NHL
Alexis Lafrenière has struggled to live up to his promise. Maybe a change of scenery would help unlock his potential. Claus Andersen / Getty Images
The surest way to acquire potential elite talent in the NHL is by selecting at the very top of the draft order.
While we at The Athletic’s Vancouver bureau are staunch believers in the necessity of rebuilding, and even tanking, we’re not naive to the very real human factors that underlie the game of hockey, and the various team-building philosophies that we see deployed at the NHL level. Tanking may be necessary for the Canucks this season, and perhaps for multiple seasons, but we shouldn’t ignore the very real cost — in terms of dollars, lost hours for fans, demotivated players and organizational cultural impact — to enduring losing seasons.
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As the Canucks begin this rebuilding effort, it’s critical that they proceed with uncharacteristic discipline. There should be no shortcuts and no urgency to turn things around quickly. The club should scrupulously avoid the temptation to make the sort of age-gap trades that have repeatedly burned through Vancouver’s draft capital over the past decade.
Along the way of most successful rebuilding efforts, or even just more traditional team-building efforts, however, successful teams tend to take a calculated risk or two on some high-pedigree players or high-potential skaters at a low ebb in their value. Think about when the Canucks, in Pat Quinn’s final trade, took a shot on Markus Naslund. Or, more recently, when the Florida Panthers bought Sam Bennett. Or this season, when the Pittsburgh Penguins purchased Egor Chinakov.
Finding elite talent is most likely at the top of the draft, but sometimes, it’s worth rolling the dice on high pedigree players that have fallen out of favour and can be acquired as “buy low” options — or as part of the return for a superior veteran player — but still have the ability to realize their potential with a fresh start on a new team. Especially if that new team, as most rebuilding teams are able to do, can offer more opportunities than what the player has earned with their previous organization.
Here are 10 reclamation projects for the Canucks to consider as they begin to look to the future with greater focus during this rebuilding phase of their team-building cycle.
Since being picked No. 1 at the 2020 NHL Draft, Alexis Lafrenière has struggled to live up to his promise.
Now 24 and entering his prime, Lafrenière is still playing second-line minutes for the Rangers and is pacing to record fewer than 50 points for the fifth time in his six NHL seasons. He’s also in the first year of a seven-year contract that carries a cap hit just shy of $7.5 million per season.
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The Rangers appear to be on the verge of aggressively retooling, which should open up more opportunity for Lafrenière; to this point, he still has only ever managed as many as six power-play points as a career high through his first six seasons. Perhaps his story will flip, and the Rangers will simply hold onto the underperforming winger.
If Lafrenière were to shake loose, however, he’d still be worth gambling on, even for a team like the Canucks that has a load of road to run to get back to contention. While Lafrenière’s skating has held him back somewhat, he’s typically managed better underlying performance than his results would suggest; this season, for example, his five-on-five goal scoring has taken a major hit due to a career low shooting percentage, even as his defensive impact has spiked, which is generally the sort of profile you want to bet on.
Maybe he never becomes the star point producer that he seemed likely to be as a 17-year-old, but Lafrenière still has a shot to be a top-of-the-lineup winger with significant two-way value. If the Canucks were able to accumulate sufficient draft capital to spend some of it on a 24-year-old or land Lafrenière as a primary piece in a larger trade for one of their expensive, long-tenured veteran players, he still has a credible path to developing into a real difference maker.
Many would argue that Ville Heinola, drafted No. 20 in 2019, never got a fair opportunity to prove his worth to the Jets. Looking back, he has one of the oddest development stories in recent memory.
At 18, with the Jets dealing with free-agent departures and Dustin Byfuglien’s retirement, Heinola surprised everybody by making Winnipeg’s opening-night 2019-20 NHL lineup. He made a good first impression with five points in his first eight games, but was reassigned to Finland, in part because the club presumably didn’t want to burn the first year of his entry-level contract. Next year, in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign, Heinola spent extended time on the Jets’ taxi squad, resulting in minimal game action.
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Finally, in 2023-24, after establishing himself as an elite AHL defenceman, Heinola appeared to be a shoo-in to become an everyday NHL defender. Unfortunately, Heinola broke his ankle during the team’s final preseason game, which set him back. Last season, the same ankle became infected, requiring a second surgery, and limiting him to just 18 NHL games. When healthy, Jets fans pleaded for the organization to give him an extended NHL opportunity, especially given how patient the coaching staff was with Logan Stanley’s struggles, by force-feeding the latter NHL minutes until his game finally turned a corner.
