The Vegas Golden Knights are many things to the Vancouver Canucks.
Divisional rivals.
Just plain regular rivals.
Frequent playoff opponents.
And on top of all that, could the Golden Knights also be the solution to the Canucks’ current need for a better blueline? 
Perhaps they could.
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The Canucks are not a perfect team, but they are a team with only one real glaring deficiency, and that’s the quality of talent on their blueline. Specifically, the gulf in capability that now exists between the top pairing of Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek and the second pairing of Carson Soucy and Tyler Myers.
Most would agree that the Canucks’ number one need is at least one additional defender that fits right in between as a clear-cut #3- or #4-type (preferably the latter).
The Golden Knights, meanwhile, are about to suffer from the exact opposite problem – an overabundance of quality defenders, and the difficulty that comes with fitting all of them under the salary cap.
The culprits here are a couple of recent re-signings.
Coming into the season, Vegas already had a good chunk of their D corps locked up.
The 34-year-old Alex Pietrangelo is signed at an $8.8 million cap hit through 2027.
Acquired last year, Noah Hanifin was extended at an AAV of $7.35 million through 2032.
Zach Whitecloud, meanwhile, signed a six-year deal back in 2021 that will pay him $2.75 million through 2028.
Then came further extensions. BC’s own Shea Theodore, playing out the last year of a $5.2 million deal in 2024/25, extended for another seven years at a cap hit of $7.43 million that expires as of 2032.
Next came Brayden McNabb, playing out the last year of a $2.85 million deal and then extended at $3.65 million through 2028.
Put that all together, and the Golden Knights’ blueline is already on the books for some $29.98 million in 2025/26, spread across five defenders (or some $30.955 million if one counts the beloved Ben Hutton and his $975,000 salary.)
For context, that’s already a fair chunk more than the $26.525 million the Canucks are currently paying their full eight-player D corps in 2024/25 of Hughes, Hronek, Soucy, Myers, Vinny Desharnais, Derek Forbort, Erik Brännström, and Noah Juulsen.
And it’s actually a little bit more of a pricier situation for the Golden Knights than those numbers tell, because they don’t include pending RFA Nicolas Hague, who is 6’6”, 245 pounds, just 25 years old, and who played an average of 18:33 last year.
Assuming that Hague is going to be in line for an extension somewhere in the range of a $4 million AAV or greater, that quickly puts the Golden Knights into the lead for the NHL’s most expensive blueline heading into the 2025/26 campaign, and perhaps by a longshot.
Is that a problem?
Not necessarily. The salary cap is projected to climb at least $4 million over this next offseason, and possibly even higher than that. But roster balance is also important, and Vegas only has seven NHL forwards under contract past this year, and zero NHL goalies.
With so much salary already on the books, Vegas is going to have to borrow from somewhere in order to staff their crease and replenish the forwards. That money is almost certainly going to have to come out of the blueline, and that likely means the trade of one or more defenders over the course of the next calendar year.
Enter: Vancouver. A team that desperately needs a new defender in the nearish future, and who would probably prefer to pick up someone with a pre-established contract as opposed to fighting through a particularly frenzied free agent frenzy in the summer of 2025.
Though divisional rivals, it’s a situation that has played out before, with Vegas needing space in 2020 and then sending Nate Schmidt to Vancouver on the cheap.
Not that it worked out well for the Canucks that time, but the precedent is there for a trade to happen again, at the very least.
So what are the options here?
Canucks fans have long had their eye on the local, Theodore, and he might be the best of the bunch, but that new extension has to be seen as at least some sort of long-term commitment. Yes, it’s true that the Golden Knights don’t always look at the concept of “commitment” in the same way that other teams do, but still.
Same probably goes for Hanifin. He and Theodore move forward as the foundational pieces on that blueline.
The rest? Potentially up for auction.
Pietrangelo is an intriguing option, even at the age of 34. His play has dipped a bit in recent campaigns, but he’s still a big, talented, right-handed D who has won Cups with two different franchises as their 1D.
There are some in the media who believe, like many vets before him, Pietrangelo might be the next to be pushed out. But if that comes to pass, he’ll control his destiny with a full no-movement clause.
And in any case, his $8.8 million cap hit is a little prohibitive for the Canucks.
McNabb, also recently extended but not for nearly as long, offers a decidedly cheaper alternative at $3.65 million, but a less-rounded skillset for that price. McNabb is 33 going on 34, and he’s still as physical as they come on the backend.
While useful in that regard, however, he doesn’t exactly offer a puck-moving profile, and thus is not what the Canucks are really looking for.
We move next to Whitecloud, a name that has been brought up as a potential Vancouver trade target before. There’s a lot to like with this player, starting with the low cap hit of $2.75 million locked in ‘til 2028. That’s cheap for a top-four defender, but it might be a little pricey for the Golden Knights if Whitecloud is going to wind up in the sixth slot on their depth chart.
Whitecloud is right-handed, and offers a little bit of everything on the ice; size, skating ability, reasonable offensive skills, and better-than-average defensive capability.
And he’s turning 28 at the end of this month, which fits in perfectly with the current structure of the Canucks.
The only problem? A well-rounded $2.75 million RHD hits the market these days, and everyone is going to want a piece. That’s actually part of the reason why it makes sense for Vegas to choose Whitecloud as the defender to part with – not only do they have a replacement ready to go in Kaeden Korczak, they know they could get a sizeable package in return for him.
He’s an option for the Canucks, albeit a potentially costly one. The asking price probably centres pretty close to a first round pick already.
Another option might be the only Vegas defender not under contract next year, that being Hague. We’ve already extolled his virtues, size-wise, but he’s got other skills, too. He might not have quite the well-rounded game as Whitecloud, but he makes up for it by being harder to play against in his own zone, and major contributions on the PK.
Here, negotiations matter. If the Golden Knights find that they are struggling to get Hague signed to a reasonable extension, their history suggests they won’t hesitate to trade him, even as a pending RFA. Given his left-handedness and the uncertainty of his contract, we’d suspect Hague to come a little cheaper than Whitecloud in a trade, even if Hague is the better overall defender between the two.
“Cheaper,” however, doesn’t mean cheap. The Vegas Golden Knights will be one option the Canucks can look at as they attempt to solve their blueline conundrum, and from what we can see here, the Golden Knights will probably look like a great option.
But they won’t ever help out the Canucks for free.
If the GM Patrik Allvin and Co. are going to go down this particular route, they must be prepared to pay the toll.
Sponsored by bet365
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The Vegas Golden Knights are many things to the Vancouver Canucks.

