On flawed players, Marco Rossi, and the Canucks’ big offseason

So the Vancouver Canucks are “very interested” in trading for Minnesota Wild forward Marco Rossi. That, according to The Athletic’s Michael Russo, one of the most plugged-in beat reporters in the business.

I’ll come clean right off the hop. As soon as the idea of the Canucks trading for Rossi was brought up about a month ago — the Canucks need a top six centre, and the Wild made it clear they’re willing to part ways with Rossi — my first reaction was a negative one.

At 5’9, a 1-2 punch down the middle of Rossi and Elias Pettersson isn’t striking fear into any opponent. Rossi’s size is believed to be one of the core reasons that Wild GM Bill Guerin is open to dealing him in the first place. And of course, Rossi is an RFA, and is reportedly looking for a big pay day — another thing believed to be driving Minnesota away.

Which is what got me thinking a little bit harder about the Canucks’ big offseason ahead. More specifically, it made me come to the conclusion that the exercise the Canucks really have to go through this summer is looking at a pile of partially flawed players and choosing the ones that carry the least amount of risk but highest amount of upside.

Essentially that, if a player is reportedly available via trade, there’s likely a reason. Perfect players don’t typically hit the trade market in the offseason. Now, sometimes you get cases of players refusing to sign with a team and the team wanting to get some value back for the player they know they’re going to lose anyway.

An example: JJ Peterka out of Buffalo. The 23-year-old Peterka is likely the least flawed player currently on the NHL trade block, but as a result, he’s also probably going to cost the most to acquire.

But in cases like Rossi’s, there are clear as day reasons why his current team is open to moving him, and thus, equally clear as day reasons why an acquiring team would pause and think about it before pulling the trigger on a trade. It’s not just Rossi, either. For most of the other names out there in trade rumours, this is the case. For example, we talked about Jonathan Marchessault last week. The obvious negative there is his age and term remaining on his contract. But as we argued in that piece, as a buy-low candidate and a potential replacement for Brock Boeser at $5.5 million, the Canucks at least have to explore it.

Just like they have to explore the chance to acquire a 23-year-old centre who potted 20+ goals the past two seasons (21 in 2023-24 and 24 in 2024-25) and hit 60 points this past year. Yes, we’re back to talking about Marco Rossi.

We’ve already written a full trade targets piece on Rossi, so if you don’t know much about the player, go ahead and read that, because we’re not going to rehash all that here.

The Canucks’ big offseason

To have the kind of offseason the Canucks hope to have — one that sees them back to being a fringe Stanley Cup contender like they were in 2023-24 instead of just a hit or miss wild card team — they’re going to need a lot of things to go right. And yes, as Jim Rutherford said at his end of season media availability, they’re going to need some luck.

And to get lucky, you’ve got to take some swings, and you’ve got to play the game.

A big offseason for the Canucks? That might look like taking a swing on a slightly flawed player in Rossi who might have 80+ point upside. Plus adding another top six player with a different flaw or too. And then another one. And maybe even another one.

This is all to say that before you say “No! Don’t trade for this player!”, understand that to have the offseason they hope to have, the Canucks are going to need to get more than just one player.

And chances are, at least one of those players is going to have some pretty noticeable flaws.