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Thomas Vanek's worth and key points on the line in Arizona for the Canucks

February 25, 2018, 3:05 PM ET [705 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Sunday February 25 - Vancouver Canucks at Arizona Coyotes - 6:30 p.m., Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650

Vancouver Canucks: 61 GP, 23-31-7, 53 pts, seventh in Pacific Division
Arizona Coyotes: 18-33-10, 46 pts, eighth in Pacific Division

I know the trade deadline is consuming everyone's brain power, but tonight's hockey game could prove to be pretty important.

The Vancouver Canucks and Arizona Coyotes play their first game of the season against each other tonight, and they'll meet three more times in the final 20 games. Right now, the two teams are separated by seven points at the bottom of the Pacific Division. This series could help determine which team draws the magic ping-pong ball that will lead to the opportunity to draft Rasmus Dahlin in June.

The gap between the Canucks and Coyotes is closing. Since New Year's, the Coyotes have made up nine points: Vancouver has gone 7-13-2 for 14 points in 22 games while Arizona is 9-6-5 for 23 points in 20 games and is 6-1-1 in its last eight. Especially with the head-to-head matchups, there's definitely time for Arizona to pass Vancouver.

The Coyotes dipped their toes in the trade waters earlier this week, moving forward Tobias Rieder and goaltender Scott Wedgewood to Los Angeles in exchange for the Kings' primary backup this season, Darcy Kuemper. Kuemper was then signed to a two-year contract extension with a cap hit of $1.85 million per season—he's making the league minimum this year. So the Coyotes have shored up their future in net, with Antti Raanta becoming an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.

The Coyotes are on a back-to-back after Raanta got the shutout in their 2-0 home win over Anaheim last night, so Kuemper is will make his first start in an Arizona uniform tonight. Jacob Markstrom will start for Vancouver.

Arizona's only injury at the moment is to forward Richard Panik, who was acquired from Chicago in exchange for Anthony Duclair in mid-January. Otherwise, they're healthy.

Given everything we've seen from the Coyotes over the years, this seems like an odd thing to say, but their recent success has come mostly thanks to strong defensive play. Even as their No. 1 defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson leads the race for the Green Jacket with a minus-36 going into tonight's game, the Coyotes have given up two goals or less in five of their last six games.

They're still 30th overall offensively, scoring an average of just 2.39 goals per game. Their star rookie, Clayton Keller, leads the team with 17 goals and 44 points and will go head-to-head for the first time against the Canucks' leading scorer, Brock Boeser, who has 27 goals and 51 points.

It's a big day for the Brock Star. He's finally legal!




Travis Green says he won't be sitting anyone out tonight, ahead of the trade deadline. Ben Hutton draws back in after four healthy scratches, so it looks like Philip Holm's NHL audition is back on hold after one game.

You may remember a few years back, when then-GM Mike Gillis was working the phones in Scottsdale alongside Francesco Aquilini as the 2014 trade deadline approached. That was the year that Roberto Luongo was awakened from his pre-game nap to be told that he had been dealt to the Florida Panthers. Just over a month later, on April 8, Gillis was relieved of his duties.

It's probably smart that the organization is taking a different approach this year:




Around the league, we've seen a couple more significant deals go down today, with Toronto acquiring centre Tomas Plekanec and the Bruins paying what looks like a big price for Rick Nash.




There is some nuance to this, though. Though the Bruins have to retain half of his salary, Beleskey is a cap dump: he was put in waivers back in December and has been playing in the AHL. In the Boston lineup, Nash will basically be used as an upgrade on Ryan Spooner, a small-ish 26-year-old who had never carved out a solid role for himself. The Rangers will be happy to have gotten a first-rounder, could still flip Spooner by Monday, and Lindgren's a mid-level prospect who's currently playing at the University of Minnesota.

But as reader Rudo1806 said to me this morning in a DM, is Nash *really* worth that much more than Thomas Vanek?

We've all heard that Vanek has a rep for being a poor playoff performer. Well...




That being said, Vanek's main playoff contributions came years ago, back when he was with Buffalo. His 0-4-4 performance in 10 games with Minnesota in 2014-15 (when he was making $6.5 million) and a late-season upper-body injury that kept him out of the postseason entirely in 2015-16 probably did even more damage to his reputation as a playoff guy than the high-profile flame-out with Montreal in the 2014 playoffs, when he had 10 points in 17 games.

That being said, Vanek's contributions to the Canucks this year have gone far beyond what I knew about him before he arrived. He's more than just a garbage-goal guy or a power-play specialist. He has better playmaking skills than I realized, solid hockey sense, can turn on the jets when he needs to and has proven to be a good team guy.

There are more wingers still to move—most notably, Evander Kane. I do think Vanek will be traded, but I don't expect a deal to happen till Monday. With any luck, he lights it up tonight and brings back more than a third-rounder to Vancouver.

Enjoy the game!
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