Nils Höglander is having a difficult start to the 2024/25 season.

Fresh off a campaign in which he set new standards for goals with 24 and points with 36, Höglander currently has just two goals and three assists for five total points in 22 games on the current season. Even worse, he’s been giving up a lot defensively, too, which has hurt his standing in the eyes of the coaching staff.

These factors, combined with the general lack of other viable trade chips available to the Vancouver Canucks, have resulted in Höglander’s name being speculated about heavily in relation to potential transactions.

In fact, we’ve heard enough by this point to say that Höglander is officially ‘on the block,’ especially after a report from Kevin Weekes on Friday that mentioned three specific teams having discussed a Höglander trade with the Canucks: the Washington Capitals, the Columbus Blue Jackets, and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

While the veracity of this report remains to be determined, we can, at the very least, take a look at the depth charts of those three organizations and try to figure out what they might be able to offer in return for Höglander. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do in this article.

While it is possible that Höglander is flipped for some sort of pick and/or prospect package, we find it far more likely that he is dealt for immediate roster help. Given that the crease is well-covered and that, even with Höglander gone, the forward corps remains a little overstuffed, we’re also pretty certain that said roster help would best come in the form of a blueliner.

So, what we’re really asking here is which NHL (or close-to-NHL-ready) defenders each of these three teams could feasibly offer up the Canucks in exchange for Höglander.

Given the Capitals’ current place in the standings – second in the Metropolitan as of this writing – and their general goal of supporting Alex Ovechkin’s chase for the all-time goal record, we can safely assume that they’re not currently interested in trading off any of their best and most expensive defenders, and especially not with retention.

Just on cap space alone, that pretty much precludes the Canucks inquiring about any of John Carlson, Matt Roy, Jakob Chychrun, and Rasmus Sandin.

But the Capitals still have more on hand to offer.

At the NHL level, there’s veteran RHD Trevor van Riemsdyk. He’s been a steady blueliner over the past decade who is primarily known for his defensive coverage. Sometimes, Van Riemsdyk scores at a high rate, like his current run of 11 points in 23 games on the 2024/25 season. Mostly, however, he slots in at around a 20-point pace and mainly focuses on his own end.

Van Riemsdyk’s age of 33 isn’t ideal, but the experience, right-handedness, and steadiness definitely hold some sort of appeal in the wake of Filip Hronek’s long-term injury. Unfortunately, his $3 million AAV this year and next would be tricky to fit in a direct exchange with the $1.1 million Höglander. Some retention would be required, and the Capitals shouldn’t feel particularly compelled to offer it.

A slightly cheaper, and much younger, option is Martin Fehervary. Aside from being 25 and left-handed, Fehervary actually profiles quite similarly to Van Riemsdyk. Fehervary, too, is a defender who focuses first on the defensive zone, then worries about the rest. But there are also those who believe that Fehervary, now on his fourth full NHL season, has a bit more to give offensively, and will eventually round out into a true two-way talent.

At a $2,675,000 AAV this year and next before becoming an RFA, Fehervary is a little easier to fit into the picture. A one-for-one trade for Höglander would almost be doable, and definitely so if retention or another contract (like a Derek Forbort) were included.

Washington also has a couple of more ‘in-the-system’ names worth asking about.

The enormous, 6’4” and 214 pound LHD Alexander Alexeyev is currently skating minutes for the Capitals at the age of 25, and has really started to round out his physical, yet mobile, game. He’d be ready to step in now, but would he be able to displace any of Quinn Hughes, Carson Soucy, or Erik Brännström? Perhaps not yet.

Someone that Canucks fans have had their eye on for a while is 22-year-old RHD Vincent Iorio. He’s pretty big himself at 6’3”, 201 pounds, and he’s from Coquitlam. But Iorio has struggled to carve out a full-time spot for himself in Washington, and is currently spending most of his time in Hershey.

If the Canucks see him as any sort of upgrade on their bottom-end collection of RHD, a list that includes Vinny Desharnais, Noah Juulsen, and Mark Friedman, Iorio makes sense to target, and Höglander should certainly cover the cost, if not exceed it. If not, they’re best to explore other, more certain options.

It’s easy to knock a few names off the list when talking about Columbus. Zach Werenski is too expensive, and Damon Severson is both too expensive and not good enough to justify that expense.

Erik Gudbranson is a non-starter. Then the Blue Jackets’ lower-end blueliners, like Jordan Harris, Jack Johnson, and Jake Christiansen, just don’t make enough of a difference to consider as anything short of a waiver claim.

