{"id":461882,"date":"2025-02-03T20:25:53","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T01:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=461882"},"modified":"2025-02-03T20:25:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T01:25:53","slug":"the-vancouver-canucks-friday-night-shuffle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/02\/03\/the-vancouver-canucks-friday-night-shuffle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vancouver Canucks Friday Night Shuffle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vancouver Canucks Friday night trades remade them. They flew to Dallas with one team and are returning home to face Detroit<\/a> with another.<\/p>\n

Canucks Friday Night Trades Not a Fire Sale<\/h2>\n

Vancouver has been one of the more interesting<\/a> teams in the NHL this season. Their slow start prompted speculation about trades to improve their defence, then their wingers, and finally, we ended up here<\/a>. Trading both of the team’s best centres was suddenly a very real possibility.<\/p>\n

This isn’t exactly what was planned going into<\/a> the 2024-25 season. Yes, some regression was going to happen. Everyone knows that’s likely after a season filled with career highs. But moving players recently signed to expensive, long-term deals is never part of the plan.<\/p>\n

We all know what happened next: everything. Miller was moved to the team that’s been trying to trade for him for years now, AND the Canucks added to their defence<\/a>. It was a busy night, and they came home to play the Detroit Red Wings a transformed team. Possibly not transformed enough for management’s taste, making for an interesting lead-up to the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

Moving Parts<\/h3>\n

A brief look at the day’s work.<\/p>\n

To Vancouver: Marcus Pettersson<\/a>, Filip Chytil<\/a>, Drew O’Connor<\/a>, Victor Mancini<\/a>
\nTo the Rangers<\/a>: J.T. Miller<\/a>, Erik Br\u00e4nnstr\u00f6m<\/a>, unsigned prospect Jackson Dorrington
\nTo Pittsburgh<\/a>: Danton Heinen<\/a>, Vincent Desharnais<\/a>, unsigned prospect Melvin Fernstr\u00f6m, top-13 protected 2025 first-round pick (Rangers)<\/p>\n

We’re focussing on the Canucks here, and where these pieces fit for them. It’s worth mentioning that besides Miller, none of the other outbound pieces are too damaging to the team. That pick could come back to haunt them, but it needs a fairly specific set of circumstances to really regret moving it. It’s a risk that’s run.<\/p>\n

Canucks Friday Night Fun<\/h3>\n

Marcus Pettersson is a player who, like Miller, has been long-rumoured for the trade block. Vancouver was interested even before Jim Rutherford<\/a> and Patrik Allvin took over running the team. A big, mobile defenceman who is very comfortable breaking the puck out of his end is a long-time dream, and now they have him. How long they do remains to be seen, as he’s an unrestricted free agent come July 1st.<\/p>\n

Filip Chytil is the other “big” piece joining the Canucks. He won’t replace Miller, of course, but that was never going to happen in a trade. Why would you trade for an older version of the same player? What Chytil does bring is speed, smooth skating, some scoring talent, and a disturbing history of injuries. Still, if he is past them then he can grow into a second-line, offensive role.<\/p>\n

Drew O’Connor is one of those players that other teams have who you don’t know all that well. In this case, O’Connor is a capable bottom-six forward who can play centre or wing. He’s essentially taking the role Heinen was filling for a year less and at half the cost. He did score 16 goals last season, but that’s likely a career-high.<\/p>\n

Finally, Victor Mancini is a right-side, rookie defenceman who’s getting his shot this year. He played 15 games with the Penguins, registering a goal and five points. In a story we’re going to see more frequently, he played some of his junior years in Sweden during the pandemic. He’s gotten good reports for his hockey sense, and he has NHL size, but he is a rookie. He might not be used much just yet.<\/p>\n

Fighting the Hangover<\/h3>\n

The first game back meant meeting teammates for the first time in many cases. They did have one day after the Canucks touched down from their three-game road trip to get some skating in, but otherwise, it was a typically condensed introduction.<\/p>\n

Mancini was officially sent to Abbotsford first, then was called up as an extra. The other three made it to the ice, each playing a role in the Canucks overtime loss. It wasn’t the easiest beginning to their new home, as captain Quinn Hughes<\/a> missed the game. Detroit was also riding a five-game win streak and worked to extend it.<\/p>\n

No matter, as Pettersson took a lead role on defence, logging 26 minutes with Hughes’ occasional partner Tyler Myers<\/a>. Chytil played 20, mostly with Connor Garland and Dakota Joshua<\/a>, and scored the goal that sent the game to overtime. O’Connor had 14 minutes lined up with Pius Suter<\/a> and the returning Keifer Sherwood and looked like he fit.<\/p>\n

More than that, the team looked relaxed. Brock Boeser<\/a> looked like he was trying to find his groove, but it didn’t feel like the players were walking on eggshells. If they don’t pick up a few more wins the tension might come right back, but for now the Canucks Friday night trade-fest seems to have done its job.<\/p>\n

Sedate Sunday<\/h3>\n

After the game was also revealing. There were a few questions about missing Miller’s ability, but none of the aura of being sick of the question. None of the reporters prefaced their questions with an apologetic “Sorry I have to ask about this again” chuckle. And Coach Tocchet didn’t have to bite off answers before too many words came out.<\/p>\n

The first part of the reason for trading either Miller or Pettersson seems to have been accomplished. There’s no more millstone. The waiting is over. Now, they have a job to do and are set to do it, with just the normal amount of anxiety about suddenly getting traded away at any moment that pro athletes face.<\/p>\n

The team has thirty games to turn their season around. For the first time in a month, it feels like they can.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Bob Frid- Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Vancouver Canucks Friday night trades remade them. They flew to Dallas with one team and are returning home to face Detroit with another. Canucks Friday Night Trades Not a Fire Sale Vancouver has been one of the more interesting teams in the NHL this season. Their slow start prompted speculation about trades to improve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3171,"featured_media":462076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,4547,4548],"tags":[1654,1630,1509,3630,7127],"class_list":["post-461882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canucks","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-filip-chytil","tag-j-t-miller","tag-jim-rutherford","tag-marcus-pettersson","tag-patrik-allvin"],"modified_by":"Andrew Willis","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461882"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462077,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461882\/revisions\/462077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}