Now 24, the window has closed for Heinola to become a top-four defenceman, but there’s still a chance he could carve out a role as a capable depth option. After all, we’ve seen the Jets give up on other defenders who have excelled with fresh starts. Johnathan Kovacevic was claimed off waivers by Montreal and eventually landed in New Jersey, where his top-four success earned him a five-year, $20 million contract extension. Winnipeg also waived Declan Chisholm, who has since developed into a solid depth defender.
Heinola is a slick puckhandler with offensive upside. He’s not the biggest defender (listed at 6 feet, 181 pounds), and his skating is only average, but he showed some promise in his 53 career NHL games. Heinola will become a Group VI unrestricted free agent in the summer. It could be worth signing him to a low-cost one-year deal, with the idea that he could compete for a job as a No. 7/8 defender (to perhaps replace PO Joseph’s role) in training camp next fall.
Isak Rosen is a classic buy-low candidate for a team like the Canucks. The 22-year-old winger is a decent and improving skater with a high skill level, who has produced at a very impressive clip in the AHL. However, he has struggled to carve out a regular NHL-level role, is a bit perimeter-oriented, and looks to be a bit redundant in a Sabres system that’s long on skilled offensive wingers of his ilk.
In contrast, Vancouver can be patient with Rosen and give him the sort of opportunities that simply won’t exist in a deeper forward lineup like what the Sabres have built.
The Sabres are likely to be buyers as they seek to end the NHL’s longest playoff drought this spring, and there are all sorts of interesting angles to consider in a potential trade fit between the two cursed expansion cousins. Might Buffalo be interested in adding a veteran centre, like Teddy Blueger, to help them close out playoff games, while also creating some cap space by bundling a future (either a draft pick or Rosen) with an expensive veteran depth piece signed through the 2026-27 campaign like Jordan Greenway?
Rosen, in any event, feels like a sharp profile bet for somebody in the weeks and months to come.
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The Red Wings probably aren’t ready to make Kasper available yet, but his struggles this season make this a situation worth monitoring.
Kasper had a solid rookie campaign, scoring 19 goals and 37 points in 77 games. The catch is that most of that production didn’t come at centre, but on the wing, where he excelled as a complementary piece for Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond. Expectations were sky-high for Kasper this year — he was expected to shift back to the middle to centre the second line, and was a popular breakout pick. Instead, he’s endured a brutal sophomore slump, scoring 13 points in 57 games. Lately, he’s been shifted back to the wing with Larkin and Raymond.
In the medium term, the Red Wings have a surplus of middle-six centres: Andrew Copp has had a strong bounce-back year, J.T. Compher is signed through 2027-28, and 2023 No. 9 pick Nate Danielson is often labelled as the 2C of the future. If Kasper’s struggles continue, would the Red Wings entertain offers for him, given their depth down the middle?
Kasper is a heavy, gritty forward with excellent skating ability and a high motor. He isn’t the most creative or dynamic playmaker, but his physical gifts, dogged puck pursuit, and advanced defensive conscience are very attractive. Beneath the surface, there are strong reasons to believe that his sophomore slump is largely due to bad luck: He’s scored on just 6.5 percent of his shots this season (which should rebound) and his two-way metrics are very healthy, with the Red Wings controlling a positive share of shot attempts and expected goals during his five-on-five shifts. Kasper has even improved in the face-off dot, winning 49.8 percent of his draws this year compared to only 44.9 percent as a rookie.
The Canucks should keep tabs on Kasper in case a buying opportunity arises.
After a dynamic 2024-25 campaign, Cole Perfetti’s scoring stats have been more pedestrian as the Jets’ offensive environment has crumbled this season. After producing 50 points a year ago, Perfetti is looking like a long shot to eclipse 40 points in this critical platform year.
Signed to a bridge contract after a contentious negotiation that lasted late into the summer during the 2024 offseason, Perfetti may not view himself as a long-term fit for the Jets. At the very least, the fossil record of his path through the NHL is a close match with what we’d expect from a player that could be made available, even if they’re not quite a classic buy low, in advance of a restricted free agent summer in which they carry arbitration rights.
