Monday Mailbag: Conor Garland trade ideas, CALL UP RATHBONE, and projecting the Stanley Cup window for the Canucks’ core

We’re back with another Monday Mailbag as the Vancouver Canucks truck along towards the all-star break. We’ve got a couple more games this week before the extended break that is followed by the push to the playoffs.

The Canucks could end up being the biggest sellers at the deadline and we may soon see what Trader Jim is all about if Jim Rutherford is going to begin making moves alongside newly appointed General Manager Patrik Allvin. We have a lot of questions regarding the roster as well as some other fun ones thrown into this week’s mailbag. So, let’s get right into it!

We’re going to open up this week’s CanucksArmy mailbag and see what the wonderful people of Canucks Twitter had to say!

Yeah, in case you missed it, Elliotte Friedman dropped somewhat of a Saturday night bomb when he mentioned Conor Garland’s name being involved in some trade calls. He went on to throw out the New Jersey Devils as a team to keep an eye on when it came to Garland’s potential landing spot.

This one’s a weird one to me. Garland is fresh off of signing a five-year extension valued at just under five million dollars per season. His deal feels like a good one for a player of his quality who will be able to be a solid driver of play on your second scoring line. He’s 25 years old, so he fits in with the team wanting to be competitive in a couple of years and his style of play energizes a line.

He’s the type of player you would think of as a great piece moving forward.

That’s probably what teams like the New Jersey Devils and others are thinking.

If Garland is in fact available, his trade value is relatively unknown as players with his contract status of being locked up for five more years is not an in-season type of trade that often gets done. Moving this many millions of dollars and years typically goes down in the summer. I’m going to throw out a trade option from the Devils as they are the only team that has been associated with Garland’s name so far.

Devils Receive: Conor Garland

Canucks Receive: Devils’ 2022 2nd round pick, 2024 1st round pick, Dawson Mercer, and Kevin Bahl

It’s just hard to judge because the Devils aren’t in the spot to be moving prospects. The Devils are currently at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division and are sixth from the bottom in the NHL-wide standings. I’m not sure what the Devils are looking to do with Garland aside from being the type of player that could accelerate their rebuild.

My ears become wide open if Ty Smith or Luke Hughes is on the table for some reason.

A team that makes more sense to me and would likely be an easier destination for Rutherford to trade with is the Pittsburgh Penguins.

They are a team that is trending towards making the playoff this year and could be willing to give up some future assets for Garland. They also have Kasperi Kapanen on an expiring deal, who knows Rutherford well and they also have right-shot defenceman, John Marino, who is on year one of a six-year deal with an AAV of $4,400,000. The Penguins also have some prospects to play with — Filip Wallinder, Nathan Legare, and Quads’ favourite goalie of all-time Joel Blomqvist to name a few.

Penguins Receive: Conor Garland, Jaroslav Halak

Canucks Receive: Casey DeSmith ($1,750,000 cap dump), Nathan Legare, Joel Blomqvist, 2022 1st round pick, 2023 3rd round pick.

Even with these trade proposals that I’m throwing out here, I think the Canucks need to keep Garland. He seems like a defibrillator to whichever line he is on and he is only 25 years old. He’s the type of hustler you want to keep on your team. On top of that, he’s on a five-year contract where the money makes sense for what he will bring to a team.

I’ll be curious to hear the upcoming Garland rumours and you know we will have you covered here at CanucksArmy.

Yeah, my thought process on J.T. Miller’s return is apparently way off. I seem to be looking at it from other teams’ fanbase perspectives. I was assuming something like Brock Faber, Rasmus Kupari and a 2nd round pick was the return we are going to see.

I am now assuming that I am wrong. This past Saturday on The Canucks Warm-Up, we spoke with Mike Gould of Flames Nation and his idea of a trade proposal for Miller was the Flames’ top prospect Jacob Pelletier, current roster player Dillon Dube, a first-round pick and potentially a second-round pick if there’s some salary retention.

This offer that you have here from the New York Rangers is great to target Braden Schneider as he is the RD position of need that the Canucks crave. I’d like to think that the Canucks can do even better than your deal and the more I hear from people with connections around the league, the more it sounds like a massive ask from Rutherford and Allvin.

Here’s what I’d like to see as a return as I tweak your deal just a bit.

Rangers Receive: C/LW J.T. Miller (50% retained at a $2,650,000 for this season and next), a 6th round pick in 2023

Canucks Receive: RD Braden Schneider, 2022 1st round pick, LD Matthew Robertson, LW Will Cuylle, 2023 3rd round pick

I believe that retention on Miller’s deal adds tremendous value to him as a trade asset and therefore makes him much more valuable than Jakob Chychrun, the other top asset at the deadline.

P.S.: I like Cuylle a lot, seems like a player who is going to get to the NHL quickly.

Nice trade proposal, Max.

Hopefully soon.

Jack Rathbone is currently paired up with a defenceman who is on a professional tryout. Rathbone needs to find his rhythm in the AHL before getting a call-up to the NHL. He likely needs another weekend to get everything back in order after missing five weeks with an injury and a week with COVID.

I can see Rathbone coming up as the next defenceman call-up and he will surely love Bruce Boudreau’s aggressive system. I spoke with Rathbone last week and wrote an article about the conversation. The article dropped on the same day that the Canucks hired Patrik Allvin as their general manager, so you may have missed it. I’ll link it right HERE.

We are very tired and worn down.

I feel it, you feel it, we all feel it.

Just imagining a world without COVID is so strange.

Remember when we used to just do everything without a mask and stuff. Bars, comedy clubs, sporting events for kids, concerts, events, all-you-can-eat buffets, parties…

That was all so cool.

I hope we get to that at some point.

Ideally, you would like to be competitive for a playoff spot next year. There’s a lot of talent here and if the new management group can make some quality moves over the next eight months, next year’s team has a chance to look and feel even better. The addition of Bruce Boudreau seems to be a good one for this group as well. We will see how he plays out next year.

As for cup contending, the best you can hope for is two-three years from now. You’ve got the goalie, you’ve got the defenceman and if Elias Pettersson can figure out what’s slowing him down, you have the centre. You now have a competent management group that is filled with proven winners. Let’s see them cook.

On that note, let’s wrap this baby up. Thanks again for another week where the questions absolutely ruled. I appreciate the readers and followers sending in questions that make this mailbag so much fun for me to write every week.

We will see you next week!

Keep your eyes out on the CanucksArmy Twitter page for the call for questions on Sundays!

Be well, be good to each other and I’ll see you next Monday.