VANCOUVER — Anthony Beauvillier likes the timing of his trade to the Vancouver Canucks because he’s not the only one looking to start over.
After being acquired from the New York Islanders Bo Horvat on Monday, the 25-year-old forward joins a team that has a new coach in Rick Tocchet, who was hired Jan. 22 with assistant coach Adam Foote and defensive consultant Sergei Gonchar; is still trying to establish a new culture under general manager Patrik Allvin, who was hired Jan. 26, 2022; and now needs a new captain to replace Horvat.
“Honestly, I think [the] timing is perfect,” Beauvillier said Tuesday. “Having a new coach and new coaches, I feel like it can start a new page for everyone. Having the chance to start from scratch with everyone, it’s exciting. I feel like everyone wants to do good and everyone wants to play good for the new coaches and staff with the changes they made, so it’s definitely exciting.”
That doesn’t make it easy, however, for Beauvillier, especially having to say goodbye to a close friend Mathew Barzalwho he met at a hockey camp in 2012 and roomed with at Canada’s Under-18 camp in 2015 before each was selected by the Islanders in the first round of the 2015 NHL Draft (Barzal 16th; Beauvillier 28th).
Barzal, who is from the Vancouver area (Coquitlam, British Columbia), even joked that Beauvillier can have his old room back home.
“It’s been a [heck] of a ride with him and he’s going to stay one of my best friends forever,” Beauvillier said. “It’s very emotional and sad to leave these guys, but at the same time, [you] don’t want to beat yourself up too much because there’s something exciting ahead.”
Vancouver also received forward Aatu Raty and a conditional first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft that becomes a first-round pick in 2024 if it ends up in the top 12, for Horvat.
For Allvin, it was the start of a promise to get younger, and Raty, who’s scored two goals in 12 NHL games as a 20-year-old rookie this season after being a second-round pick (No. 52) in the 2021 The NHL Draft was an important part of that.
“We felt strongly here that Raty was a key piece in this deal, along with the first-round pick,” Allvin said.
There may be more moves coming for the Canucks (20-26-3), who are sixth in the Pacific Division, 14 points behind the Colorado Avalanche for the second wild card from the Western Conference, and on pace to miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs. for a third straight season and the seventh time in the past eight.
“We’re definitely sitting in the bottom of the standings, so we need to improve our team,” Allvin said. “As we said when we got here, we’re trying to get younger, and this might be the start. We’ve got what, five weeks to the (March 3) trading deadline? So, I would assume that more calls will come along here.”
Video: Canucks’ captain Bo Horvat dealt to the Islanders
Vancouver has three players who can become unrestricted free agents after the season: defensemen Luke Schenn and Kyle Burroughsand goalie Collin Delia. Allvin said a decision on Schenn won’t be easy, partly because of his leadership.
“I have a lot of respect for Luke Schenn as a person and what he brings in terms of winning habits,” Allvin said. “So, that’s definitely a hard one for us, but we also understand that he’s a UFA. We’ll see if there is another deal to be made or what our decision will be here over the next couple of weeks.”
Even with forward Ilya Mikheyev Out for the season after having ACL surgery earlier this week, Allvin still has a glut of wings with term left on their contracts who could be traded by the Canucks to shed salary.
The list includes Brock Boeserwho has two more seasons left on a contract with an average annual value of $6.65 million, Conor Garlandwho has three left ($4.95 million AAV), and Beauvillier ($4.15 million AAV), who can become a UFA after next season.
Allvin was asked if trading from that depth could address other needs.
“It could,” he said.
Replacing Horvat’s team-high 31 goals this season, including 11 on the power play, won’t be easy. Neither will be replacing his work in the face-off circle, where he leads the NHL in face-offs taken over the past five seasons (7,317), winning 55.3 percent, which ranks eighth among the 38 players with at least 4,000 face-offs. .
Allvin does, however, have two players in mind to replace Horvat as captain.
“It’s hard to move your captain away,” Allvin said. “There are a lot of younger players, in particular [Elias] Pettersson and Quinn Hughes, that have shown they’re capable of being leaders of this team. We’ll sit down as a staff and talk about it here over the next couple of days. … I do think that Pettersson and Quinn Hughes have shown they’re capable of taking over this team.”
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