On Monday, we broke down the fit between the Vancouver Canucks and the Ottawa Senators in a potential trade for forward Jake DeBrusk. Ottawa recently dealt their captain, Brady Tkachuk, to the Florida Panthers for four draft picks, including two first-rounders in this Friday’s draft.

Early indications are that the Senators did not want to use those picks and have no desire to take a step back in 2026-27 after qualifying for the playoffs in back-to-back seasons after a seven-year drought. And they quickly flipped one of those selections on Tuesday, when they shipped the ninth overall pick to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for William Eklund and a pair of prospects.

But even before they traded away their captain, the Senators needed to add a top-six scoring winger. So, now that they have Eklund in Ottawa to fill the roster spot for Tkachuk, the Senators should certainly still be in the market to replace his goal-scoring ability. The fit between the Senators and DeBrusk makes a ton of sense, and we broke it down at length yesterday. You can read that article by clicking here.

It was actually a comment on that article that sparked today’s idea. A commenter noted that the Seattle Kraken might be more interested in DeBrusk than the Senators are, and it’s a point well-taken. So without further ado, here are six teams that might be interested in trading for Jake DeBrusk.

Before we get into the teams, we understand that DeBrusk has a full no-movement clause and will have the final say on where he wants to go. However, according to Daily Faceoff Insider David Pagnotta, it doesn’t sound like DeBrusk is going to get in the way of a trade, as long as he’s going to a contender.

At first glance, the Columbus Blue Jackets may not make a ton of sense for DeBrusk. However, The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline, who covers the Blue Jackets, dropped DeBrusk as a potential trade forward that Columbus could go after. Portzline is very well connected in that market, so when he speaks, we listen.

Outside of Kirill Marchenko, who is considered a goal scorer on the Blue Jackets? Adding a consistent mid-20-goal scorer to this roster, who can play the netfront on the man advantage, would be beneficial for a team that finished in the bottom half of the NHL in power play percentage.

Fit-wise, it makes sense. Cap-wise, the Blue Jackets need to extend Adam Fantilli and Jett Greaves, but have over $32 million in cap space to do so. Compensation-wise, they have a pick in all seven rounds, so they are well-equipped to make a futures-based deal work. Portzline had this line in his article: “The Canucks own two first-round picks — Nos. 3 and 24 — but given their rebuilding plans, the No. 14 could make sense.”

If the Blue Jackets make the 14th overall pick available, that should seriously intrigue the Canucks in a DeBrusk return. The question is whether DeBrusk believes the Blue Jackets are enough of a contender that he would waive his no-movement clause to go to Columbus?

The Oilers have always been the ideal fit for a DeBrusk trade. An Edmonton native, going back home to a contender just made sense. His dad, Louie DeBrusk, is the colour commentator for the Oilers. The stars are aligning.

The Oilers are strapped for cap space, with $7.4 million to go, and need to find another impact forward and finally a true starting netminder. However, a bunch of money should come off the books if they can find a trade partner for Darnell Nurse and his $9.25 million cap hit. Of course, they will need to replace him, but that brings their available cap space to over $16.5 million to find those three pieces.

If DeBrusk is the forward piece they decide to go with, someone who can slide in nicely as a speedy winger and netfront option for the Leon Draisaitl line, he’s the type of cheap addition the Oilers should be shopping for this summer. Where it may be tough for the Canucks and Oilers to be trade partners is that Edmonton doesn’t have a ton of picks. They have a second- and third-round pick this season, a second-round pick this year, but that’s really it.

The fit makes sense, but the compensation may be better for the Canucks elsewhere, regardless of whether this is a perfect fit or not.

Outside of the Oilers, the Canadiens may be the most intriguing option for DeBrusk on this list if he wants to go to a contender. The Canadiens are coming off a trip to the Eastern Conference Final, have a promising young group with a ton of prospects coming, and a hole on the second line left-wing opposite of Ivan Demidov for him to slide into perfectly.

Currently, the Canadiens have just shy of $11 million in cap space. Montreal’s biggest glaring need is a second-line centre. However, given the scarce free agent centre market, the Canadiens will need to tackle that via the trade route. DeBrusk wouldn’t scratch that itch, but after the nixed Matthew Knies trade details came out, it’s clear that Montreal is still interested in adding to a top-six winger.

With $11 million and restricted free agents in Zac Bolduc and Kirby Dach to re-sign, while also needing to be conscious of what Jakub Dobes and Ivan Demidov are going to want on their extensions in the coming years, the Canadiens will likely need to shed salary. We already know they are shopping Brendan Gallagher, and he has already been linked to the Canucks.

Is there a trade out there where the Canucks take on Gallagher’s $6.5 million, and say, pick 28 for DeBrusk? Save $1 million for next season, but actually get use out of that money in their lineup? One can see the path where this would make sense for both sides.

We mentioned how the Senators would still have interest in DeBrusk off the top, so we won’t spend too much time diving back into that. But we’ll show their roster as is after their pair of moves.

It’s a decent forward corps even after the move. However, there is clear room to upgrade that second line left wing position. Ridly Greig is a solid player, but probably best suited for a bottom-six role. The Senators may be looking to hunt a little bigger than DeBrusk, but have the 25th overall pick to dangle as a possible trade chip to land another top-six scorer. Ottawa can easily fit DeBrusk into the system with their $19.5 million of cap space still available, with only a backup goalie still needing to sign.

We’ll be honest, we don’t see the fit between DeBrusk and the Flyers. However, Pagnotta listed the Flyers as a team that was linked to DeBrusk, so we should at least talk about them.

Looking at the Flyers’ forward lines, there really isn’t much room for DeBrusk on the wing. Travis Konecny, Porter Martone, Tyson Foerster, and Owen Tippett likely lock up the top two lines of wingers, but then, what about Matvei Michkov? The 21-year-old budding star had a rough year, but his potential remains among the highest in the Flyers system. He will likely demand more ice time next season, only further pushing DeBrusk down the totem pole.

There is a familiarity factor of bringing DeBrusk in, with former Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet now in Philadelphia. However, it just seems too crowded along the wing to fit DeBrusk into the mix. We’ll likely see the Flyers address help down the middle of the ice, with Christian Dvorak and Trevor Zegras as their top two centremen.

We’ll end with the commenter’s suggestion. The Seattle Kraken absolutely love their middle six forwards, but after trading for Mackie Samoskevich, it doesn’t exactly seem like the Kraken would be in the market to add DeBrusk:

Like the Flyers’ situation, where does DeBrusk really fit? It’s been reported that Jared McCann and Shane Wright may be available, but those seem like parts of a package to land a top-of-the-line forward, rather than a complementary player in DeBrusk. The fit only makes sense when one considers that, as a free agent, DeBrusk was down to the Canucks and the Kraken. So, maybe he still has an interest in going to Seattle? The only difference now is that the Kraken are even further from contention than they were that summer. Not sure if it makes much sense anymore, with DeBrusk now wanting to go to a contender.

What do you think, Canucks fans? Who do you think DeBrusk is likely to land with on this list? Let us know in the comments below!