AROUND THE LEAGUE - 25-26

[theman]

With Gallagher all but confirming he wants to be traded for his last year and won’t be back in Montreal and is really open to coming to Vancouver, would you trade a 4th or 5th to get him for the year? Would he be one of those vets who could help our young team and help rebuild the culture.

Depends why he fell out of the lineup.

I would want the Canucks to send a 6/7 rounder only. The goal would be to trade him at TDL for a 4/5 rounder.

A washed up Brendan Gallagher is not the profile of an in demand for a courtesy pick asset at the trade deadline. He was worse than Evander Kane last year, and Kane plays a physical style (beat, not just bravely take beatings) that's more attractive at the deadline. Maybe that was Kane, maybe that was PA and JR.

If the ‘plan’ mentioned above is not realistic or feasible then the Canucks should not be wasting an asset to obtain him. Now, if the Canadiens throw in a sweetener…….

[Meds]

Gallagher can come with a sweetener, not for an asset (even one as low as a 5th).

He's only a liability to Montreal. 7 goals, 16 assists, healthy scratch throughout the playoffs. Make them pay to offload it.

The Montreal cap situation isn't bad…

They might even have an interest in EP40....

EP40 for Gallagher. Love it.

[Hockey Widow]

So Gallagher and a 2nd for our 5th or 6th?

[Picker of Cherries]

The Canucks won’t have a taker for Gallagher at the TDL if he couldn’t crack the Canadiens lineup for most of the playoff run, so he is a pure cap dump. I’d want a first to take him. There is better use for 6.5m next season for veteran players that could resurrect themselves that the Canucks can move out at the TDL.

[Meds]

So Gallagher and a 2nd for our 5th or 6th?

Only if they take Scooter too.

[Aaronp18]

Gallagher with Pickford thank you very much.

[Topper]

$6.5M for a swan song farewell tour

LOL

[Hockey Widow]

As UW pointed out the Habs are not desperate to shed his cap. Sure it would be nice for them but they don’t have to sell off major assets to move him. He only has one year left.

If we are rebuilding why wouldn’t you weaponize our cap space and grab another 2nd for 2027? Now of course it would be outstanding to grab a 1st but again, Habs are not desperate. Agreed Gallagher would unlikely resurrect his play enough to be moveable at the TDD so it would be a Kane scenario in all likelihood. But isn’t a 2nd worth it for a rebuilding club? How about higher return with no retention, lower return for some retention?

Some team somewhere will make a deal like that so why not us? I get if there are other targets you could go for that may provide more for the Canucks and have potential to be moved at TDD. So who are they? I mean I get we will only have so much cap available to weaponize. And who knows, maybe we free up more.

[UWSaint]

$6.5M for a swan song farewell tour

LOL

I don't think anyone's talking about a swan song farewell tour; I'm certainly not. I'm going to post a response in SKYO's thread.

[Lancer]

As UW pointed out the Habs are not desperate to shed his cap. Sure it would be nice for them but they don’t have to sell off major assets to move him. He only has one year left.

If we are rebuilding why wouldn’t you weaponize our cap space and grab another 2nd for 2027? Now of course it would be outstanding to grab a 1st but again, Habs are not desperate. Agreed Gallagher would unlikely resurrect his play enough to be moveable at the TDD so it would be a Kane scenario in all likelihood. But isn’t a 2nd worth it for a rebuilding club? How about higher return with no retention, lower return for some retention?

Some team somewhere will make a deal like that so why not us? I get if there are other targets you could go for that may provide more for the Canucks and have potential to be moved at TDD. So who are they? I mean I get we will only have so much cap available to weaponize. And who knows, maybe we free up more.

I can see Montreal doing Gallagher a solid - he's been a good soldier for them and there's nothing to be gained by treating him like livestock bound for the glue factory. As long as the price isn't egregious - maybe a 2nd or a 3rd does it - I can see Hughes and RJ talking a deal.

[Hockey Widow]

Edmonton kicking the tires on Demko but the problem is he won’t pass his medical until after his MNC kicks in and we would probably have to take back a Nurse type. I don’t see that as making us better.

[UWSaint]

Edmonton kicking the tires on Demko but the problem is he won’t pass his medical until after his MNC kicks in and we would probably have to take back a Nurse type. I don’t see that as making us better.

I think Demko may be open to waiving, but its hard to see what future asset value Edmonton can bring to the table.

I'm having trouble seeing how they are going to manage things. Of course they'd love to move on from some iffy contracts, but what's the sweetner? They don't have a lot of draft picks that teams would value, and they have a very underwhelming system. They could flip the younger guys they acquired (Savoie, Howard), but that's only going to exacerbate a challenging roster situation.

They've got 14.5 M in space with 11 forwards, 5 defensemen, and 1 damaged goalie under contract. Those 11 forwards include Howard, Samanski, and Clattenburg -- guys who may or may not be NHL players next year (or who are very limited). Do they really want to be banking on ALL of these guys to be in their top 12? Its such a thin team on a team done in by their thinness. They have 2 RFAs -- Dach and Stasney. Stasney's a 6-7 caliber guy at best, should accept a QO or otherwise come in around 1M; Dach is kind of an interesting candidate for an offer sheet. I'm sure the Oilers would like to keep him at the $1.5M range, but a $2.38M/AAV offer sheet is only a 3rd in compensation and Dach's worth paying that much to and giving up a 3rd. MY guess is that the Oilers were targeting him in that deal and would like to work out something longer term, but that will only put more pressure on cap situation.

Seems to me that even in the best case scenario with Dach and Stasney, they have 12M to (1) get a real goalie, (2) get a real defenseman (Walman was disappointing, Ekholm is a senior citizen with potential injury issues) no worse than 4-5 but ideally top 4, (3) get at least a couple of forwards; Kapanan, Henrique, Dickinson, Roslivic, Lazar, Jones are all unsigned UFAs -- these guys aren't stars, but a few of these guys added some value to a team that ended up not being good enough, and so you have at least replace what was valuable about them; some has to come from Howard, but you need more to even hold serve.

Bowman has his work cut out for him. And he's not all that good at his work.