In a post-Hughes world, there’s a certain name we keep hearing at the centre of most Vancouver Canucks-related trade speculation.

Rumour-mongers are saying “Sherwood” more than an inventory-taker at a hockey stick factory. They’re shouting “Kiefer” more than the director of 24 when his star hasn’t shown up to set yet. They’re more obsessed with “Sherwood” than the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Yes, everyone and their team dog are pretty sure that, soon after the NHL’s holiday roster freeze is lifted, Kiefer Sherwood will be the next Canuck traded. It makes plenty of sense. He’s a pending UFA, he’s having the season of his career, and he seems almost custom-made to be among the more impactful deadline acquisitions possible for a playoff-bound team. The bidding process on Sherwood has already begun, and it doesn’t feel like long until it will conclude.

A major positive on that topic is that everyone also seems to agree that the Canucks should get a reasonable haul back for Sherwood.

See, everyone also seems to have a pretty good idea of who the next next Canuck to be traded is, but they’re just not so certain about getting quality value back. That player is Evander Kane, and folks are right that he’s very likely to be traded in the near future – but they might be a little off when it comes to his trade value.

It’s probably safe to say that Kane’s homecoming to Vancouver has been a disappointment, if not an unanticipated one. While it’s difficult to separate an individual’s struggles from the overall team collapse that has impacted the Canucks, some of Kane’s numbers still speak for themselves. As of the holiday break, he was at six goals and 18 points through 35 games.

Over a full 82-game schedule, that would pace out to just 14 goals and 42 points. That would be his lowest goal-scoring pace ever, and his lowest point-pace since his rookie season as an 18-year-old in Atlanta.

The production just hasn’t come for Kane. Never mind that the numbers are lacking across the board, and in every facet of Kane’s supposedly multifaceted game. He was said to be bringing physicality, and he’s thrown some big hits, to be sure, but his 62 hits are only fourth on the team, and represent fewer than two per game. His hits-per-60 rate of 6.11 is 11^th on the team, and ranks behind such rough-and-tumble luminaries as Linus Karlsson, Nils Höglander, and Nils Åman. Yes, Nils Åman has thrown hits at a higher rate than Kane.

Kane was supposed to bring some toughness to the organization, but he’s not dropped the gloves even once as a Canuck, despite being on the ice while several liberties have been taken against teammates. In fact, Kane is coming up on the two-year anniversary of his last NHL scrap.

If that doesn’t add up to a disappointment, even within the dreary context of the 2025-26 Canucks, we don’t know what will. So, how on Earth is this article going to turn this around into a discussion about Kane’s surprisingly high trade value?

With other, larger, leaguewide context, of course.

The fact of the matter is that the UFA market, and the market on short-term acquisitions in general, is dry. Bone-dry. The preponderance of cap space around the NHL after the flat cap era lifted has meant that more teams are holding on to their assets than ever, and there just aren’t that many pending free agents to choose from.

Kane’s 18 points make him the 26^th-highest scoring pending UFA in the league right now. And we have to understand that many of the players ranked higher than him on the chart, like Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson, and Patrick Kane are not going anywhere. In fact, if we look only at UFAs that are likely to be rented out, Evander’s numbers slide neatly into the top-ten, despite all his shortcomings this season.

So, already, other teams are purchasing from a very limited market.

There was a bit of a precedent set on this just ahead of the roster freeze. The Columbus Blue Jackets acquired pending UFA Mason Marchment from the Seattle Kraken for a 2027 second round pick and a 2026 fourth.

Marchment was one of the pending UFAs who ranked lower than Kane on the scoring chart. Despite a decent history of production, including 22 goals in each of his two most recent seasons. But he was not a fit in Seattle, and had scored just four goals and 13 points in 29 games at the time of the trade.

The parallel is actually pretty strong. Like Kane, Marchment was supposed to bring both timely scoring and physicality to his new team, and brought neither in enough quantity. Like Kane, however, Marchment had value because of his past successes, particularly those that came in the postseason. And so, despite his awful totals in 2025-26, the Blue Jackets still paid multiple draft picks to rent Marchment for the rest of the year.

On the same day, Phillip Danault, a player with literally zero goals on the year, went for a second round pick of his own.

We called the Marchment trade a precedent, and because it came first, it is. But Canucks fans have to hope that it’s the setting kind of precedent, because a second round pick and change would be excellent value for a Kane trade, and more than most are expecting.

We should mention here that if selling Kane is the goal, the Canucks do have some other qualities they can point to. Despite the lack of production, Kane has maintained some rather sparkling fancy stats throughout the season. His Corsi of 50.96% ranks second among regular forwards on the Canucks after Karlsson. Kane has been outscored 22-24 at five-on-five play, but does have a slightly positive Expected Goals rate of 50.17%.

There’s also the ice-time to consider. For a while there, Kane was the Canucks’ leading forward at even-strength minutes. Since Marco Rossi arrived from Minnesota, he’s taken over the top spot, but Kane still ranks second with an average of 15:29 per game. Now, this amount of TOI for Kane has proven a bit controversial, and many have expressed their desire to have coach Adam Foote spread those minutes around a bit more. But the fact remains that Kane has eaten those minutes all the same, and has kept his head above water in terms of possession and chances during that time. That’s the sort of thing that earns trust from a coach, and surely there are other coaches out there who might value that similarly.

And, since we are pitching Kane as a pickup for a playoff-bound team, we have to at least mention his history of success in the playoffs.

Kane went to the finals with the Edmonton Oilers in each of the past two seasons. Over those two playoffs, he ranks 24^th overall in league scoring with 20 points in 41 games. That might not sound like a lot, but keep in mind that Kane played last postseason after missing the entire regular season prior.

And in the playoffs, anyway, Kane maintains his status as a physical contributor. Only Sam Bennett (194) and Zach Hyman (164) have thrown more hits than Kane’s 159 over the past two postseasons.

Throw together Kane’s overall body of work, his history of scoring, his situational physicality, and his playoff production, and you should wind up with a player who is at least as valuable as a Mason Marchment – a player who, keep in mind, Kane is currently outscoring by a comfortable margin.

Now, Kane comes with his own unique baggage and not the best leaguewide reputation, so we can’t really imagine a team going over and above that Marchment price tag. No one wants to be the GM who gave up a first round pick for a well-past-prime Kane, only to have that acquisition blow up in their face.

But what about exactly the Marchment price-tag? What about a second round pick and change for Kane? That feels like it should be doable, given everything we’ve discussed in this article. And, if that comes to pass, we don’t think anyone will be all too disappointed.

A second round pick (and perhaps something extra) is more than most expect for Kane at this point, and would have to be considered a satisfactory return.