Divisional rivals.

Just plain regular rivals.

Frequent playoff opponents.

And on top of all that, could the Golden Knights also be the solution to the Canucks’ current need for a better blueline?
Perhaps they could.
<div class="bam-inline-promotion-block" data-max-length="2" data-placement-id="2111" data-context="web-content-promocard" data-property-id="329"></div>
&nbsp;

The Canucks are not a perfect team, but they are a team with only one real glaring deficiency, and that’s the quality of talent on their blueline. Specifically, the gulf in capability that now exists between the top pairing of Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek and the second pairing of Carson Soucy and Tyler Myers.

Most would agree that the Canucks’ number one need is at least one additional defender that fits right in between as a clear-cut #3- or #4-type (preferably the latter).

The Golden Knights, meanwhile, are about to suffer from the exact opposite problem – an overabundance of quality defenders, and the difficulty that comes with fitting all of them under the salary cap.

The culprits here are a couple of recent re-signings.

Coming into the season, Vegas already had a good chunk of their D corps locked up.

The 34-year-old Alex Pietrangelo is signed at an $8.8 million cap hit through 2027.

Acquired last year, Noah Hanifin was extended at an AAV of $7.35 million through 2032.

Zach Whitecloud, meanwhile, signed a six-year deal back in 2021 that will pay him $2.75 million through 2028.

Then came further extensions. BC’s own Shea Theodore, playing out the last year of a $5.2 million deal in 2024/25, extended for another seven years at a cap hit of $7.43 million that expires as of 2032.

Next came Brayden McNabb, playing out the last year of a $2.85 million deal and then extended at $3.65 million through 2028.

Put that all together, and the Golden Knights’ blueline is already on the books for some $29.98 million in 2025/26, spread across five defenders (or some $30.955 million if one counts the beloved Ben Hutton and his $975,000 salary.)

For context, that’s already a fair chunk more than the $26.525 million the Canucks are currently paying their full eight-player D corps in 2024/25 of Hughes, Hronek, Soucy, Myers, Vinny Desharnais, Derek Forbort, Erik Brännström, and Noah Juulsen.

And it’s actually a little bit more of a pricier situation for the Golden Knights than those numbers tell, because they don’t include pending RFA Nicolas Hague, who is 6’6”, 245 pounds, just 25 years old, and who played an average of 18:33 last year.

