Welcome Matt: Canucks should think twice before trading a winger

It wasn’t long ago that a perceived strength of the Vancouver Canucks was on the wings.

That was before Bo Horvat was traded and J.T. Miller moved to centre full-time. That was before Brock Boeser became more playmaker than finisher (opening night notwithstanding, he might be back to being a goal-scorer). And that was before a couple of prospects — Vasily Podkolzin and Nils Höglander — took backwards steps in their development.

Now, with Conor Garland wanting out, the Canucks are left with an interesting decision. While there may well be a deal to be made with Columbus or Nashville for a defenceman (even a right-handed D-man), the club has to consider weakening itself on the flanks.

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Minus an injured Ilya Mikheyev — and who knows how much time he’ll need to get back to the player he was — Garland is playing on the top line with Elias Pettersson.

With Podkolzin in the minors and Höglander still not trusted beyond fourth line, subtracting Garland puts an awful lot of pressure on Phil Di Giuseppe and Anthony Beauvillier in the top-nine.

So they’re not as deep as they used to be, although we’ll see if Sam Lafferty can be part of the solution and possibly play further up the lineup.

In most cases, getting a defenceman for a winger is good trading. But for the Canucks, the upgrade on defence has to be substantial if they’re going to further deplete winger depth.