To this point, most trade rumours surrounding the Vancouver Canucks — aside from those involving Quinn Hughes, of course — have focused mainly on the club selling off their pending unrestricted free agents.

This is mostly due to the fact that Canucks trade rumours were given life this season when the Canucks sent out a memo to the 31 other NHL teams that they were willing to listen to offers for their veteran players. Jim Rutherford soon clarified that at that point, the club was hoping to trade their pending UFA skaters, the players they would be trading anyways at the NHL trade deadline in March. And then the Canucks traded Quinn Hughes.

Since then, the conversation has mostly shifted back to those pending UFAs. Namely, Kiefer Sherwood, Evander Kane, and to a lesser extent, the currently-on-the-shelf Teddy Blueger and Derek Forbort.

But if the Canucks are serious about maximizing their future assets during this transition phase, which the club has already called a rebuild and a “retool with a hybrid form” in less than a month, they need to do more than that. Call it whatever you want, the Canucks need to be disciplined and get serious about the future. Which brings us to today’s topic. Could the Canucks sell high on Drew O’Connor? To this point, there haven’t been many rumblings about the big speedy winger. And that should probably change.

The logic is simple, really. If the Canucks aren’t going to compete for at least the next two seasons while they go through this transition phase with a focus on acquiring younger players, does a player who will be 30 at the start of the 2028-29 season serve much use for them in the big picture?

The Canucks acquired O’Connor last season, along with defenceman Marcus Pettersson, in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The trade came on the same night as the JT Miller trade, when the Canucks received Filip Chytil, a first round pick, and Victor Mancini in return. The first round pick — which ended up being 12th overall — was gone almost immediately after the Canucks acquired it. At that point, they thought fixing up their blueline with Pettersson and adding some speed in O’Connor would help them get back to looking more like the team that won the Pacific Division in 2023-24. Obviously, that hasn’t been the case.

The good news is, it’s not too late for the Canucks to pivot and recoup some future assets from what is looking like a not-so-great move with the benefit of hindsight.

After the Canucks traded for O’Connor and Pettersson, they wasted little time in signing both players to multi-year contract extensions. O’Connor’s came in at two years, and carries an annual average value of $2.5 million. Theoretically, that should increase the number of teams willing to give up an asset or two for O’Connor. A playoff team gets him for two playoff runs, and a team currently on the outside looking in but with a clear desire to get better both this season and next could justify giving up assets because O’Connor isn’t simply a rental.

Take the Winnipeg Jets for example. The Jets currently sit dead last in the NHL standings, having gone 1-6-3 in their last ten games. The Jets, despite having last year’s Hart Trophy winner in goal and a potent first line featuring Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele, have struggled to win games, and as a result, likely won’t be “buyers” at the trade deadline. They certainly won’t be looking to pay up for a rental that might walk in free agency, that’s for sure. As my co-host on Canucks Conversation Harman Dayal pointed out recently, most of the Jets’ problems stem from their bottom three forward lines. Most of all, they lack speed in their middle six, and have struggled as a result. The Jets might view O’Connor as someone who can help them in that department not only this season, but next season as well. And they’re not the only team in that position, either, which is good news for the Canucks, because O’Connor has a 12-team no-trade list that could very possibly feature Winnipeg on it.

And we haven’t even gotten to what O’Connor has been able to do this season. Through 39 games this season, the 6’4 speedy winger has registered 10 goals and six assists, which means he’s on pace to set a new career-high in both goals (21) and points (34). O’Connor has done this on a bad team, but it hasn’t been due to him playing at the top of the lineup on said bad team. For a playoff team, that gives them some degree of confidence that O’Connor’s game will translate well to their third or fourth line, which is where he’d likely slot in on any team acquiring him.

To put it simply, the Canucks need to look at O’Connor and ask themselves if he’s going to be part of the next great Canucks team. And if the answer to that question is no, then they have to at least explore selling high on him and bringing back a future asset that could turn into a key part of their future. A second round pick for O’Connor would be a great addition to the other picks the Canucks should be able to get back when they eventually trade Kiefer Sherwood and Evander Kane.

As we’ve learned over the years, a retool/rebuild like this is about volume. Even if you hit on your first round picks like the Canucks did with Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson, you need even more than that to build a contender in today’s NHL. Teams don’t hit on every first or second round pick, but teams that don’t load up on high picks lower their odds of doing so even further. It’s imperative that the Canucks commit to the future and explore moves beyond simply moving out pending UFAs, and selling high on O’Connor is a great way to do just that.

We explored this idea on the latest episode of Canucks Conversation. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the episode below!