We have a trade to announce. Per a team release, the Vancouver Canucks are trading center Jason Dickinson and a 2024 second-round pick to the Chicago Blackhawks for defenseman Riley Stillman. The Canucks have also announced the deal.
From both the Canucks’ side of the trade and the Blackhawks’, the deal makes a lot of sense. From Chicago’s point of view, this swap fits their overarching organizational vision. The Blackhawks are undergoing a full-scale rebuild, and this whole past offseason they proved they would leave no stone unturned in their quest to accumulate as many draft picks and prospects as possible.
At a time when the value of cap space is at an absolute premium, the Blackhawks, by acquiring Dickinson, (who has a $2.65MM cap hit for the next two seasons) have cashed in some of their cap space in order to land a valuable draft pick from another club.
Additionally, the acquisition of Dickinson fits in with some of their other additions from this offseason, in the sense that he is a player whose value has declined from previous seasons and has room to rebound. In the summer of 2021, the Canucks thought highly enough of Dickinson to surrender a third-round pick for his services, and now after just one season he’s relegated to being a negative-value asset in a cap-shedding trade.
While Dickinson’s lone season in Vancouver was admittedly a poor one, the Blackhawks are now hoping that he will respond well to greater opportunity on their team and rehabilitate his value enough to possibly be flipped for even more draft picks either at this trade deadline season or this summer.
Dickinson, 27, was a 2013 first-round pick and has at times shown the ability to be a quality defensive center. But in Vancouver his offense almost completely dried up, meaning improving Dickinson’s play offensively will likely be the first priority for head coach Luke Richardson and his staff.
From Vancouver’s perspective, this deal seems less about acquiring Stillman and more about clearing Dickinson’s contract off their books. Just a few hours ago, we covered how 22-year-old Swedish import Nils Aman was in pole position to seize the Canucks’ fourth-line center role, a development that, prior to this trade, would have left Dickinson either without a regular spot in the lineup or perhaps even on waivers and headed to AHL Abbotsford. Now, the Canucks’ roster decision-making process will be a lot simpler.
While clearing Dickinson’s deal off the cap-strapped Canucks’ books was likely the main purpose of this trade, acquiring Stillman is not without its usefulness as well. Today we learned that Tyler Myers would be out with an injury for the start of the regular season, so perhaps Stillman was acquired in part to help the team make up for his absence.
Stillman, 24, played 52 games last season in Chicago and scored 12 points. The former Oshawa General is a defense-first, physical defenseman who saw some time on the Blackhawks’ penalty kill as well. While it’s unlikely that he’ll climb the Canucks’ competitive defensive depth chart, he’ll be a useful reinforcement as Vancouver looks to pick up where they left off under Bruce Boudreau last year.
Pictures courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Canucks never have 2nd round picks. They trade them like gum
When they do they draft poorly outside of Hoglander (even still) and Demko was 2014
so that hardly counts.
Decent trade. Move cap, get a D man. Your second would probably never play so…
Trading gum? Lol, that’s an expression I’ve never heard before.
He sucks. 2nd rounder is a nice get.
Imagine trading a 2nd and 3rd for Dickinson.
Because that’s what it cost.
Holy heck, the Blackhawks got a second rounder for their sixth defenseman, a guy with terrible metrics and no scoring ability? That’s stealing Vancouver’s lunch money and no mistake.
So, the Canucks cleared Dickinson’s contract? Yay? That’s a SECOND ROUNDER for a net cap gain of what, $1.3 MM AAV, which they could’ve done anyway by sending Dickinson down to the minors? (They could’ve done as well on the defenseman front by just keeping DeKeyser.) Er, um, huh … yay?
Maybe Davidson is getting smarter after getting fleeced in the DeBrincat and Mrazek trades.
Fleeced? He got 3 pretty good draft picks for a guy they probably weren’t even going to be able to sign long term. Korchinski alone is going to be a stud. You won’t even be able to rate this deal for at least 3 years. Davidson has done pretty well in the volume of picks he’s acquired, But it will all depend on how he drafts. After this year he will have tons of Cap flexibility and young talent so we’ll have to see what he does with that. But he’s done pretty well so far IMO. Debricat isn’t signing with Ottawa so far either so it’s pretty clear to me he has a specific place he wants to play.
A 1st, 2nd and 3rd isn’t near enough for a player of DeBrincat’s caliber, age and salary; that’s the package you’d expect on the trade deadline on an expiring contract, not a guy where you have team control for a full season and THEN he just goes RFA. People badly overestimate the impact of high round draft picks. Is Korchinski going to be a stud? Dunno. I can name you any number of high first rounder defensemen who proved not to be. Would you feel good about having traded an elite 40-goal scorer for the likes of Olli Juolevi or Jakob Zboril or Callan Foote or Erik Brannstrom or Haydn Fleury?
Then there’s the ongoing idiocy of trading DeBrincat at ALL — he’s the kind of elite, young player you want to build your team around, who’ll still be in his prime at the end of a rebuild.
Sorry but I saw Korchinski play in the preseason, Let’s face it, It was the only reason to watch at all, And I can tell you barring an injury he’s going to be a stud. He COULD play here now but it would be a bad play. Is it better to keep a guy who doesn’t WANT to be here? I say no. They become distractions which is why I’m surprised that Toews and Kane haven’t waived their No Movement clauses. It’s obvious they don’t want to be here either. It’s not a good situation for either side. I predict they’ll soon become malcontents. Is Debrincat any good without Kane feeding him? We’ll see.
Sorry, we got fleeced with DeBrincat and the Mrazek trades. Believe me, I hope Korchinski makes us forget the Cat, but getting the 7th pick, a second rounder and a third rounder that you cannot use until 2024 is peanuts for a 2 time 40 goal scorer that is only 24 years old and you have control for a year.
I won’t get into Mrazek trade because the guy that we drafted was slotted to go much later in the draft.
Again, I hope Davidson learned a lot in those trades and hope he gets smarter moving forward.
Believe me, I hope I have to eat these words in three years. Nothing would make me happier.
I hated the Dickinson acquisition. Guess Allvin did too. 3rd to get him and 2nd to get rid of him, sheesh
I really thought Vancouver would get E. Bear from the Canes. I feel like they would be better off trading a 2nd rd pick for Bear and just sending Dickinson to the minors. Interesting this was their best option.