Jim Benning denies that Canucks are in on Erik Karlsson trade

After rumors began circulating that the Canucks were in on Erik Karlsson , Canucks GM Jim Benning has come out and said there is no truth to those rumors.

The infamous August dead zone has been upon the hockey community for the last few weeks, but earlier Wednesday afternoon that peace was shattered with the reports that Erik Karlsson trade talks were heating back up, and the the Vancouver Canucks of all teams had become candidates to land the Swedish star.

However, Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning shut down down all of those rumors just a few hours laster in a conversation with Sportsnet’s John Shannon.

Jim Benning also told Sportsnet, “I’m not trading the Quinn Hughes and Brock Boesers and Elias Petterssons. That’s not happening.”

Obviously you can’t expect a general manager to be transparent about what they’re trying to do, especially when it involves somebody with the magnitude of Erik Karlsson, but it makes sense why the Canucks would not be trying to land Karlsson.

The Canucks are deep in a long-winded rebuilding process, and the price they would have to pay to get a player like Karlsson would make that whole process moot with the amount of young assets they would have to give up. Getting Karlsson would obviously make them better, but would it make them a playoff team yet with all the other holes that still have to be filled? Probably not. It wouldn’t be worth they would have to give up when they aren’t ready to truly compete.

But then again, there have been several instances where a general manager have denied to be doing one thing, and then gone on to do it anyway. You can’t always take GMs at their word, but in this case it does make sense for Vancouver to be out on Karlsson.

Don’t take this as Erik Karlsson is not on the move however. One thing that is for sure is that trade talks involving Erik Karlsson have begun to gain traction again, and the destination is most likely going to be a Western Conference team. Elliote Friedman still reports that the Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, and San Jose Sharks are still the front runners to land Erik Karlsson. We could see Karlsson out of Ottawa before training camp starts in September.

The 28-year-old Karlsson is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this upcoming season, and is coming off a down year by his standards with 62 points in 71 games, his lowest point total in a full season since 2010-11. With the Senators burning down around him, it’s hard to imagine he stays when the season is over. Ottawa will need to act if they want to get anything in return for him before he walks for nothing.