The Canuck Way Mailbag: Boeser, Ekblad, trades, more

More trade speculation

That was an interesting development to come out of Harman Dayal’s most recent piece in The Athletic (subscription required). Aaron Ekblad, who was a first overall pick back in 2014, is a franchise defenceman with elite play driving abilities that rival some of the best in the game today. Imagine him on the right side of Quinn Hughes, that’s nightmare fuel for the rest of the NHL and a dream come true for the Canucks.

However, given that he is an elite defenceman, it will cost a pretty penny to acquire him if the Florida Panthers go down that road. Similar to Pietrangelo, there will be many suitors lining up to acquire his services. Unlike him, this would be a trade, not a signing. General manager Bill Zito will without a doubt want either a combination of premium draft picks and prospects or a high-end prospect or player like Podkolzin or again, Boeser. Like Dayal mentioned, they will be looking for scoring depth even if one of Evgeni Dadonov or Mike Hoffman flies the coop in free agency.

Unlike Dayal, I don’t think the Canucks should be mortgaging their future on a high-priced defenceman like Ekblad. Sacrificing Podkolzin, Boeser, or future first-round draft picks would be a bad decision in my mind. His cap hit of $7.5 million could also pose a problem down the road when they need to sign Pettersson and Hughes to matching $10 million contracts. With that said, if a miracle happens and Benning is somehow able to pry him away without paying a premium, I am all for it.

All this discussion is a moot point anyway, as I don’t think they will be moving a young asset like Ekblad over Anton Stralman, Keith Yandle, or Mike Matheson.

The priorities right now are to get better on defence and potentially at the third-line center position. Don’t get me wrong, I have all the faith in Adam Gaudette and his offensive abilities. He just has to become a more reliable faceoff man and two-way threat. Without an improvement in that aspect of his game, I would much rather move him to the wing and have a proven player in the dot get puck possession for his line.

With Nashville Predators’ GM David Poile advocating change this offseason, the Canucks could look to re-acquire Nick Bonino to take over that role. He’s a proven faceoff man with a 52.9 percent success rate over the last three seasons and he’s good for 18-20 goals as well. He also displayed some solid play driving abilities with a 50.4 Corsi-for percentage in 2019-20. Not to mention he is a clutch performer in the playoffs too. His salary isn’t overly high and he’s only signed for the 2020-21 season, so it’s not a long-term investment. Unfortunately, he is 32, but at this point, he would be a better Sutter than Sutter is right now, especially if Benning is able to move him.

As for defencemen, I agree with Ray Ferraro’s take on potentially acquiring Damon Severson from the New Jersey Devils. He is a very underrated player on the backend with mobility and a great shot from the point. He also plays in all situations and is one of the better penalty killers in the NHL. Oh yes, he is also a right-shot defenceman too. He is just approaching his prime at 26-years-old and his cap hit isn’t overly high at $4.17 million AAV. It’s hard to say what the Devils will want for him, but it should be a heck of a lot less than what the Wild’s asking price is for Dumba.

It’s also interesting that the Canucks were linked to Severson back in 2018. Now there was a different GM back then, but it shows that Benning was at least interested in him at one point. Could he go down that road again? We will just have to wait and see.