If the Vancouver Canucks are willing to trade their captain and franchise player, no one is safe.

With the Quinn Hughes trade to the Minnesota Wild, the rebuild is officially on in Vancouver, with President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford even using the long-dreaded word in the press release for the trade.

“We are fortunate to acquire these very good young players from Minnesota,” said Rutherford. “They will be a key part of the rebuild that we are currently in, giving us a bright future moving forward. The hockey club will continue to build with talented young players using that as a blueprint to become a contender sooner rather than later.”

But if this is actually going to be a proper rebuild, Hughes is just the first of many players to be traded.

The Canucks need to restock their prospect pool, and the only way to do that is by trading away veterans for draft picks and prospects.

Right now, the Canucks have just one additional pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft: the first-round pick acquired from the Wild. They’re also missing their third and seventh-round picks, which were traded to the Calgary Flames for Nikita Zadorov and to the New York Rangers for Vitali Kravtsov.

If the Canucks want to kickstart a rebuild at the 2026 draft, they need to add a lot more picks.

The only ones likely safe from being traded are the youngest players on the team, who are considered key pieces of the rebuild. Pretty much everybody else could be on the trading block.

But who will be the next player moved after Quinn Hughes?

The Canucks trading Quinn Hughes means you can’t rule out anybody getting moved. Still, there are a few players who will be a lot more complicated to trade: Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Jake DeBrusk, Filip Hronek, Marcus Pettersson, Tyler Myers, and Kevin Lankinen.

All of those players have full no-movement clauses. While players with no-movement clauses do get traded, it’s definitely an obstacle in the way of getting something done quickly, as there are all kinds of negotiations necessary to find a team that the player is willing to go to.

Don’t rule out the Canucks trying to trade one or two of these players, but they’re unlikely to be the next player traded after Hughes.

This is the boring answer, but it might be the right one. The Canucks placed Lukas Reichel on waivers and has since cleared. He will report to the Abbotsford Canucks, but they have been shopping him on the trade market for a while.

Perhaps it will be easier to move Reichel after he’s cleared waivers and the team acquiring him can safely stash him on their own AHL team without needing to put him through waivers.

If so, that’s a trade that could happen in short order.

Kiefer Sherwood leads the Canucks in goalscoring, is second in the NHL in hits, and has become an all-situations workhorse this season. He’s also a pending unrestricted free agent (UFA) with a dirt-cheap $1.5 million cap hit.

With all that in mind, it would be shocking if the Canucks didn’t trade Sherwood.

The Canucks should be able to turn Sherwood into a key piece for a rebuild, but it remains to be seen if they can get a first-round pick out of a team.

According to Michael Russo of The Athletic, the Wild tried to get Sherwood and offered up Liam Öhgren, who was later included in the Hughes trade. The Canucks said no. So, it’s safe to say that the Canucks’ asking price is higher than Öhgren, the 19th-overall pick in the 2022 draft, who hasn’t been able to find his game in the NHL yet.

If Sherwood was still in the midst of his goalscoring streak, getting a first-round pick might have been an easier sell, but his scoring pace has slowed. The Canucks might wait to see if that pace picks up again before trading him, but he’s definitely a candidate to be the next player traded.

If the Canucks acquired Evander Kane in the offseason as part of a super-secret stealth tank operation, with eyes towards trading him to a contending team looking for some sandpaper in the playoffs, then it sort of worked.

The Canucks might have hoped that Kane was a better fit on the top line with Elias Pettersson and scored a few more goals to entice potential trade partners, but he still has 15 points in 30 games for the Canucks and has proven he can stay healthy after missing all of last season.

The pending unrestricted free agent will almost certainly get traded, but will he be the next player moved? Maybe not. The Canucks might want to wait a little longer, hoping his shooting percentage bounces back from a career-low 6.4%, making his numbers look a little better and helping them secure a higher draft pick.

The Canucks love Conor Garland and just signed him to a six-year contract extension worth $6 million per year. But he’s also about to turn 30, which means he’s in the wrong age bracket for the Canucks’ rebuild.

