Senators, Canucks Could Be Teams To Watch On Trade Market

Speaking on today’s edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman believes trade talks are beginning to heat up across the league once again, mainly incited by teams looking to clear players off their roster pre-season to alleviate roster or salary cap crunches. To that end, he identified the Ottawa Senators and Vancouver Canucks as significant players to watch over the coming days as training camps approach.

In Ottawa’s case, this is, of course, influenced by their lack of flexibility to re-sign RFA center Shane Pinto. The 22-year-old remains without a contract for this season after potting 20 goals in 2022-23, and he commands more than the paltry $895K in salary cap space Ottawa has remaining, per CapFriendly’s projection. It’s drawn out long enough that trade speculation is beginning to arise about Pinto’s signing rights, but Senators general manager Pierre Dorion would obviously rather retain their 2019 32nd overall pick.

As Friedman notes, Pinto has very little leverage in negotiations, as he carries a 10.2(c) designation and is ineligible to sign an offer sheet. That means Ottawa likely won’t need to clear massive amounts of cap space to sign Pinto to a bridge deal, but a move still needs to be made – that $895K projection already figures a bare-minimum roster of 18 skaters and two goaltenders. Evolving Hockey’s contract projection model predicts a two-year, $1.88MM AAV deal for Pinto, assuming it’s signed between August 1st and the start of the regular season. If Pinto holds out into the season, that projection drops slightly to a $1.805MM AAV on a two-year deal.

Vancouver’s potential activity spurs from the health of Tanner Pearson, who fortunately projects to be healthy for the 2023-24 campaign after a persistent (and controversially handled) hand injury nearly cost him his career last season. His availability creates both a roster and cap crunch for Vancouver, as his $3.25MM cap hit would suddenly factor into their day-to-day picture and not sit on LTIR as previously expected.

He would also likely factor into a third-line role, potentially alongside Conor Garland and Pius Suter. Pearson’s trade value will likely be minimal with other teams wary of his health, so shopping a depth player like Garland (and his $4.95MM cap hit) would likely return better value for general manager Patrik Allvin. While some have criticized Garland’s tenure in Vancouver, he’s a winger who consistently puts up between 40 and 60 points, can play a top-six role, and is cost-controlled through 2026 without trade protection. He’s the type of player a few teams looking to fill gaps in their forward group would be interested in.

Garland also seems like the most likely candidate because the Canucks’ realistic trade options are limited beyond him. They just signed Teddy Blueger in free agency, players like Dakota Joshua have shown to be reliable bottom-six presences and are on cost-effective deals, and they’d be selling low on younger prospects like Nils Höglander or Vasily Podkolzin.

At first glance, however, it seems like a tough time in the offseason to perform cap-clearing maneuvers. Most teams already have their rosters relatively set, and some teams close to contention with obvious holes don’t have the space to make maneuvers. Of teams with cap space to spare, the Chicago Blackhawks jump out as a lone destination where acquiring a veteran wouldn’t cost a spot for a younger player needing significant NHL ice time – they still could use a few more bodies to fill out their opening-night roster.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.