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Canucks Deadline Notes: Miller, Garland, Turcotte

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The Vancouver Canucks already made a minor trade on deadline day, sending Curtis Lazar to the New Jersey Devils for a 2024 fourth-round pick. They are certainly a team in transition and it sounds like they are actively looking to make a few more deals today. Farhan Lalji of TSN reports there is talk of J.T. Miller’s name being out there in trade talks today.

The gritty forward has already signed an eight-year extension that begins next season, but has quickly fallen out of favor with the Canucks. He has 20 goals and 54 points in 60 games this season, but the Canucks are looking to shake things up.

  • Jacob Stoller of The Hockey News reports that Conor Garland’s name is also out there in trade talks. He says that the team is interested in acquiring an effective NHL player in exchange for Garland, and do not want to deal him just for draft picks. The 26-year-old winger has three more years left on his contract with a cap hit of $4.95MM.
  • As for who the Canucks may be interested in acquiring, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports they have checked in on Alex Turcotte. Turcotte was the fifth-overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft and has 14 points in 24 AHL games for the Ontario Reign this season.

Devils Acquire Curtis Lazar

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The Devils have added some extra depth up front as they’ve acquired forward Curtis Lazar from the Canucks.  Going the other way is a 2024 fourth-round pick.

The 28-year-old was in his first season with Vancouver after inking a three-year, $3MM deal ($1MM AAV) with them last summer.  However, things didn’t go quite as planned.  Lazar has struggled to say healthy – he’s currently on injured reserve – and when he has been in the lineup, he hasn’t been the most productive, collecting just three goals and two assists in 45 games.  However, Lazar has won nearly 52% of his faceoffs while averaging 2.75 hits per game.

New Jersey moved out some of its forward depth in the recent Timo Meier move and Lazar’s acquisition helps to fill some of that at a reasonable price tag.  When he’s able to return, he could fill a spot on their fourth line or simply serve as injury depth for what they hope is a long playoff run and could spend some time on their penalty kill as he’s averaging more than a minute per night shorthanded.

Cap-wise, the Devils now have roughly $1.26MM remaining in LTIR room, per CapFriendly, so beyond another depth move, New Jersey might be quiet the rest of today.  Meanwhile, CapFriendly pegs Vancouver’s LTIR space at just over $4.7MM.  With the four players on their LTIR out for the season, they’ll have some flexibility to take on a contract or be a third-party retainer to add an additional pick or two.

TSN’s Darren Dreger was the first to report the trade.

Canucks In Talks With Panthers On Minor Deal

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  • The Vancouver Canucks may be working on something with the Florida Panthers. According to Rick Dhaliwal of the Donnie and Dhali radio show in Vancouver, the Canucks are working the phones and have been in talks with the Panthers. He also mentions it sounds like it is not a major deal, so don’t expect one of the Canucks big contracts to be heading to the Panthers.

J.T. Miller Unlikely To Be Traded

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While there has been some speculation that the Canucks might move forward J.T. Miller before today’s deadline, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli suggests that’s unlikely to happen.  A lot of teams would be needing some sort of salary retention to facilitate a move now but doing so would also require them to retain a similar percentage on his seven-year, $56MM extension that kicks in next season.  That’s something Vancouver won’t want to do so there’s a good chance that the 29-year-old will be staying put today, even though he’s having a productive season with 20 goals and 34 assists in 60 games.  It’s also worth noting that he’s listed as out week-to-week with a lower-body injury.

Vancouver Canucks Acquire Filip Hronek

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The Vancouver Canucks, not content with building through the draft, have already traded the conditional first-round pick they received from the New York Islanders in exchange for captain Bo Horvat. The Canucks have sent it, along with a 2023 second-round pick, to the Detroit Red Wings for defenseman Filip Hronek and a 2023 fourth-round selection.

