We all know the Florida Panthers are going to win the draft lottery, right?

Okay, good! Now that you're seeing red, we're going to call that your rose coloured glasses and look at how the Canucks did this deadline. Not great, but not as bad as it could have been. Let's dig in.

The Good, The Bad, And The What?

Backing up to the big man's absence, here's the total trade movement by Vancouver this week.

Out: Tyler Myers with 50% retained, Conor Garland, David Kampf, Lukas Reichel, Jett Woo
In: 3rd-round pick and two 6th-round picks for 2026; 2nd-round pick for 2027; 2nd-roundpick for 2028; 4th round pick for 2029; Curtis Douglas; Jack Thompson

No disrespect to Thompson or Douglas, but the team essentially brought no players in while moving three NHLers, an AHLer, and a tweener out. That's the right way to do it. But some of these were done more right than others.

The Good

None of these deals was a clear, decisive win. And that's fine. The team has a very different objective now. Deals made today had to have a far longer time frame than trying to salvage the season. So with the qualifier that these are less "good" than they are "good enough"...

David Kampf, Lukas Reichel for 2026 6th-round picks

I stand corrected: getting anything at all for Reichel is a clean win. A 6th for Kampf is about expected. Both picks are going to be in the 170-range, but still better than nothing. Yes, Vancouver paid a fourth for Reichel, which was bad. But it was also a desperation move for a team with injured centres and a frustrated superstar. Those conditions aren't going to repeat themselves, and you take the sixth and run.

David Kampf got more ice time with Vancouver than he will in Washington, and his worth to them was lower than with Vancouver. A sixth is fine. Aatu Räty and a returning Marco Rossi can take his faceoffs.

Conor Garland for a 2nd and a 3rd

The picks coming back aren't as high as they might be otherwise. If Vancouver retained at all, this could easily have been a 1st. But again, that's not the point. Having one of their salary retention slots occupied for another six years would have been an albatross. The Canucks didn't bring back a contract, but Columbus had no need to move any money. It was a deal signed with a different goal in mind, and clearing it before his no-move clause kicked in gave this one a time limit.

Tyler Myers for a 2nd and 4th, 50% retained

Speaking of retained salaries, this one is a bit annoying. We don't know what the deal with Detroit actually looked like, but it probably didn't involve retained salary. Still, it's just for the one season, and Ilya Mikheyev is coming off the books this Summer. And it ends up Vancouver didn't use the third slot this deadline anyway, annoyingly enough.

The Bad

Sigh.

You can not tell me the Vancouver Canucks are going to have a 1,000th game ceremony for Evander Kane. Like, c'mon. This is a mutual termination, right? Right? Pull a David Kampf, free him up to look for another team. Kane's salary is far higher than Kampf's was, but he's been paid most of his $5.125 million this year. Set him free, and with that, set free the expectation we're going to cheer him getting a silver stick at centre ice. They really couldn't keep Vasily Podkolzin instead of bringing in Kane? Really?

And look, we like Teddy Blueger. Most of us wouldn't mind seeing him return next year. A veteran voice, plays hard, does any job asked of him. The guy you want to help the kids. But we'd have preferred it if he came back in six months after bringing a draft pick today. It's hard to picture a world where Kampf brings a return, but Blueger doesn't.

The What?

Curtis Douglas is a 25-year-old rookie who has played 29 games with Tampa Bay this season. A winger who can play centre, he has two assists this season while averaging less than six minutes a night. He's here because he's 6'9", 243 pounds, and has 92 minutes in penalties. Right, then. I guess with Myers gone, they wanted to add some size, if nothing else.

As for the Jack Thompson for Jett Woo trade, I've got a soft spot for Woo. Throwback defencemen are a weakness of mine, but while he could still make the league as a part-timer, he hasn't yet, and he's 25 and a group 6 UFA at year's end. Thompson played 31 games in the bigs in 2024-25, scoring three times and getting 10 points. This is the second time he's been traded, so general managers see something there.

TL;DR

Holding unrestricted free agents is bewildering for a team that is, frankly, doomed. How on earth Blueger and Kane are still in Vancouver is a mystery. Still, credit has to be given for shifting Garland and his extended contract out. The team has a decent-looking draft set for the next three seasons, and that should be added to in the offseason.

That Garland was the only big deal to move out isn't a real concern. Money can be tricky, and big deals need to be planned for. If teams are going to make a pitch for someone like Elias Pettersson the Forward or Brock Boeser or another long-term deal, they'll need to arrange for it.

In the meantime, this is an opportunity to see Max Sasson and Aatu Räty and the like out there. Anyone who's curious to see some of the Canucks future can tune in. The team may not be pretty, but maybe individual players will be.

The first hurdle of the rebuild has been cleared, but not by much. Draft Day looms large, and with it the Canucks's future. It will be interesting to see how much of a part Vancouver's current management plays in it.