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The Canucks traded Garland to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday evening, not long after Columbus lost winger Mason Marchment to injury.
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In the days preceeding the trade, several teams had been interested in Garland, who is signed to a six-year, $36-million deal contract extension which kicks in this summer.
It’s understood Washington, New Jersey, San Jose and Boston had all expressed interest. Previous reports had said the New York Islanders were interested, a team that Lebrun included in his list, but sources earlier in the day suggested the Islanders were an unlikely destination for Garland.
In the end it was Columbus, who CHEK-TV’s Rick Dhaliwal first reported had interest in the craft winger, who won the deal.
Columbus is sending a 2028 second round pick in the deal, as well as a 2026 third round pick. The Canucks now have two second round picks three years in a row.
In Vancouver, Garland became a fan favourite for his spirited play. Former coach Bruce Boudreau was found of saying that Garland would “drag his team into the fight.” He was a great passer and always ready to battle along the boards.
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He even dropped the gloves a few times.
But in recent weeks, his play had sagged as endless losing and the Canucks’ new direction towards a rebuild clearly weighed on him. Sources suggested he wasn’t the only veteran player to wonder about his future, given when he signed his extension last summer the team still hoped to be heading in a more positive direction.
But after president Jim Rutherford announced in November the team was going to start looking towards the future, you started to wonder how long veteran players like Garland would stick around.
A source suggested to Postmedia over a month ago that the Canucks were likely to move at least a forward and a defenceman who were not pending free agents before the deadline. Wednesday, the Canucks traded Tyler Myers, who had one year left on his contract. That took care of the predicted defenceman; if Garland were to be traded, that would tick off the forward box of this source’s prediction.
Rutherford said in November the team was looking to trade their pending unrestricted free agents: Derek Forbort, Teddy Blueger, Evander Kane and David Kampf. Forbort is out for the season and surely won’t be traded, but Postmedia understands there has been interest in both Blueger and Kampf. Teams have called previously on Kane, though interest lately has been lukewarm.
The trade deadline is noon PT on Friday.
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