Price is Right: Will Canucks mortgage future again to solve defence problem?

This is going to get interesting for the Vancouver Canucks’ front office.

The Canucks’ season through four games has already been a roller coaster, highs and lows, but without some help on the blue line it could be a tilt-a-whirl in no time. The question is, what to do with this gaping hole on the right side of the top four?

The previous administrations certainly would have been willing to trade draft capital, even prospects, to better their lot in life and make it to the promised land. Which by the way, is the playoffs, not the Stanley Cup Final. No, the Cup is a ways off right now. But still, what will this management group do?

I know I’d be tempted. This market, the owner, is desperate to be in the postseason again, but will that desperation force them into what will still likely be a middling move, at the price of the future?

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The Canucks are in a better place cap-wise than they’ve been, certainly not out of the woods, but better. Still, they have to be building in the background while they simultaneously get better at the NHL level. They aren’t done the re-tool, re-build, whatever this is. So are you ready for them to trade a grade A prospect or a first-round pick to get a decent right-shot defenceman? One that may or may not be a player for them in the long term? The cupboard isn’t exactly so full that it requires things removed.

Again though, I get the temptation. And the Elias Pettersson contract situation cannot be extracted from this. Remember Ep40 wants to see progress, wants to see that winning and the playoffs are not far away. Heck, he probably wants to see that it’s all arrived. So to protect that asset, do they actually just need to peel a pick or prospect to get better? Is that even enough?

Because not only do they need to pay a cost to acquire this player, they’ll likely need to pay an additional cost to create the cap space for that player. It could all come in the same transaction, but the possibility of multiple pieces being needed is there, and likely is the reality.

In other words, the price won’t be right, but should they or will they pay it anyway? The answer may very well be yes, and it’ll be hard to blame them.