Filip Hronek's Injury Ignites Trade Rumours for the Vancouver Canucks
Photo credit: Jeff Chiu/AP
Now that Vancouver Canucks defenseman Filip Hronek is injured, the team desperately needs help on the back end, which has ignited trade rumors.
With Filip Hronek injured, the pressure is high for the Vancouver Canucks to sort out this defensively leaky season.
It hasn't helped that, with Quinn Hughes remaining at his elite level, the rest of the blue line has been hot-and-cold, particularly with moving pucks, getting exposed one time too many in key moments.
That begs the question whether the Canucks, 14-8-5 and sitting fourth in the Pacific, should lean into an internal solution or go out and get reinforcements via trade.
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"There's no question they are actively working the phones looking for a defender."
There's tons of speculation around potential targets like Rasmus Andersson, Marcus Pettersson and Cam Fowler. Still signed through next season, the ask on Rasmus Andersson is going to be in the neighborhood of a first-round pick.
"Speculation centers on potential trade targets like Rasmus Andersson, Marcus Pettersson, and Cam Fowler."
That is purely speculative based on him being an expiring contract who brings a bit of consistency to the back end. As the days tick by in the season, his value continually decreases.
Cam Fowler does have experience and term but carries a $6.5 million dollar cap hit and declining production, and hopefully, Anaheim doesn't need to retain salary to get him moved.
Term in this case would appear to mean, instead of quick fixes, the Canucks are looking toward longer-term stability with the pickup of a defenseman.
With those big swings precedents in place and the trade of Nikita Zadorov after the Carson Soucy injury being among the more notable, there's little reason to believe they won't do that again this time around.
They'll factor in competitive upgrades on D, though, while teams like Ottawa and New York are also there to upgrade their backend.
It's going to be up to the Vancouver management to decide how much they want to commit to the strengthening of this blue line, trying to balance their immediate playoff ambitions against longer-term assets.
Whether the club moves quickly or waits patiently, it should be their success in landing a quality defenseman that may prove key in firming up their hot beginning and improving their overall post-season success.
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