Jakob Chychrun would be an awesome Canuck but a trade for him feels impossible

Jakob Chyrchrun is an excellent NHL defenceman. He could be in the top four of every single NHL team.

Currently, there are trade rumours swirling around the 23-year-old Arizona Coyotes’ defenceman.

All across the league, site blogs are writing about how their team needs to pursue the young, talented defenceman.

I wish we could explore the idea here in Vancouver as well. Chychrun is dynamic and moves the puck so well for such a young defenceman. Having a top-four left side of Quinn Hughes and Jakob Chychrun would set up a defence for years to come.

Chychrun makes $4,600,000 for this season and the three seasons that follow. He’s on an excellent deal and the Coyotes should be asking for a gargantuan return in a Chychrun deal. The Vancouver Canucks have just enough pieces to get a deal done but it would be sacrificing a ton to get Chychrun onto their roster.

The Coyotes want young talent, so you can throw out J.T. Miller, Tanner Pearson and maybe even Bo Horvat as trade options. The names that would likely be around this trade are names like Elias Pettersson or Brock Boeser plus Nils Höglander/Vasily Podkolzin with add-ons like Jack Rathbone, Mikey DiPietro or Danila Klimovich.

It’s certain that draft picks would need to be thrown into the deal as well.

A deal could actually be possible if wizardry were to be pulled off and Tyler Myers were to be thrown into the deal but Myers provides negative net value for the Coyotes with where their franchise is at so taking on Myers likely just forces the Canucks to add more to the deal.

The Canucks already have one of the most expensive bluelines in the NHL. From a common-sense standpoint of looking at the salary cap, it’s ludicrous to add another $4,600,000 on top of Myers’ six million, Hughes and Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s combined 15 million as well as Tucker Poolman and Travis Hamonic combining to put another five and a half million dollars against the cap.

The big worry is that other teams like the Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs as well as other organizations will be in a bidding war for Chychrun.

As much as I’d like to see Chychrun on the Canucks’ blueline, I don’t think the Canucks’ current cap structure gives them the benefit of being able to take a true run at one of the best offensive-defenceman in the league on a very team-friendly deal.

The Kings have a massive prospect pool in which the Coyotes will look at intently as they move towards yet another rebuild. I also look at a team like the Minnesota Wild and their strong prospect pool.

The Wild have names like Marco Rossi, Matt Boldy, Adam Beckman, Alex Khovanoc, Calen Addison and Marat Khusnutdinov are more of what the Coyotes are likely looking for. The Wild have a scary cap problem coming next year with $12,743,588 in dead cap due to the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts but also have some bigger contracts coming off the books and would be able to make room for Chychrun’s cheap $4,600,000.

It’s very hard to find a way to make this deal happen for the Canucks without Myers and his six-million dollar cap-hit in the trade. Pearson has a no-trade clause in his contract that kicks into a modified seven-team no-trade clause in 2022-23.

Brock Boeser may get the Coyotes excited but he needs a contract next season and who knows if he would have interest in locking into a long-term contract with Arizona. It seems like none of those long-term deals have worked for the Coyotes but hey, maybe Boeser is step one of making Auston Matthews come home to Arizona.

Even with Boeser being the main piece in the deal, it’s likely that one of Höglander or Podkolzin is requested as well. Then, there’s another plus that needs to be thrown in and at this point, it just seems counter-productive to explore that being a good deal for the Canucks.

The Canucks could have been in on Chychrun if they didn’t trade for Oliver Ekman-Larsson in the offseason. They could have put together a stronger offer that didn’t completely devastate their prospect pool.

Jim Rutherford definitely has some tricks up his sleeve and I’d love to hear his thought process on acquiring a player of Chychrun’s calibre. Rutherford has said that he doesn’t want to move any high draft picks.

Rutherford has not only been known to be an aggressive trader but he often sets the market, making his moves early on before the deadline and that has come back to bite him but also helped him get the exact player he wanted.

One thing is for sure, the Arizona Coyotes are going to get an absolute haul for Chychrun and it might be best if the Canucks just stay out of this one.

Then again, we got the real trader Jim running the Canucks now — let the man cook.

I’d love to hear your trade proposals in the comments or if you also believe that the Canucks simply cannot find a way to make this deal happen.