Team: 2022-23 Vancouver Canucks

Initial Creation Date: Aug. 9, 2022

Published: Aug. 9, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

1.) JT for JT: COL would not need to part with some of their prime assets (Byram or Girard) and are giving up a jack-of-all-trades in JT Compher as well as a RHD prospect from the '21 draft (Behrens) and the all-important 1st round pick.

Maybe not the assets that have been suggested for VAN, but Compher would fit the need as a match-up, right-shot centre, who can support the PK and get 2nd unit PP time. While he is a UFA in '23-24, his price tag will be considerably less than Miller, which also fits into VAN's strategy of locking up Horvat and Pettersson long-term and potentially extending future FAs like Podkolzin, Hoglander and Kuzmenko.

2.) Pearson goes home(ish): VAN would sent Pearson to OTT along with their '23 3rd round pick for the always famous 'future considerations'. OTT has adequate cap space and already took on 2 years of Hamonic in exchange for a 3rd round pick. While Canucks fans lament that Pearson re-established value based on last season's performance (and he is still a useful piece) and should receive a return, I believe that his real value to VAN is freeing up 2 x $3.25M worth of cap space. That space could be used in a future trade/acquisition to address the VAN's real Achilles heel - their defense.

At end of day, VAN gains salary flexibility with ~$24M in space to spend in the '23-34 offseason. That also would allow for exploration of trades similar to those made this offseason, where 'bad' money could be taken on, along with desirable contracts / prospects / picks in order to accelerate the retool.

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