It’s Christmas, and we here at CanucksArmy thought it’d be fitting to give our ideas of what might be on the Vancouver Canucks’ Christmas Wishlist, whether that be to Santa Claus, or in this case, Calgary Flames general manager Craig Conroy.

This Canucks Christmas Wish: Trade for Rasmus Andersson.

If he’s available, Rasmus Andersson will be cream of the crop when it comes to top four defence trade options ahead of the March 7th NHL Trade Deadline.

Andersson is a bonafide top pairing defenceman, and is owed just $4.5 million both this year and next before he becomes an unrestricted free agent in the 2026 offseason.

He’s a smooth skater and has phenomenal puck-moving ability, as you can guess, those two elements to his game make him a pheonemal fit for the Canucks. There are some people who believe the Canucks are just one or two pieces away from being a contender, while others believe it’s going to take more. The people in the latter camp may not love the idea of giving up the boatload of assets it would take for the Canucks to actually execute a trade for Andersson, and that’s a perfectly fine opinion to have. At some point, the acquisition cost may just be too high.

Another key potential speed bump here could end up being the fact that we’re about to enter 2025, and the Flames have refused to go away or fall down the standings. They’re right around the Canucks and are fighting for a wild card spot, and until they fall off, it’d come as a surprise for them to move an asset like Andersson when they could elect to just trade him at next season’s deadline if it really came down to it.

But Santa doesn’t care about acquisition costs, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t keep an eye on the NHL standings. This is a wishlist series, dammit, and today’s wish is for Andersson to be a Vancouver Canuck.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a better stylistic fit for this Canucks blueline than Andersson.

So many of the Canucks’ issues this season have stemmed from their defence not being able to break the puck out with poise. I’m a firm believer that in hockey, everything starts from the back end — especially in the playoffs when teams are forechecking like their lives depend on it. If the defence can cleanly exit the defensive zone with a crisp pass — or as is often the case with Quinn Hughes, skating the puck out all on their own, the forwards get the puck sooner, the opposition is immediately on their heels, and your chances of creating off the rush greatly increase.

Even simpler: if your forwards spend a minute defending because their defenceman’s breakout attempt was snuffed out, by the time the puck is eventually out of the defensive end, the only thing on the forwards’ minds is gaining the red line and flipping the puck in deep before going out on a line change. So not only does a lack of puck-moving ability prevent the Canucks from creating off the rush, it also prevents them from gaining any sort of momentum with a strong forecheck, which is obviously a very key part of Rick Tocchet’s system.

That’s why Quinn Hughes has been such a catalyst for the Canucks this season.

Now imagine adding another catalyst. Because that’s exactly what Andersson represents.

As a right-shot, Andersson could play with Hughes, but once Filip Hronek returns, Andersson could easily slide down to the second pair and greatly elevate the play of Carson Soucy, giving the Canucks two legitimately dangerous defence pairings. Naturally, this would push a player like Tyler Myers — who is currently getting reps on the top pair alongside Hughes — down to the third pair, making the Canucks’ blueline as a whole that much stronger.

The defence has been one of the team’s biggest issues this season, and as explained above, that directly translates to the scoring troubles they’ve also had. And Rasmus Andersson, while he might cost a lot to acquire, would fix a lot of their problems in one fell swoop.

Merry Christmas from all of us here at CanucksArmy!