The Vancouver Canucks need help. But they seem totally out of options.
Over the past couple of months, several names have been talked about as potential targets for the Vancouver Canucks. According to general manager Jim Benning, the club was (or still is) on the lookout for second-line help, but their efforts have come to no fruition. Looking at the options, it is clear why that is the case.
On Tuesday, Canucks Army’s J.D. Burke presented three players the Canucks should consider for professional tryout deals during training camp. That kind of article was on my list all summer long, until I actually started looking for players to include last week. I came to the conclusion that there aren’t any.
Burke concluded his article as follows: “I don’t think the Canucks are going to go this route for late additions to their lineup. I’m not even entirely sure I would in their shoes.”
In other words, it was an article for the sake of having an article, without the writer even liking his own idea. It’s what we all do in the summer days, so no judgement here. However, it shows that even though he found three players he thought were worth mentioning, they aren’t really that great.
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Burkes suggestions were forwards Justin Fontaine, Gabriel Bourque and Alex Tanguay. Others I personally had in mind were Tomas Fleischmann, Lauri Korpikoski, Brad Boyes, Brett Bulmer or even Brandon Prust.
But think about where they would fit in.
In the bottom nine, the Canucks have Jannik Hansen, Sven Baertschi, Bo Horvat and Brandon Sutter with spots 100 percent guaranteed. That leaves five spots for Markus Granlund, Jake Virtanen, Alex Burrows, Emerson Etem, Brendan Gaunce, Derek Dorsett, Anton Rodin, Michael Chaput, Jayson Megna, Alex Grenier and Mike Zalewski. That’s quite the list.
So, what do the Canucks gain from adding more players to the mix that would either play on the fourth line and kick a player like Gaunce to the minors, or be in the minors themselves? Would that be a move that makes sense?
The last player that would have made a lot of sense to sign, in my opinion, was Jiri Hudler. But since that didn’t happen and he is now a Dallas Star, there isn’t really much left for the Canucks.
At this point, I would still consider making a move for restricted free agents Tobias Rieder and Valeri Nichushkin. However, the Canucks don’t have the assets to trade for either one, so the only option would be an offer sheet — which basically never works.
The Vancouver Canucks still need help to make the playoffs. But they are running out of options.
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