Canucks trade tiers: Ranking every player by market value entering 2026

It’s the most wonderful shopping day of the year.

Boxing Day is upon us, which means it’s time for an annual bookkeeping exercise we like to conduct at The Athletic in which we focus on what assets the Vancouver Canucks possess and rank them. This exercise is intended as both a quick and dirty method of taking a snapshot of how the various Canucks players are trending and how their value is affected by external circumstances (contract value, timeline, injury status and the like), and as an overall check-up for the health of the franchise’s holdings.

It’s in the latter area that we should turn our focus as we begin to go through our trade value rankings. The Canucks aren’t a team completely devoid of talent; however, the club is absolutely approaching a crisis-level tipping point in terms of the exchange value of the talent it does possess. In fact, three of Vancouver’s 15 most valuable trade chips were very recently acquired in the Quinn Hughes trade, and the issue with that, of course, is adding them to the lineup means the Canucks no longer have Hughes himself, a Norris Trophy-calibre defender and a unicorn-tier trade chip.

Most of Vancouver’s best and most established players have no-move protection, or at least modified no-trade protection. Such protections don’t make contracts tradeable, but they restrain the trade value of the applicable players by complicating the potential trades and limiting the club’s ability to drive up their value in an open auction. And, of course, these clauses are usually attached to long-term contracts, several of which extend into the next decade.

The Canucks, then, aren’t just the 31st-placed team by point percentage at the tail end of the holiday break — their hockey holdings are notably illiquid. Even more than this club requires an infusion of overall talent, what Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin need to prioritize is accumulating hockey value between now and the NHL Draft.

Please note that this exercise focuses solely on Vancouver’s NHL-level players, and we’ve excluded from consideration their AHL players (like Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Victor Mancini) and their pure futures (like their draft pick holdings and 2025 first-rounder Braeden Cootes).

Let’s get to the Canucks trade value rankings.

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A premium trade chip, with complicated value

1. Filip Hronek

Hronek is a very good player in his late 20s on a reasonable contract who plays a premium position. He’s a productive, skilled top-pair defender capable of playing in all situations and holding up in tough minutes. Right-handed top-pair calibre defenders with real two-way value are in short supply around the league, and contender-level (or aspiring contender-level) teams would value that highly if Vancouver were ever to make Hronek available.

Complicating Hronek’s trade value, however, is his full no-move clause. The veteran blueliner, by all accounts, is settled and content in Vancouver and wants to remain with the franchise. If he were to ever move, you can bet the list of teams he’d be willing to consider being dealt to would be very short, making it far more difficult for Vancouver to return the sort of value Hronek’s calibre of a player would otherwise dictate.

Good and young enough to be the centrepiece of a trade for a superstar

2. Zeev Buium

Buium is a high-upside 20-year-old blueliner capable of playing a regular shift in the NHL already. He could be the centrepiece of a package a team could use to acquire a superstar player, and we know this, because just this month, he was the centrepiece of a package a team used to acquire a superstar player!

Good and young enough to be the centrepiece of a trade for a high-end player

3. Tom Willander

Willander hasn’t tracked in the same starry way Buium has since he was drafted, but he’s still a high-pedigree, right-handed defenceman playing regularly in the NHL and mostly holding up well. Willander doesn’t have the same on-puck skills Buium has demonstrated both at the collegiate and NHL level, and wouldn’t be widely viewed as a player with No. 1 defenseman or top-pairing upside on the trade market. That means he’d hold less overall value than Buium, but would still be an extraordinarily attractive trade chip if he were made available.

The unicorn rental

4. Kiefer Sherwood

Sherwood is the sort of trade asset teams very rarely possess. He’s the sort of player that would make sense for 31 NHL teams to add, and even more unusually, because of his affordable $1.5 million expiring cap hit, all 31 NHL teams could very easily figure out how to add him in a trade.

Sherwood’s combination of playoff-ready toughness, one-shot scoring ability and affordability — and Vancouver could juice his value even further by retaining half of his cap hit, placing his cap hit well below the veteran minimum for an acquiring team — makes him an extremely valuable trade chip. That he would make sense for both teams that are ascending and in need of some doggedness, skill and experience (with the club perhaps allowing that team to negotiate an extension with Sherwood, further increasing the potential return) and for win-now contenders that wouldn’t plan to re-sign him but would love to add him for a playoff run should only further enhance his trade value.

