Canucks Rumors: 3 Teams Very Interested In Acquiring Garland

The Vancouver Canucks are headed towards a rebuild or retool, and whichever it is, players are going to be sold off. One of those players, who is at least garnering a lot of interest, is Conor Garland.

Elliotte Friedman said, "I think there are some teams that are very interested, teams like Minnesota, Boston, potentially Philadelphia, others."

There is another way to look at this situation though. David Pagnotta said, "There's a reason they signed (Garland) to a six-year extension. They'd like to hold onto him, but they're still going to listen."

If Garland does get traded, the teams Friedman listed are interesting options. The Minnesota Wild absolutely need better forwards, and Garland would be locked in for them for six more years at $6 million AAV. His full no-move clause kicks in during the summer. Injuries to Daniil Yurov, Marco Rossi, Marcus Foligno, and Vinnie Hinostroza all contribute to the Wild needing to bring some help in. They can't rely on excellent goaltending and defense to carry them.

The Boston Bruins have been a surprising team, but they can absolutely upgrade plenty of depth forward spots. This is a team that doesn't seem to go away, even after a one-year absence from the playoffs. With David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, and Jeremy Swayman, they are in for the retooling and have done a decent job, along with the coaching to make them competitive. Garland would add a strong all-around player to the top-6 or top-9 who plays a lot on the power play and penalty kill.

The Philadelphia Flyers desperately need fourth line help and could do with moving Christian Dvorak down a line too. The six players who have played on the fourth line this season have combined for two goals and four points in 76 games. Sure, they're tough, but that's far too unproductive. The Flyers are a surprise team in the mix this season and could be contenders sooner than later. Adding Garland would give the team another player like Travis Konecny and they'd be even tougher and annoying to play against.