You know the trading deadline is less than a week away when news about availability from insiders becomes common knowledge. Earlier today, Darren Dreger tweeted the Calgary Flames that were being shopped around, and then just recently Bob McKenzie did the honour of providing the Canucks ‘list’:

Let’s start with the obvious, the names missing.

Radim Vrbata and Dan Hamhuis have a limited no trade clause and no trade clause respectively, thus were not included in the league wide ‘notification’. It’s obvious to everyone if an acceptable destination and trade clause is waived, that they would be on table. But given the limited options and required steps, they are not included in the tweet.

The obvious names on the list are Matt Bartkowski, Yannick Weber, Chris Higgins and Brandon Prust. All except for Higgins are pending UFA and have always been possibilities to be moved at the trading deadline. All except Bartkowski have also cleared waivers this year, which isn’t surprising as teams likely didn’t want to assume the contract at that time, where now at the deadline they may be able to get the Canucks to take a contract back. Higgins does have one year left on his contract, so that will complicate matters, but he has been playing well in Utica and could be a very useful depth option for a contender. Similar to the role he played for the Canucks in 2011. But it won’t be surprising if the Canucks have to retain some salary on a Higgins move.

Earlier today, I suggested that the Canucks would be wise to try and accumulate as many picks as possible and the trading deadline was the best place to start. Even getting a 7th round pick for any of these players would be worth their time. Since that Prust and Higgins are currently in the AHL, they would be able to be assigned to the acquiring teams minor league affiliate, which again is an attractive aspect to a team acquiring them.

To put it lightly, all four have struggled this year. 

I would not expect all four to be moved – but I would hope the Canucks can parlay one, two or three of them into something.

Now onto the slightly more surprising names, and I mean surprising as they weren’t as blatantly obviously available.

Ronalds Kenins, also known as the Latvian Locomotive, did well for the Canucks when he first arrived in the NHL midway through last season. But struggled to replicate his physical game in the playoffs and appeared to fall out of favour with the coaching staff. He has been in Utica for the majority of this year and has been okay. He is a pending RFA, so it is not surprising that the Canucks will try and get something for him. If they are unable to do so, he will likely finish the year with Utica and may not be provided a qualifying offer.

Adam Cracknell is a bit of a surprise in the sense that Canucks management are a fan of his game, and he has been regularly seen with the ‘kids’ in public situations (concert early in the year etc.). He has also been an effective 4th line player for the Canucks, but given that he is a UFA at the end of the year, it’s not a huge surprise that they, at least, put flyers out. He wasn’t part of the organization until late August, so regardless it has been ‘found money’ for the organization and recouping a late round pick would be a great way to manage an asset.

Lastly, Linden Vey.

Once again, not an overly surprising name to be on the list but still surprising given that he is still young and 20 months ago the Canucks gave up a second round pick for him. On the flip side, the acquisition of Markus Granlund yesterday, which was the first indicator that the Canucks may consider cutting ties with Vey due to the similarity in their game. Vey has struggled at times and has drawn the ire of many fans due to his softer style of game, there has been improvement in his game recently. It likely wasn’t enough to keep his spot, but there was improvement nonetheless.

I highly doubt that they will be able to recover a 2nd round pick in exchange for him, and since that was the price they paid for him, it is slightly worrisome.

Given the needed steps for the Canucks two biggest trade chips, this aforementioned list does leave a lot to desire:

Pet bugs and Botchford are not wrong.

We’ll know mid-afternoon on Monday if they were actually able to parlay any of these names into anything or simply used as a ‘we tried to make things happen’ reference point.