Dreger: The Vancouver Canucks do see value in Milan Lucic.

There have been rumblings linking the Vancouver Canucks to Edmonton Oilers forward, and British Columbia native, Milan Lucic and it is starting to sound like there may be something more than just a rumor here.

On Saturday night TSN National Hockey League insider Darren Dreger shared what his sources have told him regarding this matter on the latest episode of TSN's Insider Trading. Dreger made it crystal clear that there is genuine interest here on the part of the Vancouver Canucks, and what makes this deal so interesting is the fact that the Canucks themselves have a bad contract to send the other way. The Canucks have quite understandably been disappointed with what they have gotten out of veteran forward Loui Eriksson, and some changes in Edmonton now mean there is a connection between Eriksson and the Oilers. 

"There could be a fit, and I mean if you look at it from Edmonton's perspective the interest might come from their newly hired coach Dave Tippett who had Loui Eriksson in Dallas for 3 years, so there is a familiarity there," said Dreger.

As I stated Dreger made it clear that there is genuine interest in Lucic on the part of the Canucks organization. For one it would certainly be a great marketing ploy for the organization to bring in a popular local player, but Dreger laid out some other reasons why Vancouver might feel that adding Lucic makes sense. 

"The Vancouver Canucks do see value in Milan Lucic in that they have a younger team, the have some smallish players like [Brock] Boeser, [Elias] Pettersson, and Quinn Hughes on the back end. So Milan Lucic adds a little bit of bite."

This would seem like a natural fit for both teams as both Eriksson and Lucic have underwhelmed since signing with their respective teams. Although there is no guarantee a fresh start would make much of a difference, you could hardly blame either team for trying to make the best out of a bad situation in this one. There was however one more interesting note here in the comments from Dreger, a suggestion that he believes the Oilers will have to give up an extra asset in this deal if they want the Canucks to eat the extra year that Lucic has on his contract when compared to the term from Eriksson.

"For the Vancouver Canucks to truly consider that type of swap, I think there would have to be a sweetener from the Edmonton Oilers to take on the extra year.