In the wake of the J.T. Miller trade, the Vancouver Canucks have made upgrading their centre depth a top organizational priority.
Ideally, they could find a way to identify and acquire a top-six-calibre centreman, which is why we opened our trade deadline targets series with a look at five potential options, but the truth is highly skilled centremen capable of holding down first- or second-line minutes rarely move in-season. And when they do, it’s almost always for an exorbitant price.
Canucks management understands that the work required to acquire a top-six centreman may prove too complicated, the fit of the players available may prove too imperfect, and the price may prove to be far too rich for the club to successfully land the upgrade they require ahead of the March 7 trade deadline. That doesn’t mean Canucks management won’t keep working on it, but it’s possible — even probable — that they may have to wait until the offseason to bring in the sort of quality of reinforcements they’re seeking.
Given that reality, we figured we’d spotlight some depth centre options the Canucks could consider. These are players who might be more realistic deadline targets, most of whom could be available at the sort of prices the Canucks might find easier to swallow.
Here are 10 players who could bolster the Canucks’ depth down the middle, even if they’re not necessarily the top-six answer Vancouver is ultimately seeking higher up the lineup.
Rasmus Kupari
Acquired from L.A. as part of the trade that shipped Pierre-Luc Dubois out of Winnipeg nearly two years ago, Rasmus Kupari has established himself as a reliable fourth-line centre. It’s possible, however, he could become the odd man out of Winnipeg’s stacked lineup once captain Adam Lowry returns from injury and if general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff acquires a top-six centre to fill the club’s glaring 2C hole.
Kupari is one of the fastest players in the NHL, ranking in the 97th percentile of forwards for speed bursts above 20 miles per hour. With wheels like that, he often looks like a ball of energy and is disruptive on the forecheck. The 24-year-old right-shot centre has developed into an above-average faceoff man (he’s won 53 percent of his draws this season) and a capable defensive driver. Kupari’s impact on suppressing shots and chances against is notable, and he’s been on the ice for just 1.68 goals against per 60 at five-on-five since joining the Jets last season.
The main criticism of Kupari is that his offensive game has stalled. He’s notched just seven points (five goals) in 57 games this season. His hands can’t quite keep up with his feet, and he hasn’t developed the IQ or creative offensive entry maneuvers to translate his speed and puck-carrying into offensive chances.
However, there are a couple of reasons to believe he could have more to give offensively.
For starters, he appears to have been snakebitten since arriving in Winnipeg. The Jets have scored on just 4.4 percent of their shots with Kupari on the ice at five-on-five — the equivalent of a ridiculous .956 save percentage — the lowest mark among all NHL forwards who’ve logged at least 500 minutes since last season. We’d expect Kupari and his fourth-line linemates to have below-average shooting efficiency because they aren’t talented finishers, but his on-ice shooting percentage shouldn’t be this low. He’s due for a few more bounces, which should boost his production.
Secondly, Kupari has some pedigree as the No. 20 pick in 2018. Sure, the odds of him breaking out at this stage in his mid-20s aren’t super high, but it’s still a remote possibility.
The nice thing about Kupari is even if he doesn’t level up offensively, his speed, work rate, right-handed faceoff ability and defensive impact give him a high floor as a quality fourth-liner. If Kupari ends up on the outside looking in because the Jets get another top-six centre, the Canucks should inquire to see if he’d be available for a low price.
Rasmus Kupari is among the NHL’s fastest players, but his offence has stalled of late. (Bob DeChiara / Imagn Images)
Colton Sissons and Michael McCarron
Since the Miller trade, the Canucks have mostly used Pius Suter in a shutdown third-line centre role against the opposition’s top lines. He got the tough matchups against Detroit’s Dylan Larkin and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon in recent home games. Suter’s a savvy defensive player, but Rick Tocchet probably doesn’t view him as an ideal fit for that role because of his undersized stature and limitations in the circle (Suter has only won 42 percent of his draws this season).
