Early Trading: Canucks identify trade needs

With the Christmas trade freeze kicking in this Thursday at midnight, TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joins Gino Reda to discuss what position needs the Canucks are making calls about, where extension talks stand between the Blue Jackets and defenceman Ivan Provorov, and how his younger brother Vladimir could make things interesting.

Reda: The Christmas trade freeze kicks into effect this Thursday at midnight, so teams that want to get something done gotta get going.
 
With that in mind, here's our Insider Pierre LeBrun and Pierre, after a somewhat disappointing couple of months to start the season, the Vancouver Canucks are just now starting to hang on to a wild-card spot in the West. We know they want to be buyers, are we starting to get a better idea of what they're trying to buy?
 
LeBrun: Yeah, they're making their calls and word is getting around when you talk to different sources around the league about what the Canucks are calling about.
 
Certainly, a top need has been identified: a top-four defenceman. That's certainly the top item for the Canucks, but also a winger. 
 
They're looking for both, and the top-four defenceman is not surprising. Obviously the team hasn't been the same since Filip Hronek has gone down with an injury and is out long-term. He is going to be back before the end of the season but, despite that, the Canucks are intent on going to try to trade for a top-four defenceman. They need the depth there.
 
The one thing about the Canucks, Jim Rutherford is the president of hockey ops, Patrik Allvin is the GM - Rutherford's tradition and desire of trying to trade way ahead of the deadline is well-established, and last year, on Jan. 31, they got ahead of the market on Elias Lindholm and traded for him that early.
 
So, it certainly wouldn't surprise me, if the Canucks are able to go find a top-four defenceman and a winger, that they get this done sooner rather than later.
 
Obviously it has to fit cap-wise, and fit-wise, but the Canucks are certainly making their calls, so I think by now they understand what their team is through the ups and downs they've had this year, and I think they're ready to act here if they can get that done.
 
Reda: Alright you opened the door for me here so let me walk through it.
 
For a while now it looked like if you were shopping for a top-four defenceman, the Columbus Blue Jackets' Ivan Provorov was going to be available to the highest bidder. The 27-year-old is in the final year of his deal before he can become a free agent in the summer, but now there's been an interesting twist to that story, Pierre?
 
LeBrun: He might still be dealt, but there's a new twist for sure. His younger brother, Vladimir Provorov, who's only 16 years old, it was announced Monday that he's committed to Ohio State University. 
 
I spoke with Ivan's agent, Mark Gandler, who's also the advisor for the Provorov family, today and what Gandler told me is obviously these are separate business decisions. We have to be careful here, but that the two brothers are very close and that part of the reason why the younger brother has committed to Ohio State is that they spend a lot of time in Columbus and the Provorov family really likes Columbus.
 
Now, he's not going to be at Ohio State for another two or three years because he's only 16, but it is an interesting twist in all this. One of the things that Gandler said to me today is that Provorov loves it in Columbus, and that they are "open" to discussions about an extension with the Blue Jackets if that's something the Blue Jackets would like to entertain. 
 
The door is certainly open, there have not been any contract talks yet between Provorov's camp and Don Waddell, the GM of the Blue Jackets, but I suspect that conversation will happen at some point in the new year. 
 
I think what it comes down to here is that it's fine and dandy for both sides to have an open mind to continuing that relationship, but what does that mean in terms of agreeing on an extension? What's the number? 
 
We know from our time at the Board of Governors meeting last week that the salary cap is going up. What it's going up to exactly remains to be seen, but it's going up. 
 
One of the things that I'm sensing, as I talk to agents and front offices around the league right now, is agents and front offices aren't quite on the same page yet in a lot of cases as to what that's going to look like, in terms of the financial landscape. 
 
So yes, the agent's on the record with me. Provorov is open to talking an extension with the Blue Jackets, but what does that number look like?
 
I still think, all things being fair, I think the Blue Jackets' number, for both term and average annual value, is obviously going to be lower than Provorov, who plays 23 minutes a night and turns 28 next month, what his number could be on July 1 on the open market. 
 
There just aren't a lot of top-four defenceman that end up on the July 1 market. I don't know if they can bridge the gap. At the end of the day, if nothing else, having the younger Provorov commit to Ohio State is not nothing, so we'll see where that goes.
 
Reda: The Blue Jackets have a lot of work to do on the blueline right now, they currently only have three regular defencemen signed beyond next season.