The 2023 NEFHL trade deadline came and went and as expected, the Canucks were busy but it wasn’t on deadline day. The Canucks made a total of 6 trades in the days leading up to the deadline.

“We wanted to get our work done early so we can start the process of gelling the guys together. However, we are really happy with our deadline and feel we improved an already strong team” said General Manager Allen.

Improved they did. The Canucks added one of the top ranked defensemen in the league by picking up Roman Josi from Detroit.

General Manager Allen said “We had Roman on our radar but it was hard to fit with his cap. However, Landy went down and we had our LTIR for him increasing while he was out and we didn’t add at the time, weathered the storm so we had some room to add him.”

The Canucks seemed to be finished at that point and were satisfied with the roster though they did want to upgrade some depth on the wings. Luckily, Sabres General Manager Fuhr decided he was going to move some pieces and immediately the Canucks swooped in looking at some names before settling on wanting to pick up veteran Kyle Okposo.

“We wanted Okposo to upgrade over Fast and as we looked, we noticed Gudas may be available as well. We wanted to add some more grit to the back end and we moved some pieces to grab both guys who we feel will be huge adds to our team” said GM Allen.

Finally, the Canucks were approached by the Golden Knights about interest in a couple of their players. With the cap getting close, the Canucks shaved off a couple hundred thousand while improving on the player by adding UFA to be Kuraly for Fischer and a prospect.

“We felt highly on Fischer but adding Kuraly, even though he is a UFA, is a big add to the bottom 6. Having a great year, cheaper contract and more physical and defensively aware. Big for our PK” said GM Allen.

The Canucks were able to add key players without touching their first round picks or top prospects and the players they moved out, they received picks in return. The cupboards are still well stocked. The full details of the trades are below:

Vancouver Canucks trade Christian Fischer and Aleksi Malinen to Vegas Golden Knights for Sean Kuraly

Vancouver Canucks trade Vladislav Gavrikov to Winnipeg Jets for NYR 2023 Rnd 3

Vancouver Canucks trade Case McCarthy to Ottawa Senators for $1

Vancouver Canucks trade Jesper Fast to New York Rangers for WPG 2023 Rnd 4

Vancouver Canucks trade Bobby Trivigno, Jakub Malek, Travis Sanheim, Adam Ingram and $500,000 to Buffalo Sabres for Kyle Okposo and Radko Gudas
*Fine applied for trading the following players: Bobby Trivigno Jakub Malek

Vancouver Canucks trade Joe Miller, Nico Daws, Noah Laba, VAN 2024 Rnd 2 and $500,000 to Detroit Red Wings for Roman Josi
*Fine applied for trading the following players: Joe Miller Noah Laba

9/5 = $1,000,000