The Vancouver Canucks have traded winger Conor Garland to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a 2028 second-round pick and a 2026 third-round pick.
Garland, 29, signed a six-year extension with the Canucks last summer that takes him through 2032, with a $6 million cap hit. But he has since seen the team pivot to a rebuild. He has seven goals and 26 points in 50 games this season.
What Conor Garland brings to the Blue Jackets
Garland is an excellent, play-driving middle-six winger who has consistently scored 45-50 points per season.
On a Stanley Cup-contending team, he’s best served as a third-line driver. That’s the role he occupied for the Canucks in 2023-24, when they won the Pacific Division and made it to Game 7 of the second round. That season, Garland played on what was arguably the best third line in the NHL — it controlled nearly 60 percent of scoring chances and had a plus-25 goal differential at five-on-five. Garland scored 2.45 points per 60 at five-on-five that year, which ranked 23rd among NHL players, landing in the same range as wingers like Jake Guentzel, Filip Forsberg and Alex Tuch. He was the main engine of that line, as he elevated journeyman players Dakota Joshua and Teddy Blueger to career-best seasons.
After that season, the Canucks began deploying Garland like a top-line forward in terms of ice time and matchups (he averaged 18:39 per game last season and 19:02 per game this season), and the results have been more mixed. Last year, Garland’s adjustment to heavy usage was mostly smooth — he scored 50 points despite a significant dip in his five-on-five point production rate, and impressively, he continued excelling as a high-end play-driver. In particular, he continued leveling up as one of Vancouver’s best defensive forwards and even took on a penalty-killing role.
This season, though? That’s a different story. Garland is mired in a 23-game goal drought. His overall point production is still decent, but his usually stellar play-driving impact has cratered, as he’s earned less than 45 percent of expected goals in his minutes. I’d bank on that improving once he escapes Vancouver’s woeful team environment (the Canucks not only lack talent, they seem poorly coached with very little structure), but it’s worth being mindful of, especially with a six-year extension kicking in next season.
Garland is undersized, but he’s one of the most competitive, high-motor players I’ve covered. He’s a ferocious puck hound and consistently leverages his low center of gravity to win puck battles against bigger, stronger opponents. He’s a slick playmaker down low, with crafty vision and very elusive edge work. Garland’s ability to hold onto the puck and set teammates up for offensive looks in the slot is why he’s usually been such an effective play-driver — he elevates his linemates and won’t ever be the passenger on a line. He’s smart, hardworking and very reliable defensively. Garland’s shot is probably the biggest weakness of his game (which explains why he’s never been a great goal scorer), but he’s typically been an excellent five-on-five player regardless, because of all his other strengths. — Dayal
What this means for the Blue Jackets
The Blue Jackets have struggled to find a second scoring line that can provide consistent offensive punch. The most-used trio under coach Rick Bowness has been Sean Monahan centering Kent Johnson and Boone Jenner.
Bowness has lots of flexibility now, but Garland could easily bump Johnson or Jenner out of their spots.
The Blue Jackets can’t match the top-end firepower of other playoff clubs in the Eastern Conference, but Garland gives them a really good chance to have three scoring lines, making them a difficult club to match up against.
Bowness has found favor with a top line of Adam Fantilli centering Mason Marchment and Kirill Marchenko, and a third line of Charlie Coyle centering Cole Sillinger and Mathieu Olivier. The other two have been in a constant state of change.
Earlier this season, Marchment struggled mightily — and seemed plenty unhappy — with the Seattle Kraken, but his trade to the Blue Jackets in late December revitalized his season. The Blue Jackets have to hope the same for Garland. — Portzline
What this means for the Canucks
In a 2026 third-round pick and Columbus’ own 2028 second-round pick, the value coming back for Garland is relatively light, especially compared to some of the other deadline prices we’re seeing, but that’s a reflection of Garland’s age and the term and structure remaining on his contract. It’s also a reflection of the fact that Vancouver isn’t taking any salary back in this deal, and the Canucks are opening up a contract slot.
That the Blue Jackets were able to make this acquisition as painless as possible for the Canucks from all of those structural vantage points, restrained the acquisition cost.
It also hints at Vancouver’s primary motivation, which is to clean house in terms of contract slots and salary liability, and shake up a veteran core that has too frequently underperformed across the past half-decade.
This isn’t to pin the club’s struggles on Garland, who was probably Vancouver’s most consistent forward of the post-Bo Horvat era and one of its most reliable five-on-five play drivers. Garland, by virtue of being on a contract with a no-move clause that doesn’t kick in until July 1, was simply the easiest of the Canucks’ cast of veteran players to move at this time.
The club will continue to explore its options in offloading additional veterans between now and the trade deadline, its efforts to shed salary cap commitments, add valuable future assets and proceed into a rebuild with a clean slate are advancing at a rapid clip. It’s most likely that the club will have to settle for moving off of expiring free agent players on deadline day itself, but the combination of trading Garland and Tyler Myers this week demonstrates that the club is as serious about looking to the future as it has been in a generation. — Drance
