You have to wonder if they made the right calls in the post bubble offseason. They made the choice that many could and will defend was the right choice and kept Demko over Markstrom. Had they signed Markstrom a NMC would have been required and he would have been locked in as the goalie through expansion draft so they opted to let him walk to a division rival in free agency. I wonder what other teams would have offered for Demko in trade which could have helped with their win now mantra which aligns with Markstrom’s age? Markstrom+assets in a Demko trade or Demko? Debatable.
The Canucks spent assets to being in Toffoli at the deadline and he fit in well going point per game before the league shut down. He wanted to stick around after the season but the Canucks decided to bring back Jake Virtanen and Toffoli decides to go to Montreal on a fairly team friendly deal which was obviously traded to Calgary a year and bit into it. Since Toffoli left LA he has 108pts in 141 games while Virtanen is out of the league
The Canucks flirted with an OEL trade after their surprising second round game 7 run in the bubble. They decided to not offer Tanev more than a 3 year deal and when Brodie decided to leave Calgary for Toronto the Flames quickly shifted to Tanev and locked him up. The Canucks pivoted by trading a 3rd for Nate Schmidt and his $5M cap hit long term. That ended up being a failure and the Canucks were able to reaquire a 3rd when they sent Schmidt to the Jets the following year. The Canucks consolidated a bunch of bad contracts which happened to be expiring and attached a 9th overall pick to finally complete the OEL trade with some light retention and also bring in Garland who is a second line wing whose name has been in trade rumors since Rutherford stepped in.
The Canucks rebuild peaked in the last year they had 3 players who are all now key parts of a Flames team that fancies itself a contender.
|