Report: Canucks will look to move a trio of forwards this summer, including one the Leafs had previous interest in
The Vancouver Canucks will undergo a bit of a metamorphosis this summer, as it will be the new management regime's first offseason together and boy oh boy are there some issues to address in VanCity.
Per a report from Irfaan Gaffar, the Canucks are going to attempt to move all of Tanner Pearson, Jason Dickinson and Conor Garland this summer, which would free up nearly $11M in cap space to add to the nearly $10M they currently have.
The Leafs were rumoured to have had interest in winger Conor Garland long before he was ever dealt from the Arizona Coyotes to the Canucks in the Oliver Ekman-Larsson deal last year. At the time, Garland was an RFA and was coming off of a deal that paid him just $775,000 per season. The problem was, the Leafs did not have room to take on the contract of Oliver-Ekman Larsson, and OEL himself may not have been willing to waive his NTC for a trade to Toronto. Obviously, the pair was shipped off to Vancouver and Garland subsequently signed his 5-year, $24.75M contract ($4.95M AAV).
Now, with the Leafs still in need of a legit top six winger, and with Vancouver's apparent desire to move out Garland's contract to give themselves some more financial flexibility, I'd anticipate that the Buds will have a renewed interest in the 26-year-old, provided that they can finesse the Canucks into taking back someone like Vancouver native Alex Kerfoot and his $3.5M salary, or perhaps someone like Justin Holl in the deal, along with some picks and prospects to offset Garland's salary coming in.
Another option would simply be to complete the deal to bring in Garland using primarily futures and find homes for Kerfoot, Holl and Mrazek in pre-emptive or subsequent deals this summer.
If the Leafs decide that they would prefer not to spend big on Garland, then perhaps they could pivot to one of Pearson (who does have some experience playing in the top six) or Dickinson as a depth option either up the middle behind David Kampf or on the left wing, where they're also fairly thin.
| POLL | ||
JUIN 25 | 344 ANSWERS Report: Canucks will look to move a trio of forwards this summer, including one the Leafs had previous interest in Are the Leafs and Canucks good trade partners in a deal for Conor Garland? | ||
| Yes | 111 | 32.3 % |
| No | 112 | 32.6 % |
| Solve the goalie issue first, then revisit | 121 | 35.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
