Making Sense of the (yet another) Vancouver/Florida Trade

The Vancouver Canucks and Florida Panthers have traded with one another and in many instances, they have involved significant players. Yesterday, you can add Erik Gudbrandson to the list that includes Pavel Bure, Ed Jovanovski, Todd Bertuzzi, Roberto Luongo (twice), and Keith Ballard.

The Canucks picked up Gudbrandson and a fifth round pick in this year's draft and sent Jared McCann and the second and fourth round picks in this year's draft. As seen this year, the Canucks struggled to score, so on one hand, trading McCann for a defenseman that does very little on the scoresheet is a head-scratcher. On the other hand, the blue line for the Canucks was pretty terrible save for Ben Hutton and Chris Tanev. In short, the Canucks needed help every which way except in goal, where Jacob Markstrom is going to be a starter one way or another next season. Gudbrandson gives the Canucks badly needed size that is sure to play in the NHL, as Nikita Tryamkin is not as sure of a thing at the moment. He also gives them much needed toughness that was sorely lacking last season. As for what they give up in McCann, like Hunter Shinkaruk a few months prior, potential offense. However, unlike Shinkaruk, McCann's ceiling is much higher, but given that center depth would make him fourth best at the moment, it's hard to see him making a great impact next season. Also, there is the matter of having the fifth overall pick, which can at least, cover some of the offense lost in time.

As for what Florida gets, they create room for Michael Matheson to be on the roster next season, as the Panthers are good on defensive depth in the system while getting a high ceiling player in McCann and a high second round pick that gives them another chance to replenish the pipeline.