The Vancouver Canucks sent an email to the other 31 NHL teams on Monday evening informing them that they’re making some of their NHL veterans – at this time, not including Quinn Hughes – available for trade.

According to Donnie & Dhali – The Team’s Rick Dhaliwal, Kiefer Sherwood may be the first player to fall:

“I am certainly hearing this morning that the player getting the most traction is Kiefer Sherwood … He could be the first to move here. [He’s] leading the team in goals, 12, NHL hits leader. They have no offers going back and forth with the agent. They don’t. The agent is going to ask for five or over five – Canucks can’t do that. He’s a UFA at the end of the season.”

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared the same thought on Sportsnet’s The Fan Hockey Show earlier on Tuesday morning:

“So you start to sit there and figure out what this means. Well, I think it means the UFAs. I think Sherwood, absolutely, is at the top of that list cause not only is not signed yet for next year, but he’s a really good player. And if you’re a playoff team, and you look at the number he’s at, he’s very desirable.”

Sherwood is off to a career-high goal-scoring pace, leading the Canucks with 12 goals through 23 games this season. He’s added four helpers to bring his total to 16 on the season, good for third-highest in team scoring.

The 30-year-old winger shattered the NHL record for hits last season with 462. He currently sits second in the league with 98, trailing only Minnesota Wild forward Yakov Trenin, who has 107. Sherwood is on pace to finish with 349 hits this season, over a 100 fewer than his record-breaking 2024-25 season.

In the final year of his two-year, $3 million contract – carrying a $1.5 million average annual value – he signed with the Canucks in the 2024 offseason, Sherwood will become an unrestricted free agent in the summer. The Canucks first took an interest in Sherwood when they saw him first-hand in the playoffs after their Round 1 series against the Nashville Predators in the 2023-24 season. His hard-hitting, physical game translates perfectly to playoff-style hockey.

In recent reports from The Athletic’s Thomas Drance, it sounds like the Canucks have set the minimum price on their forward:

“Vancouver will want at least a second-round pick back if it’s going to consider trading Sherwood.”