Should the Vancouver Canucks Try to Sign Colorado’s Josh Manson

It’s a great question. Josh Manson is a player with mildly horrific analytics over the last five seasons on a rebuilding Anaheim Ducks team, but piles up hits and blocked shots with the best of ’em. A fighter with an occasional offensive upside. It’s also whether the Vancouver Canucks would outbid other teams and whether or not they’re willing to do it.

Yes, he’s 30-years-old, but you wouldn’t be offering him more than four years. Would that automatically make the Canucks a runner-up?

This topic comes up in recent player acquisition discussions for two reasons.

One, I’ve had at least three fans, one maybe a writer, promote the concept to me in the last four days.

Two, when Colorado Avalanche GM Joe Sakic pulled the trigger at the NHL trade deadline to nab Manson as a impending free agent ‘rental’ from the Anaheim Ducks for a 2nd-round NHL Draft pick in 2023, I raved about the deal. To the point that in the Rogers Arena press box at a Vancouver Canucks game about a week after the deadline, me and another scribe agreed it “was probably the last piece in pushing Colorado over the top.”

Right on. Dude brought his physicality and a bit of surprising offensive involvement.

He had the game winning goal in Game-1 of the second-round series against St. Louis, a goal against the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Final and a goal in Game-2 of the Stanley Cup Final. His eight points in twenty playoff games came in the clutch and outpaced his average regular season production, although he did have one impressive stand-alone 37-point campaign with the Ducks in 2017-’18.

Nope, he doesn’t fit the 20-something core concept, but neither does Tyler Myers. The club needs right defenceman, preferably big, physical ones with a certain level of skill.

Would you rather have 30-year-old Manson for four years at $4.5-million per season or 32-year-old Myers for two years at $6-million?

Both are basically 2nd-pair defenders and both work the penalty kill. I’d take that swap in a hypothetical world.