Hronek, 25, has developed into quite a strong all-around defenseman for the Red Wings and will set a career-high in scoring whenever he records his next point this season. That may have to wait a little while, as he left last night’s game after just eight minutes of action and is dealing with an upper-body injury.

The Canucks aren’t getting him for right now, though, as their season is already over. Instead, the focus of a pickup like this will be on next year when the Vancouver management believes the team can be competitive. Hronek is signed through next season on his current three-year, $13.2MM contract, and will be a restricted free agent at its expiry next summer.

It’s that contract price tag that makes this trade a little bit confusing from the Canucks perspective. Hronek is probably still providing some surplus value on his $4.4MM cap hit, but Vancouver will probably only get one year of that before another raise (he is owed a $5.28MM qualifying offer) is due. With the way the team’s cap situation looks at the moment, it’s hard to see how that will fit in, given the big sums already owed to Quinn Hughes and Oliver Ekman-Larsson through 2026-27.

Make no mistake, Hronek’s arrival in Vancouver will make them a better team. He instantly becomes their second-best defenseman, and could form a legitimate top pair with Hughes for the next several years. But Canucks fans are going to be screaming from the rooftops, at a management group that refuses to pull the plug and rebuild.

For Detroit, dealing Hronek brings up more questions than answers, as general manager Steve Yzerman tries to get the club to the playoffs as soon as possible. Are the Red Wings now looking at acquiring someone like Jakob Chychrun? Will they use their stash of draft picks on an even bigger name?

After signing Dylan Larkin to a massive extension today, the team signaled to fans that the rebuild is over. With five picks in the first two rounds of this year’s draft, and plenty of cap space, they could be preparing to make a big splash in the next few days, or this summer.

Toronto Maple Leafs Acquire Luke Schenn

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are making their third trade of the past few hours, acquiring a former player in the process. The team announced Tuesday afternoon that they’d acquired defenseman Luke Schenn from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a 2023 third-round pick.

The move, which comes after the team already shipped out Rasmus Sandin and Pierre Engvall earlier today, is a clear effort by the Leafs to add more defensive depth, even after acquiring Erik Gustafsson in the Sandin trade.

Schenn is a veteran defenseman who was originally drafted by Toronto, taken fifth overall in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. After spending four inconsistent seasons in Toronto, which saw him oscillate between top pairing and depth minutes, he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for James van Riemsdyk. After later career stops with the Los Angeles Kings, Arizona Coyotes, Anaheim Ducks, Canucks, and Tampa Bay Lightning, Schenn returned to Vancouver as a free agent in the summer of 2021 after two Stanley Cup championships with Tampa.

He’ll now look to defeat his former team and help another former team get over a first-round series hump that’s lasted for nearly two decades. While never living up to his top-ten potential, Schenn has had some strong defensive seasons in the past and has penalty-killing experience. In 55 games with the Canucks this season, Schenn has three goals, 18 assists, 21 points, and averaged just over 17 minutes per game.

While interest in Schenn had been high throughout the trade season, the Leafs were able to acquire him without surrounding a prospect or a pick in the first two rounds of the draft. While Schenn may not immediately hold a place in Toronto’s top six on defense, he’ll be immediately called upon to enter the lineup in case of injury.

Schenn, 33, is in the final season of a two-year contract with an average annual value of $850,000. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.

Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli was first to report that Schenn was heading to Toronto, while Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was first to report the return.

Penguins Had Interest In J.T. Miller

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The Pittsburgh Penguins and Vancouver Canucks were discussing a J.T. Miller trade recently, according to Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Vensel’s sources indicate that talks have stalled but could re-open at some point before the deadline.

Miller, 29, has a seven-year, $56MM contract extension set to kick in next season, but the Canucks are already re-assessing the structure of their roster. This morning, CapFriendly confirmed that a trade with retained salary would extend to the entire extension. If Vancouver wanted to make Miller more enticing to contenders this year, they’d be on the hook for part of his salary through 2029-30.

