The Vancouver Canucks haven’t had much of the best anything throughout the 2024/25 season. But they might just have the best rental centre available in the entire NHL at the 2025 Trade Deadline, and that’s something that might just matter.

That rental centre is, of course, Pius Suter.

We know that Suter has played all three forward positions for Vancouver during his two-year tenure, but he’s been a full-time centre ever since JT Miller was shipped out of town, and on Wednesday’s matchup against the Anaheim Ducks – the Canucks’ last before the deadline – Suter lined up as the 2C on a line with Jake DeBrusk and Brock Boeser.

He’s, at the very least, more of a centre than a lot of the other pending UFAs who happen to be listed as centres on NHL.com or Puckpedia.

And being an actual centre is something that really counts when it comes to determining Trade Deadline value.

The centre position is one that virtually any playoff-bound will try to reinforce if they can. Like defensive depth, one can never really have too many centres. Any centre can always be converted to the wing – and Suter especially so – but only a handful of wings every successfully convert to centre. It’s a position with some very specific value, is what we’re saying, and one at which it could prove very lucrative to be leading the market.

Which is where the Canucks possibly find themselves heading into Friday.

As of this writing, Suter technically ranks 11^th overall in scoring amongst centres who are set to become unrestricted free agents this summer. But we have to say ‘technically,’ because many of the players listed ahead of him aren’t really centres. Mikko Rantanen, the top-scoring ‘centre’ this year, has only ever performed short stints in the middle, and is far more typically thought of as a winger. The same definitely goes for Ryan Donato and Brad Marchand, both of whom are confusingly listed as pivots on most sites.

The rest of the actual UFA centres who are outscoring Suter at the moment can mostly be sorted into the ‘not available’ category. Matt Duchene and Mikael Granlund (post-trade) play for the Dallas Stars, a team well on its way to a meaningful playoff run. John Tavares won’t be leaving Toronto anytime soon. Claude Giroux seems entrenched in Ottawa (and is also more of a winger these days.) And Sam Bennett definitely won’t be going anywhere quite yet (though we do think he’s an excellent summer signing target for the Canucks, but more on that after the Trade Deadline.)

No, the only other UFA centres to both outscore Suter and potentially be available at the 2025 Trade Deadline are Brock Nelson and Jack Roslovic. And both of them come with caveats.

We’ve heard conflicting reports about Nelson’s availability. Some think he’ll be traded for a haul, and others think GM Lou Lamoriello is leaning toward re-signing him. The Islanders, just four points back of a playoff spot as of this writing, could also be considering the ol’ self-rental route with Nelson.

Suffice it to say that if Nelson does hit the trade block, he’ll be the best rental centre available, and by a pretty long shot. But if he doesn’t…

Then we’re pretty much down to Suter and Roslovic. And on that note, we’ve got to mention that Roslovic – a player the Canucks reportedly had some interest in earlier in the season – is also far more of a winger these days than he is a centre, though like Suter, he’s comfortable at any position.

We’ll also note that Roslovic is outscoring Suter by a single point (29 to 28) with one more game played (61 to 60), so offensively-speaking, they’re virtually identical.

In other parts of the game, Suter is also probably the more well-rounded. He’s almost always had better defensive stats, and even in this 2024/25 season, in which Roslovic has played for a much stronger team than has Suter, their rate of expected goals are quite similar, with Roslovic slightly edging out Suter to the tune of 51.27% to 50.43%. And that’s with Suter taking on tougher matchups (tougher than league average), in general, and definitely more matchups at the actual centre position.

There’s an argument to be made on either side here, but for our money, Suter would be the much more impactful acquisition for a playoff-bound team.

And beyond those two? Then we really hit the bottom of the centre barrel. Past Suter and Roslovic, the next-best UFA centre available might be San Jose’s Luke Kunin, or maybe St. Louis’ Radek Faksa. Or maybe our old friend, New Jersey’s Curtis Lazar.

There’s a steep drop-off, is what we’re saying, from the likes of a middle-six player like Suter and the clearly bottom-line centre talents that make up the rest of the field.

That’s just a terrific market position for the Canucks to find themselves in as they look to move Suter between now and noon on Friday.

Another prominent UFA centre, Seattle’s Yanni Gourde, just got traded to Tampa Bay as part of a truly massive package. Now, there was another Kraken, Oliver Bjokstrand, involved, and he probably made up a larger portion of the value in the overall deal. But that value included two first round picks and a second rounder, and Gourde must have made for at least the equivalent of one of those two firsts.

Gourde, for what it’s worth, has scored at the exact same rate as Suter this season in more limited games. He’s almost certainly considered the more well-rounded centre between the two, even if his game hasn’t aged particularly well.

We’re not here to argue that Suter is more valuable, overall, than Gourde. But the value Gourde returned could be seen as an indication of what teams might be willing to pay for centre depth at this Trade Deadline. And with Gourde now off the market and back with the Lightning, that’s one fewer centre – out of an already miniscule pool – that Suter is ‘competing’ with for the top ranking as a rental centre.

Like we said at the outset, it hasn’t been a season of ‘bests’ for the Vancouver Canucks. But heading into Friday with the best rental centre available is still worth something, and that something is almost certainly a useful future asset or two.

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