{"id":493689,"date":"2026-07-12T13:38:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=493689"},"modified":"2026-07-12T13:38:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:38:23","slug":"nhl-rumours-wright-vatrano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/07\/12\/nhl-rumours-wright-vatrano\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Rumours: Vancouver Canucks Linked to Shane Wright, Frank Vatrano"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vancouver Canucks<\/a> are looking to make a facelift on their organization, as they look to improve the culture of the hockey club. As the offseason continues, there are some NHL rumours surrounding the team. Let us discuss the latest rumblings around Vancouver.<\/p>\n

NHL Rumours and Whether the Canucks Should Make Vatrano or Wright Trades<\/h2>\n

Rumour<\/em>: According to Rick Dhaliwal on the Oilers Now Podcast on July 9th<\/a>, he mentioned that the Canucks have interest in Seattle Kraken forward Shane Wright<\/a>. He also linked the Canucks to the Anaheim Ducks and their interest in moving Frank Vatrano<\/a> to Vancouver.<\/em><\/p>\n

Analysis: These two situations represent vastly different scenarios for the team. For Wright, the price would likely be too high for the Canucks to pay. However, in the interest of acquiring more assets, they should fully be involved in the Vatrano sweepstakes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Canucks Like Wright, But the Price is Not Right<\/h3>\n

While it has been rumoured that the Canucks have interest in Shane Wright, Dhaliwal reported that the return would likely include Zeev Buium<\/a> or Tom Willander<\/a>, two of the top defence prospects on the team. For where the Canucks are now, those are two players they should not be parting with, as to start a rebuild, you still need a cornerstone. Buium and Willander are the key foundations to building a good team. They should also not be trading away draft picks to acquire Wright, as drafting will also be crucial to the rebuild.<\/p>\n

Wright has not panned out with Seattle, and could use a change of scenery to see if his potential can be brought out. He only scored 27 points in 74 games last season, playing largely as the second-line centre for Seattle. While the Canucks could certainly use more depth down the middle, they already have their second-line centre in Marco Rossi. The only reason the Canucks should be pursuing a trade for Wright is if the asking price is low, and it clearly is not. Move on.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

(Credit Image: \u00a9 Dirk Shadd\/Tampa Bay Times\/TNS via ZUMA Press Wire)<\/span><\/p>\n

Taking on Vatrano’s Contract Should Be an Easy Decision<\/h3>\n

As for Frank Vatrano, it is very easy to understand why he would be on the trade block. Following the matching of Leo Carlsson’s offer sheet<\/a>, the Anaheim Ducks do not have that much of their salary cap to work with. They have just over $9 million to work with<\/a>, and they still need to sign Cutter Gauthier<\/a> to a contract extension. If the Canucks do want to take Vatrano off the Ducks’ hands, they theoretically should have all the leverage in the trade. Given how the Canucks should be looking to add assets to the team, they should be jumping at the return Anaheim may be willing to give, and negotiate for a good price.<\/p>\n

The problem is, the Canucks are also rumoured to be trying to cut costs during this rebuild.<\/a> They were willing to take on the pricey contract of Brendan Gallagher<\/a>, but instead of getting an asset in return, they made the Montreal Canadiens retain salary. They chose to save money instead of potentially gaining an asset as a sweetener. Vancouver did bring in some free agents, but they were mostly depth signings who will bring veteran presence and grit to the team. While that is a good thing, it is clear that ownership does not hope to spend a large amount of money or be anywhere close to the cap ceiling next season.<\/p>\n

However, in doing so, they are missing out on opportunities to gain assets such as draft picks for the team. The Canucks do not need to be a good team next season, but they should utilize the cap space they have to its full power. Short-term pain, for long-term gain, should be a phrase in the Canucks’ vernacular.<\/p>\n

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

The Vancouver Canucks are looking to make a facelift on their organization, as they look to improve the culture of the hockey club. As the offseason continues, there are some NHL rumours surrounding the team. Let us discuss the latest rumblings around Vancouver. NHL Rumours and Whether the Canucks Should Make Vatrano or Wright Trades […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5733,"featured_media":465530,"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":[4321,4547,34,4548,26],"tags":[6492,983,6532,3984,6227],"class_list":["post-493689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rumours","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","category-canucks","tag-anaheim-ducks-rumours","tag-frank-vatrano","tag-seattle-kraken-rumours","tag-shane-wright","tag-vancouver-canucks-rumours"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493689","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\/5733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493689"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493704,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493689\/revisions\/493704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}