After busy weeks leading up to the trade deadline, the Vancouver Canucks were quiet on trade deadline day, only moving Curtis Lazar to the New Jersey Devils for a fourth-round pick, along with a few minor league moves, including papering down several players so they can participate in the AHL playoffs.
That meant the Canucks didn't move any of their big-name wingers: Brock Boeser, Conor Garland, or J.T. Miller.
General manager Patrik Allvin shot down reports that he turned down a trade offer for Miller, though there's room to read between the lines.
"I had one team that reached out to me here this morning," said Allvin about interest in Miller. "I don't think they were very serious. I never had an offer for J.T. Miller, so I'll leave it at that."
That seems pretty definitive, contradicting a report from Darren Dreger, corroborated by a couple of other NHL insiders, that the Pittsburgh Penguins had made an offer for Miller that the Canucks turned down. There's something about the phrasing, however, that leaves some wiggle room, as he made the statement while talking about trade deadline day. Did Allvin mean that he never had an offer for Miller on deadline day or never received an offer at all?
There was so much buzz from the Pittsburgh side of things that the Canucks were involved in trade talks with the Penguins about Miller that it seems almost impossible that the Penguins never made any offer at all. There is another possibility, however: the Canucks may have been in discussions about a potential Miller trade with the Penguins but it was dependent on the Canucks making another trade: a deal to acquire a young centre from another team that would have made them feel more comfortable about moving Miller. That deal never happened, leaving it technically true that there was never an offer on the table for Miller.
From there, it's a game of telephone to Dreger reporting that the Canucks turned down the trade offer because they wanted a centre. It's not that they wanted a centre from the Penguins in return for Miller — the Penguins didn't have one to trade — but that the trade talks reached an impasse because the Canucks never got the centre they wanted from another deal.
When directly asked about talks with the Penguins, Allvin didn't deny the trade talks but simply repeated himself: "I never had an offer for J.T. Miller."
One side — either the Canucks or the Penguins — isn't telling the truth or, at the very least, not the whole truth. Saying things that are technically true without revealing key details is PR 101.
"I'm not collecting picks just to collect picks."
While quiet on deadline day, the Canucks' big moves came earlier in the week. The big acquisition was defenceman Filip Hronek, a move that was a long time coming for the Canucks.
"Back it up a year ago, we looked at options coming in here on how do we improve especially our right side, getting younger — getting a feel for players available, how the market would be last summer and this summer," said Allvin. "Our scouting staff identified a list of players and we felt — you never know if a player's going to be available or not...We felt that, at this point in time, we were excited to have an opportunity to acquire a top-end right-shot defenceman in Filip Hronek, being 25 years old and have a chance to control him for another two years."
The comment about having Hronek under control for "another two years" is an interesting one. Hronek has one more year on his current contract after which he'll be a restricted free agent. Allvin is right: they're only guaranteed control of Hronek for two more years, as he could sign his qualifying offer after next season for one year and then be an unrestricted free agent.
That would be disastrous for the Canucks, however, having spent two prime trade assets in the New York Islanders' conditional first-round pick and their own 2023 second-round pick to acquire Hronek. If they only have Hronek for two years, that's a massive waste of assets that could have been used to select players who could be with the Canucks for the next decade.
Allvin, however, was not too worried about using the two picks in the trade.
"I'm not collecting picks just to collect picks," said Allvin. "I'm collecting picks to either draft hockey players or trade to get hockey players. I was not happy to give up Bo Horvat but I was extremely happy with how the return came out."
Most teams don't collect picks just to collect picks, of course — they all use them to get hockey players, except perhaps Punch Imlach, who used an 11th-round draft pick on a non-existent person, Taro Tsujimoto, back in 1974.
"I don't think you get a discount on high-end players."
The timing of the trade is also odd — non-playoff teams typically don't buy at the trade deadline as contending teams are often willing to spend more to improve their team short-term, driving up the prices on the trade market. It's possible that the cost to acquire Hronek could have been lower in the offseason or there could have been other options for right-shot defencemen that could have cost less, either on the trade market or in free agency.
"The prices will always be high on high-end players," said Allvin. "I don't think you get a discount on high-end players and, to be honest too, you never know if those guys are going to be available. The high-end guys, they're not usually available."
With Hronek available at the deadline, the Canucks didn't want to wait. They prioritized Hronek because they believe he fits in with the type of team they're trying to build.
