What happened between the Vancouver Canucks, Carolina Hurricnes, and Brock Boeser in the days leading up to and on Friday’s NHL Trade Deadline?

The NHL Trade Deadline came and went, and the Canucks let it pass without making a tweak to their roster on Friday. Despite reports on the day that suggested the Canucks were gaining momentum on a Boeser deal, the scoring winger remained on the roster past the noon deadline. He’ll be here until the end of the season at the very least, and is currently set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st.

After the deadline, Canucks GM Patrik Allvin stated that there wasn’t much of a market for the Canucks’ players, and that the offers for Boeser, in particular, were so bad that he couldn’t even divulge them. But who did these offers come from?

Sources indicated that the Florida Panthers were at the very least interested in Boeser, though the contents of their offer — or if it even got as far as them making a competitive offer — is not known. What we do know is that the Panthers’ interest quickly dried up when they learned they could get Brad Marchand from Boston for a conditional second round pick, even if that pick is is highly likely to turn into a first rounder.

Is it possible that Allvin’s frustration with the offers he got for Boeser primarily stemmed from his conversations with Florida and maybe other teams? Certainly it’s possible. It does seem at this juncture that the Carolina Hurricanes were the team most interested in trading for Boeser.

As he spoke about his club’s work at the deadline, Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky did say that Carolina “ran out of time” to move some of their assets in exchange for a player. Obviously, the Hurricanes traded for Rantanen with an eye to improving their team for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. While they did well to recoup assets lost in the original deal with Colorado, Dallas dragging their feet on finalizing the deal while they worked out the extension with Rantanen’s camp essentially held the Canes hostage on deadline day.

As a result, all Carolina was able to accomplish in their attempt to load up for the playoffs was walk away with two first round picks and Logan Stankoven, a young and promising but still unproven NHL player. They likely would have felt good about flipping one of those picks for Boeser.

So what happened? According to multiple sources, Carolina and Vancouver talked earlier in the day, with the Canes telling the Canucks that they needed to finalize the deal with Dallas but would be walking away from that deal with at least one first round pick, which they would then flip to the Canucks. When the Canes eventually called the Canucks (maybe even as soon as 20 minutes before the noon Pacific deadline) offering the first round pick the two sides previously talked about, it appears that it was too late for the Canucks.

The reason for that is unkown, and a wide range of possibilities could be at play. It could have been that the Canucks couldn’t get another deal worked out in time that would have returned them a roster player. It could have been that the club felt better about their chances to sign Boeser down the stretch of the season. It could have been that the Canucks didn’t want to retain money on Boeser. Heck, the hang up for the Canucks could have been that they wanted a different first round pick than the one the Canes were offering, since Carolina got two back in the deal with Dallas.

The point we’re trying to make here is that there could have been any number of reasons why the Canucks didn’t accept the Canes’ offer, which we believe included a first round pick. These things are never truly black and white, and this one seems to have a lot of grey.

So what happened? While the Canes and Canucks talked earlier in the day, with Carolina letting the Canucks know to be ready and that they’d be getting firsts back in the Rantanen trade, Dallas dragging their feet greatly held everything up, to the point that when Carolina came calling back, the Canucks elected to keep Boeser through the deadline. We may never know the reason for that, but yes, in the end, we believe the Hurricanes did offer up a first round pick for Boeser, but it was too little, too late in the final moments of the deadline.

And all parties have Dallas to thank for that, even if the Stars didn’t do it intentionally. I talked more about this situation on today’s episode of Canucks Conversation, which you can watch below: