Blue Jackets Make Sense For Conor Garland Trade with Canucks

As Conor Garland’s agent looks around the NHL marketplace and tries to get done what the Vancouver Canucks could not, the Columbus Blue Jackets pop up as an early favorite to acquire Garland via trade. With speculation growing that the Blue Jackets are looking to trade a defenseman, and with the Canucks’ need to acquire one, there’s a fit here.

As reported by Daily Faceoff insider Frank Seravalli, the Blue Jackets have engaged in trade discussions and talks have centered around Adam Boqvist, Jake Bean, and Andrew Peeke. For the Canucks, they are actively looking to acquire a right-shot defenseman to play alongside Quinn Hughes. They’ve struggled to find him a reliable partner and with Carson Soucy’s injury, the Canucks have an even more pressing need to add a piece, especially if they want to be competitive out of the gates.

The Blue Jackets have the cap space to add a player like Garland, and if they were to move someone like Peeke ($2.75 million) who played an average of over 21 minutes per game last season, the Canucks could retain some salary on Garland and the deal comes out as a financial wash. Chris Johnston of TSN noted that Vancouver is aware they will need to retain salary on a deal to move Garland, but the Canucks will want to retain as little as possible considering he has three years remaining on his current deal. The Blue Jackets could ask Vancouver to retain 30% and get the player for $3.465 million per season. If they were to move Andrew Peeke back in exchange, Columbus is only taking on $700K in additional salary.

Blue Jackets and Canucks Have Options

A similar deal could be had with someone like Adam Boqvist. He played around 18 minutes per game, and at 23 years old, is still developing. He scored 5 goals and 24 points last season.

How Vancouver and Columbus each value their own assets will determine what else would need to be involved in the deal, but there are the makings there for these two teams to talk trade.

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