7 potential Canucks trade partners that need help in goal

Photo Credit: Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports

It’s not exactly a secret that the Vancouver Canucks would like to trade a goaltender, ideally for additional draft picks, ahead of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. 

While the question of which goaltender ultimately gets dealt remains an open one – will it be the Eddie Lack who carried the Canucks to the postseason with a stellar six week run, or Jacob Markstrom who carried the Utica Comets to the Calder Cup Final? – it’s obvious that the Canucks will be sellers on the ever-volatile goalie trade market once again this summer. They won’t be the only ones.

On Thursday night Canucks general manager Jim Benning said in a radio interview that he’s taking lots of calls about the availability of Lack and Markstrom. Here’s a quick look at seven NHL teams that could use some additional help in net, and some of the assets they have to play with.

The San Jose Sharks have a workhorse starter in Antti Niemi who is poised to hit unrestricted free agency, and a backup in Alex Stalock who really is a pure backup. 

Stalock had an impressive rookie season, but couldn’t build on it this past season and was well below average in under 20 starts. There’s franly nothing in his track record that would suggest that he’s a strong bet to ably carry even a platoon-type workload next season.

There are no marquee names in the pipeline for the Sharks either. 25-year-old Troy Grosenick was a tremendous story in his two appearances with San Jose this season, but he’s been unreliable in 70 AHL starts.

We know the Sharks will look to add a goaltender of consequence this summer, it’s just a question of who they target and how. There are some serviceable unrestricted free agent options available, including Jhonas Enroth and Michal Neuvirth, and the team was reported (by Bruce Garrioch though) to have asked the Ottawa Senators about veteran Craig Anderson.

San Jose is definitely going to be in the market for a goaltender, but they may not make much sense as a potential Canucks trading partner. After all while San Jose owns the 39th pick in the draft, they won’t pick again until the fourth-round. Maybe they’ll move that second rounder for a goaltender considering their desperate need and the depth of their prospect pipeline, but they wouldn’t appear to have a significant arsenal of the sorts of assets we’d expect the Canucks to target in a deal involving Lack or Markstrom. 

Also based on their need – a workhorse starter to fill Niemi’s shoes – it might make more sense for the Sharks to target a veteran player with a proven track record of holding up as a starter over a full season. 

The Edmonton Oilers received the league’s worst goaltending last season. 

Ben Scrivens and Viktor Fasth’s complete inability to stop the puck, coupled with Devan Dubnyk’s miraculous bounce back season, was enough to make you wonder if maybe the issue in Edmonton isn’t necessarily the quality of their puck stopping. Watching Nikita Nikitin pivot begged a similar question…

The Canucks and the Oilers nearly consummated a trade for a goaltender back at the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, with the deal only falling apart when Vancouver reportedly demanded too much of an in-division premium for Cory Schneider. It’s tough to know whether that organizational logic still stands, but considering the familiarity between Peter Chiarelli and Jim Benning, it would seem that the two sides might find it easier to come to an agreement this time around.

If the Oilers are interested in Lack or Markstrom, then they have a bounty of assets that the Canucks would find attractive. Currently Edmonton owns two second-round picks (#33 overall and #57) and two additional third-round picks (#79 and #86). 

This one is a little bit off the board, particularly considering how well Jaroslav Halak played in the Islanders’ first-round series loss to the Washington Capitals. 

That said, the Islanders don’t have an NHL-level backup signed for next season and were a bottom-five team by even-strength save percentage. Based on the performance of the Islanders’ goalies last season, it would seem that they could use a high-upside backup, the sort of goaltender who might be able to steal a run of games, and seriously push Halak for starts. That goaltender will have to be somewhat inexpensive also, considering Halak’s cap-hit.

Obviously both of Markstrom and Lack would fit that bill. It’s also worth noting that Garth Snow and Jim Benning have done a fair bit of business together in Benning’s first year on the job. Snow and Benning completed a transaction for Andrey Pedan in mid-season and made an AHL-level deal involving Dustin Jeffrey and Cory Conacher at the deadline. 

The Islanders don’t have a pick in the top-60 next season, but they have two third-round picks, including the Florida Panthers’ third rounder that Vancouver sent to New York in the Pedan trade. 

The Canucks will surely hope to extract more than a third-rounder if they’re dealing Lack, but that would seem a reasonable price for a player like Markstrom, who remains unproven at the NHL level in spite of his consistently sterling AHL performance.

The Toronto Maple Leafs technically have a starter, Jonathan Bernier, in place. Bernier is a restricted free agent though and found himself at the centre of trade rumours ahead of the 2015 NHL trade deadline. 

