Canucks News: Targeting Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in Trade
The Vancouver Canucks will need a new No. 1 centre soon, and some believe a trade could be the right way to get one.
With the Vancouver Canucks back at the bottom of the standings, fans and writers prefer to look at the future rather than the present. And a little bit down the road, perhaps as early as this summer, the Canucks will need to find a successor for Henrik Sedin.
How about a trade?
In the recent past, we discussed the possibility of trading for Colorado Avalanche centre Matt Duchene. While I personally wasn’t opposed to the idea, some others were.
The reason is simple: we all want a new top-line centre, but we don’t want the Canucks to give up talent to acquire one.
So, what about Ryan Nugent-Hopkins?
A Desperate Need
Jim Matheson (Edmonton Journal) — Canucks need centremen, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would fit the bill
"The Vancouver Canucks will be sniffing around centres at the June draft with Henrik Sedin in the last year of his contract and aged 37 before next season and Bo Horvat not yet ready to be a No. 1 pivot.Yes, they’d be interested in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins."
Let’s get the pro-RNH arguments out of the way first. A one-two punch of Nugent-Hopkins and Horvat would have an average age of 22 years, so they would be around for a while. A prospect drafted in 2017, e.g. Casey Mittelstadt, would have elite talent but is also likely to need a while to reach NHL top-line level. Nugent-Hopkins, on the other hand, is NHL-ready right now.
But that’s all, to be honest.
To get Nugent-Hopkins, the Canucks would have to give up a promising young player, likely a defenceman — like Olli Juolevi or a package including Troy Stecher. That wouldn’t make sense in the Canucks’ current situation. They aren’t in a win-now position — the opposite is the case.
Plus, Nugent-Hopkins does not necessarily display top-line potential. The 23-year-old is playing on a playoff team this year, but only has 15 goals and 36 points in 74 games so far. That does not scream “top-line centre.” Even Horvat, who is said to need more time to reach top-line level — if he ever does — has 11 more points in the same amount of games.
Sure, RNH had 56 points twice in his career, but that was while playing with high-end wingers in Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle. In Vancouver, he might get playing time with Brock Boeser, but who knows if that’s enough.
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What the Canucks need is a true top-line centre within the next three years or so. Auston Matthews could have solved that problem in a really nice way, but Nolan Patrick, Nico Hischier, Gabriel Vilardi or Mittelstadt this year would work, too.
I’m not surprised that Edmonton media think the Canucks would trade for Nugent-Hopkins, but that really wouldn’t make sense right now.