Out of the Box Miller Trade

Team: 2021-22 Vancouver Canucks

Initial Creation Date: Jan. 27, 2022

Published: Jan. 27, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

As has been reported by Frank Seravalli, the Minnesota Wild are one of the teams interested in JT Miller ahead of the 2022 trade deadline. With that in mind, I put this trade together with the thought of Minnesota maximizing a two-year window ahead of $15M in Dead Cap from Suter and Parise buyouts from 2023-2025.

While Dumba certainly isn't a negative asset, the Wild have Spurgeon, Brodin, and Goligoski all playing at a top-4 level with Merrill and Kulikov outplaying their contracts to varying degrees and able to fill in the void that Dumba leaves to some level, Poolman becomes the sixth defenceman for them but maintains the right-handedness of the position.

I think this swap benefits both the Wild and the Canucks simultaneously. The Canucks accept that they are not a playoff team in 2022 and 2023 and take on the Dumba $6M in the short term, but gain cap-space into 2024 and 2025 when they should be competing for playoff spots once again if things go to Rutherford's plan (my opinion). Wild gain JT Miller at 1/3 his value, and around $1M in cap space for this offseason where they can start to entertain the raises that Fiala and Greenway will each get.

Canucks also net an RHD prospect who can start accruing NHL minutes with Poolman being gone, as well as the Wild's 2nd best C prospect behind Rossi.

It makes sense to me but I'm not the Canucks GM so I'm excited to hear all your feedback.