Canucks attempt impossible trade!

The Vancouver Canucks have done quite a bit, but there is still so much to do prior to the start of the 2019-20 season. The team has just over $5.3 million in salary-cap space following their recent UFA acquisitions, but still need to re-sign restricted free agents, which include Brock Boeser, Nikolay Goldobin, Josh Teves and Brogan Rafferty. 

They signed forward Josh Leivo to a one-year, $1.5 million deal this morning. 

On top of all this, they would like to add a winger for Bo Horvat’s line, but will clearly need to shed some cap space to be able to achieve all this… 

According to team insider Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Sun, general manager Jim Benning may attempt to pull off a trade that many believe sounds almost impossible to complete… 

And we feel Benning will know what to expect: he has attempted to move expensive, aging veteran winger Loui Erikkson but found no takers. However now, Kuzma thinks he will try to move center Brandon Sutter. 

The forward has two years left on his contract with an annual average value of $4.375 million and a modified no-trade clause.

That sure sounds like a challenge… On top of that, Sutter has battled injuries and is no longer a second-line center, which will affect his value on the trade market. 

“The challenge is, how do you sell Sutter to another team? He’s clearly not a second-line centre anymore, assuming he ever really was suited to the role. He’s been deployed as such for years, but his best seasons saw him score at the low end of the second-line forward bracket, which you usually expect to be about 0.5 points per game. His best season saw him tally 0.42 points per game.”

Let’s see if the Canucks can pull this off…