What team isn’t dreading expansion, right? Adding another team to the growing list of expansion concerned teams is the Vancouver Canucks. The Nucks are a team with seemingly no direction. Their once highly-skilled roster is aging and their youth hasn’t developed enough to compete yet, which is why the Canucks ownership and front office are fearing June 17th.
I was talking to Murray Craven, just from the Vegas group and theres so many variables in there. I think there’s two real spots where teams will look to fix that problem and that will be deadline and that will be leading into expansion draft. And then you get into said value of player based on what teams can acquire and protect can really change the way things look, we’re going to do what we can to avoid that situation. -Trevor Linden, Vancouver Canucks President of Hockey Ops
Linden joined TSN Vancouver to discuss the upcoming trade deadline and the looming expansion draft. He was asked how will it feel losing a player for nothing to Vegas.
We’ve certainly modeled a lot of different scenarios out. We’re going to do what we can to avoid that situation. Obviously, losing a young player, or any player, would be tough to stomach, so we’re still a ways from getting to where we want to be there. -Linden
Linden would rather make his roster more expansion-friendly but he’s not rushing to make a trade at the deadline. Although, losing a player like Luca Sbisa or Jannik Hansen would be a devastating blow. Linden will try and minimize the damage but won’t force a trade.
