Report: Coyotes have called the Canucks offering to take on bad contracts

The Arizona Coyotes have called the Vancouver Canucks offering to take on some of the team’s less valuable contracts, according to a report by Daily Faceoff‘s Frank Seravalli.

Seravalli appeared on Tuesday’s edition of Canucks Central to discuss all things related to the National Hockey League with Dan Riccio and Satiar Shah on Sportsnet 650. You can listen to Seravalli’s segment here.

One of the topics Seravalli discussed was the Coyotes’ willingness to absorb negative-value assets in exchange for draft picks or prospects. He also commented on the Canucks’ desire to pay the prices Arizona will likely set.

“I know the Coyotes have called offering the ability to take on some contracts the Canucks aren’t wild about,” Seravalli said. “How much are the Canucks willing to pay to offload things like that? My answer or thought process would be probably not very willing.”

The Canucks currently own six of their seven 2022 NHL Draft selections. They traded their 2021 first and 2022 second-round pick to the Coyotes last summer as part of the deal that brought Conor Garland and Oliver Ekman-Larsson to Vancouver.

That trade also sent Loui Eriksson, Antoine Roussel, and Jay Beagle to the desert, along with their problematic contracts. While their deals were mostly used to equalize the cap hits in the trade, the Coyotes have also made many moves to acquire bad contracts with no money going back the other way.

During the 2021 off-season, the Coyotes received numerous assets to take on @Andrew Ladd, @Shayne Gostisbehere, and @Anton Stralman. In total, they received four second-round picks, a conditional third-round pick, a seventh-round pick, and defensive prospect @Vladislav Kolyachonok in exchange for absorbing these players.

While it’s unclear exactly which contracts the Canucks might be looking to move this time around, some possible candidates include Tyler Myers (two years x $6 million AAV, 10-team no-trade list), Tucker Poolman (three years x $2.5 million AAV), and Jason Dickinson (two years x $2.65 million AAV).