WWYDW: Do The Right Thing

I’ll be completely honest to the readers of Canucks Army. It’s been, in many respects, a tough week for yours truly. As someone with so many different interests, it’s been difficult at times to remain focused on something as frivolous as hockey. Recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia have only served to underscore that.

Another recent event that’s had a noticeable effect on me is the recent anniversary of Rick Rypien’s death by suicide. Rypien was the rare sort of figure who could unite both old-school and new-school hockey fans, albeit for different reasons. Old-guard types saw a relentless warrior who sacrificed his body, mind, and soul for his team. What you might call more “modern” fans of the sport saw a tragic figure who became a posterboy for the NHL’s concussion and mental health epidemic.

This is all just a very long way of saying something tremendously simple. Hockey remains a game by and for the extremely privileged. Pretend for a minute that you’re in Gary Bettman’s shoes. What would you do to improve diversity within the NHL?

A trade of Bo for Pastrnak makes no sense at so many levels. Firstly the Bruins will still have to pay Bo, and Pastrnak will be lucky to get 50 points for this team. That said, you would probably have to trade Boeser, Baertshi/Granlund and Demko to get Pasternak. Nucks are in no position to lose assets to accelerate progress. Better to save those bullets and hopefully get another top 5 pick next year.

If the Canucks had centre depth, I would be 100% for a Horvat-Pasternak trade. But they don’t, and it’s difficult to acquire top-6 centres without grossly overpaying in free agency and tanking and picking high at the draft.
So unless Benning has a plan to bring in another centre of Bo’s quality, this deal would probably hurt the Canucks (even though Pasternak is a great player).

If you did Bo straight up for Pasternak that would give you Sedin/ Sutter/ Granlund/ Gaunce/ Burmistrov and Ganger all who have played center at the NHL level. I think though the Bruins would want a winger coming back as part of the deal and I think if you did a Horvat / Virtanen for Pasternak/ Spooner deal that would get it done. I know Canuck fans would crap their pants at the thought of Jake turning into Cam Neely 2.0 but I think Pasternak is a much (MUCH) better bet than Jake now and in the long term. Losing Horvat would be a really big blow but Pasternak would help Vancouver at its biggest weakness and that is putting pucks in the back of the net.