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The Lightning mascot is hilarious. Does so much ridiculous shit.
So at this point in the season it's apparent to most people who their teams really are... There might be some re-shuffling, someone might make a late push but for the most part everyone's got a good sense of where they stand. What's next? That's right, it's the TRADE DEADLINE!
Post who you would like to see your team go after, and what you think might be required to extract such a player. Be reasonable. Playoff teams aren't going to trade their 2nd liner. The Oilers aren't going to trade Jordan Eberle. Like last year it'll be a couple of pieces to add to tinker with what's already there.
The one guy I would like to see the Canucks pursue is George Parros. Putting him on the fourth line would resolve all questions of whether there was anyone on the team who could act as a deterrent against the Marchands of the league. Anaheim doesn't need him right now and he goes UFA at the end of the season. It would likely take a pick or a prospect (perhaps a D-man) to get him.
Unfortunately, their first and greatest need is a top four defenseman to hedge Salo injury risk, and that's a tough buy. While it would be nice to get Weber or Suter out of Nashville (on the assumption that Poile is likely going to have to trade at least one of them at some point), it's unrealistic because the best chip the Canucks have to give up is a goalie (they don't need one) and we're conference rivals. The only way that would happen is if it was some fancy complex 3-team deal. So scratch that.
So who's available? Almost no one. Marc Methot and Fedor Tyutin in Columbus, Eric Brewer in Tampa, Jordan Leopold in Buffalo. Bryan Allan in Carolina. Nothing that would make me trade Schneider. Maybe one of those guys is worth a lesser piece. I don't know. But it's slim pickings. Chris Phillips in Ottawa? Still a bunch of years on his deal and would make it too hard to re-sign Edler.
If we were to trade Corey (or, longshot, Luongo...) it would likely be to the LIghtning. Those guys are one piece away from being back where they were and that piece is a goalie. Do they give up Hedman? Maybe. More likely though you'd get some depth forwards like Downie or Moore or Malone.
So,
To VAN: George Parros
To ANA: Alex Sulzer or Sebastien Erixon or Yann Sauve
We will not trade Raymond as he is a large part of the offense going forward into the playoffs and this team is a cup contender. Same thing for Ballard - we're short defensemen and he is good depth. He's also played much better this year. Add to that the fact that he'd be a tough sell with his salary. Neither of those guys is going anywhere.
Hodgson is going nowhere because he is quite simply the future of the team. Henrik is early 30s, Kesler is late 20s, they need someone to inherit the top line center role in 5 years. Cody is a future captain on this team, it would be absurd to let him go.
Schneider is a tougher one. Logistically he should be traded. He's an RFA at the end of the year. Luongo has a 5.3 million dollar cap hit. To re-sign Schneider we'd have to pay him about $3 mil. Some other team will pay him even more. We can't afford to spend over 8 million on our goalies. One of them has to go. The thing is, it's not going to happen at the deadline unless someone offers a king's ransom because again the team is a cup contender and needs both its goalies in case Luongo falters or gets himself hurt.
Cap room isn't a big issue at the deadline because the cap hit is minimal for the remainder of the season. It would require some juggling but Gillis can manage. I agree that 4th line grit is likely what we're going to end up pursuing because let's face it we have 9 offensive forwards - Sedin Sedin Burrows Kesler Higgins Raymond Hansen Hodgson Booth. That's a top 9. Plus we have Malhotra and Lapierre. That's 2/3 of a damn good 4th line. Moen or Malone would be available but Malone is pretty expensive, Neil isn't really on the block because the Sens are in the playoff picture. So basically Moen is an option. I could get behind that. But Parros fits the team's needs better.
As for nasty shut down defenders, who is actually available who would help us? I can't think of anybody.
