Something's up between Canucks and Islanders ahead of trade deadline
The crowd of pro scouts at Vancouver Canucks games has dwindled drastically over the past week.
However, one scout was in attendance to watch the Canucks play the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night.
That scout was Steve Kariya of the New York Islanders.
Kariya is at a lot of Canucks games, so that’s not unusual, but it has seemed like there’s been a potential trade cooking between the Islanders and Canucks. Conor Garland seemed to be at the forefront of those rumours, although Drew O’Connor’s name was also mentioned.
But what if there’s another Canucks forward on the Islanders’ radar?
“The Islanders and Canucks are following each other around,” Rick Dhaliwal said on Thursday’s episode of Donnie and Dhali.
“I wonder if there’s interest in Boeser,” he said.
Well, wouldn’t you know, the Islanders reportedly had a keen interest in signing Boeser long-term just last summer.
Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News reported back in July that the Islanders were “close” to landing Boeser in free agency.
Rosner cited the fact that Boeser is still close friends with former Canucks captain Bo Horvat. The two were teammates for six seasons in Vancouver.
New York was apparently a frontrunner to sign Boeser because they were one of the only teams, aside from Vancouver, to offer him a long-term deal.
The contract offer from Islanders GM Mathieu Darche was “extremely close” to what he eventually re-signed for in Vancouver, according to Rosner.
Boeser shockingly signed a seven-year contract worth $7.25 million per season to remain with the Canucks back on July 1.
Of course, the fact that he is on a long-term deal now does complicate any potential trade.
“All I can tell you is the Islanders have been scouting the Canucks a lot,” Dhaliwal said. “Nobody [has been scouting the Canucks] more than the Islanders.”
“They’re looking for a veteran, goal-scoring guy.”
Well, at 29 years old, Boeser certainly fits the bill.
While the contract could be a major sticking point for some teams, the fact that the Islanders were reportedly willing to sign Boeser to a similar contract may mitigate that potential hiccup.
Of course, the Islanders signed other players in free agency after Boeser re-signed with the Canucks. Their big signing was inking Jonathan Drouin to a two-year deal worth $4 million per season.
The Islanders currently have a shade over $6 million in cap space according to PuckPedia, so they’d need to do some roster shuffling to make a Boeser trade work.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggested on NHL Now last week that they could look to move forward with Maxim Shabanov ($925,000 cap hit) and Anthony Duclair ($3.5-million cap hit) to make a potential deal work.
If there is potential interest here, at least Boeser put a good foot forward in the Canucks final game before the trade deadline. He scored a power play goal against the Hurricanes while registering a season-high seven hits.
Hopefully Kariya was taking notes.