26-year-old Canadian winger Anthony Beauvillier was part of a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for a fifth-round pick in the 2024 draft last Tuesday, November 28th.
Beauvillier started his journey in the league when he was chosen as a first-round pick, 28th overall, in the 2015 NHL draft by the New York Islanders. A team that he played with for seven years of his career. Many people will discuss that his career moment until now is his game-winning goal that took the team from New York to the semifinals game seven of the 2021 playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning would eventually go on to win the Stanley Cup. In addition, his last piece in the Islanders 2022-23 season before he went to the Vancouver Canucks, he had a record of nine goals and 11 assists during his 49 games played.
Right before the All-Star week was to begin on January 30th, the trade of the Vancouver Canucks and New York Islanders was announced. Vancouver acquired Beauvillier, Aatu Raty, and one conditional first-round pick of the 2023 draft in a trade for their previous captain, Bo Horvat. The following analysis will cover the aspects that led to Beauvillier’s trade to the Blackhawks. We will discuss the reasons for the trade. Additionally, why the move was important for the Vancouver Canucks will also be taken into account.
The Context
After coming from the Islanders, the Canadian player had a very concise performance. He closed out with the last 33 games of the season with the Canucks. During those, he was able to gather nine goals and 11 assists, in total having 20 points. Of the 20, 16 were in his first 18 games after being acquired by the new team. Another interesting fact is that his first-ever point and goal with the team based in Vancouver was against his previous team.
The player’s great beginning with the team created high expectations of how he could perform this new season. Especially with the multiple changes the Canucks made during the off-season. These changes included trades, acquiring players, and changing the head coach. Moreover, the naming of Quinn Hughes as captain. All these changes showed that the organization really wanted to improve the team. Anything to make them a more competitive and even playoff calibre team. The Canucks have failed to qualify for the playoffs for three consecutive years.
The start of the 2023-24 season was a hard one on the winger. Anthony Beauvillier had a seven-game pointless streak to start and was showing extreme inconsistency. The player ended up, in 22 games played, only having two goals. Also, it just so happened the two goals were in the 10-1 game against the San Jose Sharks. And they were the ninth and the tenth goals. He had added just six assists through the 22 games, frustrating the expectations of many.
The Trade of Beauvillier
Amid the Corey Perry contract termination on the Chicago Blackhawks, the announcement of the trade was very abrupt but definitely not unexpected. The Canucks had already shown this year that they are not scared at all of making trades. Trades or any changes to get the best out of the team that has done an incredible performance until now. The play so far has them tied for second in the Western Conference (15-8-1) with the Colorado Avalanche. During last year and the off-season, talks happened about Brock Boeser. Boeser being the one to be traded as the team already had too many wingers. However, Boeser has been one of the best players in the Canucks this year. He has gathered 27 points in 34 games, those being 17 goals and 10 assists.
With this trade, the team is out of the worries of hitting the maximum cap and brings even more possibilities for the organization to add more players. After the Beauvillier trade, we were also able to see another trade. This time with the Calgary Flames, bringing to the team defenceman Nikita Zadorov. This brings attention to the possibility of the team looking to add more defencemen, one possibility being bringing them back in the future Ethan Bear.
Main photo: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports
