The Vancouver Canucks have been in the news cycle over the last few days. Rumors began to circulate over the weekend that the Canucks were going be exploring the trade market for scoring forward Brock Boeser.

Matt Sekeres: I’m told the Canucks are exploring the possibility of trading Brock Boeser.#TSN1040

— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) July 10, 2020

However, after day one of Canucks training camp yesterday, their general manager Jim Benning, denied the report. He stated he has no intention of trading Boeser.

“That’s not true, somebody made that up.” – Jim Benning on rumours that the #Canucks are exploring the possibility of trading Brock Boeser

— Harman Dayal (@harmandayal2) July 13, 2020

At the end of the day, the undeniable fact of the matter is that the Canucks are in a cap situation that is going to force them to make some difficult decisions. According to Cap Friendly, they’re projected to have $18 million in cap space. That’s not terrible until you add into the mix that Tyler Toffoli and Jacob Markstrom are unrestricted free agents they’d like to re-sign. Also, they have two big restricted free agents in Jake Virtanen and Troy Stecher.

The two UFA’s are looking at deals that carry a cap hit of around $7 million and the two RFA’s project to receive cap hits around $3 million. Combined, that utilizes all of the Canucks cap space. Now, add in that they need to give new contracts to Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes in the summer of 2021 with the cap remaining flat.

You can see the bind the Canucks find themselves in.

Canucks Offseason Outlook

2020-21 Cap Space (Projected via Cap Friendly): $18 million

Key Restricted Free Agents: Jake Virtanen (arbitration-eligible), Troy Stecher (arbitration-eligible), Tyler Motte (arbitration-eligible), and Adam Gaudette

Key Unrestricted Free Agents: Jacob Markstrom, Tyler Toffoli, Chris Tanev, Josh Leivo, and Oscar Fatenberg

Projected Needs: Right-shot defenseman and cap space

Trade Targets

1. Brock Boeser – RW | Age 23 | two-years, $5.875 million AAV

We’ll start things off by discussing the guy that has been in the rumor mill the last few days, Brock Boeser. We don’t know for sure if he’ll be on the block in the offseason, but if the Canucks value Toffoli over him, it makes sense to use him as a valuable trade chip.

He’ll give the Canucks the best return of any player that would realistically be available and his future contract situation is something that shouldn’t be ignored. When Boeser signed his new deal last summer, he followed the trend of other restricted free agents and backloaded the contract. In doing so, he increased his qualifying offer to $7.5 million when he becomes an RFA again in two years. Thus meaning his next contract is going be a big one.

The 23-year-old winger is an interesting player when you look into his game. He’s one of the better emerging young goal scorers in the NHL. However, he’s not known as a play-driving forward. During his last two years, he’s played with Pettersson and he has been the player to make that line go.

Scoring talent is always valuable, but he’s the type of player that is going to need to be paired with a strong center to continue to score at the rate he has throughout his career.

Another concern with Boeser is his injury history. He’s battled back and wrist injuries over the last few years. He hasn’t played more than 69 regular-season games in any of his three NHL seasons.

The Sabres need to add scoring and if Boeser is available they should be involved in the conversation. The Canucks could have a need on the right side of their blue line if Chris Tanev departs in free agency. Before signing Tyler Myers in free agency last summer, the Canucks did show some interest in Rasmus Ristolainen.

Brandon Montour and Ristolainen could be the starting point in a package to acquire Boeser. The Sabres would have to add more pieces that would be beneficial for the Canucks salary cap moving forward. One asset the Sabres shouldn’t consider using in acquiring Boeser is their eighth overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.

Boeser doesn’t play the position (center) or in my opinion, carry the value of a player that is worth a top 10 pick.

2. Jake Virtanen – RW | Age 23 | RFA

Virtanen is an interesting target as a middle-six solution for the Sabres. He was one of the pieces that were discussed briefly last summer when the Canucks were exploring the Ristolainen trade.

The 23-year-old had his best season in Vancouver in both production and on-ice impact. Virtanen probably maxes out as a 20-goal and 40-point player in the NHL. He’s not going to slide into the top six and vastly improve the scoring, but he can improve the depth on the roster which has been a problem for a long time.

Admittedly, there is some concern for me if this season was a sign of his future or an outlier. Before this season, he’s been a replacement-level player as you can see in Evolving Hockey’s expected goals above replacement model below.

Virtanen’s age works in his favor in this discussion. According to research done by Micah McCurdy, most players hit their peak around age 24. It’s plausible that he’s hitting his prime and is going to put up this type of performance over the next few years. Which would make it a good time for the Sabres to take a chance on him

He’s an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent this summer, but shouldn’t cost a lot to re-sign. Evolving Hockey projects him to sign a two-year contract with a $2.8 million cap hit. A one for one trade for Montour or Ristolainen seems like a fair deal for both sides.

3. Tanner Pearson – LW | Age 27 | one-year, $3.75 million AAV

The last player that could fill a need for the Sabres is Tanner Pearson. He’s a third-line winger that could provide some depth scoring. The benefit of acquiring him is that he shouldn’t cost a significant asset as the Canucks may want to get out from the last year of his contract to create some cap space.

Pearson isn’t going to move the needle, but again could be a nice depth addition to provide some scoring. He can step in and be the player offensively that the Sabres were hoping to get in Jimmy Vesey this season.

Data via Micah McCurdy, Cap Friendly, and Evolving Hockey

Photo Credit: Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images