The Vancouver Canucks are first place in the NHL but there’s still a sense that the roster is incomplete.
They have the stars at the top of the lineup piling up points in Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller, and Brock Boeser. They have a Norris-caliber number-one defenceman in Quinn Hughes and a solid number two in Filip Hronek. They have a Vezina-caliber number-one goaltender in Thatcher Demko and a reliable backup in Casey DeSmith. They even have depth scoring on the third and fourth lines.
But the Canucks could still be active in the trade market to find a couple of missing pieces if they want to go for a Stanley Cup this year. In particular, the Canucks could use a centre or winger to solidify the top-six and give them two strong scoring lines, as well as a right-shot defenceman to balance their pairings and make them even harder to play against.
That latter need has the Canucks looking at an old friend: Chris Tanev, who played ten seasons in Vancouver.
“Quinn Hughes has gone to bat for him this year.”
According to a report by ChekTV’s Rick Dhaliwal, one Canuck in particular is eager to bring Tanev back.
“Quinn Hughes has gone to bat for him this year and told management that Tanev is a guy you guys should target,” said Dhaliwal. “And Tanev loves Vancouver, I know for a fact that if he became a free agent July 1st, Vancouver would be very, very, very, very high on his list of potential places to go. But how do you get him out of Calgary?”
Tanev helped bring Hughes into the league, partnering with the future Canucks captain in his rookie year. The two found an easy chemistry, as Tanev’s combination of stay-at-home defence and smooth zone exits meshed well with the freewheeling Hughes and his forays up the ice.
More than that, Tanev played a mentorship role off the ice, with the younger members of the Canucks even jokingly calling him “Dad” on social media. Tanev and his then-fiancée Kendra would regularly invite the younger players over for dinner, with him and Hughes playing chess together after meals.
“Taney’s been in the league for 10 years, and Kendra, she's been with him all that time,” said Hughes at the time. “They’re a great support system for me here. I think Boes and Petey feel the same way.”
It’s no wonder that Hughes would want to bring Tanev back.
Tanev is still a capable shutdown defenceman
Beyond his impact as a leader, Tanev would also be a boon to the Canucks on the ice. At 34, Tanev is still playing top-four minutes for the Calgary Flames, averaging 19:28 in ice time per game. Much of that time is spent hard-matched against the top forward lines of the opposition, as he and regular defence partner Noah Hanifin spend over 42% of their ice time against elite competition according to PuckIQ.
No Canucks defenceman spends over 37% of their ice time against elite competition.
Tanev has performed well in that role, protecting the middle of the ice in the defensive zone with aplomb and pushing possession up ice.
Adding Tanev would potentially give the Canucks a true shutdown pairing behind Hughes and Hronek, either with Nikita Zadorov, Ian Cole, or Carson Soucy on his left side. That could potentially lead to Hughes and Hronek playing less against tough competition, easing the defensive burden on arguably the Canucks’ most important player.
Alternately, Tanev could pair up again with Hughes, freeing up Hronek to anchor a more mobile, two-way second pairing. Caution would be advised, however, as the 34-year-old Tanev is not quite as mobile as he once was and top-pairing minutes might not be the best option.
Does the cost make sense for the Canucks?
There are two potential issues for the Canucks, however: acquisition cost and opportunity cost.
Rumours last month suggested that the Flames would be seeking a first-round pick for Tanev, which would be a hefty price to pay for a rental of a defenceman that doesn’t provide anything offensively. Tanev also has a $4.5 million cap hit that would require some more moves for the Canucks to fit under the salary cap.
That leads to the opportunity cost. If Tanev will indeed cost a first-round pick, that would remove that trade piece from the equation for acquiring a top-six forward. In addition, the movements required to fit Tanev under the cap might preclude adding another piece too.
Who could those other pieces be? Dhaliwal presented a list of forwards the Canucks could be interested in along with Tanev: Jake Guentzel, Elias Lindholm, Adam Henrique, and Sean Monahan.
Can the Canucks add Tanev and a top-six forward?
Lindholm, Henrique, and Monahan are all centres, though they can certainly play on the wing, while Guentzel is purely a left winger, even if the Pittsburgh Penguins have experimented with him at centre in the past. One of those centres, incidentally, might not be on the Canucks’ radar.
“I was just told that right now, I don’t think the Canucks are on the Monahan train,” said Dhaliwal. “I don’t think that he’s a player that they’re targeting.”
With recent suggestions that the Montreal Canadiens could be seeking a first-round pick for Monahan, it’s understandable that the Canucks wouldn’t be interested. The Canucks’ primary trade chip is their first-round pick and, if they’re going to part with it, it has to be for the right player. That player should not be Monahan, whose underlying statistics are a concern.
Guentzel is likely to be a prohibitively expensive trade target, with other teams likely to join in a bidding war for the top-scoring player on the market.
Henrique would be more affordable and could be a legitimate option for the Canucks but his $5.825 million cap hit might be hard to navigate.
That leaves Lindholm, which raises an intriguing possibility: is there a potential trade where both Lindholm and Tanev could come to the Canucks from the Flames with enough pieces moving back the other way to make the salary cap work?
If so, would the Canucks have to part with Nils Höglander, who the Flames have reportedly been interested in for a long time?
