Elias Pettersson stayed in Vancouver, and a new report claims the Canucks had a deal in place to send him to Carolina for Martin Necas.
Saturday morning, insider DJ Heer dropped the kind of offseason grenade Canucks fans did not need.
He claims the Canucks also had a Brock Boeser for Logan Stankoven package on the table.
Both trades reportedly died on the vine. And the numbers now make the inaction look like malpractice.
Necas finished the regular season with 100 points in 78 games for Colorado. He went plus-47 with 38 goals and 62 assists.
The Vancouver center, meanwhile, posted 51 points in 74 games. He went minus-30 on a team that finished 32nd overall.
The clip making the rounds is simple but punishing, one short post showing two missed trades that would have reshaped the top six for years.
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Ryan Johnson inherits a top six that already feels broken
Boeser had his moments with 22 goals, but the -48 rating is the worst on the roster and frankly hard to look at.
Stankoven is 23 years old, just put up 44 points in 81 games, and added 12 more in 13 playoff games for Carolina at a $814,166 cap hit.
That last number is the one that stings. A 23-year-old forward with playoff scoring at under a million dollars is the exact piece a 25-49-8 team should be hunting.
Instead, the Canucks kept the right winger on his $7.25 million deal and watched him post a goal differential most ECHL teams could beat.
What does it say when the trades you didn't make are the loudest story of your offseason?
Vancouver's front office can spin the next five months however they want. The receipts are already public.
The Necas window in particular is gone for good now that he has hit triple digits. Some doors do not reopen.
Should the Canucks have pulled the trigger on Pettersson for Necas?
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