In the evening of the family day across Canada, the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings made a blockbuster of a trade. The Canucks sent multiple assets to California while skilled winger Tyler Toffoli is packing his bags for Vancouver.
The trade tells us a couple of things. First of all, the Canucks organization believes that the time to win is now and that they are willing to mortgage their future for such an opportunity.
The nuts and bolts of the trade are as follows: The Canucks receive Tyler Toffoli, a successful right-winger while the LA Kings recoup their loss in Tim Schaller, prospect Tyler Madden and a second-round pick in this summer’s upcoming draft.
Piece 1: Tyler Toffoli to Vancouver
Toffoli is in the final year of his contract and has been rumoured to be leaving the Kings for a long time, as the LA hockey club enters its next portion in the cyclical nature of sports, that being the rebuild.
So what are the Canucks getting: In short, a replacement for Brock Boeser.
Boeser went down injured in the Canucks February 8th game against the Calgary Flames and it was announced today that he will be out for approximately three weeks with the cartilage fracture he sustained. This means that the Canucks are without one of their important high scoring wingers for the most important part of the season.
Toffoli has 34 points in 58 games with the Kings this year and is joining Vancouver following an outdoor hat trick against the Colorado Avalanche. He will likely play alongside Bo Horvat on the right side, giving Vancouver’s captain the right-winger that he needs to succeed.
There will likely be no big jump or dip in Vancouver’s play whilst Boeser is on the sidelines, but once the Minnesotan sniper comes back, the combination of he and Toffoli will elevate the Canucks game to that of a competitive playoff team.
Piece 2: Tyler Madden to LA
The LA Kings are getting Tyler Madden, a former third round pick who has recently garnered the level of interest that would commonly follow the first-round assets. He is in his second year with the Northeastern Huskies and is coming off a recent Bean Pot Championship.
Why did the Canucks feel that he was expendable? There are a few reasons. First off, he has not indicated that he would sign the Canucks in the near future. If he were to finish off his college career before making the professional jump, the brief window the Canucks see right now will likely have been shut.
Another reason to deal with Madden is the depth that Vancouver has up the middle of the ice, where madden plays. Elias Petterson, Bo Horvat and Adam Gaudette man the successful lines for the team and the immovable contracts of Jay Beagle and Brandon Sutter take up the next two. But it doesn’t even stop there as Zack McEwan is a burgeoning NHL regular. All that being said, there would not have been a place for Madden in his natural position for the near future.
Piece 3: The second-round pick to LA
Now it’s not only Madden who is headed below the 49th parallel, but also a second-round pick and Tim Schaller. The second-round pick is a very big statement as it means that as everything stands, Vancouver, who hosted the draft last year, will not be selecting any player in the first two rounds.
The amateur scouting team has done a stellar job in Vancouver over the past couple of years, picking out players like Brock Boeser, Petterson, rookie Quinn Hughes, and yes even third-rounder Tyler Madden. Without a pick in the higher rounds, it could send some reverberations around the Canucks scouting staff, who may this effect? Juud Brackett.
Brackett has been the Canucks head of amateur scouting through each of the picks listed above. He has been a key piece in the hockey club’s rebuild, but without a pick in the first two rounds, could the draft genius be heading away from Canada’s West Coast? Only time will tell, but if he is to stay, Vancouver will have to give him a new contract.
Piece 4: Tim Schaller to LA
Ah, Tim Schaller. The forward was signed in 2018 after posting a career-high 12 goals and 22 points for the Boston Bruins the previous season. Moving Schaller is not of the utmost importance for either side, rather more a cap moves to accommodate the rest of the trade. He was one of Vancouver’s many ugly contracts, yet he was the most expendable and had to be traded if the Canucks were to be able to add Toffoli. He won’t make the Kings worse, nor will he likely be apart of their future plans. The Kings have gotten themselves a professional hockey player.
Conclusion:
There were a lot of moving pieces on Monday night, but in the end, it looks as if both teams are getting what they want. As is often the case with trades, the idea of a winner and loser comes up, however, with this one, there is an equilibrium as both sides got what it is they were looking for.