Canucks Trade Talk Won’t Die with End of Draft, JT Miller Out There

Don’t expect the Vancouver Canucks trade talk to die down with the culmination of the 2022 NHL Draft in Montreal. If anything, it’ll likely pick up ahead of free agency season.

Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin acknowledged the trade talk and phone call activity within the league before the NHL Draft started.

“It’s getting more and more, definitely, and trying to catch up and meet with some agents here in town as well, just getting prepared here for the next couple of weeks,” he said Wednesday before it started.

Thursday, he added this: “I feel sorry for JT Miller, there’s so many speculations out there. Teams are checking in and rightfully so, he was our best player last year and he’s a really good hockey player. So we’re going to continue to talk here … and see if we can find a path for both of us that makes sense.”

Doesn’t sound like a signing is forthcoming anytime soon does it? Or maybe it’s just long-term leverage.

New Jersey Devils General Manager Tom Fitgerald’s name came up again in the rumour mill for good reason. He didn’t trade the second overall pick, he drafted Slovakian right-shot defenceman Simon Nemec, but he’s still looking for some veteran grit up front and some defence and goalie depth.

Abbotsford Canucks 23-year-old goalie Mike Dipietro’s name continues to surface with the Devils and other club’s in mind, one’s looking for organizational depth in the crease. The Vancouver Canucks don’t necessarily have a glut of goalies, but for the right price, consideration for DiPietro makes sense, especially considering the emergence of Spencer Martin. Martin’s is the presumed back-up to Thatcher Demko next season.

At one point during Thursday’s first round, a fast-spreading rumour made its way through the Bell Centre media that suggested the Vancouver Canucks and New York Islanders had a deal in place early on that didn’t come to fruition, or in rumour speak – “fell through at the last second.”

Allvin laughed and insisted he hadn’t even heard it, let alone taken part in it.

Maybe all it was, was an omen for the not-so-distant future. Or as Allvin so aptly put it at one point …

“We’ll see, I guess anything can happen,” Allvin.