At the very least, the Vancouver Canucks are keeping their options open when it comes to veteran winger Kiefer Sherwood.

It makes almost too much sense for the club to sell high on him, but they would seemingly like you – and every other NHL team presumably trying to lowball them – to know that they don’t have to trade him, and that they could sign him if they wanted to. So now that we got that out of the way…

Yes, the Canucks, in all likelihood, are going to move on from Kiefer Sherwood at some point between now and the NHL trade deadline. They sent a memo to 31 other NHL teams in November stating they were willing to listen to trade offers for their veteran players, and President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford quickly clarified that it was more about getting their trade deadline business out of the way sooner rather than later. In particular, that means moving out their pending UFAs, which is why Sherwood’s name has basically been at the forefront of trade rumours ever since.

The Canucks’ asking price for Sherwood is believed to be a first round pick plus a young player. To this point, no team has matched that, and Sherwood remains a Canuck through the halfway point of the season. Sherwood is on pace for 33 goals and is just two away from breaking the career-high in goals that he set last season, with 40 games left of runway to do so. As a result, Sherwood is due for a big increase from the $1.5 million annual salary he’s earned since the start of last season, when he signed on with the Canucks for two years in free agency. With Sherwood set to turn 31 in March, it doesn’t make much sense for the Canucks to be the ones to sign Sherwood’s next contract, which could very easily start with a five or a six and run anywhere from 4-6 years in length.

The list of potential suitors for Sherwood is rumoured to be a big one, and on Wednesday, one team was pretty firmly added to that list: the New York Rangers. That, of course, was when The Athletic’s Vincent Z. Mercogliano reported that the Rangers have identified Sherwood “as a primary trade target”.

“They were in on star defenseman Quinn Hughes before he was traded to the Minnesota Wild last month,” Mercogliano wrote. “As The Athletic previously reported, and have been pushing hard for Vancouver Canucks winger Kiefer Sherwood, a league source said. The asking price is believed to be a first-round pick and possibly more for the 30-year-old who has netted 17 goals through 42 games and is in the final year of a modest contract that pays him $1.5 million annually. The acquisition cost is prohibitive for the Rangers, but team president Chris Drury’s focus has been on netting a top-nine forward to bolster an offense that ranks among the lowest-scoring in the NHL.”

To the surprise of no one who has been paying attention, the acquisition cost of Sherwood is prohibitive for the Rangers, just like it has proven to be for every other suitor up to this point. At this stage, it feels like we’re headed for Quinn Hughes territory, where the Canucks simply wait until someone meets their asking price – in the case of Hughes, it was the equivalent of four first round picks – and then pull the trigger on a deal.

In other words, it’s all going to come down to just how badly a team wants to add Sherwood. With Hughes, that team was Bill Guerin’s Minnesota Wild. For Sherwood, could that team be the Rangers?

The reason the Rangers want Sherwood is simple. On top of his now undeniable offensive production, Sherwood’s baseline game makes him a dream for NHL coaches and GMs alike. As Canucks fans know, Sherwood plays with the same desperation and passion that helped him forge an NHL career in his late 20s, every single night. He won’t hurt you defensively, he can kill penalties, and on the forecheck? That’s where Sherwood first gained the attention of the Canucks, when their defencemen were on the receiving end of Sherwood’s crushing hits and pressure while retrieving the puck during the first round of the 2024 playoffs between Vancouver and Nashville.

The Rangers have struggled to score this season and, at the time of this writing, are three points out of a playoff spot, with six teams separating them from the second and final Wild Card spot in a jam-packed Eastern Conference. They would obviously like to give themselves an edge in that race, and they might want to do it sooner, rather than later.

Now, the reason the Rangers wouldn’t want Sherwood – especially at a hefty acquisition cost – is also important to mention as well. New York just lost both star goaltender Igor Shesterkin and defenceman Adam Fox to injuries this week. Shesterkin was forced to leave Monday’s game after being involved in a collision with Utah’s JJ Peterka, and is expected to head to IR at some point this week, with no clear timetable for return provided. If he’s out for an extended period of time, adding Sherwood to a team that has relied heavily on their All-Star netminder might not only be a moot point, but downright reckless as well. As for Fox, he was just activated from LTIR and played just three games before landing right back on LTIR, meaning he’ll be sidelined for at least another month.

Those are two key contributors for the Rangers, and it would be a bold move to add to a team on the outside looking in of the playoff picture that just lost those two players. But let’s say, for argument’s sake, that Sherwood is their guy, and that they plan on signing him to an extension – meaning he wouldn’t simply be a rental – which would make the move much more defensible.

Let’s say the Rangers meet the Canucks’ rumoured asking price and cough up a first round pick along with a B-level prospect or young roster player. The Rangers own two first round picks in this year’s draft. One is their own, and the other is Carolina’s, which the Rangers acquired in the K’Andre Miller trade. However, the Hurricanes first comes with a condition: better of CAR or DAL 2026 first round pick and is top-10 protected. But based on the current standings, the pick would almost certainly be a late first round pick, as Carolina sits fifth and Dallas is second in the NHL standings. The Rangers would almost certainly prefer to acquire that pick in a trade rather than their own, which will likely be in the 12-20 range instead of the 22-32 range.

As for the player involved? A quick look at DailyFaceoff.com’s ranking of the Rangers’ prospect pool tells us their top three prospects are: Gabe Perreault, Scott Morrow, and Malcolm Spence.

Now, obviously, the Canucks would be ecstatic to get their hands on any of these prospects, especially Perreault, who has five points through 11 NHL games and is currently skating on the Rangers’ third line. But you’re kidding yourself if you think the Rangers would ever give up a first round pick plus one of their top three prospects. Instead, if the Canucks really wanted to get one of these prospects, they’d almost certainly attempt to entice the Rangers into a one-for-one swap of Sherwood for one of them. And honestly, they might even need to sweeten the deal a bit to get their hands on a prospect like Perreault, for example.

But if the Canucks stick with their ask of a first round pick plus a player, we can assume that Perreault, Morrow, and Spence are off the table. Might the Canucks be interested in Brennan Othmann, who the Rangers selected 16th overall in 2021 but has yet to establish himself at the NHL level? Othmann just turned 23 this month and has spent most of his season with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack, where he’s amassed 12 points in 21 games.

What about 19-year-old right-shot shutdown defenceman EJ Emery, whom the Rangers took 30th overall in the 2024 draft? Emery was born and raised in Surrey, and his father, Eric, played pro football for the BC Lions, Calgary Stampeders, and Ottawa Roughriders from 1985 to 1987. Some other names in the Rangers’ pipeline that might entice the Canucks are 20-year-old centre Carey Terrance and 22-year-old AHL winger Brett Berard.

One of those names, along with Carolina’s 2025 first round pick might be exactly what’s on the table if the Rangers are serious about adding Sherwood to their group.