After being placed on waivers by the Philidelphia Flyers, the Canucks picked up Finnish defencemen Ossi Vaananen on Feb 27/09. Vaananen who spent most of this year in the Swedish Elite League is not known for his offensive upside as his carrer high in points was a measely 16 which was back in 2000-01, with the Pheonix Coyotes. With the deadline less than a week away, many speculate this may be a precursor to another move, however I cant see Vaananen being anyhing more than a depth guy in case of injury down the stretch.

With Rob Davidson and Lawrence Nycholat in the press box for the Canucks, the team now has a ton of depth on the Mattias Ohlund - How long will he be a Canuck?backend, and it only makes sense that one of the Canucks top 4 defencemen may be available at the trade deadline. The name that comes to mind right away is Mattias Ohlund. Ohlund being the longest serving Canuck to date, will 11 season under his belt, losing his leadership in the room and play on the ice would be a huge blow to the Canucks.

With the trade deadline less than a month away for the NHL, many teams in the upcoming week need to decide if they are in playoff contention or if its time to unload some unrestricted free agents and get some youth and draft picks in return. And Canucks are no different. After coming over a long losing streak which saw them have a horrible month of January, the Canucks now have shown some life with a 3 game win streak and have jumped back into the playoff picture.

Even though at the end of tonight the Canucks would sneak into the playoffs at the 8th spot in the West, this team is another losing streak away from being far far away from the playoffs.