The old saying is you can never go home again. It suggests that when you return, the place you remember is gone, and what you find is nothing like you hoped. For Evander Kane during his lone season as a Vancouver Canuck, that proved true. He hoped to help his hometown team make the playoffs, but instead found a team in turmoil. His return home is now notable only for reaching 1,000 NHL games.
But could his former junior teammate Brendan Gallagher find something different if he were to come home to Vancouver next season? The Tsawwassen-raised winger's time in Montreal is clearly up after 14 NHL seasons. Once a key winger for the Canadiens, he became a bit player this season, skating in just three playoff games while the rebuilt Habs reached the Eastern Conference final. He knows it, and his team knows it.
Gallagher open to Canucks trade
Asked Monday by reporters in Montreal whether he would like to be traded to the Canucks, who are just beginning their playoff run and almost certainly not a playoff team next season, Gallagher admitted it is something he has thought about.
“That’s an opportunity that’s there,” he said. “I’ll sit down with my wife and figure out what’s best for our family and you go forward. But certainly Vancouver would be a great place.”
His cap hit next season, the final year of a six-year deal signed in 2021, is $6.5 million; his actual salary is just $4 million. So would the Canucks be interested in a quality veteran like him in a season that otherwise may not have much going for it? The focus right now is on character and culture.
Veteran presence for rebuilding team
Gallagher played a big role in helping his current young teammates find their own culture, so it would make sense for the Canucks to pursue him, even if he is well past his prime. “We’re not going to race through it,” GM Ryan Johnson said last month at his first press conference. There are no shortcuts, Johnson said. The Sedin twins and their predecessor Jim Rutherford have all declared what this team needs: to build a new team, a new culture, starting essentially from scratch.
You need players who can play in the NHL and veterans who can set the standard every day for their teammates, holding a spot for the future. Gallagher could play a role in that.
