Canucks give former 20-goal scorer permission to seek trade

According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Vancouver Canucks forward Conor Garland has been given permission “to talk to other teams about a potential trade.”

This news comes after it was reported earlier Tuesday by PuckPedia that Garland had switched agents and is now being represented by Judd Moldaver of Wasserman Hockey.

Per Postmedia’s Ben Kuzma, Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said “we’re not going to comment on that” regarding the reports on Garland. This news isn’t exactly a surprising development, as rumors have long circulated about a divorce between Garland and the Canucks.

The 27-year-old winger is a holdover from the Canucks’ previous administration, a remnant of the ill-fated Oliver Ekman-Larsson blockbuster trade, a deal that ultimately doomed Jim Benning and Travis Green as key decision-makers in Vancouver.

For quite a few reasons, Garland looks to be the sort of player that would generate quite a bit of interest leaguewide.

Even dating back to his days with the Arizona Coyotes, Garland has scored at a respectable rate. He potted 17 goals and 46 points last season, and had 19 goals and 52 points in 2021-22.

Garland is a shifty winger who blends crafty offensive play with a bit of an agitator quality. There’s a lot to like about his game, and yet at this point a trade out of Vancouver appears unlikely.

Why? For a few reasons. First and foremost: his contract. Garland is set to make $4.95MM against the cap for the next three seasons, and while that isn’t a totally unreasonable price for a player with his numbers, it’s not exactly a bargain.

Moreover, Garland stands at just five-foot-eight according to EliteProspects, and recent trends in how NHL teams allocate cap space have angled more towards wingers who bring size to the table.

Additionally, while Garland’s cap hit is $4.95MM he does own a backloaded contract, meaning any team acquiring him would be on the hook to pay $17MM in cash to Garland over the course of the three-year commitment.

So while Garland the player is undoubtedly one that would interest many NHL teams (players who can score 20 goals and 50 points reliably do not grow on trees) Garland the asset is one that is quite a bit more difficult to move.

Any trade negotiated between the Canucks and an interested club would almost undoubtedly require salary retention or money coming back to Vancouver.

That makes this trade a difficult one to complete mid-season, and although the Canucks have three retained salary slots remaining the already massive amount of dead money on their books through the Ekman-Larsson buyout could make the team weary to take on any additional dead cap commitments.

In other words, while there are undoubtedly teams that would love to add Garland to their roster, it would take quite a bit of creativity to reach a place where a trade could actually be completed.