Canucks could trade for Flyers defenseman Sean Walker
The cat is out of the bag; the Vancouver Canucks still need help on the blueline.
To this point, we’ve heard Nikita Zadorov this, and Chris Tanev that. Indeed, the Calgary Flames are – in all likelihood – going to be sellers this year. When they will begin selling is still unclear.
The same can be said about the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Flyers have a defenseman by the name of Sean Walker, and against all odds, he’s playing the best hockey of his career in this 2023-24 campaign. The 29-year-old most notably spent the first five years of his career with the Los Angeles Kings, before a torn ACL threw a wrench in things for the next 18 months.
Though Walker successfully recovered from his knee injury and played 70 games last season, his mobility and effectiveness were both significantly reduced. Walker was an add-on in the Ivan Provorov trade this summer, but now finds himself with 10 points in 19 games as a pending UFA.
One thing Walker offers the Vancouver Canucks that neither Zadorov nor Tanev do is offense. The Flyers defenseman has scored a power play point in every season of his career, despite typically serving as a third-pairing defenseman or second-unit power play quarterback.
Not only would Walker allow the Canucks to take the load off of Quinn Hughes and Filip Hronek, he’d also give them a reliable play-driver away from those two. Before this season, Walker’s career-high in average ice time in a season was 18:50 back in 2019-20.
This season, he’s up to an average of 21:03. Move over Ian Cole, Tyler Myers, and Mark Friedman.
From the Flyers’ perspective, Walker is very much found money from the Provorov deal. But, they’re not giving him away for peanuts, either.
“. . . we’re going to make the decisions that are best for the future of the organization,” GM Danny Briere said. “Not just get stuck in the moment”.
Elliotte Friedman recently shared on 32 Thoughts that “. . . for the first time on Saturday just making my calls for the show, there was a little bit of ‘Have you heard what Philly’s doing with this guy?’”.
Is Walker a player the Canucks would like to move their first-round pick for, or any pick for that matter? It’s tough to say, especially given Walker will be a free agent in the summer. He does have experience playing in the Western Conference, and maybe he’s someone the Vancouver Canucks are interested in anyways, come July.
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As long as he’s available, the Canucks absolutely should keep tabs on Walker. Time will tell what the future holds.