Vancouver Canucks rumoured to be interested in Mark Pysyk
By Owen Gibbs
Rumours have surfaced that the Vancouver Canucks have asked about acquiring Mark Pysyk. It’s unknown whether there is any truth to this, but if so, it may not be the wisest move.
The Vancouver Canucks are reportedly interested in acquiring Florida Panthers defenceman Mark Pysyk.
In his latest 31 Thoughts column, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman stated that the Canucks are interesed in Pysyk, allong with the New Jersey Devils. Friedman said Vancouver “looked at at it last summer.”
Pysyk, 27, is starting his fourth season with the Panthers after beginning his career with the Buffalo Sabres. Pysyk is a defence-first player, scoring only one goal and adding 10 assists in 70 games with the Panthers last season.
He had a minus-one rating with 26 penalty minutes to boot. The Edmonton native will be an unrestricted free agent after this season, and has a cap hit of $2.73 million this season, per CapFriendly. Pysyk slots in on the right side of Florida’s third defensive pairing.
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Pysyk could be a fit among the Canucks’ current defence group. He would certainly re-enforce the right side, especially after they traded Alex Biega to the Detroit Red Wings Sunday evening. However, that may require him to black the paths for up-and-comers such as Brogan Rafferty, and the Canucks already have three NHL-calibre right-shot defencemen.
Since Pysyk is an NHL and not AHL defender, one of Chris Tanev, Tyler Myers or Troy Stecher would have to be traded or injured for Pysyk to get regular minutes. The obvious candidate to be traded is Tanev, who has been floating around the rumour mill for years.
Tanev is injured constantly and has not had the best start to the 2019-20 season, looking particularly bad in Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Calgary.
He carries a higher $4.45 million cap hit, so swapping the pair would bring some cap relief for the Canucks. However, Tanev is one of the best defensive defencemen in the league when healthy, while Pysyk is merely average, so it’s difficult to see how such a move would be an upgrade.
There is another trade option in Brandon Sutter.
Moving his contract would bring plenty of cap relief, and the Canucks currently have a golden opportunity to trade Sutter, as the Pittsburgh Penguins recently lost Evgeni Malkin and Nick Bjugstad — two of their top three centres — to long-term injury.
Sutter has a positive history with Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford, and the Canucks have a trading history with both Pittsburgh and Florida. But general manager Jim Benning would have to give something up for Pysyk as well, so coordinating a trade with the two teams may be more trouble than it is worth for such a small acquisition.
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All in all, I would be surprised if the Canucks trade for Pysyk. With this current defensive group, it just doesn’t make sense. This is just a rumour after all, so Canucks Nation does not need to go into a frenzy over this news. The Canucks were most likely just doing their due diligence by checking in with Florida, and nothing is in the works, especially with competition in the Devils. Rest easy, everyone.