(Rumour) Eklund says Canucks interested in Lars Eller

[Senpai]

Lol people wanting to trade Higgins yet have no suitable replacement for him on the PK.

Higgins was probably one of our best PKers last season, he's so good at covering passing lanes. Who are you gonna replace him with? Eller? Not NEARLY as good. Bart? No. Virtanen? God no.

Unless you guys want a craptastic PK next year, you don't trade Higgins unless you get a solid PKer back

[qwijibo]

Lol people wanting to trade Higgins yet have no suitable replacement for him on the PK.

Higgins was probably one of our best PKers last season, he's so good at covering passing lanes. Who are you gonna replace him with? Eller? Not NEARLY as good. Bart? No. Virtanen? God no.

Unless you guys want a craptastic PK next year, you don't trade Higgins unless you get a solid PKer back

Actually Eller is really strong in the PK. That being said. Higgins really doesn't fit the mild of what Montreal needs. And Vey is the exact opposite of what they need

[goblix]

Lol people wanting to trade Higgins yet have no suitable replacement for him on the PK.

Higgins was probably one of our best PKers last season, he's so good at covering passing lanes. Who are you gonna replace him with? Eller? Not NEARLY as good. Bart? No. Virtanen? God no.

Unless you guys want a craptastic PK next year, you don't trade Higgins unless you get a solid PKer back

Eller can play PK so I wouldn't see why trading Higgins is a big deal...

That said viable PKers we have? Hansen, Burrows, Sutter, Dorset, Prust, and Horvat ( maybe )

Don't think Higgins makes or breaks our PK, also good face off are a big tool in killing penaltys so if Eller helps in faceoffs it probably correlates to PK success

[Maniwaki Canuck]

Prediction: none of this comes to pass and we get our 4C for the coming year off the waiver wire in October.

[TheHockeyNerds]

This rumor doesn't really make sense for a couple reasons:

1) We already traded with Montreal ; why not add Eller to the package instead of another 1-1 trade where we'll likely get fleeced on the deal?

2) We already have Sedin/Horvat/Sutter/Vey/Gaunce down the middle. Where does Eller fit (unless he plays wing)?

While Eller would boost our PK and 3rd line, I don't see any interest on what Montreal would even want back from us

Just wanted to let you know Gaunce is a winger now, not a C

[TheHockeyNerds]

This rumor doesn't really make sense for a couple reasons:

1) We already traded with Montreal ; why not add Eller to the package instead of another 1-1 trade where we'll likely get fleeced on the deal?

2) We already have Sedin/Horvat/Sutter/Vey/Gaunce down the middle. Where does Eller fit (unless he plays wing)?

While Eller would boost our PK and 3rd line, I don't see any interest on what Montreal would even want back from us

Just wanted to let you know Gaunce is a winger now, not a C

[Baer.]

Actually Eller is really strong in the PK. That being said. Higgins really doesn't fit the mild of what Montreal needs. And Vey is the exact opposite of what they need

Actually, Higgins is exactly what they need. Winger, PK specialist, perrenial 30 point scorer, helluva contract...

Actually, I wanna keep him

[qwijibo]

Actually, Higgins is exactly what they need. Winger, PK specialist, perrenial 30 point scorer, helluva contract...

Actually, I wanna keep him

They need a legit top 6 scoring winger. Not another tweener. They have a glut of bottom 6 guys. Higgins is a nice player but on a contending team he should be a third liner at best

[Ilya Mikheyev]

They need a legit top 6 scoring winger. Not another tweener. They have a glut of bottom 6 guys. Higgins is a nice player but on a contending team he should be a third liner at best

And how many legit top-6 scoring winges are up for grabs for Eller? Maybe Vrbata, anyone else?

Higgins would have placed 6th amongst Montreal forwards in points last year, and is familar with some of players in the system from his days there—importantly he's played on Plekanec's wing before, including parts of the season where Plekanec first put up 69 points (his "breakout" year) and they played on a line in Hamilton together. Higgins broke 50 points last time he was a Hab.

Montreal has 5 centres, Canucks have 5-7 of LWers. Eller is a big upgrade on Vey, Higgins is a big upgrade on Dale Weise (or Semin). The package might not be straight up, but it could make sense for both teams.

In Montreal it was usually Galchenyuk or Desharnais who moved wing. But the transition from C to W isn't very hard. We've done it with multiple players before.

Some players can't do it well: take Cody Hodgson for example.

With 3 3rd lines, having Sutter - Horvat - Eller down the middle makes each a line threat and is not a bad idea. I personally think Eller has (in MTL) and will look fine on the LW, and DJ could experiment starting with Eller on the LW of the 2nd PP unit, where his wrist shot and size could really help out.

[appleboy]

They need a legit top 6 scoring winger. Not another tweener. They have a glut of bottom 6 guys. Higgins is a nice player but on a contending team he should be a third liner at best

Higgins has a history in Montreal and had his best years there but I think Vrbata is what they need. Now if the Habs would move youth, like Tinordi or Maccarron . Then it could get interesting.