"The way we want to play, the way we want to create an identity of playing fast hockey — the skill we have up front requires the puck to get up the ice, preferably on the tape," said Allvin. "Filip is a two-way defenceman that over the last couple of years has established himself as a top-end defenceman in the league...The coaches have two really good defencemen here in Quinn Hughes and Hronek and it's up to the coaching staff how to use them."
He then quipped that with a left-shot defenceman on the coaching staff in Sergei Gonchar and a right-shot defenceman in Adam Foote, they ought to be able to figure it out.
"I wasn't willing to pay to get out of some of the contracts here."
Allvin said the Canucks never really got close on any other deals at the deadline. That included using their cap space gained via players going on LTIR to acquire bad money from other teams in exchange for picks or prospects. For the Canucks, the prices just weren't worth it and it potentially could have involved tying up retention spots that they may need in the future.
"We talked about it. With retention, you're only allowed three contracts," said Allvin. "As we were looking at all the options to improve our club, we felt that some of the discussions we were in regarding picking up draft picks, it wasn't that significant a return."
The Canucks also need to clear some cap space in the offseason — they're already over next year's salary cap with their current commitments. They looked at what it would take to move out a big contract at the deadline and it just didn't make sense.
"We've seen over the last couple of days what it costs to clear contracts," said Allvin. "At this point, I wasn't willing to pay to get out of some of the contracts here. And when you're an underperforming team and have underperforming players, you're not that attractive to the other teams."
Allvin did say that he "felt comfortable" that the Canucks would be able to move out money in the offseason, with the implication that they may go the buyout route in the summer to clear cap space.
"My expectation is to make the playoffs with the players we have."
That the Canucks have underperformed was a consistent refrain of Allvin's post-deadline press conference.
"We're not going to make the playoffs this year, which is extremely disappointing to myself and that's on me," said Allvin. "It's on me and it's on me to make this team better."
For Allvin, making the team better is partly about the work he does to bring in the right players, including Hronek, but also reshaping the team's culture.
"I believe there is more to do here. We're not happy where we are," said Allvin. "I'm happy to see the response from the players since Rick Tocchet took over, what they emphasize on day-to-day stuff, how we are changing the standard and the culture of what it means to be a Vancouver Canuck.
"Moving forward, we still have some work to do in order to get this team to where we believe the fanbase deserves them to be: a competitive team moving forward and hopefully taking a big step next year."
How big a step will the Canucks take? When pressed on whether he thinks the Canucks will be a playoff team next season, Allvin equivocated before finally answering the question directly.
"My expectation is to make the playoffs with the players we have here," Allvin finally said. "Especially when you have an elite goalie in Thatcher Demko, Filip Hronek, Quinn Hughes, [Elias] Pettersson, Miller, [Andrei] Kuzmenko — we have good players, no doubt about it. We need to learn how to play as a team.
"We have a lot of work to do to be a playoff team but I'm very confident in the coaching staff I've got in here now and what we've got to do in order to be ready next year."
"I believe that Tampa Bay has been pretty successful without cap space."
One of the challenges in getting the Canucks back to the playoffs is improving the team while spending so tightly to the salary cap. It's unusual for a team at the bottom of the NHL standings like the Canucks to have so little cap space aside from using LTIR. Having limited cap space makes it difficult to be flexible enough to improve by acquiring players via trades and free agency.
Allvin dropped an unexpected comparison when asked about this issue.
"I believe that Tampa Bay has been pretty successful without cap space and win Stanley Cups," said Allvin. "There's a reason, most of the time, that you don't have cap space. And I don't see our team being one of those teams. I don't see our team being in that category. As I said, we have Demko, Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek, J.T. Miller, Elias Pettersson, and Kuzmenko here."
Here's the question: when Allvin said "I don't see our team being one of those teams," was he saying he didn't see the Canucks being like the Tampa Bay Lightning or he didn't see them in the same category as the teams that need to be flexible enough to acquire star players? It wasn't entirely clear and, in discussion with other Canucks reporters, his quote was interpreted both ways.
Perhaps he was saying that the Canucks have enough star players with Demko, Hughes, Hronek, Miller, Pettersson, and Kuzmenko — an interesting list that he repeated twice, so the players were not included or excluded by accident — that they don't need to be in the market for other stars. Or, alternatively, he was saying that list of players was all the Canucks really have and they do need to acquire more players.
Which is the more likely interpretation?
