Canucks Chasing Craig Adams?

The last time Mike Gillis’ Canucks were this quiet on "free agent frenzy" day, they at least inked Marco Sturm. Or before that, probably leaked the details of a massive offer to Mats Sundin.

There’s a glimmer of Canucks news light from Pierre LeBrun, a reporter who has proven to be as plugged in with Canucks management as anybody over the past ten days. Reportedly the Canucks have "kicked the tires" on Penguins forward Craig Adams among other "UFA depth centres."

Read past the jump.

In the introductory sentence to this post, you’ll notice that I described Craig Adams as a "forward" as opposed to as a "centre." That’s because Craig Adams really isn’t a centre – though he is a versatile, intelligent fourth line grinder. 

At no time in the past three seasons has Craig Adams been among the top four Penguins forwards in faceoffs taken (despite dressing for the majority of Pittsburgh’s games over that span). That essentially suggests that Craig Adams – though an option to fill in at centre occassionally, and certainly the first guy in the dot should an everyday centreman be waved out – has primarily played the wing in the recent history of his career. 

Not only that, but Craig Adams is a fourth liner. He played less regularly than Tanner Glass this past season with the Pens. Generally the Penguins have been outscored with Adams on the ice over the past three seasons, and he’s had his teeth kicked in playing limited minutes against tertiary competition. 

I suppose Craig Adams is a solid twelfth or thirteenth forward, but he’s not the bottom-six centre that the Canucks need.