Assuming that Hague is going to be in line for an extension somewhere in the range of a $4 million AAV or greater, that quickly puts the Golden Knights into the lead for the NHL’s most expensive blueline heading into the 2025/26 campaign, and perhaps by a longshot.

Is that a problem?

Not necessarily. The salary cap is projected to climb at least $4 million over this next offseason, and possibly even higher than that. But roster balance is also important, and Vegas only has seven NHL forwards under contract past this year, and zero NHL goalies.

With so much salary already on the books, Vegas is going to have to borrow from somewhere in order to staff their crease and replenish the forwards. That money is almost certainly going to have to come out of the blueline, and that likely means the trade of one or more defenders over the course of the next calendar year.

Enter: Vancouver. A team that desperately needs a new defender in the nearish future, and who would probably prefer to pick up someone with a pre-established contract as opposed to fighting through a particularly frenzied free agent frenzy in the summer of 2025.

Though divisional rivals, it’s a situation that has played out before, with Vegas needing space in 2020 and then sending Nate Schmidt to Vancouver on the cheap.

Not that it worked out well for the Canucks that time, but the precedent is there for a trade to happen again, at the very least.

So what are the options here?

Canucks fans have long had their eye on the local, Theodore, and he might be the best of the bunch, but that new extension has to be seen as at least some sort of long-term commitment. Yes, it’s true that the Golden Knights don’t always look at the concept of “commitment” in the same way that other teams do, but still.

Same probably goes for Hanifin. He and Theodore move forward as the foundational pieces on that blueline.

The rest? Potentially up for auction.

Pietrangelo is an intriguing option, even at the age of 34. His play has dipped a bit in recent campaigns, but he’s still a big, talented, right-handed D who has won Cups with two different franchises as their 1D.

There are some in the media who believe, like many vets before him, Pietrangelo might be the next to be pushed out. But if that comes to pass, he’ll control his destiny with a full no-movement clause.

And in any case, his $8.8 million cap hit is a little prohibitive for the Canucks.

McNabb, also recently extended but not for nearly as long, offers a decidedly cheaper alternative at $3.65 million, but a less-rounded skillset for that price. McNabb is 33 going on 34, and he’s still as physical as they come on the backend.

While useful in that regard, however, he doesn’t exactly offer a puck-moving profile, and thus is not what the Canucks are really looking for.

We move next to Whitecloud, a name that has been brought up as a potential Vancouver trade target before. There’s a lot to like with this player, starting with the low cap hit of $2.75 million locked in ‘til 2028. That’s cheap for a top-four defender, but it might be a little pricey for the Golden Knights if Whitecloud is going to wind up in the sixth slot on their depth chart.

Whitecloud is right-handed, and offers a little bit of everything on the ice; size, skating ability, reasonable offensive skills, and better-than-average defensive capability.

And he’s turning 28 at the end of this month, which fits in perfectly with the current structure of the Canucks.

The only problem? A well-rounded $2.75 million RHD hits the market these days, and everyone is going to want a piece. That’s actually part of the reason why it makes sense for Vegas to choose Whitecloud as the defender to part with – not only do they have a replacement ready to go in Kaeden Korczak, they know they could get a sizeable package in return for him.

He’s an option for the Canucks, albeit a potentially costly one. The asking price probably centres pretty close to a first round pick already.

Another option might be the only Vegas defender not under contract next year, that being Hague. We’ve already extolled his virtues, size-wise, but he’s got other skills, too. He might not have quite the well-rounded game as Whitecloud, but he makes up for it by being harder to play against in his own zone, and major contributions on the PK.

Here, negotiations matter. If the Golden Knights find that they are struggling to get Hague signed to a reasonable extension, their history suggests they won’t hesitate to trade him, even as a pending RFA. Given his left-handedness and the uncertainty of his contract, we’d suspect Hague to come a little cheaper than Whitecloud in a trade, even if Hague is the better overall defender between the two.

“Cheaper,” however, doesn’t mean cheap. The Vegas Golden Knights will be one option the Canucks can look at as they attempt to solve their blueline conundrum, and from what we can see here, the Golden Knights will probably look like a great option.

But they won’t ever help out the Canucks for free.

If the GM Patrik Allvin and Co. are going to go down this particular route, they must be prepared to pay the toll.

Sponsored by bet365
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