The 2025 NHL trade deadline appeared to be a seller’s market, with teams paying high prices for players who they hope can help them win the Stanley Cup.
According to general manager Patrik Allvin, however, no one was willing to pay a reasonable price for the players the 麻豆传媒映画Canucks had available. Somehow, it was a seller’s market for every single team except the Canucks.
“The biggest reason, I felt, that we didn’t do any moves here today was that there was not a whole lot of market return on our players, unfortunately,” said Allvin.
The Canucks were neither buyers nor sellers on deadline day
The Canucks have two pending unrestricted free agents that were expected to be on the trade block: Brock Boeser and Pius Suter. Boeser is obviously the bigger name, especially coming off a 40-goal season, but Suter ought to have had value as well as a utility forward on a cheap contract.
Neither player was moved and now both could leave in free agency for nothing.
The Canucks had also hinted at acquiring younger players via trade — ones with term on their contracts who could help the Canucks both now and in the future. They didn’t do that either.
The inaction comes after the Canucks went out of their way all season to accrue cap space, frequently sending down waiver-exempt players to the AHL for a day or two at a time to maximize the amount of space they would have available at the trade deadline.
They used none of that space, whether to acquire players to help the team in their playoff push or to weaponize it by taking on contracts to acquire draft picks or prospects.
The bouncing between the NHL and AHL cost some of their players on two-way contracts thousands of dollars — or, put another way, saved Canucks’ ownership thousands of dollars — but provided no tangible benefit to the Canucks on the ice.
"Some of the players that got moved, the prices were high"
When asked whether he considered using any of the cap space they accrued, Allvin said the cost would have been too much.
“First, if we had positioned ourselves a little bit better [in the standings], that definitely would have made it easier,” said Allvin. “The market is always tough to read but, with so many teams still involved [in the playoff race], you can see some of the players that got moved, the prices were high.
“I also didn’t want to give up some of our younger players that most of the teams were asking for. I didn’t feel that we’re in that position to give up the younger players that we have developed here over the last couple of years.”
That seems slightly contradictory: the prices were too high for the Canucks to acquire players while simultaneously not high enough for the Canucks to trade their players.
When asked about this contradiction and why the offers for his players weren’t good enough, Allvin suggested he wasn’t the right person to answer that question.
“I think that’s a question you might want to ask the other teams,” said Allvin. “Leading up to today, my conversations with other teams made me aware that there might be a situation, as we are here today, that we didn't do any moves. I made some players' agents aware of that."
"You could see some of the players that were dealt," he added, "they had certain playoff experience. Some of the players have performed well in bigger games and I think that's what some of the teams were looking for."
It should be noted that Boeser was a point-per-game player in the playoffs last year, with 7 goals and 12 points in 12 games. Through the first two rounds, Boeser was tied for fifth in the playoffs in goalscoring and tied for 14th in points.
"If I told you what I was offered for Brock Boeser...you would not believe me"
Eight first-round picks were traded at or just ahead of the trade deadline. A few of those first-round picks were exchanged for the likes of Scott Laughton, Jake Walman, and Brock Nelson. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Yanni Gourde returned two first-round picks and a second-round pick.
Anthony Beauvillier was traded for a second-round pick. So were Brian Dumoulin and Brandon Tanev. Luke Schenn got a second-round pick and a fourth-round pick.
It’s hard to believe that no one was willing to offer anything worthwhile for Boeser and Suter. And yet, Allvin insisted that was the case.
"If I told you what I was offered for Brock Boeser, I think I would have to run out of here," said Allvin, "because you would not believe me."
It was, shall we say, an undiplomatic way for Allvin to get his message across. It reads as if Boeser has no value whatsoever around the NHL.
He might have instead said, “The offers we received for Boeser didn’t match how much we value what he brings to the organization both on and off the ice.” But perhaps Allvin feared that would give Boeser’s agent ammunition to bring to the negotiating table.
It seemed instead that the undertone of his comment was that there is no use in Boeser going to free agency, because he won’t get the contract offers that he’s looking for. Instead, he should accept what the Canucks are offering, even if it’s far below what Boeser believes he’s worth.
Allvin's comments on Boeser feel like another instance of this management group speaking poorly of a player publicly, which perhaps hasn’t done much for their trade value. When asked about the management needing to do more to create a market for their players, Allvin equivocated.
“You guys do that really well,” he quipped, suggesting that it was the media’s job to create a trade market for his team. “I think nowadays, you’ve got so many resources: you’ve got the analytics, you’ve got scouts. At the end of the day, it’s the players’ performance that dictates the outcome of their situation.”
In other words, it’s Boeser’s fault that teams weren’t willing to offer more for him on the trade market.
Are the Canucks aiming for a Stanley Cup or just the playoffs?
The excuses for why the Canucks didn’t make any trades read as exactly that: excuses. What it boils down to is that the Canucks had an opportunity to make moves that would improve them in the future and they didn’t seize that opportunity.
The likely reason is that they were trying to accomplish two competing goals: make the playoffs but also don’t spend any money you don’t have to.
The Canucks may be on the playoff bubble but they’re still in the hunt, just one point back of the Calgary Flames for the final Wild Card spot in the West. The Canucks didn’t want to lose any players who might help them make the playoffs.
At the same time, they didn’t want to spend any extra money unnecessarily, given that the team might not make the playoffs, so they didn’t add players either.
Where they’re left is in the mushy middle: they’re not good enough to contend for the Stanley Cup now and also unwilling to make the moves that might be necessary for them to be good enough in the future.
It feels like they gave up on acquiring assets to help them in the future in hopes of getting two home playoff dates.
One has to wonder where those two competing goals are coming from and who might be putting those goals in place.
