Vancouver Canucks: Jim Benning faces difficult trade deadline decisions

Coming into this season, most Vancouver Canucks fans and pundits expected GM Jim Benning to sell at the 2019 trade deadline. But with the Canucks hanging around in the playoff race, Benning might not want to sell.

The Vancouver Canucks are somehow in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race, even though they went on an eight-game losing streak as the injuries to key players began to pile up.

Entering Monday, the 11-13-2 Canucks are just two points behind the Dallas Stars for the final wild card spot, and just one point behind the defending Western Conference champion Vegas Golden Knights for third in the Pacific Division.

Now, it’s difficult to guess just where the Canucks could be at the upcoming trade deadline. Will this rebuilding team unravel over the next month and fall completely out of playoff contention? Or will young stars Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat keep them competitive down the stretch?

When you throw in the eventual returns of key players such as Chris Tanev, Sven Baertschi and Brandon Sutter, there’s good reason to believe the Canucks will avoid another horrible stretch that we saw over the last two weeks.

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And if that happens, the Canucks find themselves in the playoff race leading up to the deadline. And that meas general manager Jim Benning will have an incredibly difficult question with no clear answer:

To sell, or not to sell?

Mike Halford of The Athletic broke down which Canucks could be dealt at the deadline. He listed blueliners Alexander Edler and Michael Del Zotto as “most likely to go.” Both defencemen are free agents at the end of the season.

The former has been injury-prone his whole career, and the latter has simply under-performed in Vancouver.

But if Benning decides he wants to make a run at the playoffs, then he’s not trading Edler or Del Zotto.

There aren’t any suitable replacements via the trade market, and it’s anybody’s guess when 2016 first-rounder Olli Juolevi will make the NHL. So even though it makes sense for Benning to acquire as many assets as possible at the deadline — especially for players on looming contracts — he won’t be interested in doing so if the Canucks are still competitive.

Tanev has also been mentioned in trade rumors, but I’ve given up on trying to figure out what the Canucks will do. He’s their best blueliner when healthy, but Tanev wouldn’t bring back good trade value because of his long injury history. If I’m Benning, I’d be holding onto Tanev for at least the remainder of the season before determining his future with the club.

Other than these three blueliners, I’m not sure any other Canucks are realistic trade candidates. Throw in the fact that Vancouver’s in the playoff picture now, and it’s difficult to figure out what Benning’s approach will be at the deadline.

He’s not going to get any major assets for either player. Benning has to look at it in one of two ways: A) I want to just get anything I can for these guys, or B) I’d rather keep them and go for the playoffs.

If the Canucks continue playing around .500 hockey, he’s going to have a difficult decision. It’s easy to say now that Benning should sell, but it won’t be so easy to say in February if the Canucks have a chance to end their four-year playoff drought.