Vancouver Canucks: 5 burning questions for 2018-19 season

2. Can they somehow get rid of the Erik Gudbranson deal?

Erik Gudbranson has three more years left on his current contract with the Canucks at $4M per year, and he hasn’t done anything to warrant being paid that much. In two seasons with the Canucks, he has just 11 points combined. He’s played in just 82 games combined because of injury and has three goals to show for it. For his career, he’s played in 391 NHL games and has 14 goals and 54 points while being a 47.9 CF% player. There aren’t many deals in the league that are worse than this one, and if Benning can find someone to take it off his hands, he’d be a genius.

Gudbranson has also never played a fully healthy season. The most games he’s played in a season is 76, and that came in 2014-2015. He can never stay healthy, and when he is healthy, he isn’t doing anything that moves the needle for the Canucks, all the while eating up valuable salary that can be used to go after better players. He was also a 43.9 percent possession player this past season, which was the worst of his career.

It’s not known whether Benning would dangle him in a trade, but there’s always a general manager out there that are looking for a defenseman who can hit hard by providing grit and toughness and block shots without providing any offense. It basically happened last summer when the Oilers signed Kris Russell for four years. If the Canucks can get out of this contract, they’d be much better moving forward and can make much better additions.