Should the Vancouver Canucks trade for Shayne Gostisbehere?

The Vancouver Canucks are very active on the trade market according to Rick Dhaliwal of Sportsnet 650. One of the names he mentioned was defenceman Shayne Gotisbehere.

According to Sportsnet 650’s Rick Dhaliwal, Vancouver Canucks General Manager Jim Benning has made some offers to improve the blue line. In this tweet, he said he wouldn’t be surprised if the team goes for Shayne Gostisbehere.

Now Dhaliwal has reported that names like Nikita Zaitsev and Milan Lucic were on the Canucks radar and fans have been replying with negative responses. This time however the responses were more positive.

And as Sportsnet’s Satiar Shah points out, Gostibehere might be a good fit on the Canucks, and is a solution the team should certainly look at as they continue on their offseason goal to imrpove the blueline.

The Case for Shayne Gotisbehere

Gostisbehere has four years left on a contract that gives him $4.5 million per year. As you probably remember, Gostisbehere let the hockey world know his name in the 2015-16 season with the Flyers when he went on a fifteen game point streak. He became known as “ghost” or “ghost bear.”

He was also nominated for the Calder Trophy that season. Last season Gostisbehere had nine goals and 28 assists in 78 games with the Flyers. He had a Corsi for percentage of 59.2%

It was a  down year for him point production wise but it was a good year analytics wise.

Now, Gostisbehere is a talented puck-moving offensive defenceman with great skating ability.  He is also known for quarterbacking a power play effectively.

What would the Canucks give up?

I would love Gostisbehere on the Canucks but he would come for a hefty price.  One name that comes to mind is Jake Virtanen.  Many Canucks fans on Twitter would be willing to part ways with “Shotgun Jake” in order to acquire Gostisbehere. However, Virtanen wouldn’t be the only thing the Flyers would accept.

The Canucks would have to give up some prospects too. Some fans on Twitter are willing to part ways with guys like Olli Juolevi or Tyler Madden. I really hope they don’t trade Juolevi because I think he still could be something.

The Canucks would probably have to give up their first-round pick. I really don’t want to do that because there are lots of guys I like in this year’s first round. However, there is the idea of trading picks with the Flyers who have the 11th pick but the deal has to be a sweet one for Philadelphia.

It will be a tough decision to make for Jim Benning but as Thanos said, “the hardest choices require the strongest wills.”

Should the Canucks trade for Gostisbehere? If so, what would you give up? Let me know in the comments section below!