'Nobody Believes' Canucks Got No Trade Offers for Teddy Blueger

What is up with the Curious Case of Teddy Blueger and the Vancouver Canucks? GM Patrik Allvin said after the trade deadline that he got 'no offers' for the veteran shutdown defensive center. But there are some, like Canucks insider Rick Dhaliwal, who don't believe that for a second.

Blueger is a pending unrestricted free agent finishing up a very reasonable $1.8 million cap hit. He was expected to be one of the Vancouver sell-off pieces. But it didn't happen. Why?

Could Teddy Blueger re-sign with the #Canucks?@DhaliwalSports talked about Blueger sticking with the #Canucks past Friday's trade deadline and if he will be here beyond this season.https://t.co/h4e2SKM7eJ pic.twitter.com/Ec3qv6ehC4
— Donnie & Dhali (@DonnieandDhali) March 9, 2026

Everybody I talked to over the weekend finds it hard to believe there was no interest in... Blueger. (Answer) me this—The Canucks got calls on (and traded) David Kampf, who was on waivers and nobody took him and he was in the minors, but they got no calls on Teddy Blueger, who has won a Stanley Cup and would provide way better depth at center for any playoff team than Kampf?

Then Dhaliwal answered his own question:

If the Canucks would have traded Blueger, they would have given up a big chance to re-sign him... He does have interest in re-signing in Vancouver.

Of course, the Canucks are "a mess" down the middle, as he points out, with the center spot totally in question for next season, from Elias Pettersson on down the lineup. Only Marco Rossi is fairly set in stone to be a part of the team come next fall.

But Blueger, with his defensive chops, elite penalty-killing abilities, and strong faceoff skills, would provide another key piece to the pivot puzzle if they could hang on to him.

Canucks want to re-sign Blueger, likely why they didn't trade him

"I can see why they want to re-sign Blueger... He's a leader, (and) they don't have a lot of leadership right now... You can justify why they want to re-sign Blueger, I get it.

"But to come out and say (after the deadline) that there were no offers—I talked to numerous people, nobody believes that," Dhaliwal insisted.

And while a Blueger return is certainly not set in stone, as he'll have a chance in free agency to join a team that's a lot closer to winning, there is some interest there.

Blueger, 31, was a member of the Stanley Cup-winning Vegas Golden Knights in 2023 before joining the Canucks for the past three years.

Across 436 career regular-season games in eight years, he has 163 points and a plus/minus rating of +19 while averaging 14:29 TOI. This year, he's only played in 18 games due to injuries, but he's been back in the lineup since mid-January, and has seen his ice time grow, to the point where he was over 19 minutes in their last game on Thursday night.