The big, complicated acquisition for a team willing to take a home-run cut tier

5. Thatcher Demko

6. Jake DeBrusk

The Canucks have no plans to trade Demko, but there’s an argument to be made that he’s an awkward fit for a team in Vancouver’s position.

As an asset, Demko combines a sky-high ceiling as a Vezina-calibre goaltender when he’s healthy and an exceptionally low floor because of his checkered injury history. For a team that should be rebuilding like Vancouver (or “hybrid retooling,” whatever), Vancouver isn’t well-positioned to benefit from that ceiling — if Demko is at his absolute best in the first few years of his next deal, maybe the Canucks sneak into the playoffs and sewer their draft lottery odds. Given that, Vancouver isn’t at a stage where they can afford to sit on an asset of Demko’s quality in the event that he sustains another injury and depreciates significantly.

Whatever we might think of the shape of this, a high-ceiling, low-floor player at such a valuable position is something a fringe top-10 NHL team would likely be willing to take a big, risky swing at on the trade market — and pay a solid price for the right to do so.

Among Vancouver’s late-20s forwards with term, DeBrusk would hold the most trade value. An elite skater with a track record of stepping up and scoring big goals in the Stanley Cup playoffs, DeBrusk is the sort of player profile teams typically value highly on the trade market. DeBrusk’s trade value would be restrained, however, by the term remaining on his deal and his full no-move clause, which would likely limit the number of teams that could bid for his services to teams in the Western Conference.

The ‘Is he more Jack Eichel or Patrik Laine?’ tier

7. Elias Pettersson

Pettersson’s trade value is just about impossible to rank or gauge.

Some teams would have zero interest, and there are teams that would probably still view him as a high-end reclamation project at a premium position. Those teams would likely be willing to part with some level of assets to add him to their lineup at the full freight of his long-term $11.6 million AAV contract.

As good as Pettersson has been, and he’s spent years as a superstar-level contributor, the recent track record would be heavily weighted by acquiring teams. Throw in the off-ice drama that has surrounded Pettersson over the past 18 months, the increasingly checkered injury history and an 18-month run during which he’s struggled to make the sort of high-end impact we came to expect from Pettersson earlier on in his career, and his value would really be determined on a team-by-team basis. It would also be far lower than something Vancouver is likely to consider.

For the purpose of our rankings, Pettersson is the ultimate polarized value asset. Some teams might view him as a potential Jack Eichel-like buy-low opportunity and would accordingly pay for the opportunity to try to realize that upside. Other teams, however, would surely view him as being a closer comparable to Patrik Laine and have little interest at all in rolling the dice regardless of the acquisition cost.

The polarizing value tier

8. Conor Garland

9. Marco Rossi

Two undersized forwards make up this tier, a testament to the way NHL teams value players.

Size isn’t everything in terms of on-ice effectiveness in hockey, but size matters a lot when it comes to exchange value on the trade market. And various teams have different levels of risk tolerance in rolling the dice on undersized players and paying for the opportunity to do so on the trade market.

Though Garland has a long-term extension that kicks in for next season, he’s also a bona fide top-of-the-lineup player and has a proven track record of production.

Rossi would likely be able to net a decent return on the trade market. Remember, however, that it was the Canucks themselves who reportedly balked at sending the Minnesota Wild a first-round pick and a pair of additional assets with mid-round value for Rossi last summer. That speaks volumes about Rossi’s overall trade value.

The ‘I’ll hear you out, but if this leaks to Rick Dhaliwal, I’m denying it’ tier

10. Tyler Myers

11. Nils Höglander

12. Drew O’Connor

Myers just keeps playing excellent hockey. The veteran defender has stepped up significantly for Vancouver over the past month and continues to be a solid, top-four right-handed defender with plus penalty killing value.

