Who is really on the Canucks’ trade block?

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It was funny hearing Jake DeBrusk’s name come up on the trade rumour hot stove this week, since I’d had a chat with him last week about how much losing here pains him, how much he wants to be part of the solution.

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So you don’t want to go? I asked him. “Oh no. I’m here to stay. To fix this.”

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And yet I can understand why other teams might look at him and say “that’s a guy we could use.”

Listen, for all the struggles he’s had, the frustrations he’s had at times with his own play, there are a couple truths about him: first, he clearly cares, second, he’s still scoring.

He’s scored 12 goals this season, 11 of them on the power play. He’s one of the league’s best finishers on the man advantage. In the playoffs, that counts.

Part of why the losing is hitting him especially hard is another truth about him: he has been a winner. He played in the Stanley Cup Final in 2019. He had 27 regular-season goals that year. He was a key part of a very good team.

He doesn’t want to go, but if another team comes calling, should the Canucks really say no? If the task is to get younger, does it really make sense to hang on to a 29-year-old winger instead of securing some youth in exchange for him?

He’s not the only player I’ve been thinking about this week as a trade chip here. Let’s ponder some of the others …

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Kiefer Sherwood

I mean, we know this one is going to happen. He’s showing up to work, he’s saying all the right things, but you know he’s anxious for his name to no longer be floating around out there. He just wants to end up wherever he’s going to end up.

As others have said, if another team had offered a first-round pick, he’d be gone by now; in similar terms, if his agents didn’t think they’d land a big offer this summer in free agency, he might have instead signed a contract extension to stay in Vancouver.

And so he waits. The Canucks clearly see prices improving as we get closer to the trade deadline. It made some sense that they might find a first-mover who’d be willing to pay a premium to get ahead of the market, but obviously that hasn’t materialized. Now they’re entering a window where they hope teams start bidding against each other.

“Things are heating up,” a source told me.

Evander Kane

CHEK-TV’s Rick Dhaliwal said this week that the Canucks made an inquiry to the Oilers about maybe taking him back.

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I mean, the Oilers have a pair of duds in Andrew Mangiapane and Trent Frederic, so sure, why wouldn’t you call up to see if the guy they did kind of like would be welcomed back, especially when he’d be half the price.

The fact the Oilers apparently said “no thanks” could mean a lot of things, but most simply, shipping Kane onward won’t be as easy as perhaps the Canucks thought. When they acquired Kane, Canucks management felt he wouldn’t be too hard to move again if he didn’t work out, since there were a handful of other teams they claimed had also talked to the Oilers about the veteran winger. Presumably, the Canucks figured, some of those teams would remain interested.

Tyler Myers

The big veteran is surely going nowhere, though if he were floated as a trade chip I expect other teams would take a look.

It hasn’t been the easiest season for him in Adam Foote’s man-on-man system, but he still has his moments where you can see the pedigree. He hasn’t been an NHLer for as long as he has been by accident.

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He’s still got a full no-move, no-trade clause and he and his family are well settled here in Vancouver.

The Canucks, also, know they do need some veteran stability going forward into this supposed rebuilding era.

Teddy Blueger

He’s close to a return. He’s supposed to play in the Olympics.

It’s hard to see him pulling much in a trade, but he’s been a depth pickup heading into a playoff run before. Vegas added Blueger at the 2023 deadline and won the Stanley Cup, though the checking centre played a pretty minor role in the playoffs that year, appearing in just six games.

Still, he’s been there and teams usually like that kind of thing.

David Kampf

He’s also going to the Olympics. Like Blueger, he’s known for his defensive play more than anything else. Unlike Blueger, he’s even less of an offensive threat.

Still, if a team is looking to add a guy who has played in the NHL and is reasonably reliable, even if he really does offer nothing in terms of offensive punch, he’ll appeal to someone.

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There are a lot of guys out there like him and Blueger, though.

Elias Pettersson

Finally, could the Canucks’ No. 1 centre be on the move?

It’s not impossible. As I said a week or so ago, there have been calls about him. Other teams are still intrigued by him, given his strong two-way play. He’s not scoring as much as you’d like, but he’s an outstanding defensive player.

Carolina has been interested in the past. They are again, reportedly, trying to find a new home for Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Such a trade would be a real shift in vision for the Canucks, but maybe the move here is to just move on from all the players who were part of the old group — the old group that did blow up, let’s not forget that.

A team that needs a top-notch centre, one who is close to elite but not a true out-and-out No. 1 guy, say, like Chicago or San Jose, who have young superstars as their top-line centres, would be a good fit.

The Canucks of course once had that: they had J.T. Miller and Bo Horvat along with Pettersson.

It’s hard not to think of how this all could have gone differently, if ego and pride and a better vision from the top had been there. But that’s all gone now.

The future, with Pettersson or not, is going to be difficult for a while here.

If the Canucks are aggressive, it doesn’t have to be difficult for that long. But does this ownership, this management, have the guts to go through with a properly aggressive rebuild?

We’ll see.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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