With all of the changeover and uncertainty on Bay and Front these days – and with the team bringing in Mike Babcock, a coach who barely hesitated last season to bench an expensive starter in Jimmy Howard in favour of a young up-and-comer in Petr Mrazek, it wouldn’t be shocking if the Maple Leafs tested the market on Bernier. 

If the Maple Leafs opt to follow the Detroit model (of not spending in goal) rather than signing Bernier to a longer-term deal, they could be in the market for an affordable goaltender with a strong track record of professional success.

Lack is the real prize based on his NHL performance, obviously, but I wonder if the Maple Leafs could be intrigued by Markstrom. Not only will Markstrom be cheaper to acquire and retain (for at least the next couple of seasons), but a new-look progressive Maple Leafs front office might see his inability to establish himself at the NHL level as something of a buy low opportunity.

In terms of assets, Toronto owns Pittsburgh’s third-round pick and two fourth-round picks at the 2015 NHL Entry Draft.

No team in hockey needs sturdy backup goaltending as badly as the Dallas Stars do. 

The Stars could score at will last season, but were largely betrayed by a 5-on-5 save percentage that ranked 29th in the NHL. If you’re only better than the Oilers (pre-McDavid era), you have some problems. 

Stars netminder Kari Lehtonen struggled last season, but he was overtaxed because the Stars (quite rightly)  just didn’t trust backup Anders Lindback. The Stars season in net went so badly that they’re looking at a complete overhaul of the way they scout, draft, develop, and maybe even coach goaltenders, according to general manager Jim Nill.

“We have to look at every aspect,” Nill said of his goaltending in a recent conversation with the Dallas Morning News. “How does Kari interact with the back-up goalie, how do we use the back-up goalie, how do we get them ready for games. We are really in the middle of studying everything.

“It’s a hot button topic on a lot of teams, because it’s such an important position,” Nill continued. “We’re not the only ones looking at goaltending right now.”

Based on what they experienced last season – a backup they didn’t trust submarining an elite offense – you’d have to think that the Stars would have limited interest in Markstrom. You could see how Lack may be a fit though, particularly if they retain goalie coach Mike Valley (who has a particular affinity for big goaltenders with stellar technique). Lack could be the sort of goaltender Dallas could trust as a backup, and he might have the upside to supplant Lehtonen – who didn’t win many fans with his performance during the 2014-15 campaign.

The Stars own the Detroit Red Wings’ second-round pick (#49), which would seem to matchup with what the Canucks can reasonably expect in return for Lack.

Tim Murray and the Buffalo Sabres have run through goalies at an NHL record pace over the past couple of years. The team sold Ryan Miller for assets, short-sold Jaroslav Halak, did something similar (albeit at a much slower pace) with Michael Neuvirth, and dumped Jhonas Enroth for a third-round pick ahead of the 2015 NHL trade deadline. 

Murray has been all about using his goaltenders to help his bottom dwelling team accumulate, but now, he might need to to flip the script. 

The Sabres have just one NHL-level goaltender signed for next season in career backup Chad Johnson. They could potentially roll with Johnson and one of Nathan Lieuwen, Matt Hackett or Andrey Makarov if they were looking to make a cynical run at Auston Matthews, but it’s also possible that Murray will start trying to win.

If he does, then he could potentially pursue a promising young netminder on the trade market. 

The Sabres have two second-round draft picks, and while they need all of the promising young talent they can get their hands on, it seems possible that Murray and company could see Lack as a future starter and deem him worth the expense. 

The Arizona Coyotes are poised to lose goalie coach and executive Sean Burke, a.k.a the goalie whisperer, this offseason. Burke has worked wonders with any number of goaltenders over the years, though he couldn’t stop Mike Smith from spontaneously combusting (or thereabouts) in the first half of the season. Still the work Burke and company did rehabilitating Devan Dubnyk’s career is nothing to sniff at, nor is the way they turned a no-cost free agent gamble into a third-round pick.

If the Coyotes decide to dip into the goalie trade market in pursuit of a promising young backup capable of bailing out Smith in extended stretches (should the highly paid veteran struggle again), then Lack in particular could make sense for them. 

The Coyotes own an extra draft pick in each of the first three rounds of the NHL draft, so if they decide to get involved, they’ll have an arsenal of desirable assets at their disposal. 

We don’t knows what the Canucks will do with their logjam in net, but we do strongly suspect they’ll be looking to add picks at the NHL Entry Draft. If you want a chance to witness the draft in person, the Virtual League of Hockey will be flying two lucky virtual GMs down to Sunrise Florida to watch it all unfold from June 25th to June 28th. By registering for a free account you will automatically be entered for your chance to win. The VLH lets you create your own team, develop players and challenge a community of hockey fans from around the world. Now you also have the chance to learn from the world’s best GMs at the entry draft! Join today for your shot at the grand prize.