This past weekend proved to be one of the busiest ever in terms of Vancouver Canucks-related headlines. And would you believe they’re the proverbial ‘not done yet?’

Within a day of the Canucks bringing in Marcus Pettersson, Filip Chytil, Drew O’Connor, and Victor Mancini, we received word that GM Patrik Allvin and Co. were still in the market for an “impact forward.”

But after giving up both JT Miller and the first-round pick they received back for JT Miller in the span of a few Friday night hours, one has to wonder what the Canucks even have left in their metaphorical wallet at this point. Seeking out an impact forward is one thing, and actually meeting the price tag required to land one is another. Impact forwards don’t typically come cheap, after all.

So, today, we’re setting out to answer that very question of what the Canucks still have on hand to offer up in their next set of trade talks.

We begin with the most obvious trade currency: draft picks. Here, despite it seeming like the Canucks have dealt away an awful lot of picks of late – which they have – they’re still relatively well-stocked.

The first-round pick the Canucks dealt for Marcus Pettersson was the same one they acquired from the New York Rangers, which means the Canucks still have their 2025 first-rounder on hand. The same goes for their 2026 first-rounder, and their 2027, and so on and so forth. One of those first-round picks seems like a good place to start in negotiating the return for notable trade acquisitions.

The Canucks also have their next two second-rounders, but neither of their next two third-rounders.

It’s also true that the Canucks have drafted just two players in the first round (Tom Willander and Jonathan Lekkerimäki) over the past five drafts. Just because they have picks to burn doesn’t mean they can afford to just give them away. Draft picks are a convenient currency, but they’re also one the Canucks have spent a little too freely in recent years.

The Canucks dealt away two prospects as a part of their Friday trades, with Jackson Dorrington joining Miller and Erik Brännström on the way to New York and Melvin Fernström headed to Pittsburgh alongside Danton Heinen and Vincent Desharnais.

Neither Dorrington nor Fernström would have cracked the Canucks’ top-10 prospects at this point and can thus be deemed relatively minor prospects.

But not every prospect in the cupboard is minor, and the Canucks do have some young talent on hand that would definitely hold some value in trade talks. The key here is determining which prospects the team can’t afford to part with.

Willander, the team’s top prospect and only RHD prospect of note prior to the acquisition of Mancini, is as close to untouchable as it gets. Players like him are simply too rare to part with.

The next best prospect is probably Lekkerimäki, and he’s a little less untouchable. That said, until Brock Boeser’s future is determined, the team cannot afford to give up its only prospect with definitive top-six scoring potential. So, Lekkerimäki probably stays, too.

The same could probably be said for Aatu Räty, the only prospect with any hope of becoming a middle-six centre or greater. With Miller gone, Räty becomes all the more important.

Those three represent the cream of the crop. So, who’s left, and are they moveable? Let’s play a game called Who’s Going to Be This Year’s Hunter Brzustewicz?

Given how well he’s played as a rookie pro (and, most recently, as an NHL rookie), the team would really probably prefer not to trade its second Elias Pettersson. The same goes for the newly acquired Mancini, who’s been a major riser over the course of this season.

Anyone else can probably be put on the table. Maybe it’s Arturs Silovs, who had a disastrous start at the NHL level but who has rebuilt his game again in Abbotsford. Or maybe it’s Sawyer Mynio who made his way onto Team Canada for the most recent World Juniors. Or perhaps it’s a younger, unsigned prospect like Riley Patterson or Anthony Romani.

There are no blue chips to be found here aside from that list of untouchables, but there are players who could feasibly make up at least part of a compelling trade package.

It is also quite possible that the Canucks might look at trading someone else from their roster and then using the assets returned from that trade in another trade.

We’re not just speculating here, either. It’s what the Canucks did with the first-round pick they got back for Miller, and it’s also what they did with the first-rounder they got back for Bo Horvat back in the day.

One might even call it their ‘thing.’

So, who’s next?

Pending UFA Boeser would seem to be the most likely. The fact that he’s still unsigned at this point indicates at least some chance that he’s planning to take himself to market. If that’s the case, then the Canucks are probably best to sell him at a high price. That return could then theoretically be thrown into a package for a younger forward with more contract control.

Or maybe it’s Thatcher Demko who finds himself traded after a Kevin Lankinen extension is signed? Demko hasn’t had the best bounceback, but one has to imagine he’d still return at least a first-rounder.

Alternatively, maybe the Canucks will keep Demko and sell high on Lankinen instead. Either way, some solid future-based assets should come in, and given the Canucks’ recent history, the odds are at least decent that those same assets will be flipped shortly thereafter.

Heck, with that said, we’ll add here that until he’s extended himself, there’s always a chance that Marcus Pettersson is re-flipped. Stranger things have certainly happened.

The Canucks’ biggest trade chip would still technically be the forward Elias Pettersson, and we haven’t officially heard that he’s ‘off the block,’ so anything could happen. But we suspect that management would rather hang onto him at this point, and when we look at the rest of the Canucks’ roster, we imagine the same sentiment is largely true across the board.

What we mean is that we don’t think the Canucks are interested in doing much more subtraction beyond what they’ve already lost in Miller. They’re more interested in addition at this point, and that’s almost certainly going to have them digging into the assets we’ve already mentioned in the previous sections.