It’s getting a little tricky to keep track of all the many teams that the Vancouver Canucks are reported to be talking trade with. But if we’re thinking about the quality of the source, and/or the quality of the potential trade return, it makes sense to pay particularly close attention to the Detroit Red Wings.

In speaking to the Morning Cuppa Hockey podcast, Elliotte Friedman highlighted the possibility of a Vancouver-Detroit trade in the near future.

While Friedman’s comments were centred almost entirely around Quinn Hughes, specifically, that’s not necessarily the only deal that could go down between the franchises.

On the whole, these seem to be two teams that each has what the other is looking for. As of this writing, neither is in a playoff position, but the Red Wings are just two points back. In this, the seventh year of GM Steve Yzerman’s reign, Detroit has to be feeling a little desperate to make the postseason and, ideally, make some noise there. In a tightly-packed Eastern Conference, that’s probably going to require some veteran reinforcements.

The Canucks, meanwhile, are reportedly on the lookout for prospects and young NHLers they can use to supplement their youth movement. And that’s something that the Red Wings have in shocking abundance.

Should a trade occur between Vancouver and Detroit – and especially if that trade involves Hughes himself – these are the sorts of assets we can see the Canucks being interested in:

Friedman mentioned centres in his initial comments, and then had to later backtrack to specific that he was not talking about Detroit captain Dylan Larkin. Which centres, then, might the Canucks be looking at? Believe it or not, the Red Wings have multiple options to consider.

The 21-year-old Austrian, selected at eighth overall in the 2022 Entry Draft, would really be the prize piece of the Detroit collection. Kasper put up 19 goals and 37 points as a rookie centre last year, and although he’s struggling a bit as a sophomore with just three goals on this current season, he remains an asset with an abundance of skill and natural physical gifts.

Kasper has good size at 6’1” and 203 pounds already, and uses that size well to battle for the puck and drive through the middle of the ice. He’s a sort of all-around talent that can score goals, make plays, or set up something more long-term in the offensive end. Most believe he’s got long-term top-six potential, but that potential might not arrive soon enough for the Red Wings’ current purposes. Kasper is one of the few young centres out there who might be good enough and available enough to make a reasonable centrepiece in a theoretical Hughes deal.

And Kasper isn’t even the only 21-year-old centre with top-six potential that Detroit might have on offer. Danielson, hailing from Red Deer, was selected at ninth overall in the 2023 Entry Draft, and is currently in what might be his NHL rookie season (so long as he eclipses 25 games played.) Like Kasper, Danielson has some natural gifts, including size at 6’2” and a growing 187 pounds, and a right shot that makes him extra valuable.

But whereas Kasper brings a more general offensive skill to the table, Danielson brings a game that is all about speed and skating. He’s said to be one of those players who skates just as good, or even better, with the puck as without it. For a Vancouver team that is always trying to get faster, this is an obvious plus.

Danielson is seen as having a slightly lower offensive ceiling than Kasper, and that’s why the Canucks might prefer Kasper of the two. That said, Danielson put up 39 points in 71 games as an AHL rookie last year, and is up to five points in four AHL games this season. He’s got top-six potential, too.

If the Canucks and Red Wings make a major trade, one has to think it will involve Kasper and/or Danielson. And one has to think that one of them, or both, is the centre that Friedman was referring to.

The 26-year-old Rasmussen is nowhere near the same tier of asset as Kasper or Danielson, even if he was once drafted at ninth overall himself back in the 2017 Entry Draft. But he is a young-ish centre who might hold some appeal to the Canucks for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is his birthplace of Surrey, BC. There’s also the hard-to-miss fact that Rasmussen is 6’6” and 223 pounds, making him one of the largest centres in the NHL, period.

Having averaged around 30 points a game through his career thus far, Rasmussen is most generously described as a middle-six centre, and more accurately as a 3C. But the Canucks are definitely beggars when it comes to centre depth, and cannot afford to be too choosy. Rasmussen makes plenty of sense as an extra addition to any trade that goes down, but definitely not as any sort of main feature.

The Canucks might be most interested in centres, but they’ll need to acquire young players at virtually every position eventually…especially if they part ways with Hughes. Fortunately, the Red Wings have plenty to offer all over.

The 22-year-old Edvinsson was drafted at sixth overall in the 2021 Entry Draft, and is probably the best young asset the Red Wings have, on the whole. He’s already been in the NHL and playing an ever-increasing role since 2022-23, and on this current season he’s averaging 21:50 a game for Detroit.

Also standing at 6’6” and 223 pounds, Edvinsson avoids the usual pitfalls of tough defenders through a great technical understanding of the game and a very efficient stride. He defends well with that reach, can carry the puck up the ice, and has good instincts both with and without it. In other words, Edvinsson is a long-term top-pairing impact D in the making.

He’s probably Detroit’s most untouchable young asset. But then, if we’re talking Hughes, there probably aren’t any untouchables. Hughes would usurp Edvinsson’s job at the top of the LD charts, so maybe that makes him more moveable?

In the end, the Canucks will probably focus on the centres instead, but if they so chose, they’d have every right to ask for Edvinsson. 

If there is one area the Canucks don’t need to focus on, it’s the right side of their defence. Tom Willander looks like a long-term solution there, Victor Mancini has upside, and Filip Hronek is still under contract for a long, long time.

But then Sandin Pellikka is such a good prospect that if he were on offer, the Canucks would have to take a lengthy look all the same. Drafted at 17^th overall in 2023, Sandin Pellikka’s stock has only risen since then, thanks to starring turns at the WJC and a shocking amount of production in the SHL from a teenager. Now Sandin Pellikka is in the NHL and finding his way. He’s probably not the piece for the Canucks, but he’s a strong asset all the same.

Also worthy of some mention is Bear, the Red Wings’ most recent first rounder. Selected at 13^th overall last year, Bear is listed as a C/LW, but looks more likely to end up as a winger in the long-term. He’s a high-speed, high-octane, high-compete forward who profiles like a coach’s dream, and should make an impact at the NHL level eventually…though perhaps not for a few years yet.

Completing our tour of Detroit forward prospects with Brandsegg-Nygard, the player Detroit selected at 15^th overall in 2024. He’s a hard-hitting winger who builds his game on collisions with the opposition, but also holds a surprising amount of skill. Brandsegg-Nygard is already up to 13 points in 14 games as an AHL rookie this season.

Wallinder is probably Detroit’s top young LD after Edvinsson, although at 23 he’s starting to run out of real estate to make some noise in the NHL. But, to be honest, we’re only really interested in him because of the potential to one day throw out a Wallinder-Willander pairing and really put John Shorthouse through his paces.

We have heard from some sources that the Canucks are not especially interested in draft picks, and would prefer the kind of young players we’ve listed above. That said, if they did want a trade offer to be supplemented with picks, the Red Wings are in possession of essentially all their own picks from here on out – save for their second rounder in 2027.