Acquiring a 3C would also permit Tocchet to shift Suter to a complementary top-six winger role where he’s thrived, fattening up the Vancouver forward group. It would insulate the Canucks from Suter’s pending unrestricted free-agent status.
Could Colton Sissons be the defensive-minded 3C to check some of those boxes?
The 31-year-old North Vancouver native has a lot of experience being thrown to the wolves in tough defensive minutes. He’s an excellent right-handed faceoff man, can hold his own in middle-six usage (has averaged 15-16 minutes per game in recent seasons) and while he’s having a down offensive year this season, he has a long track record of being a capable 30-ish point producer. He brings the type of competitiveness, gritty battle-winning and size the organization would covet down the middle.
Sissons is under contract for one year beyond this season at a reasonable $2.875 million cap hit. Perhaps the Nashville Predators, who have young centres like Fedor Svechkov emerging and have endured a miserable campaign, decide to become classic deadline sellers and aim to get younger. Sissons would have many suitors and a significant market, but would check a lot of boxes for the Canucks from a hockey-fit perspective.
Michael McCarron could be another bottom-six option to target from Nashville.
The giant 6-foot-6 centre would inject heaviness and toughness (he’s fought 15 times since last season) into a small Canucks forward group that can occasionally get pushed around. McCarron is far more than just an enforcer, too — he’s developed into a dependable defensive player, has won nearly 55 percent of his faceoffs this season and was a key part of the Predators’ excellent “identity” fourth line with Kiefer Sherwood last season.
McCarron realistically profiles as a 4C rather than a 3C, however. He has one year left after this season at a bargain $900,000 cap hit.
Alex Kerfoot, Kevin Stenlund and Nick Bjugstad
Utah has an excess crop of depth centremen. If it can’t catch up in the playoff race before the deadline and decides to sell, it could make one — or all — of these bottom-six pivots available.
Alex Kerfoot is a valuable Swiss Army knife who can play all three forward positions and capably moves up and down the lineup. The speedy, pass-first 30-year-old has a long track record of driving above-average two-way results and can be trusted to play in all situations. Kerfoot has scored at least 40 points four times in his career, including last season.
Kerfoot’s production is down this year (16 points in 56 games) but his offensive play-driving metrics are still strong and the team’s converted on less than 6 percent of its shots during his five-on-five minutes, which suggests he’s been unlucky. If anything, that should drive the price for him down, which could create an interesting buy-low opportunity.
Kerfoot is in the final year of a $3.5 million AAV contract, but he’s from Vancouver, so if the Canucks wanted to keep him beyond this season, they’d presumably have a decent shot. The big question with Kerfoot is whether he’s a significant enough upgrade on Suter for the 3C role. He’s got a high work rate and is energetic, but he doesn’t have the prototypical size you’d expect from a premium 3C.
Kevin Stenlund does have the size, heaviness and high-end faceoff prowess the Canucks would covet, but he’s more limited offensively than Kerfoot and profiles as more of a 4C. The 28-year-old right-shot forward is on pace to hit the double-digit goal mark for a second consecutive season, so he can provide plenty of offence in a fourth-line role at either centre or on the wing, but it’s a stretch to imagine him having third-line upside. He has one year left after this season at a $2 million cap hit.
Nick Bjugstad, a towering 6-foot-6 forward who can excel at both centre and on the wing, is a high-quality two-way player with sound defensive chops. He’s also produced five-on-five points at a solid top-nine rate over the last few seasons, which included a 22-goal, 45-point campaign last year.
We could see the Canucks being interested in Bjugstad this summer as a free agent — Jim Rutherford traded for him when he ran Pittsburgh’s front office — but with how thin the centre market is at this year’s deadline, it won’t be cheap to pry him out of Utah. And that would be a risky bet unless the Canucks are certain they could re-sign him beyond this season.
Jake Evans and Christian Dvorak
Of all the players on this list, the one that fits the Canucks’ template best from an age- and hockey-fit perspective is Jake Evans.