But that still leaves a few options on the table.

The 27-year-old LHD Ivan Provorov will be one of the most intriguing pending UFAs on the trade market this year. While he’s never quite ascended to the top-pairing status that was once thought to be his potential, he’s still a valid top-four NHL defender who has been playing as well in Columbus as he has at any point in his career prior.

Always capable of moving the puck, Provorov has since rounded out his two-way game, and is now one of the Blue Jackets’ most defensively-sound D.

The major stumbling block with Provorov is the cap hit. His AAV is technically $6,750,000, but on the way to Columbus he had 30% of that retained by the Los Angeles Kings, so his cap hit is set at just $4,725,000.

That’s still a lot for the Canucks to fit under the cap, and because Provorov has already been retained on once, he can only have one further instance of retention applied. That means the Blue Jackets could bring his cap hit down to $2,362,500 if they wanted, but no lower. That’s probably an amount the Canucks could work with, but then that retention adds to what will already be a pretty lofty cost. Suffice it to say that Höglander is a sweetener in any Provorov deal, not the main piece.

Dante Fabbro might also be worth talking about. The 26-year-old RHD from Coquitlam wore out his welcome in Nashville and was placed on waivers, but has really turned things around in Columbus with five points in eight games since being picked up.

The optics of trading for someone who was just on waivers is less than ideal, but then Fabbro was plucked long before the Canucks ever had a chance to claim him. That $2.5 million cap hit isn’t ideal, but can be worked around through retention or the inclusion of another salary. As far as temporary Hronek replacements go, Fabbro ain’t bad, and he could be someone that plays a role even after Hronek returns.

Then there’s David Jiricek, who is definitely on the block and who we’ve already written about at length.

A 21-year-old RHD who is big on talent, but having a hard time finding a place on the Columbus roster, might seem like the ideal one-to-one exchange for Höglander. But with Jiricek being drafted at sixth overall just two drafts ago, and with him playing the most valuable position in hockey, we can safely assume that the Canucks would have to add at least one significant piece on top of Höglander to close the gap.

That Columbus reportedly has some interest in Höglander definitely bodes as well as possible for a Jiricek trade happening, but we’ll believe it when we see it. For now, it sounds like a longshot. 

Our look at the Penguins will take much the same shape as our look at the Capitals and Blue Jackets, starting with the easy eliminations.

Ryan Graves and Matt Grzelcyk are both having tough seasons in Pittsburgh and, at $4,500,000 and $2,750,000 respectively, they’re both overpaid. The Canucks should have no interest there.

Same goes for the collection of random non-needle-movers at the bottom of the lineup, like Ryan Shea, Jack St. Ivany, and the other Sebastian Aho.

Up at the top of the depth chart are two expensive, aging talents in Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang. While the possibility of either is fun, salary is very much a limiting factor. Karlsson’s contract, currently retained from $11,500,000 down to $9,999,998, would not be doable for the Canucks without a major restructuring of their roster, even with another round of retention – nor would he be worth it, given his current level of play.

Letang would be the better fit, even at three years older. His cap hit of $6,100,000 could work with retention and some contract-exchanging (like a Höglander + Desharnais sort of package), but then you’re asking the Penguins to retain for the next three years.

There’s also Letang’s NMC to consider. He does have history with Vancouver’s management, which could give them an inside track, but chances are still best that Letang plays out his career in Pittsburgh.

The name we should really be talking about here is Marcus Pettersson, and it’s a name we’ve been talking about all year. A 28-year-old left-handed puck-moving D with some adequate defensive chops and a bit of a mean streak, Pettersson is in the last year of a $4,025,175 AAV contract, and would appear to be at least a semi-ideal blueliner for the Canucks to add right now.

Were the Penguins willing to retain on his contract, as they probably are, Pettersson becomes a lot more affordable. If the Pens and Canucks could get another team involved for double-retention, then a Höglander-for-25% Pettersson swap would work out to almost cap-neutral. The only question is how much the Penguins would ask to be added on top. With Pettersson one of the few quality rentals available this year, they do have the freedom to basically name their price.

One more name worth mentioning is Owen Pickering, the 20-year-old LHD currently skating NHL minutes just two years out of the 2022 draft.

The on-the-verge-of-rebuilding Penguins would probably be very reluctant to move Pickering right now, but if they do really like Höglander, the Canucks could at least ask.

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