Details revealed of failed Vancouver Canucks trade for Quinn Hughes' best friend
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Just how close were the Vancouver Canucks to getting Josh Norris at the trade deadline?
“Pretty close,” apparently.
This is according to Darren Dreger, who first revealed Vancouver’s interest in the former Ottawa Senators centre during TSN’s trade-deadline coverage on March 7.
During an interview with Sekeres and Price on Monday, Dreger added context.
“The Canucks were pretty close on Josh Norris with the Ottawa Senators at the time,” said Dreger. “It would have been Filip Chytil, and it would have been a draft pick that would have gone way of the Ottawa Senators. I don’t know why that came unglued.”
Dreger added that Norris was a player that Rick Tocchet really liked, and that he fit their system and style of play.
The Canucks missed out on the 26-year-old centre, as the Sens traded him to Buffalo on deadline day in a deal that saw Dylan Cozens go to Ottawa.
The Canucks’ interest in Norris was especially interesting given his relationship to Quinn Hughes. Hughes has described his former teammate at the University of Michigan and Team USA as his “best friend.”
If they can’t acquire his brothers, why not his best friend?
Norris is a player who has struggled to stay healthy during his five-year NHL career, never playing more than 66 games in a season. The 6-foot-2 centre played just three games with the Sabres before an oblique injury caused him to miss the final month of the season.
Health is also a concern for Chytil, who missed the tail-end of last season with a concussion suffered on March 15.
Norris is more accomplished at the NHL level, though, scoring 158 points (91-67-158) in 239 career games. Norris’ career year came in 2021-22, when he scored 35 goals and 20 assists in just 66 games.
We’ll see if the door is closed on Norris coming to Vancouver, as he has four more years left on a contract paying him $7.95 million annually.