Canucks: Just a few untouchables as trade talk shifts to Pius Suter

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Derek Forbort has been through this before.

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Trade deadline is what it is, he says. He has played for a few teams in his career, but only once has been traded at the deadline — from the L.A. Kings to the Calgary Flames.

Apologies if you’ve forgotten about him being a Flame. It was brief — just seven regular season games. “Yeah, it was right before the pandemic,” he said with a chuckle Tuesday.

Then, he looked at this reporter and with a straight face asked: “Wait, what are you hearing?”

In fairness to Forbort, not much. He is a defenceman with size, who makes a positive impact when he is on the ice, on an expiring contract. Those kinds of guys are coveted at the trade deadline, the kind of player playoff-bound teams want to have on their roster.

“We’re still in it,” he said. His position on this week, one filled with a lot of trade chatter, much of it baseless, is pretty clear. He wants to be a Vancouver Canuck … in the playoffs.

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And that is the dilemma for Canucks management. They have had a tough season. Very little has gone to plan. But they are still in a position to take control of the situation, to snatch up the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

So a sell-off seems unlikely, even if there are a handful of roster question marks that there is just no avoiding, no matter whether the Canucks are sellers or not.

There’s Forbort, for one. Another is defenceman in Carson Soucy, although he has another year on his contract.

And there are a couple of forwards in Brock Boeser and Pius Suter who are both pending free agents with lots to commend them as trade deadline pickups for other teams. Suter, a literal Swiss army knife, seems most likely to be moved, according to sources.

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The Canucks are clearly a team with few, if any, untouchables. Despite everything, the team has not lived up to expectation. The players themselves know that just about anything could happen at this point. As such, it’s going to be an anxious few days.

Let’s take a quick look at the situation of all four of these players with less than 72 hours to go before Friday’s noon trade deadline.

Pius Suter

At this point, if there’s a Canuck who is likely to be dealt, put Suter at the top of your list. Based on conversations with a variety of sources, it’s likely he is getting moved, echoing what CHEK-TV’s Rick Dhaliwal suggested on Tuesday morning, that the Swiss forward does not seem set to sign a new contract and the Canucks are likely to move him.

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Of course they would need to bring in a new centre, so if he is moved, it would not be surprising to see a bigger name coming in a concurrent deal. The Canucks were reportedly close to a couple of deals on the weekend, sources say, but the scale of those potential deals is not know.

Derek Forbort

The big blueliner was hurt for much of the first half, but now that he is healthy, he has been a defensive stalwart for the Canucks. His game isn’t exciting, but the results don’t lie — when he’s on the ice, the Canucks are in the offensive zone more than the defensive zone.

Rick Tocchet and Patrik Allvin have both spoken highly of his play and the impact they think he will make in the future — so he may not be flipped. But as ever, you never say never.

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Carson Soucy

It’s been a rough season for the veteran, as everyone knows. Last season was excellent. This season has mostly not been.

But Jim Rutherford teams have usually pursued defencemen, not gotten rid of them, at this time of year. So, like Forbort, your instinct should be that Soucy isn’t going anywhere — but again, nothing is certain.

Brock Boeser

And then there’s the star winger, who badly wants to remain a Vancouver Canuck, although not at any price. If that were the case, he would have signed by now.

The Canucks haven’t said it directly, but the implication of their public messaging has been clear for some time — the player knows the wage they see as fair and it’s on the player to come to them. Boeser’s camp is ready to consider a new contract offer, but also ready for a trade. Anything could happen at this point.

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Elias Pettersson

For all the drama around Pettersson this season — all the fair criticism of his brutally bad play of late, of his sour moods, of his lack of oomph — it remains clear that the Canucks’ long-term preference is to keep Pettersson and see him return to being the player he was.

But they are also ready to trade him. They nearly did a month ago. And even with his poor play lately, there are still teams intrigued by the potential.

It’s unlikely he lands elsewhere, but not impossible.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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