Canucks Acquire Nic Dowd from Los Angeles Kings for Jordan Subban

Following their 4-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Vancouver Canucks announced that they’d deal prospect defenceman Jordan Subban to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for pending unrestricted free agent centre Nic Dowd.

The Canucks originally drafted Subban in the fourth-round of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. The undersized offensive defender flashed offensive excellence at the junior level and carried it into his professional career with the Utica Comets. In Subban’s first two years with Utica in the AHL, he had 36 points apiece.

With new Comets head coach Trent Cull running the show and an influx of young talent on the blue line, Subban had lost his spot atop the defensive depth chart, and his production suffered accordingly. In 16 games with the Comets this season, Subban has but five points, all of them assists.

Subban is currently day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

In Dowd, the Canucks get a hockey player. There’s not much more to it. At 27-years-old, Dowd’s played as something of a 13th forward for the Kings, and delivered uninspiring results. In 16 games with the Kings, Dowd has but one assist. In spite of the Kings being a dominant puck possession team, they’re buried in their zone when Dowd is on the ice — though last season Dowd was a fairly strong possession player.

It’s a strange move for both teams, frankly. The Kings need forward depth, so parting with a forward like Dowd, even if he’s at or below replacement level, seems counterintuitive. And while I don’t doubt that this is the best the Canucks could have done for Subban, I can’t help but wonder to what exact end they made this move.

Dowd is playing on a one-year deal valued at $640,000 and is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. With Bo Horvat on the shelf long-term and Brandon Sutter at least a week away, it doesn’t hurt to have an extra centre.

Even so, it’s hard to imagine Dowd getting a sniff of game action. It’s insurance, certainly. It’s just not a claim they’re likely to have ever to file.

It’s unfortunate to see the Subban experiment reach so uninspiring an end as this. At times, Subban looked capable of, at the very least, serving in a sheltered bottom of the lineup role as a power play specialist. Time, and patience, it appears had run out in the Canucks front office.

A lot will be made of whether the Canucks gave Subban a fair shake. It’s not a simple yes or no, from my perspective. Certainly, there were moments where they could have offered Subban a look at the NHL level. The end of last season seemed perfect for it.

By that same token, Subban’s pre-season and training camp did nothing to change the Canucks view of him as too risky defensively to play at the NHL level. Frankly, I’d reached the same conclusion. By all accounts, Subban hasn’t been great in Utica this season either.

The Canucks get depth at a position that’s been ravaged by injuries, and Subban gets another chance with a new organization to prove he can handle the NHL. I’m not sure anyone wins, but there isn’t a clear loser, for whatever that’s worth.