Could the Canucks trade Kesler?
This assumes the Canucks, despite speculative reports, aren’t planning to trade Kesler.
A trade involving Kesler, widely coveted for his two-way game the way Canuck Trevor Linden was a generation ago, would cause a seismic shift in an organization whose core group of players has gone largely unchanged for years even as the team slips a little farther each season from its Stanley Cup final peak of 2011.
If the Canucks are considering leveraging their U.S. Olympian and former Selke Trophy winner, the hand injury suffered by Kesler in Sochi immensely complicates matters.
Kesler is among 10 Canuck players who bargained no-trade clauses into their contracts in exchange for less-than-market-value salaries. And while general manager Mike Gillis said three weeks ago that he remains philosophically opposed to asking players to waive their NTCs, he said sometimes players change their mind about where they wish to play.