New Report Sheds Light on the Vancouver Canucks' Pursuit of a Trade to Upgrade at Centre
A National Hockey League insider gave an update this week on the Vancouver Canucks' pursuit of help on the trade market as the 2025-26 season gets underway.
Heading into the summer, Vancouver Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin was searching for some help down the middle, ideally a second line centerman to replace J.T. Miller, who was traded to the New York Rangers in late January.
Allvin wasn't able to find one on either the trade or free agent markets, and reportedly didn't get very close to adding a centerman, leaving Filip Chytil in the 2C hole to begin the season.
"I wish I had some sexy names to throw at you. I don't. Nothing that was overly impactful or anything that felt like it was getting close. I'm sure like every team, you do your due diligence, that's part of your job, you go out there, you poke around, you start to...like around that time of year you hear names that team's are necessarily shopping, but teams are poking around on and they kind of let that name kind of get out there a little bit and it leads to nothing, because there's nothing there." David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period said last month.
He added, "I think the Canucks certainly tried to, you know, comb the market and see what was out there in terms of the center position. I just don't think they got close on anything."
He added, "I think the Canucks certainly tried to, you know, comb the market and see what was out there in terms of the center position. I just don't think they got close on anything."
NHL insider gives update on Vancouver Canucks' pursuit of help on the trade market
During his first 32 Thoughts article of the 2025-26 season this week, Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman revealed that the Vancouver Canucks are continuing to search for a centerman on the trade market.
"13. Other things to watch once the phones start to buzz: Vancouver continuing its search for a centre; Toronto a top-six forward; Carolina always lurking." Friedman said.
The update from Friedman comes just weeks after David Pagnotta reported that Patrik Allvin was not done adding to his NHL roster, something that he probably would've liked to have done by now, but hasn't been able to for various reasons.
"I do think the Canucks...are going to start just looking around for a mid six, bottom six type of forward; they started poking around, I think they'll escalate that a little bit." Pagnotta said.
This could go one of two ways in the coming weeks - Vancouver isn't impressed with Filip Chytil in that 2C hole & want to send Braeden Cootes back to the WHL after his nine-game stint, which would lead Allvin to intensify his search for a centerman OR Chytil excels in his new role, Cootes sticks around longer than expected and the Canucks are able to keep those assets to make a different deal later in the season rather than bring in a center now.
It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out, but ideally, things will go well for the Vancouver Canucks to start the 2025-26 season to the point where they don't need any external help for the time being.
Source: 32 Thoughts/Elliotte Friedman
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| POLL | ||
OCTOBRE 8 | 960 ANSWERS New Report Sheds Light on the Vancouver Canucks' Pursuit of a Trade to Upgrade at Centre Will the Vancouver Canucks made a trade for an impactful centerman (for 2nd or 3rd line) before New Year's Day? | ||
| Yes | 519 | 54.1 % |
| No | 441 | 45.9 % |
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