Report: Canucks ‘aggressively’ exploring cost of trading expensive players, such as Conor Garland

Daily Faceoff hockey insider Frank Seravalli appeared on Tuesday’s edition of Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satiar Shah to discuss the Vancouver Canucks’ next steps as they chart a course for the 2023 offseason.

Seravalli indicated that the Canucks have been looking to move a sizeable contract as they attempt to navigate around their impending cap crunch — especially with J.T. Miller’s contract extension set to take effect on July 1.

One player the Canucks have apparently been attempting to trade is Conor Garland, whose $4.95 million cap hit runs through the 2025–26 season. Here’s what Seravalli had to say about Garland’s status with the Canucks:

Frank Seravalli: I think the next step, before you can even think about being aggressive [in acquiring players], is to aggressively shed contracts and garner cap space. I’ll give you a little preview, supposed to mention tomorrow on my show that one of the news items that I had is that the Canucks have actually somewhat aggressively been in talks with some teams to at least understand the prices of what it would cost to unload a contract or two. I think a lot of the focus has actually been on Conor Garland, in specific. But I also think Patrik Allvin, in the conversations that I’ve heard of, has been very open-minded in … ‘let me understand what all the prices are first before I make a decision on exactly it’s gonna be.’ So, they have engaged in talks and it’s certainly something that’s on everyone’s radar. My understanding was, to this point, that the Canucks have found the prices to be very high.

Seravalli added that the Canucks have very little leverage in their negotiations involving Garland or any other high-priced players, and that they’ll likely have to part with high draft picks in any deal involving big cap hits going out the door.

“Everyone can see it and knows it,” Seravalli said. “They know [the Canucks] are backed up against the cap, and the ask is high.”

Garland, 27, scored 17 goals and 46 points in 81 games with the Canucks during the 2022–23 regular season. The Canucks originally acquired the Scituate, Mass. product from the Arizona Coyotes ahead of the 2021 NHL Draft.

The Canucks finished the 2022–23 season in sixth place in the Pacific Division with a 38–37–7 record and 83 points, missing the playoffs for the seventh time in eight years.