Myers is deeply rooted in Vancouver and has a full no-move clause through the end of the season (after which it becomes a modified no-trade clause). If Myers ever decided he wanted to chase a Stanley Cup and accept a trade to a contending team, he’d likely return a significant asset, perhaps as much as a first-round pick. You just can’t find very many 6-foot-7 defenders with his experience, toughness, professionalism and offensive tools on the trade market.

Höglander is still young, hardworking and skilled enough that there are a variety of teams that would have interest in adding him to their books. He’s running out of runway, however, to establish himself as a top-nine or top-six player worth $3 million per season. Some teams might see the vision, but other teams would likely proceed skeptically at this point. Of all the players on this list, Höglander’s trade value might be the most volatile. It’s straightforward to imagine how he could rise (or drop) significantly over the balance of this season.

Finally, O’Connor has been productive this season and remains big, fast and defensively reliable. Teams would probably see him as a bona fide bottom-six winger, but with the traits teams love and want to add to their lineup for the playoffs, and on a reasonable cap hit with term remaining. For playoff-bound teams with size concerns — think the Carolina Hurricanes or Tampa Bay Lightning — O’Connor would make a ton of sense. He also wouldn’t be the first big forward with some bite to net an outsized return on the NHL trade market.

The complicated rental tier

13. Evander Kane

Kane’s overall profile — from his cap hit and his production to his recent history of playoff success — is a close match with Mason Marchment, who was recently traded by the Seattle Kraken for a second-round pick and an additional fourth-round pick.

Kane’s value would be complicated because he has some measure of control over the situation as a result of his no-trade protection, and because he’d be something of an acquired taste for some teams given his lengthy history of controversy. His combination of size and consistent production in May and June the past few years is likely to entice somebody to pay a reasonable price for his services.

The ‘Yeah, we like that young guy if he’s available’ tier

14. Elias Pettersson (the defenceman)

15. Liam Öhgren

16. Aatu Räty

Young NHL-level players on entry-level contracts are always useful currency on the trade market. Typically speaking, these types of assets most frequently serve as throw-in pieces as part of a larger deal to add an experienced veteran player.

The ‘Yeah, we like that affordable guy if he’s available’ tier

17. Max Sasson

18. Linus Karlsson

Sasson and Karlsson would have slightly lower value than the younger entry-level contract players, simply because of their age. Some teams might prize their traits (speed in Sasson’s case, puck battle winning and in-tight skill in Karlsson’s) and not worry significantly about their flaws (size in Sasson’s case, foot speed in Karlsson’s) but they’d have some modest amount of trade value.

The ‘He’s good, but that has to be money in, money out’ hockey trade tier

19. Brock Boeser

20. Kevin Lankinen

Fresh off recently agreed extensions, both Boeser and Lankinen haven’t performed at a level commensurate with their cap hits to this point in the season.

The Canucks don’t appear to be in a rush to move off their good veteran players, so this is mostly hypothetical, but factoring in the cost and term remaining on Boeser’s and Lankinen’s deals, in combination with that underperformance — as understandable as it might be for Boeser, who’s been battling through injury, and Lankinen, who has dealt with some deeply personal distractions — would significantly inhibit their trade value for the moment.

In both Lankinen’s and Boeser’s cases, the most probable trade that we’d see involving them would be a change-of-scenery type trade in which the Canucks would exchange their contracts for similarly large commitments to similarly underperforming players. The assets gained in such an exchange would be meagre, unless Vancouver found a way to get creative with retention or trade structure.

The depth rental tier

21. Teddy Blueger

22. David Kämpf

23. Derek Forbort

24. P.O. Joseph

Maybe the Canucks could net a mid-to-late-round pick for these players at the NHL trade deadline, provided they were healthy and performing their role effectively.

The negative trade value tier

25. Lukas Reichel

26. Filip Chytil

Reichel costs too much to fully bury his cap hit in the AHL, has struggled enormously on two of the worst teams in the Western Conference this season and is a pure tweener at this juncture. You’d probably have to part with something of modest value, or take on an outsized AHL contract, for another team to agree to take on his salary.

Chytil’s injury status is obviously the big factor here, and it would restrain his trade value almost entirely for most teams. Repetitive head injuries are the injury type that NHL teams fear acquiring the most on the trade market.