Vancouver Canucks: Higgins is Just the Beginning

Chris Higgins is just first of the Vancouver Canucks who will be moved in the next four weeks.

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The Vancouver Canucks plan to move out Chris Higgins, the 32-year-old winger. This move should not come as a surprise after the Canucks acquired Emerson Etem, a 23-year-old bottom-six winger who is a younger, cheaper, and better alternative to Higgins, based on the first half of the season each had.

Publicly announcing Higgins on the trade block, though, should come as a surprise to most who are familiar with the goings of the NHL.

The Tampa Bay Lightning did not disclose Jonathan Drouin‘s desire to leave the club. Instead, Drouin and his agent did. Similarly for Kerby Rychel of the Columbus Blue Jackets, the club seems to have hushed Rychel’s request until the Columbus Dispatch uncovered the fact. Why then is Vancouver advertising Higgins on the block so vehemently? List this one under the odd public relations move that Trevor Linden and Jim Benning have made?

The Canucks are desperate. Benning is stuck big-time.

Related: Canucklehead Lament: Jim Benning Risking his Job in Etem Emerson

Read the latest Canucklehead Lament linked just above for a deeper dive.

To summarize, the Canucks are already at the NHL roster maximum of  23 healthy players. As of January 11th, 14 forwards, seven defencemen, and two goaltenders are listed on Vancouver’s roster by General Fanager . Four players are on the injured reserve and Brandon Sutter is listed on the long-time injured reserve. His $3.3 million contract is not being counted toward the team’s current total salary, which is just $107,000 shy of the maximum salary cap.

Jannik Hansen is the closest of the four on the IR to returning, and Luca Sbisa and Brandon Sutter will join the team on the road trip. Make that three skaters coming in the next couple of weeks. Dan Hamhuis is a month away, according to Willie Desjardins. Make that four skaters in a month’s time.

In a week’s time the Canucks have to trade a forward to make room for Hansen, most likely in the form of Higgins. In two weeks’ time when Sbisa returns, they will send Andrey Pedan, who is the only waiver-exempt player aside from “the kids”, down to Utica. Not too long after that, Sutter will have to bump out another forward.

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Chris Higgins is just the first of the minimum two forwards to go in the next two weeks (or whenever Sutter is healthy).

And then, when Hamhuis returns, the Canucks have a choice to make. Of the three extra bodies they can carry, do they care to carry two extra forwards and one extra defenceman, or to carry just one extra forward and two extra defencemen?

The first option would mean that Vancouver gets rid of two forwards (including Higgins) and one defenceman, the latter would let Vancouver trade no defencemen but get rid of three forwards, including Higgins.

I would say that as Pedan is waiver-exempt, the Canucks will just keep one extra defenceman and trade one of the veterans on an expiring contract — one of Yannick Weber, Matt Bartkowski, and Hamhuis, should his injury not hurt his trade prospects. The Canucks would love to have two extra forwards with “a plan” in place to rest Jared McCann and Jake Virtanen on set nights.

You can see now that it is not really about the cap space that is so difficult to deal with. The roster space is.

So what do you think? Is Benning going to crash and burn, or is he going to work magic to fetch a blockbuster win for Vancouver? Who will be the next forward to go? My bet is that Radim Vrbata gets a lot of interest from the Florida Panthers, the Montreal Canadiens, and even the New York Islanders.

Next: Has Jamaal Charles Lost a Step?

Higgins is garnering decent interest around the league and I would not be surprised if — in fact, I expect that — Trader Jim sneaks another NHL forward through the trade calls to make space for Sutter. The next few weeks are going to be fun, restless nights for GM Benning. But again, he brought this upon himself with the acquisition of Etem.