Report: Canucks were interested in Marcus Johansson at last deadline

It’s clear that the Canucks have been looking for ways to add to their forward group to inject some more offensive support to their top players.

With that in mind, it was mentioned by The Athletic’s and TSN’s Pierre Lebrun that the Canucks were interested in Boston Bruins forward Marcus Johansson at this past trading deadline

Johansson was with the New Jersey Devils but was moved to the Bruins for a 2019 2nd and 2020 4th round pick before the deadline passed. He only played 10 regular seasons games with the Bruins, due to a lung contusion, but has been fantastic in the playoffs as part of the Bruins third line with Charlie Coyle.

Coming back to the Canucks, Lebrun mentioned at the very end of the radio hit that Vancouver was one of the teams that were aggressive in trying to add Johansson at the deadline and he believes that since Johansson is a pending UFA, it was so the Canucks could acquire him and then sign him to a new deal. Given that Johansson hasn’t signed a new deal with the Bruins and the Canucks desire to add more offensive punch, could the Canucks circle back on the winger and sign him as a free agent this July?

It will be interesting to see what happens as Johansson has been playing well this post-season, so other than an increase in cost to sign him, there isn’t really a reason for the Canucks to lose interest in him since February But maybe the term or compensation will be too much. It will be something to keep an eye on once the free agent period opens.