Canucks Trade Thomas Vanek to the Blue Jackets

Ian Gooding

2018-02-26

Fantasy Impact: The Vancouver Canucks have traded left wing Thomas Vanek to the Columbus Blue Jackets for center Tyler Motte and left wing Jussi Jokinen.

The Blue Jackets get: A winger that will help with their power play, which has struggled to a second-worst 14.6% efficiency (only Edmonton’s is worse). Vanek is tied for third on the Canucks with 14 power-play points. He’s not known as a playoff performer or a John Tortorella-type player, but he fulfills a specific need.

The Canucks get: Two more forwards (Jokinen and Motte) who along with Brendan Leipsic will compete for icetime for the rest of the season, the latter two for jobs beyond that. Jim Benning must have been enamored with Motte, as he was willing to take on Jokinen’s expiring contract to make this deal. The Canucks could be adding forwards in anticipation of Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin not returning next season.

Fantasy players impacted:

Vanek’s power-play total listed above is higher than anyone on the Blue Jackets, so it’s not a stretch to assume that he’ll be deployed on the first-unit power play. He seemed to flip-flop between the first and second units in Van City. Artemi Panarin should be safe, and Pierre-Luc Dubois has produced in his time there, so Vanek could bump either Cam Atkinson or Alexander Wennberg off the first unit. Although both have missed time due to injury, both have just three power-play points each all season. Vanek could also compete with Nick Foligno for even-strength minutes, and his acquisition also pushes Sonny Milano further away from meaningful minutes.

Vanek wasn’t glued to any particular line during his time in Vancouver, so his departure may not make a significant fantasy ripple. The move could perhaps solidify that Nikolai Goldobin will stay on the NHL club and receive power-play minutes for the rest of the season. As well, it’s worth mentioning that Jake Virtanen received 1:50 of power-play time on Sunday, a game in which Vanek was scratched in anticipation of a trade. Other than that, maybe Loui Eriksson is used in more of a scoring role the rest of the way.

 

Fantasy players this helps, in order:

Goldobin

Virtanen

Vanek

Eriksson

📢 advertisement:

 

Fantasy players this hurts, in order:

Atkinson

Wennberg

Milano

Foligno

 

Fantasy owners are already weighing in – give your take here!

 

Leave A Comment

UPCOMING GAMES

Jun 17 - 20:06 FLA vs EDM

Starting Goalies

Top Skater Views

  Players Team
MARCO ROSSI MIN
JJ PETERKA BUF
K'ANDRE MILLER NYR
CONNOR BEDARD CHI
BRADY TKACHUK OTT

Top Goalie Profile Views

  Players Team
DARCY KUEMPER L.A
KAREL VEJMELKA UTA
JAKUB DOBES MTL
UKKO-PEKKA LUUKKONEN BUF
JOEY DACCORD SEA

LINE COMBOS

  Frequency DET Players
21.9 AUSTIN WATSON CRAIG SMITH TYLER MOTTE
21.3 MARCO KASPER PATRICK KANE ALEX DEBRINCAT
17.2 VLADIMIR TARASENKO MICHAEL RASMUSSEN J.T. COMPHER

DobberHockey Podcasts

Keeping Karlsson: Kreider Down South

Elan and Brian check in on the NHL playoffs (and the Keeping Karlsson Playoff Pool), announce a change to the draft rules for Season 11 of the Keeping Karlsson Ultimate Patron Fantasy League (KKUPFL), share thoughts on the one single relevant offseason transaction so far, and put a handful of 2024-25 breakout performances under the microscope to see if they’ll continue into 2025-26.

Fantasy Hockey Life: Montreal Canadiens with Ryan Szporer

Ryan Szporer is back to report on the Montreal Canadiens. Jesse and Victor interview Ryan about returning pros Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Ivan Demidov, Juraj Slafkovsky, Patrik Laine, Lane Hutson, Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, Sam Montembeault, and Jakub Dobes. In Cat’s Instincts, Cat Silverman of InGoal mag breaks down Jakub Dobes, Cayden Primeau, and Jacob […]

Fantasy Hockey Life: Detroit Red Wings with Max Bultman

Max Bultman of the Athletic is here to report on the Detroit Red Wings. Jesse and Victor interview Max about returning pros Lucas Raymond, Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane, Marco Kasper, JT Compher, Elmer Soderblom, Andrew Copp, Vladimir Tarasenko, Moritz Seider, Simon Edvinsson, Erik Gustafsson, Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon. In Cat’s Instincts, Cat […]

FIND US ON FACEBOOK

📢 advertisement: