If you’ve watched even just one Vancouver Canucks game this season, there’s a solid chance that you’ve already come to the conclusion that this team needs to improve on defence.

Basically every defenceman not named Quinn Hughes has had problems this season, and through 15 games, the non-Hughes minutes remain a problem for this team. The Soucy-Myers pairing has been a mess all season long, and while Erik Brännström has certainly been found money, he’s still not quite yet proved himself as a legitimate top-four option capable of playing heavy minutes against the opposition’s best.

The Canucks, thanks in large part to a soft schedule and some stellar goaltending from Kevin Lankinen, find themselves 3rd in the Pacific Division with an 8-4-3 record. Games like Thursday night’s against the New York Islanders shine a light on this team’s weaknesses in a similar way the club’s losses to the Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils on home ice have.

Their defencemen — again, the ones not wearing number 43, that is — struggle to move the puck out of the defensive zone, which obviously leads to chances against, but also forces the Canucks’ forwards to defend for their shifts. When the puck does eventually leave the zone, the forwards need to do change, which means the puck goes right back to the opposition without any sort of pressure since the forwards who would be forechecking are heading to the bench for fresh legs.

This is all just to say: It’s been clear for some time now that the Canucks are going to need to trade for a top four defenceman this season.

But what might that cost on the NHL trade market?

Thanks to Twitter user CanucksNewsSummaries, we have this handy little list of all the in-season trades for top-4 defencemen that have taken place around the NHL since Patrik Allvin took over as the Canucks’ general manager.

Immediately, it’s noteworthy that almost every deal, regardless of contract status, included a first round pick.

For the Canucks, you’ve likely heard about the main targets already. Rasmus Andersson is the golden ticket, Marcus Pettersson is a slightly worse option but still certainly an upgrade, and Cam Fowler is a potential boom or bust acquisition who shouldn’t cost much to pry from Anaheim. There are other names out there, obviously, but for our purposes, we’re going to focus on these three.

Now, there’s reason to believe that Cam Fowler’s poor results are a symptom of playing for the Anaheim Ducks. There’s also just as much reason, if not more, to believe that the 32-year-old Fowler, signed through both this season and next at $6.5 million, has just taken a step back. That’s a risky contract for any team to take on for a player who has been looking like a third-pairing defenceman for some time now, and if there’s one thing the Canucks don’t really need, it’s more third pairing defencemen.

Given his cap hit and potentially declining abilities, the cost to acquire Fowler in a trade simply isn’t shown on the list above, and if the Canucks go down this route, they should absolutely proceed with caution. Really, the only way a Fowler trade makes sense is if it comes with retention from the Ducks. And even then, there’s no guarantee that Fowler will bounce back to the defenceman he once was.

Rasmus Andersson being under contract through next season at $4.5 million likely means he falls somewhere in the range of what Filip Hronek and Jakob Chychrun cost to acquire, although both of those players were younger than the 28-year-old Andersson. At the very least, the list above tells us it’s safe to assume the Flames will be looking for a first and second/third round pick for Andersson as a starting point. Is that too high for the Canucks to feel comfortable about paying? Maybe. Could the Flames’ asking price come down? Also maybe, but a first and second round pick as a starting point feels like a safe estimation given the deals above.

Set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, 28-year-old Marcus Pettersson is a left shot defenceman, but despite that, he’d certainly be an upgrade on the Canucks’ blue line. Pettersson is a defence-first defenceman capable of making smart plays in the defensive end, and could help to settle down either Tyler Myers or Carson Soucy on the second pair. Soucy has experience playing the right side, and Myers is obviously right-handed, so either player would work with Pettersson, while the other goes down to the third pair to presumably post better results against weaker competition.

Given that Pettersson is likely the best true rental defenceman on the market, he can be compared to deals like the Chris Tanev and Sean Walker deals at last year’s deadline, meaning that if the Canucks were to trade for him now, it might cost them a first round pick, but if they wait a bit longer, they may be able to part with a second round pick/B-level prospect or younger roster player in order to get a deal done. That being said, we know Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin like their early trades even more than they like their former Penguins players (okay, maybe not that much), so it will be interesting to see if the Canucks acquire their league-leading third Pettersson at some point this season.

Who would you like to see the Canucks target in a trade on the blueline? Let us know in the comments section below, and bonus points if you include a reasonable price using the list shown above!

Check out Harman Dayal and I’s conversation about this topic in the video below!