The Vancouver Canucks season remains at a crossroads. Currently sitting 24-22-6 and 6th in the Pacific Division, Vancouver’s season hangs in the balance on a nightly basis.
After firing Travis Green and Jim Benning early in the season, the 2021-22 campaign seemed like a lost cause for the team. However, since the appointment of Bruce Boudreau, the Canucks fortunes have turned around and the team remains with slight but not impossible chances of making the postseason.
As a result of the team’s reverse in form around the quarter mark of the season, the team sits in doubt. Do they act as sellers at the deadline and exchange veterans and expiring contract players for assets? Or, do they keep the team intact with hopes of a miracle run deep into the playoffs?
No matter what option new GM Patrik Allvin and President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford decide to go, there is one move the team must make.
That move is to trade Jaroslav Halak away as soon as possible.
The obvious issue with Halak’s status is the fact he possesses a full no-trade clause. When the 36-year-old Slovakian veteran signed his one year, 1.5 million dollar deal in the offseason with Jim Benning at the helm, Halak envisioned playing more games on a team that would be in serious playoff contention.
For a multitude of issues, this hasn’t come to fruition and surely Halak would consider a move to a team willing to either play him more or one that’s destined for the playoffs.
In this article, I’ll discuss three reasons why the Canucks front office should pull the trigger and re-coup some assets for Halak in a trade.