Utah Mammoth Linked to Two Vancouver Canucks Trade Candidates

The Utah Mammoth are expected to be aggressive at the trade deadline. They're lurking in the weeds, waiting to pounce. The team holds down the first Wild Card berth in the Western Conference, but ownership wants more. There's no doubt they will be buyers by March 6th.

The Mammoth could use an additional difference maker for their top nine, according to Thomas Drance and Harman Dayal in The Athletic.

Over the past month or so, Utah has been utilizing both Kailer Yamamoto and Michael Carcone in key top-nine spots in their lineup. Through that lens, adding a young veteran winger with a history of elevating their game in the postseason — think Jake DeBrusk or Brock Boeser — could punch up Utah’s offensive attack significantly.

Naturally, when NHL teams go shopping in advance of next month's trade deadline, Vancouver is one of the prime spots they'll hit.

Would Mammoth have interest in Jake DeBrusk?

For DeBrusk, his name has been out there on the grapevine as a trade candidate. He was a healthy scratch for a game back at the end of December, and that's when the buzz began. Since then, he has four goals and 11 points in 19 games, for a season total of 13 goals and 28 points. He's now on pace for 19 goals and 41 points, down from last year's 28-goal campaign in his first year in Vancouver, but not much different than in most of his career.

DeBrusk is in the second season of the seven-year, $38.5 million ($5.5 million AAV) free agent deal he signed with the Canucks in 2024. The word is that he may be movable.

Would Vancouver try to trade Brock Boeser? Would he waive his NMC?

But the other Canucks' target that Drance & Dayal suggest for the Mammoth is, by all accounts, not available. Brock Boeser re-signed with Vancouver in the offseason, on a seven-year, $50.75M ($7.25M AAV) deal, and he, like DeBrusk, has a full no-move clause. Boeser really wanted to stay in B.C., so it's highly unlikely he'll agree to go anywhere.

As for Utah, they definitely do have the assets to make a big splash at the trade deadline, but it's uncertain if either of the Canucks' pair would move the needle enough for what they're looking for, or if they will be obtainable.

Another insider has proposed an even bigger name off the Vancouver roster for Utah, and it's worth keeping an eye on.