Teams Pushing To Acquire Canucks' Garland, Not So Much Another Forward

The Vancouver Canucks need to keep going and enter a planned rebuild. Quinn Hughes and Kiefer Sherwood are already traded and there are many more that could have value and be moved, whether they're pending UFAs or not.

Someone with a longer deal that is expected to move well before his contract is up is Jake DeBrusk. He has five years left on his deal at $5.5 million AAV. Meanwhile, Conor Garland, another one of the core pieces, signed a six-year deal that hasn't kicked in yet. These two may be on very different paths due to certain interest in each of them.

Darren Dreger said, "Jake DeBrusk, I haven't heard his name out there a lot of late, but Conor Garland's name definitely is a name that other clubs have mentioned."

The Canucks would like to keep Garland, but they have their best opportunity for years to trade him while there is no trade protection on his current contract. On July 1, that changes to a full no-move clause for three years. Garland is on the third line, but could easily be in the top-6 if the Canucks weren't desperate in spreading out the scoring on a very weak forward group.

He has seven goals and 25 points in 46 games this season, averages 19:12 of ice time per game, has over 2.5 minutes per game on the power play, and a sliver under two minutes per game on the penalty kill. He is feisty and wins puck battles. There's no question why teams would want him, but also why the Canucks would want to keep him seeing as they just re-signed him.

DeBrusk isn't as impactful, although he does have more goals (13) and points (28) in 10 more games. He is playing on the top line and also has a lot of special teams time, except he plays two fewer minutes per game than Garland. DeBrusk would be cheaper cap-wise for an interested team, have a slightly shorter term, but would be much harder to move with his no-move clause. That shouldn't completely stop the Canucks from being able to trade him though as Vancouver is in last place and no bright light in sight.

Seeing where the Canucks are going, DeBrusk should be traded eventually, but Garland might be held on to for a few years before a harder decision is made.