Price is Right: Kuzmenko signing perplexing for a Canucks team with few trade chips left

Trade targets offered up by the Vancouver Canucks are disappearing.

And that’s not good news for a team that is in dire need of change.

The re-signing of Andrei Kuzmenko to a 2 year extension, while a fair contract, is a perplexing decision given the cap space committed on the wings already, and the lack of avenues to add picks and prospects in any other way.

Bo Horvat remains the most viable option, and he’s a big one. But after him and Luke Schenn, it gets a little questionable.

After all, it was back in early December, nearly two months ago, that reports first surfaced that Brock Boeser’s agent had been given permission to help find a trade for his client. And today, Boeser remains a Vancouver Canuck.

That has to be one of the most surprisingly quiet stories of this season.  The Canucks second highest paid forward, and fourth highest paid player is trying to his find his way out. A player that for years was deemed part of the core.  And now, at his current price of 6.65 million at least, seems to be dying on the vine.

Other trade targets like Tyler Myers and Conor Garland, are likely wishful thinking if you’re the Canucks.  So a path to big change, both on the ice and in the room, is murky at best for the Canucks. Wishful thinking, if it’s even the plan in the first place.

This was never likely to be a blockbuster trade deadline across the league anyway, given the salary cap uncertainty, but if there was a team destined to make the most noise, to “win” the day, it was the Vancouver Canucks.

If that is still able to happen, the team’s management group will deserve every ounce of praise they get. If they don’t, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

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