2021 first-round pick (Dylan Guenther), 2022 second-round pick (traded to Minnesota in exchange for Jack McBain), and a 2023 seventh-round pick (traded for a 2022 seventh round pick (Adam Zlnka)).
This was a deal that Jim Benning made to try and save his job. And it will have ramifications on the Canucks until the 2030-2031 season.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson signed an eight-year $66 million contract that paid him $8.25 million per season. This was coming off a 14-goal, 44-point campaign, but just by the eye test, you could tell his play had started to decline. He was given a full no-movement clause for the entire eight years of the contract.
And when Ekman-Larsson became available, he had just two teams that he would waive his no-movement clause for: the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins. So, Benning, the genius that he was, took that as a positive and jumped all over the opportunity to replace the bad contracts with an even longer bad contract.
Once he came over to Vancouver, he continued to struggle. He lasted just two seasons with the Canucks, scoring seven goals and 44 assists for 51 points in 133 games. Ekman-Larsson would get bought out by the next regime in the 2023-24 season. But now the Canucks are on the hook until the 2030-31 season, paying him $4.76 million for two seasons (2025-2027) and $2.13 million for four more seasons after that (2027-2031).
But maybe the worst part of the deal was what they gave away. No, we aren’t saying that Roussel, Eriksson, or Beagle were nearly positive assets. But they all had one year remaining on their respective deals. One year. Then, their collective $12 million was off the books.
However, now, the Canucks are stuck with an expensive dead cap hit for six more seasons and have to watch Dylan Guenther rip up the league on the Utah Hockey Club instead of wearing a blue and green sweater.
Now, the Conor Garland part of the trade has been a great addition, and it’s unfortunate his name is dragged along in this trade. But overall, it’s hard not to say, looking back on this, that it’s the worst trade made by the Canucks in the previous quarter-century.
2. Sven Baertschi
To Vancouver: Sven BaertschiTo Calgary: 2015 second-round pick (Rasmus Andersson)
Now, this one hurts. At the time, it wasn’t that bad. Taking a chance on a former first-round pick for a second-round pick? Doesn’t seem like a bad bet to place.
But really, what did the Canucks really see in Baertschi? He played just 66 games with the Flames before the trade, scoring eight goals and 20 assists for 28 points. He did have his best years in Vancouver, playing alongside Bo Horvat for the majority of his tenure, racking up 48 goals and 52 assists for 100 points in 225 games.
Baertschi suffered injury problems, which cut his career short. He retired in 2023 at the age of 30.
And what hurts the most is being so close is that second-round pick turned into star defenceman on the Calgary Flames today, Rasmus Andersson.
Andersson has spent all nine seasons of his career in Calgary, scoring 42 goals and 176 assists for 218 points, earning a plus-15 rating and averaging 21:28 minutes of ice time. However, once Mark Giordano left in 2021-2022, Andersson averaged north of 23 minutes per game and regularly manned the team’s top power play unit.
Sometimes, things do come full circle. The Canucks traded away the pick that selected Rasmus Andersson in 2015, and now, 10 years later, the Canucks have heavy interest in acquiring Andersson if he becomes available. However, neither the Canucks are in a position to buy right now, and the Flames don’t seem interested in moving the Swedish defenceman at this point.
3. Elias Lindholm
To Vancouver: Elias LindholmTo Calgary: Andrei Kuzmenko, Hunter Brzustewicz, Joni Jurmo, a 2024 first-round pick (Matvei Gridin) and 2024 fourth-round pick (traded to Flyers for 2024 fifth-round pick (Luke Misa) and sixth-round pick (Eric Jamieson)).
We don’t have to look back too far to find the fourth trade on this list.
This trade was a lot to pay for the production the Canucks got out of Elias Lindholm. The Swedish forward was brought in to give Elias Pettersson a running mate for their playoff run once Andrei Kuzmenko cooled down off his 39-goal, 74-point first season in the NHL.
However, that’s not how this played out. Lindholm lasted just a few games on the top line with Pettersson before he became the team’s third-line centre. He scored just six goals and six assists for 12 points.
His value was more than just offensive, however. Lindholm was a reliable faceoff taker for the Canucks, winning 58.7% of his draws in the regular season. Lindholm’s scoring prowess came out in the playoffs, where he scored five goals and five assists for 10 points. He finished the post-season tied for second in points with Quinn Hughes.
Now, Lindholm was a great third-line centre and really gelled with Dakota Joshua and Conor Garland, but that’s an expensive price to pay for a player who played that role, especially when Teddy Blueger was doing just fine there.
In terms of what the Canucks sent out, Kuzmenko found late success last season playing alongside Nazem Kadri, but this year has often found himself being a healthy scratch. He has played just 32 of the Flames’ 43 games this season, scoring one goal and nine assists for 10 points while averaging 14:57 minutes of ice time per game.
Hunter Brzustewicz is coming off an outstanding season with the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL, scoring 13 goals and 79 assists for 92 points – the 10th highest-scoring player in the OHL and second in defensive scoring, trailing only Zayne Parekh. Brzustewicz is now playing with the Calgary Wranglers in the AHL, where he has one goal and 11 assists for 12 points in 36 games.
Joni Jurmo is also spending time in the AHL but isn’t a lineup regular. He has played just nine games this season.
The first-round pick selected with the Canucks pick, Matvei Gridin, is currently ripping up the QMJHL, scoring 24 goals and 25 assists for 49 points in 37 games.