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Perfetti isn’t a perfect player. While he’s a slick playmaker with good hands, especially in tight, he’s not a very quick skater, which is something of a limiting factor. He’s a high-character competitor, however, and the sort of playmaker that could potentially be a star performer if thrust into a larger role on a first power-play unit with more opportunity.
Svechkov caught our attention last year as a 21-year-old rookie. The No. 19 pick from 2021 scored a respectable 17 points in 57 games, but it’s the eye test where he really made an impression. He doesn’t have a flashy, standout attribute, but he’s just a smart, jack-of-all-trades player.
Svechkov is an effective play driver because of his clever passes that create zone exits and entries. He’s an above-average skater (75th percentile for speed bursts over 20 miles per hour), makes quick decisions with the puck to create chances, and plays a mature defensive game. The 22-year-old has endured a sophomore slump with only nine points in 49 games this season, but his underlying profile indicates he’s been quite unlucky: Svechkov has driven a 53 percent expected goal share during his five-on-five shifts, but he’s scored on just two percent of his shots, which has suppressed his bottom-line production. We’re bullish on his long-term upside as a valuable bottom-six centre, with potential 3C upside.
Nashville has top-five pick Brady Martin on the way, who could pass Svechkov on the depth chart as soon as next season. Maybe the Preds will stay patient with the Russian pivot, but it could be worth the Canucks’ time to at least make a call.
The Blackhawks have built up a tremendous surplus of young talent on the back end, so much so that they’ve got a pair of intriguing young defenders in Kevin Korchinski and Ethan Del Mastro playing down in the AHL
Both Del Mastro and Korchinski are left-handed, and that’s roughly where the similarities end. Del Mastro fell in his draft year (it was the bizarro COVID season, however, when the OHL didn’t even play the season), but is a good puck mover with a big frame, who was a pedigree player all the way up through to the start of his major junior career. He has every tool you could ever ask for from a still-developing 23-year-old defender.
Korchinski is the more dynamic presence between the two, a 21-year-old recent top-10 draft pick who has fallen behind some of the other young talent that the Blackahwks have built out on their defence corps. He’d be the more expensive player to acquire, but would also represent the bigger home run cut.
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If the Blackhawks decide to buy ahead of the deadline, especially if they try to add one of Vancouver’s expensive veterans with term as a long-term fit for their work-in-progress forward group, either of these two young Blackhawks blueliners would represent intriguing, high-upside, young buy-low trade targets from a Canucks perspective.
Turcotte’s early career development was torpedoed by an endless barrage of injuries. He suffered two concussions in the AHL as a result of dirty hits, had surgery for acute appendicitis and has had some lower-body injuries, too. He played only 36 regular-season games, split between the AHL and NHL, in 2022-23, the most he’d suited up for in a single season in his first four years after being drafted.
At this point, he’s obviously not going to live up to his No. 5 pick status. However, last year he finally broke out as a reliable, everyday bottom-six contributor, scoring 25 points in 68 games despite averaging just 11:44 per game. Turcotte’s impact as a quick skater, tenacious battler, and committed two-way player is clear, yet he hasn’t been given a long leash of opportunity by head coach Jim Hiller, perhaps because he’s slightly undersized at 5-foot-11. He averaged just 5:44 in three playoff games last spring, and he’s played fourth-line minutes this season as well.
Turcotte has been an efficient point producer relative to his ice time, boasts strong two-way metrics, and has won nearly 56 percent of his face-offs this year. All of that makes it reasonable to think he could pop as a handy third-liner if ever given a bigger role (which he deserves).
A legitimate centre, Matthew Poitras stunned the hockey world when he made the Bruins out of training camp as a teenager a few years ago. The 21-year-old, a second-round pick in 2022, however, hasn’t taken that next step to cement himself as an NHL regular in the years since. And this season, his AHL production has stagnated somewhat, even as the Bruins have overachieved and found a potential long-term answer down the middle of their forward group with Fraser Minten.
Could the emergence of Minten, Casey Mittlestadt’s bounce back and the potential arrival of Boston College standouts James Hagens and Dean Letorneau cause the Bruins to look to monetize Poitras to bolster other areas of need in their lineup?
Acquiring Poitras wouldn’t be especially affordable, and a Bruins team that’s keeping an eye on the future would probably be looking for the sort of futures that the Canucks need to spend very judiciously (if at all) in return. Poitras is certainly the type of player, however, that the Canucks could sorely use at the NHL level if they were able to add him to their pipeline.
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