The Vancouver Canucks are having a polar opposite season compared to their last campaign. At this time last season, Vancouver were in the midst of a losing streak which led to the firing of former coach Bruce Boudreau. His replacement Rick Tocchet has this team firing on all cylinders this season, currently sitting pretty at the top of the Pacific division with a record of 33-11-5. If Tocchet doesn't win the Jack Adams this season something is wrong.
Vancouver looks poised to be buyers at the upcoming deadline but like many teams are facing the cap crunch. If they are going to bring in a player with a significant cap hit, money will need to be moved the other way to make the deal work.
Two players that have heard their names in the rumor mill is Andrei Kuzmenko and Nikita Zadorov.
The 28 year old Zadorov is a bit of a surprising one since he was just acquired by the Canucks from the Calgary Flames less than two months ago. Vancouver gave up a 3rd round pick and 5th round pick in the deal.
In 24 games with Vancouver Zadorov has scored 4 assists while averaging 17: 45 in ice time, playing on the third pair.
Canadian radio sportscaster Don Taylor speculates why Zadorov is in the rumor mill so soon after being acquired.
If Zadorov was moved again it would be a very interesting by the Canucks who were excited to get bigger and meaner on their backend before acquiring Big Z.
POLL | ||
30 JANVIER | 888 ANSWERS Vancouver Canucks looking at trading player that they just traded for Who does Vancouver move out to get cap space? | ||
Nikita Zadorov | 203 | 22.9 % |
Andrei Kuzmenko | 380 | 42.8 % |
Ian Cole | 85 | 9.6 % |
Tyler Myers | 220 | 24.8 % |
List of polls |