It’s that time of year again. The trade deadline is exactly two weeks away, and I don’t know about everyone else but personally I’m glued to sports radio and nhl.com waiting to find out what kind of deals will go down this year. And what fun is trade deadline time if lowly fans such as myself can’t discuss to death what the Canucks will/should do this year (if anything). It’s no fun at all. Lucky for me, the kind folks at thenhlarena.com gave me a blog which I can use for such speculation and analysis since none of my family or friends will listen to me about the Canucks anymore… (well to be fair, they listen, but their eyes kinda glaze over). Actually, it’s not so much speculation or analysis as it is the different things that I’ve been thinking about for the last week or so.
In the past couple of weeks, 7 of the 15 Western Conference teams have made at least one trade. If previous years are any indication, there will be many more deals to come. So the question remains: What should the Canucks do? GM Dave Nonis has made it clear (in various interviews I’ve seen) that he is not interested in picking up “rental” players this year, especially at the expense of draft picks or prospects. I guess he learned his lesson last year. The Canucks haven’t made any changes to their roster since they picked up Jeff Cowan off of waivers on December 30th.
Now to be fair, at last year’s trade deadline, I’ll admit I was one of the people who thought he had gotten away with robbery with the deals he made. To refresh your memory the Canucks acquired Eric Weinrich, Keith Carney, Sean Brown and Mika Noronen. In exchange the Canucks only gave up one player (Steve McCarthy). However, they did give up four draft picks and two prospects. Where did these deals get the Canucks? Nowhere. The newly acquired players made little to no impact on the team’s success. They didn’t make the playoffs, and none of the “rental” players they acquired re-signed with the team for the 2006-07 season. So it was pretty much a waste of draft picks and prospects.
I for one have been pretty pleased with the performance of the Canucks this year, and change scares me a little (except for the Luongo deal because that was just awesome. It sucks that Bertuzzi had to go, but I think it was in his best interest as well as the team’s.)
Should the Canucks pick up a solid defensive forward to fill Kesler’s spot until he returns? Maybe. Should they pick up a solid defenseman in case of injury (or in case Rory or one of the other guys cracks)? Maybe.
I don’t have any answers, only questions. What it really comes down to I guess, is this: are the Canucks a good enough team “as is” to make a run for the playoffs and beyond? Maybe. They finally have superb goaltending this year. Luongo’s never been in the playoffs before, but I’d be extremely surprised if the extra pressure fazed him one bit.
The Canucks have the best penalty kill in the league, and they really seem to do a good job positionally, and they are very hard-working. The biggest issue for the Canucks tends to be offense. They have games where it’s “on” and games where it’s “off”. Should they acquire a goal scorer to assist with this issue? Maybe. But at what price?
The unrestricted free agent of note on the Canucks is Sami Salo. He plays so well defensively, he’s a solid passer, and he has an incredible slap shot. His only downside that I can see is that he’s somewhat prone to injury. Currently, Salo is pulling in $1.5 million. By league standards he is worth far more than that. As soon as the season is over you can be sure that the offers for him will come pouring in. The Canucks have little to no cap room to play around with and it will be extremely difficult to afford to keep Salo in the lineup. I recently read an interview with him where he stated that he thinks his next NHL contract could be his last. He also said that he really enjoys living in Vancouver. So now we’re left with another question: is it better for the Canucks to trade him now on the assumption that they can’t sign him, or should they retain him for the playoff run, hoping for a miracle? Personally, I’d prefer that Salo stays with the Canucks. He’s just too valuable to them right now. If he wants to stay with the team, hopefully a deal can be made in the summer. At the same time, the offensive inconsistency of the team can’t be ignored, and a trade for Salo would likely be able to bring in a really good player who could help out with that. The problem here is that the Canucks have no cap space. They’d have to pick up a guy who is making about the same amount of money. Is there such a guy who would really be able to contribute to the team? And if so, why would this mystery guy’s team want to get rid of him?
Like I said, I only have questions. No answers. I guess what it comes down to for me is that I really wouldn’t want to be Dave Nonis right now. As always, I would appreciate any comments or criticisms from any and all on this or any issue.
Go Canucks!
