On Friday’s episode of Canucks Conversation, David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal broke down the dynamics of an NHL trade market that is quickly turning into a nightmare for a team like Vancouver.
“The real take is it would be a great time for the Canucks to get out ahead of this rebuild and start selling now,” Quads joked. “For obvious reasons, they’re not going to do that. But there are virtually no sellers in the league. If a team took the plunge and asserted themselves as sellers, it would be a great time for that right now because prices are high.”
And that’s the catch: Vancouver is not in a position to sell, but the current market isn’t built for buyers either.
“That’s part of the conversation around why the Canucks haven’t made a trade,” Quads continued. “It’s that prices are just too high right now, and nobody really wants first round picks.”
Harm pointed out that even teams you’d expect to sell aren’t doing it.
“A team like the Kraken should be selling instead of buying, yet they intend to be aggressive in trying to upgrade their team,” Harm said. “It’s also a product of a lot of teams who have been bad for a long time, and aren’t trying to get worse. San Jose, Chicago, Philadelphia, Buffalo- they’ve been in the basement for a while now. You don’t have many newly bad teams.”
While Boston and Pittsburgh could be exceptions, Boston has already moved key pieces. In the Pacific Division, meanwhile, nearly every team is in upgrade mode.
“Everyone’s trying to go big-game hunting except maybe the Sharks,” Harm added. “But even San Jose needs to spend something like $17 million just to hit the cap floor. Seattle has cap space and surplus assets. The Ducks have way more flexibility than the Canucks, and their GM Pat Verbeek says he expects the Ducks to make the playoffs. The Flames may be quieter, but the Canucks, Kings, and Golden Knights are all looking to make moves.”
That high demand and low supply is exactly what makes things difficult for Vancouver.
Quads noted, “And what do those teams have that the Canucks don’t? Cap space and more assets to trade. Teams might not want a first-round pick, but they might want two, or a couple of second rounders, or a blue-chip prospect. A lot of those teams have more to work with than the Canucks do.”
Even when it comes to the elite names- players like Jason Robertson, if they somehow became available- the Canucks are in a tough spot.
“If an elite player did become available,” Harm said, “the Canucks are going to be building a package starting with a first-round pick and trying to add a lot. But what happens when a team like Utah comes along and their package starts not with the 15th pick, but the 4th pick in this year’s draft?”
“More likely than not, I expect those teams to keep those picks,” he added. “But the point is, if a Robertson or another star-calibre player becomes available, so many teams have better assets that the Canucks would likely have to overpay in order to win a bidding war.”
With a shrinking pool of impact players and nearly every team trying to get better, the Canucks could find themselves boxed out of a trade and free agency market where simply having needs isn’t enough- you also need the ammo to compete. Right now, Vancouver doesn’t have much of either.
Get ready for wall-to-wall coverage of one of the biggest days in the calendar — the Daily Faceoff Live Free Agency Special goes live on July 1st at 11 AM EST. Host Tyler Yaremchuk is joined by Carter Hutton, Matthew Barnaby, Jeff Marek, Hart Levine, Colby Cohen, Jonny Lazarus, and insiders from across the Network for three hours of in-depth analysis, live reactions, and real-time updates on every major signing and trade. From blockbuster deals to under-the-radar moves, we’re breaking it all down as it happens. Don’t miss a minute — catch the full special live on DailyFaceoff.com and Daily Faceoff’s YouTube.