3 Trade Destinations For Canucks' Arturs Silovs

The Vancouver Canucks signed Kevin Lankinen to a well-deserved five-year extension at $4.5 million AAV this season while the team is reportedly not looking to trade Thatcher Demko, but rather re-sign him ahead of becoming a UFA next year. That leaves Arturs Silovs in a position where he isn’t needed in Vancouver much longer.

According to Darren Dreger, it makes sense that Silovs could be on the trade market this summer as a result. One of Demko or Silovs has to go, and even though Silovs is the healthier and younger option, Demko is more proven. Here are three teams that could be very interested in Silovs over the next couple of months.

Edmonton Oilers

General manager of the Edmonton Oilers, Stan Bowman, is making it a point to get younger after the look of the roster this season. While it took them to the Stanley Cup Final again, a younger and more promising groupo is what will help the team have less turnover in years to come and a longer window to win. Goaltending is something that is likely going to be addressed, but two goalies have recently come off the board with John Gibson being traded and Joel Hofer signing an extension.

Silovs didn’t put up the greatest numbers in the NHL or AHL this season, but is arguably NHL-ready and just backstopped the Abbotsford Canucks to an AHL championship. He had a 2.01 GAA, .931 SV%, and five shutouts in 24 playoff games this season and already has experience in the NHL playoffs for Vancouver, doing well against the Oilers themselves. This gets the Oilers younger and with a new look in net.

Carolina Hurricanes

The Carolina Hurricanes appear to be running it back one more season with Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov. Andersen was signed to a one-year deal, but is injury-prone and 35 years old. The Hurricanes realized there weren’t very many options to upgrade their goaltending if they moved on from Andersen, and while they are in their Stanley Cup window, it makes sense to go back with what they know. Eventually they will have to move forward and while Kochetkov has shown flashes of being a good starting goalie, I think the Hurricanes need to keep running a tandem. This is a strong enough team to make a lot of goalies look better, and if Silovs turns out to be a better than average goalie, then an acquisition of the 24-year-old to tandem with Kochetkov would work out very well.

Pittsburgh Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins are getting much younger and are about to enter into a rebuild. They will need at least one more goalie option if they want to come out of it anytime soon. Jesper Blomqvist is a potential option, while Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic don’t appear to be, but Silovs could also be an answer. It would give him a few more years to establish himself than what he would have in Edmonton or Carolina and GM Kyle Dubas has done well bringing in young talent thus far.