Expansion Draft Preview: Vancouver Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks are coming off of a miserable season.

After coming within one win of reaching the Western Conference Final last summer, the Canucks failed to live up to expectations in 2021, finishing dead last in the All-Canadian Division. Part of that was due to the Canucks terrible COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent schedule grind late in the season, but general manager Jim Benning has taken a lot of heat for putting together a flawed roster full of ugly contracts.

In a few weeks, Vancouver will welcome their new Pacific Northwest rivals, the Seattle Kraken to the NHL. Benning could use this as an opportunity to shed a bad contract.

Eligible Forwards

@Loui Eriksson, @Brock Boeser, @Bo Horvat, @J.T. Miller, @Brandon Sutter, @Tanner Pearson, @Micheal Ferland, @Sven Baertschi, @Jay Beagle, @Antoine Roussel, @Jake Virtanen, @Tyler Motte, @Elias Pettersson, @Jimmy Vesey, @Kole Lind, @Zack MacEwen, @Jayce Hawryluk, @Jonah Gadjovich, @Matthew Highmore, @Travis Boyd

Eligible Defencemen

@Tyler Myers, @Alexander Edler, @Nate Schmidt, @Travis Hamonic, @Olli Juolevi, @Madison Bowey, @Brogan Rafferty, @Jalen Chatfield

Eligible Goaltenders

@Braden Holtby, @Thatcher Demko

Exempt Players

@Quinn Hughes, @Nils Hoglander, @Jack Rathbone, @Michael DiPietro, @Jett Woo, @William Lockwood, @Nikita Tryamkin

What should they do?

The Canucks have a handful of no-brainers to add to their protection list. Pettersson, Horvat, Miller, Boeser, Pearson, Schmidt, and Joulevi will all surely be protected from Seattle.

Tyler Myers is also a fair bet to be protected but this spot offers Benning some flexibility. Myers is a fine player but he’s overpaid for what he brings. With Schmidt and Juolevi being the only slam-dunk defencemen for Vancouver to protect, Benning could go out and acquire a defender from a team with a surplus.

Take Carolina, for example. They’re loaded with quality defencemen and will have to expose one of them. Maybe a deal involving Jake Virtanen and Jake Bean makes sense for both clubs.

Speaking of Virtanen, the Canucks will have to make a difficult decision between him and a couple of other young forwards. Virtanen had an ugly showing in 2021 and Vancouver might prioritize forwards like Kole Lind, Tyler Motte, or Jonah Gadjovich instead.

Finally, there’s the Canucks goaltenders. Vancouver recently inked Thatcher Demko to a five-year extension, so that would indicate that he’s Vancouver’s goalie of the future. Seattle would then have the chance to select former Stanley Cup winner Braden Holtby to be part of their goalie tandem.

If Benning wants to keep Holtby around, he could offer Ron Francis a draft pick or a prospect to take on a bad contract. The Canucks have a handful of them, like Loui Eriksson or even Myers.