The Flames accumulated assets from the Canucks’ fourth-round pick. They drafted Luke Misa – brother of projected top-five pick in the 2025 draft Michael Misa – who has 21 goals and 31 assists for 52 points in 39 games with the Brampton Steelheads. Eric Jamieson has eight goals and 18 assists for 26 points in 40 games as a defenceman.
It just seems like a lot to give for 26 regular season and 10 playoff games.
4. Erik Gudbranson
To Vancouver: Erik Gudbranson and a 2016 fifth-round pick (Cole Candella)To Florida: Jared McCann, a 2016 second-round pick (traded to Buffalo, drafted Rasmus Asplund) and a 2016 fourth-round pick (Jonathan Ang)
The Canucks defence was a mess at this point, so they needed to make a move. But for an already struggling Gudbranson? Jim Benning probably just saw that he was drafted third overall and didn’t do any further investigating after that.
Gudbranson was drafted as a defensive defenceman, so he was never expected to put up the point totals. He scored 11 goals and 32 assists in 43 points in 309 games with the Panthers, but an uninspiring -49 rating for a defensive defenceman.
Once he joined the Canucks, it was all of the same, scoring five goals and 14 assists for 19 points through 139 games over three seasons, with a -48 rating.
Jared McCann was the main piece of the trade. It was a slow start to McCann’s career, but giving up on a 20-year-old rookie, who scored nine goals and nine assists for 18 points in 12:31 minutes of average ice time, yet another blunder from Benning.
Now, it did take McCann some time to find his game at the NHL level, but seeing him post 32 points in 43 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2020-21 and score 40 goals and 70 points in his second year with the Seattle Kraken hurts in Canucks land.
McCann is now 28 years old and playing top-line for the Kraken. Had this trade not happened, he could be a top-six forward in Vancouver.
5. Jason Dickinson
To Vancouver: Jason DickinsonTo Dallas: 2021 third-round pick (Ayrton Martino)
The whole Jason Dickinson situation never worked out for the club.
At the time, Dickinson was brought in to play the third-line centre role and was given a three contract that paid him $2.65 million per season before he even played a game in a Canucks uniform.
His debut season in Vancouver wasn’t what they expected. The former first-round pick had just five goals and six assists for 11 points in 62 games.
But what’s the worst part of it all is just one season later, the Canucks had to attach a 2024 second-round pick in a trade to the Chicago Blackhawks – which was traded to the New York Islanders, who drafted Kamil Bednarik – just to get off of his contract.
Dickinson was given a higher role with the Blackhawks, given their centre depth during their rebuild, but he managed to turn his career around. Over the past three seasons, he has scored 38 goals and 41 assists for 79 points in 204 games.
This isn’t a deal that has cost the Canucks too much, but it’s just a poor mismanagement of assets, essentially losing out on a second and third-round pick for nothing.
6. Adam Clendening
To Vancouver: Adam ClendeningTo Chicago: Gustav Forsling
At the time of this trade, it looked like a depth defenceman trade, which happens all the time in the NHL and ends up becoming nothing years later.
That’s not the case in this deal.
Gustav Forsling didn’t play a game for the Canucks, but stuck with the Blackhawks for the following four years. After coming over from the SHL, the Swedish defenceman split three seasons with the Blackhawks and the Rockford Icehogs of the AHL before he was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes. There, he didn’t get a crack with the big club, either.
However, everything changed in 2021 when the Hurricanes placed him on waivers, and the Florida Panthers claimed him.
The former Canucks draft pick found a home in Florida and has emerged into a solid defensive option for the Panthers blue line. In addition to his reliable defensive play, Forsling has added to his offensive game, scoring 44 goals and 107 assists for 151 points in 320 games during his Panthers tenure. Not to mention playing on the top pair for last year’s Stanley Cup-winning team.
Clendening was very much still finding his footing in the NHL. He would play just 17 games in a Canucks uniform in 2014-2015, posting just two assists in those games. The former second-round pick managed to turn out a few more seasons after his time in Vancouver but doesn’t even sniff the level of player Forsling has become.
Honourable Mention
To Vancouver: Brent SopelTo Los Angeles: 2007 second-round pick (Wayne Simmonds) and a 2008 fourth-round pick (Justin Jokinen)
No offence to Brent Sopel, he had a solid run with the Canucks. However, this trade was for his second stint in Vancouver, which was not as good nor as long.
During his first tenure, Sopel spent six seasons with the Canucks, posting 32 goals and 93 assists for 125 points in 302 games. But during his second stint in Vancouver, Sopel played 20 games, scoring one goal and four assists for five points with an even rating. He would suit up in 11 games that playoff run, playing decent defensively, but was held pointless with a plus-two rating.
This isn’t a terrible trade on the surface for his efforts. However, when you consider what that second-round pick became, it doesn’t start to look as good.
The Kings drafted Wayne Simmonds with that second-round selection. He spent three seasons with the Kings before becoming one of the bigger pieces in a deal that sent himself, Brayden Schenn and a 2012 second-round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers for Mike Richards and Rob Bordson.
Now, Richards didn’t pan out exactly how the Kings had hoped for, as his best days were spent in Philadelphia, but he did help the team win two Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014.
Simmonds went on to have a successful career in Philadelphia. During his eight-year career with the Flyers, he was one of the league’s best power forwards, scoring 203 goals and racking up 786 penalty minutes.
Now, there’s no guarantee the Canucks would have selected Simmonds had they kept the pick, but he would have been a nice addition to the roster as they went on their Stanley Cup run.
What do you think, Canucks fans? Which of these were the worst trades the Canucks made in the last quarter-century? Let us know in the comments below!
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