Latest On Aidan McDonough

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  • Northeastern University captain Aidan McDonough has had a strong senior season for the Huskies, scoring 36 points in 31 games, and is nearing a significant decision regarding his professional career. He’ll have the ability to choose his pro destination this summer and could potentially sign with a different team besides the Vancouver Canucks, the club that selected him 195th overall at the 2019 draft. Per CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal, McDonough “is still very open to signing in VAN,” and his ultimate decision is “not far away.” It’s likely that quite a few teams would be interested in adding McDonough, so should Vancouver get him it would be a quality addition to their prospect system.

Buffalo Sabres Acquire Riley Stillman

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The Buffalo Sabres have added a little bit of defensive depth, acquiring Riley Stillman from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for prospect Josh Bloom. The move comes at a particularly important time as the Sabres’ top defenseman, Rasmus Dahlin, is out day-to-day with an undisclosed injury.

That’s not to say that Stillman, 24, will be able to replace what Dahlin brings to the Sabres, of course, but it does make compensating for his absence a little easier. This is the second time Stillman has been traded this season, with the first being when he was sent to Vancouver by the Chicago Blackhawks for Jason Dickinson.

In his 32 games in Vancouver, Stillman averaged just over 16 minutes of ice time, registering five points. He contributed to their penalty kill and should be able to add some muscle and defensive depth to the Sabres’ blueline.

He’s under contract through next season at a $1.35MM cap hit and will be a restricted free agent after that point. Should he impress in a Sabres uniform, the team will have the option to keep him around for the foreseeable future.

While he won’t be the difference between the Sabres making or missing the playoffs this season, the team has played well enough to stay in the mix for a Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. It’s unknown whether this deal is all Sabres GM Kevyn Adams has planned for this deadline, but at the very least he’s rewarded his players with a competent defensive reinforcement that has some team control to boot.

For the Canucks, this move is part of the team shifting their focus towards the future, ever so slightly. They exchange a decent if relatively inconsequential defender for an intriguing prospect who has been on an upward trend.

Bloom, 19, is a six-foot-two winger who plays for the North Bay Battalion in the OHL. He’s scored 19 goals and 42 points in 40 games for North Bay this year and is regarded as a well-rounded, intelligent player who could have an NHL future.

While this trade might hurt the Canucks’ defensive ranks in the short term, it’s hard to argue with the team exchanging a defender like Stillman for a prospect like Bloom. If the Canucks intend to be serious about re-tooling and building for the future, these are the sorts of deals the front office should be making. It’s a reasonable exchange of present assets for future value on each side, and it’s a trade that fits the current goals of both franchises quite well.

Vancouver Canucks Activate Thatcher Demko

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The Vancouver Canucks have their goaltender back. After nearly three months, Thatcher Demko has been activated from injured reserve. Arturs Silovs, who was up in his absence, has been reassigned to the AHL.

It hasn’t been a good season for the Canucks, but things might not have been so bad had Demko not been injured 15 games into the year. The 27-year-old goaltender was struggling but has shown in the past an ability to carry poor performances from his teammates and turn them into wins. Last season, he appeared in 64 games and, with largely the same defensive group, posted a .914 save percentage.

That earned him a seventh-place Vezina finish and expectations that Demko would become one of the best goaltenders in the league. His five-year, $25MM contract certainly was paying him to be a reliable starter, and for the Canucks to go anywhere, they needed him to lead the way.

Now, after a brutal season that has seen captain Bo Horvat dealt away, head coach Bruce Boudreau fired, and the Canucks win just 23 of 59 games, Demko’s return is too little, too late. He now must face the very real possibility of a trade, if the team decides that the “major surgery” president Jim Rutherford referenced includes the goaltending position.

Getting back on the ice is the only way forward for Demko, regardless of where his future takes him. There’s still reason to believe he can be the goaltender he was through the first few years of his career, and a healthy stretch run would go far in building his confidence back up. The Canucks are back in action tonight against the Dallas Stars, where Demko is a game-time decision.

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