The Vancouver Canucks aren’t really interested in giving up their 2026 first-round pick in a deal for a centerman
Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Putting the Spotlight on the Hockey World episode on the Vancouver Canucks pursuit of the centerman. Teams are asking about their 2026 first-round pick, and so far, they don’t seem interested in moving it.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Bukauskas: “How about Vancouver, their pursuit of a center, but don’t want to give up too high a price to
do it.”
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Friedman: “Yeah, you know, everybody’s been talking about it. They’ve been trying for months. Really trying to see what’s out there. I did hear that among their conversations was, they’ve been asked about next year’s first.
It’s dangerous. Number one, it’s a good draft. Look. They just drafted a player (Braeden) Cootes, who made their team for a few games anyways, and they’re very hopeful about him for good reason. They could have traded that pick to Minnesota. They didn’t. They kept it. And I think long term, he’s given them reason to believe that was the right decision.
Now too, you know this pick, like we said, really good draft. And also, you know, you don’t know where you’re going to be. And I think they also feel, we added one piece, we can add another. And I’ve just heard they don’t want to do it.
Now, I always qualify these things and don’t say they’re not doing it, because you never know what could happen. You could be offered a player who’s under team control for a long time, and you could say, ‘You know what, we do it.’ So I never say never, but I have heard, and the sources are quite good, that it’s not something that they want to do. So so far, they’re holding firm. Nothing has given them reason to believe that they should do it.
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