Insider: Canucks Will Be 'Rumor Central' on Trade Market in Coming Weeks

The Vancouver Canucks are in a bad spot these days. Losers of six of their last seven games, the team is in seventh place in the Pacific Division, just one point up on last-place Calgary. And as noted by producer Dominic Sramaty on the 32 Thoughts podcast, there's just pure apathy amongst the fan base at this point.

"The only way I can describe it is there was a lot of apathy (in Rogers Centre in their latest loss to Calgary on the weekend). Nobody booed, there was no displeasure from the fans. It was almost like people just accepted their fate and left with their tails between their legs. Just another Canucks game."

With that, Elliotte Friedman confirmed that the Canucks are really the team to watch on the trade market in the coming weeks.

I think this is going to be Rumor Central in the league for a while. Because until this long-term gets sorted out with Quinn Hughes, it's not only going to be about him, it's going to be about what they do with some of the players around him. There were (Conor) Garland rumors last week, (Kiefer) Sherwood is still not signed yet...
I think the Canucks are gonna be very interesting... I think there will be noise around them... I think, at the very least, if this continues, you're gonna see the Canucks put some names around the league to say, 'Ok, What can we do with this player or what can we do with that player? What is their market value?' And ultimately, there will be a decision on Hughes.

The latest intel on Sherwood, the pending UFA who's off to a tremendous start to the season with 12 goals in 23 games, is that he could definitely become trade fodder.

As for Hughes, he has another year after this one remaining on his contract, but with plenty of uncertainy about whether he's up to re-sign long-term, we heard from insider Rick Dhaliwal late last week that the Canucks are prepared to start considering the idea of trading their Norris-winning defenseman.

This is the second straight season that the Canucks have been engulfed in controversy, but for very different reasons. Last year, it was a combination of the Elias Pettersson/JT Miller feud (that led to a trade of the latter), and the disastrous dropoff in production from Pettersson.

With a 9-12-2 mark, and the playoffs almost a pipe dream already, we will definitely be keeping an eye on the Canucks moving forward.