A "holding pattern" is about the best way to describe where the Vancouver Canucks are when it comes to the March 2 trade deadline. They begin a five-game Eastern Conference road trip Thursday night, so where they sit in the playoff standings when they return home next week obviously will have an impact on their decision-making.
They begin the trip just one point out of the danger zone. But perhaps a bigger reason for the holding pattern is that Canucks management wants to wait until the five injured regulars return -- hopefully within the next seven to 10 days -- before looking at what needs to be done.
Defensemen Chris Tanev, Alex Edler and Kevin Bieksa, plus forwards Nick Bonino and Brad Richardson, are all out. The hope is that by the time the Canucks get back on a plane to go home next week almost all of them will have returned. But with Edler described as week to week, who knows?
One thing's for sure, it sounds as if the Canucks have no interest in sacrificing future assets in terms of high draft picks just to pick up help for the next few weeks because the team is banged up. The long-term vision is more important.
Status: POTENTIAL BUYER.
Needs: The Canucks have been looking for a top-six forward for a while. General manager Jim Benning publicly stated that he tried to trade for Evander Kane, who wouldn't have helped the team until next season, but I think it tells you that the bigger picture is important.
Benning is balancing a delicate plan here, wanting perhaps to add a piece before March 2 that helps the team make the playoffs, but certainly having the long-term vision in mind as the team tries to restock the shelves since they have traded away a lot of futures over the past several seasons when they were Cup contenders.
And certainly, Benning is much more focused on a hockey deal than a rental deal. He'd rather trade for a player who can help the team past this season. It doesn't completely rule out a rental pickup, but I think if he picks up a pending unrestricted free agent, it's because the cost was modest.
Aside from a top-six forward, if there's a deal that isn't cost-exorbitant, he might look to also add blue-line help. Part of the hockey deal conversation has been the Canucks' willingness to move winger Zach Kassian, but so far no takers. That's why, earlier this week in a blog, I mentioned a guy like pending unrestricted free agent Shawn Matthias. I'm told the Canucks have not spoken to a single team about Matthias; they'd much rather keep him and are very happy with his play. But in the context of making a hockey deal and getting their top-six forward, the Canucks would have to at least ponder the possibility of moving Matthias. But I think they'd rather keep him at this point.
Finances: The Canucks have about $950,000 of cap space, but because they've managed it well most of the season, they have accrued about $3 million of available space, and that's what really matters come March 2. The cap shouldn't be an impediment to a deal.
Scouting the GM: This is Benning's first trade deadline as an NHL GM, although he worked many alongside Peter Chiarelli in Boston, and let's not forget how Benning was barely five minutes into being hired last spring when he had to deal with Ryan Kesler's trade request, making a nice deal with Anaheim at the draft last June. So Benning has already been under the gun.
As stated above, the key for Benning is that, while making the playoffs is important this season (the Sedins, after all, aren't getting any younger), there's also a paramount plan here to retool this team on the go. It's a really tough thing to do, to worry about the now and the future at the same time, but that's what Benning was hired to do. It's why, if he's able to get that top-six forward who helps the team not just now but past this season, it's mission accomplished.