In addition, the Canucks have already been considering a Garland trade, according to a report by Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston.

Garland has a no-movement clause on his next contract, but that doesn’t kick in until July 1. If the Canucks are serious about tanking this season and rebuilding, the play-driving Garland could be on the move sooner rather than later.

On the other hand, the Canucks might see him as an ideal veteran to keep around to mentor the team’s younger players. Maybe he doesn’t get traded at all.

If Teddy Blueger were healthy, he’d be a prime candidate to be the next player on the trade block.

Blueger is a toolsy bottom-six centre who kills penalties, wins faceoffs, and can chip in a little bit of scoring. He’s exactly the type of player that contending teams love to add to bolster their centre depth as they prepare for a Stanley Cup run.

He’s also 31 and a pending UFA.

The return won’t be huge for Blueger as a rental, but every piece added, whether a pick or a prospect, is another chance to find a key part of the future. As Jason Botchford used to say, you need an army.

But until Blueger returns to the Canucks’ lineup and proves he’s healthy, he’s unlikely to be traded. Not only would other teams hesitate to acquire an injured player, but the trade return would also be a lot higher if Blueger is provably healthy.

The Canucks were quick to re-sign Drew O’Connor after acquiring him and Marcus Pettersson from the Pittsburgh Penguins. But the Canucks might be just as quick to trade him, as he’s on the wrong side of 25, an age that Patrik Allvin has cited multiple times.

O’Connor’s $2.5 million cap hit for the next two years might prove an impediment to trading him if the Canucks decide to move him for futures, and he also has a partial no-trade clause that allows him to name 12 teams to which he can’t be traded.

With his speed and a pinch of scoring, O’Connor could be desirable for a playoff team, but his cap hit and the extra year on his deal likely mean a trade is further down the line, if he gets moved.

The Canucks just activated Nils Höglander off long-term injured reserve; could he be the next player traded?

About to turn 25 in a week, Höglander is still young and could be part of the team’s youth movement. But this management group might have regrets about signing him to a three-year contract extension. He repeatedly showed up in trade rumours last season after his scoring fell off a cliff.

So, could the Canucks send Höglander to another team in exchange for a younger prospect or a draft pick? It’s not outside the realm of possibility.

The Canucks aren’t going to trade Thatcher Demko, right?

Well, probably not. But his no-movement clause doesn’t kick in until July 1, when his new three-year contract worth $8.5 million per year begins, so never say never.

Aside from whatever assets the Canucks could bring back, the real reason to trade Demko would be to avoid rising out of the NHL’s basement. The Canucks want a top-three pick in the 2026 draft, and trading Demko might be the best tanking move they could make after trading Hughes.

Of course, an injury-prone goaltender — even one that is Vezina-calibre when he’s healthy — might be a tough sell, especially with a significant raise on the horizon.

If Demko gets moved — and that’s a big if — I sincerely doubt he’ll be the next one to go.

I think the above-mentioned players are the most likely to be next to be traded by the Canucks, but let’s consider some wild cards.

The Toronto Maple Leafs couldn’t find a taker for David Kämpf at a $2.4 million cap hit; could the Canucks have more success trading him at a $1.1 million cap hit?

Linus Karlsson and Max Sasson might be considered part of the youth movement for the Canucks, but they’re at the older end of it at 26 and 25. Both could be UFAs if they don’t play 23 more games this season. Maybe one of them gets moved for a younger prospect or a pick.

Pierre-Olivier Joseph is a seventh defenceman for the Canucks, so he’s unlikely to represent an upgrade for a playoff team, but maybe one acquires him as cheap depth? But that’s more likely to happen at the trade deadline, if it happens at all.

Then there’s Derek Forbort, who’s still on long-term injured reserve with an unknown injury after missing a game for “maintenance” two months ago. If he returns and establishes his health, he could get traded, but if he’s the next Canuck traded after Hughes, that likely means they’ve gone a long, long time without a trade.