Grading the Canucks’ Trade for Nikita Zadorov

At the beginning of last month, defenceman Nikita Zadorov requested a trade from the Calgary Flames. From there, he would be the talk of the town in the rumor mill, and teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, Dallas Stars, and New York Islanders all expressed interest in him. However, in the end, the Vancouver Canucks won the sweepstakes.

To land Zadorov, the Canucks sent their 2026 third-round pick and the Chicago Blackhawks’ 2024 fifth-round pick to the Flames. The Flames also did not retain any of Zadorov’s $3.75 million cap hit.

Overall, this is a pretty notable move, and one of the NHL’s top trade targets is officially off the board because of it. Let’s now give out grades for each of the clubs involved in this transaction now.

Canucks Land Much-Needed Defenceman

Since the start of the season, the Canucks wanted to improve their blue line, and now they have officially done that by acquiring Zadorov. To do this, Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin needed to make a notable move elsewhere first. Earlier in the week, the Canucks moved forward Anthony Beauvillier and his $4.15 million cap hit to the Chicago Blackhawks and did not retain any of his salary. This allowed the Canucks to free up the cap space needed to bring in Zadorov.

Now, what are the Canucks getting with Zadorov? For starters, their blue line will now be significantly tougher to go up against than it was before this move. The 6-foot-6 defenceman plays an immensely heavy game, and he is exactly the kind of player who a playoff team like the Canucks should be getting. However, besides making a big impact with his physicality, he is also steady in his own zone and can contribute decent offence from the point. For example, just last season, the 28-year-old scored 14 goals and had 21 points in 82 games.

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When looking at the Canucks’ current roster, it is likely that Zadorov will play top-four minutes upon his arrival. Along with that, he should see time on one of their penalty-kill units because of his reliable defence. As a result, he has the potential to be a very important part of this group moving forward.

In the end, the Canucks landed a strong defenceman built for the playoffs without needing to give up much of anything. This is a real win for Vancouver, and their grade for this deal reflects that.

Canucks Grade: A

Flames Get Small Return for Hot Commodity

With all of the interest Zadorov was garnering, it seemed that the Flames would be able to land at least a second-round pick or solid prospect for him. However, the return for him was rather small, as they only landed a third-round pick and a fifth-round pick.

A likely reason for the Flames’ less-than-expected return is that they did not want to retain any of Zadorov’s salary. This is what led to the Maple Leafs, in particular, losing out on Zadorov. However, with so many teams being in on the Zadorov sweepstakes, it is still a bit surprising that this is all that they received for him.

Nevertheless, the Flames have now officially begun their selling period. Other pending unrestricted free agents (UFA) like Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev, and Noah Hanifin all have a good chance of being dealt. If they are officially moved, the Flames will need to do better in those deals, as it is hard to find much of anything to be happy about in this Zadorov trade.

Flames Grade: D

It will be intriguing to see how well this trade benefits both clubs from here. While this return certainly is underwhelming for the Flames right now, maybe they will get lucky and get a good player in the future with one of those two picks. However, right now, this is a clear win for the Canucks, as they improved their defence without giving up anything too substantial.