With game 6 between the San Jose Sharks and St Louis Blues underway, the Vancouver Canucks have made a trade with the Florida Panthers.

The Canucks have traded 2014 1st round pick Jared McCann, along with 2016 2nd round pick (33rd overall) and 2016 4th round pick (93rd overall) for Erik Gudbranson and 2016 NYI 5th round pick (139 overall)

It will be McCann, a second and a fourth for Gudbranson and a fifth. All picks this year — Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) May 26, 2016

It was long rumoured that the Canucks had been shopping McCann for help on the backend, and there had been reports that Gudbranson was possibly a player that could be on the move in Florida. So it wasn’t crazy to suggest a connecting of the dots between the two teams but with that being said the Canucks adding a 2nd round pick and 4th round pick for this draft seems like an overpayment.

For a team looking to inject more youth and further supplement their pipeline with more prospects, the thought of the Canucks only picking 5th overall and then having to wait until 63rd to select again seems like a misguided step. Also moving a 20 year old and recent first round pick who made the team out of camp seems like another odd move, especially given that Gudbranson is 24 years old.

Ideally if the Canucks were in the market to move McCann and 33rd overall, they would’ve traded for a defenceman who was in their early twenties rather than their mid twenties. The Canucks also struggled to generate offence from the backend, so adding Gudbranson doesn’t help that aspect in any way.

Gudbranson had just recently signed a year contract extension worth $3.5 million. The Canucks will assume this full contract.

The Canucks now currently have 9 defenceman penciled in for next season, so something has to give. Unfortunately none of those players will hold the same value that McCann, 33rd and 93rd overall did.

Canucks GM Jim Benning was on record after selecting McCann that he was getting calls for him immediately after he was chosen. So if they were wanting to shop him, it’s doubtful there wouldn’t have been at least a few suitors. A little patience likely would’ve reaped better rewards.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

So no matter what happens over the rest of the summer, the initial optics of the deal don’t look great.