More than likely just nonsense.

I think Vey is a better winger.

[Ilya Mikheyev]

To be clear: I believe Eklund has 0 sources at this point; but I don't think a deal with Montreal including Eller is out of the question.

[Ilya Mikheyev]

Higgins has a history in Montreal and had his best years there but I think Vrbata is what they need. Now if the Habs would move youth, like Tinordi or Maccarron . Then it could get interesting.

More than likely just nonsense.

I think Vey is a better winger.

What about Brett Lernout?

Plays a very physical game, is 6'4/203 pounds, 19, waiver ineligible, playing in the AHL next season (played 6 games for Hamilton last year), from Winnipeg, 42 points in 72 games for Swift Current, 3rd round pick 2014, fills a role the Canucks don't currently have.

Lernout is a big defenseman who plays a tough style. We really like how he defends his own zone, using his strength and frame to muscle guys to the outside. Doesn’t run around chasing checks, but he calmly approaches and then buries his opponents against the boards. Showed very good improvement this season in his confidence with the puck. Lernout was very solid in the neutral zone, using patience and crisp execution to get the puck up ice. Very simple and very precise. Can get off some very hard shots on net. Prefers taking hard wrist shots, but can also let a huge slapper go when given time. He may not have huge offensive upside, but his ability to get hard shots on net and his ability to make simple passes accurately is encouraging. His skating is pretty good for a big guy. Very smooth on his feet and gets around using hard work rather than technical skating skills. Does not display any elite hockey sense, but does show poise with the puck and good positioning on the ice. He is a serviceable skater and has the raw physical tools to become a shutdown defenseman.

[stawns]

Actually, Higgins is exactly what they need. Winger, PK specialist, perrenial 30 point scorer, helluva contract...

Actually, I wanna keep him

If it comes down to Higginbs or Burrows being moved at some point this season, I think I would prefer they move Burrows, especially if it's Montreal.

[qwijibo]

Referring back to how many points Higgins put up when he was last in a Montreal uniform is meaningless. That was 6 years ago. He's not the same player (for better or worse). For the record, Semin was putting up 80 point seasons 6 years ago. That has no bearing on what he's likely capable of at this point in his career.

Pointing out that he would rank 6th among Montreal forwards last season is problematic at best. First of all, he put up those points on a team that plays a much more offensive system, secondly, if he's only ranks 6th he doesn't really solve the problem of bringing more scoring to the top 6 does he? Also, he put up 7 points more than Weise but played close to 3 minutes a game more and had significant powerplay time (Weise had 0 powerplay points, Higgins had 5) Factor all that in and he's not much of an upgrade on Weise at all

My point is that if Montreal is considering moving a good, big, young established centre, its to significantly upgrade scoring in their top 6. The only potential target that would fill that need from the Vancouver roster is Vrbata, but I don't think that's at all realistic. So I don't see a trade that fits both teams needs.

[appleboy]

Does it make sense to acquire another defensive center when we have Cassels and McCann in our system? We would then have two 26 year old centers going forward. Would that make players like Cassels or McCann trade bate?

Could they be used to fill a weakness?

[stawns]

Does it make sense to acquire another defensive center when we have Cassels and McCann in our system? We would then have two 26 year old centers going forward. Would that make players like Cassels or McCann trade bate?

Could they be used to fill a weakness?

no, it would allow them both to develop properly so that when they make the jump to the NHL, they can have an immediate impact.

[The Bookie]

that's a GREAT story! I'm all for good endings.

I feel like Eklund has been a little mellow this summer actually...he's usually got more rumours that he's talking about.

I know I'm setting myself up to get flamed, but I'm one of the very few who likes what Eklund does. I believe him when he says he actually hears stuff from sources and then he tries to pre-qualify the strength of the source/rumour through his e system.

So he's not making stuff up out of thin air (although maybe some of his sources are) and he posts stuff as a "rumour". His sources have gotten better through the years and he has as well.

There's no question that he's throwing proverbial spaghetti against the wall, but every now and then something DOES stick. There have been a couple/few trades over the past years that he's spoken about before anyone else (please don't ask me to list them, I forget...I just remember at the time thinking "wow, that was a big trade...and eklund was getting laughed at two days ago when he was talking about it and nobody else was.")

ah thanks for that, seems like a pretty reasonable summary of his work

I guess cause I've never been huge on the armchair gm'ing and trade gossip angle of hockey, my view of him has mostly been formed by his stock on cdc, which is .... low to say the least

anyhow, I like Eller and if he winds up here I'll be happy, but agree with others this sounds more like a left-over rumour from the Sutter or Prust trade dealings

[Gaudette Celly]

Lol people wanting to trade Higgins yet have no suitable replacement for him on the PK.

Prust (good), Sutter (elite), and... Eller.

[Off_The_Schneid!]

Prust (good), Sutter (elite), and... Eller.

Burrows, Horvat, Hansen, Dorset,

[b3.]

Wow!!! I'm shocked that this deal is taking so long.