The Canucks need to upgrade the blueline, Edler, Tanev, Hutton, Gudbrandson, Stecher are worth keeping. Sure Hughes will be here at some point. Here are a couple low cost moves that could improve the D core send Goldobin to Columbus for Nutivaara similar age and salary Nutivaara is a right side D man with a zero +/-. Next send Pouliot to Montreal for one of the 2 4th round picks they have. At or just before the deadline the Canucks should take offers on Sutter, Nilsson, Stecher and Del Zotto.
In what way is Gudbranson worth keeping? He's an overpaid #6/7 fake tough guy. Not only that but he's the exact kind of player that dinosaur GMs think are real good stay at home top 4 guys (Benning, for example). He is prime trade material to a team like Edmonton for a huge overpayment.
Edler is worth keeping because he wants to stay here and he'll likely take a pay cut to do so, plus he's probably our best D and will almost certainly retire here.
Tanev would be worth trading despite being vital to this team because he's getting older now and if he has enough value it's absolutely worth it. We can try to find a RD to replace him in FA if necessary, but if a team is willing to acquire him for a 2 year rental it's worth it.
Stetcher is whatever. I like him, we won't get anything for him, and he's fine for depth D with a little bit of potential upside on a young team. Worth keeping
Hutton easily worth keeping.
Goldobin could be sent to a team at the deadline. He's on pace for 45 points and we should pump those numbers as much as possible. He's a 23 year old RFA making $816k. Should be valuable to a playoff team looking to add some scoring. Unfortunately I'm not sure if he has enough trade value to justify trading a 23 year old 40+ pt guy. Unless a contending team at the deadline wants to pay for him due to his age and contract I'd keep him.
I love Baertschi but I'd rather move him if we get the chance due to his concussion history. One more hit and he might be finished. He's a draft guy not a deadline guy so playing him with Pettersson for the rest of the year to get those numbers up would be fantastic. Goldobin can easily replace him.
Pouliot getting us a 4th is insane. There is an argument to be made for him being the worst player in the NHL, he easily clears waivers.
I would like to see Motte get something like a 4th though.
Del Zotto has 0 value. He's a 3m guy in the press box all year. I wouldn't have minded to play him in Pouliot's spot all year and give him prime time with Pettersson hoping he would find his offensive game again to move him at the deadline, but that ship has sailed.
Nilsson likely has no value unless he has a fantastic stretch. He's UFA at the end of the year so he has no draft value and nobody will want to pay to acquire him as a rental backup.
Stetcher as I mentioned earlier likely doesn't have much value and I'm happy to keep him anyway.
Sutter you're right should be shopped.
Beagle has a 15 team NTC, I would wager he would accept a trade to a deadline team and if we could get a return for him I would be absolutely ecstatic. I think Gaunce is a fine replacement for him at 1/4 the salary and with Gaudette looking like he could step into a bottom 6 role I would love to shed that salary.
Deadline:
Sutter
Tanev
Gudbranson
Motte
Goldobin - if a team is willing to pay a premium given his age/contract/FA status which is unlikely, otherwise worth keeping for sure.
Edler - If he's willing to waive. Would be great if there was an "understanding" they he might get a bonus on his next contract if he accepts a deadline deal
Draft:
Baertschi
Walking:
Pouliot
Granlund
Del Zotto
Nilsson
Not sure about returns, I'm bad at that kind of stuff and don't follow the rest of the league very much. If we could find some cap dumps we could make some serious moves. Shedding Gudbranson, potentially Beagle, potentially Tanev, MDZ, Granlund, Pouliot, and maybe Baertschi at the draft would give us quite a bit of cap space. The Eriksson contract is killer but if we can find some type of cap dump for him maybe involving Goldobin+ we could have room to sign both Stone and Karlsson and actually be a competitive team. Unfortunately we also have Schaller and Gagner to dump and it would start to get costly real fast.
Dump:
Eriksson
Gagner
Schaller
(I'm not sure what cap dumps cost, but I think flipping some of the returns for players we ship out would definitely be possible)
Sign
Edler
Karlsson
Stone
Boeser
If Benning finds it in him to do a quick turnover of the vets on this team we could be a legit team, but we have these overpaid vets because he thinks they're good so I wont hold my breath.