Evans, 28, is enjoying a career offensive season, is holding down a third-line matchup role and regularly playing up the lineup for the Montreal Canadiens, and is a right-handed centreman who can win draws and log minutes competently on the penalty kill. While he’s a clear third-line centre as opposed to a middle-six guy, there are some signs — including a meaningful uptick in his offensive metrics at five-on-five and increased production over the past two years — that he has some supporting offensive juice.
Evans, a pending unrestricted free agent, is happy in Montreal by all accounts. And the Canadiens would likely prefer to keep him, all things being equal. If the two sides aren’t able to hammer out an extension prior to the deadline, however, he could move, and the market for his services will be extremely hot if that indeed comes to pass.
Would the Canucks be willing to meet that price? Maybe not, but when Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin have opted to really go in and pay retail price for players in free agency or on the trade market — Jake DeBrusk, Marcus Pettersson, Filip Hronek are all good examples of this — they’ve tended to check a lot of similar boxes to Evans, like being in their late 20s and filling a position of particular need.
Jake Evans is having a career season with 27 points in 56 games for the Canadiens. (Brian Bradshaw Sevald / Imagn Images)
Christian Dvorak, 29, is like a more reasonably priced version of Evans. He’s left-handed, whereas Evans is a righty, but he’s even better in the faceoff circle. He’s slightly older, less productive, hasn’t been as durable in recent years, is far more expensive contract-wise over the balance of this season, and has been utilized as a pure bottom-six player in Montreal whereas Evans has been deployed as a middle-six guy in a matchup role.
If the Canadiens can’t keep up in the Eastern Conference’s crowded wild-card race before the deadline, Dvorak is an interesting option for the Canucks to consider, especially given Vancouver has opened up a fair bit of cap flexibility throughout this season and would have more ability to take on Dvorak’s $4.45 million cap hit than most contenders. There’s also familiarity between Dvorak and Tocchet; Dvorak broke into the league and enjoyed his best seasons in Arizona when Tocchet was his head coach.
Radek Faksa and Oskar Sundqvist
A pair of burly St. Louis Blues defensive centremen with size who excel on the penalty kill, Radek Faksa and Oskar Sundqvist are true bottom-six pivots. They’re depth adds with very similar profiles who would fit well with Vancouver’s defensive scheme, but both take some utensils off the table offensively, especially if they’re asked to play up the lineup on the third line.
Sundqvist, 30, is signed for this year and next at a reasonable $1.5 million cap hit. Originally drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins back when Allvin was their head of European scouting, Sundqvist is enjoying one of the most effective defensive seasons of his career. There’s very little offence to speak of for Sundqvist, who hasn’t scored 10 goals in a season since before the pandemic, however, and despite being the right-handed centreman Vancouver needs, he’s not an especially reliable faceoff winner.
Faksa is left-handed but is better in the faceoff circle and has a longer track record than Sundqvist as a goal scorer, physical player and high-end defensive pivot. In fact, he is one of the league’s foremost no-event centremen. Faksa’s teams tend to give up next to nothing in his five-on-five minutes but also tend to generate very little themselves.
A pending unrestricted free agent, Faksa has a sizeable $3.25 million cap hit in the final year of his deal. That’s a number Vancouver can accommodate with ease, whereas other contenders might require retention to take it on.
The Blues aren’t looking like a team capable of hanging around in the Western Conference playoff race and will likely emerge as sellers down the stretch. Both Faksa and Sundqvist would add some size, snarl and tactical nous to Vancouver’s centre depth, although rolling with either player in combination with Teddy Blueger as the bottom-six centremen would risk exacerbating Vancouver’s already significant issues generating scoring chances and manufacturing offence at five-on-five.
Even if they have to settle for a depth add down the middle of their forward ranks, the truth is, given the way they are constructed, the Canucks probably require a player with more offensive upside than what this duo of big, impressive defensive pivots is likely to provide.
(Top photo of Kevin Lankinen defending the net against Radek Faksa: Jeff Curry / Imagn Images)
