Canucks: Call them the Trade Chip Line

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Given a fourth line’s role and responsibilities, you shouldn’t invest too much time or effort in building the line.

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Vancouver Canucks fans can check recent history to find alternative ways to build the fourth line. Most fans and pundits would agree, don’t overspend here.

In a salary cap world, your fourth line is best built through drafting and value signings in free agency. Your fourth line shouldn’t be expensive.

And if you find some quality fourth-liners, recognize the relative value they have for a team that’s chasing the Stanley Cup versus a team that’s building for the future. Depth players exist on a cycle of utility all to their own.

The current Canucks’ fourth line of Tyler Motte, Juho Lammikko and Matthew Highmore was built entirely through trade. They’re all lessons in looking at the players you have and finding something new.

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And that calculation must be refreshed constantly. All three have flipped from players with upsides to players who can help right now.

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As a line, they’re proving to be steady and reliable, limiting opposition shots while getting good chances of their own. The only real blemish on their record has been their contributions — or lack thereof — to the Canucks’ woeful penalty kill.

All this said, all three may yet find themselves as interesting down-the-order trade chips for the Canucks’ front office.

All three have been shown to be ready and willing to take on whatever role it takes to make the NHL. The Canucks are Motte’s third NHL team, Highmore’s second. Lammikko, the most recent addition, has played for four teams in three seasons and is the best example of a player who is ready for any call.

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As a junior, I have moved from Finland to Ontario to play for the Kingston Frontenacs.

After his entry-level deal with the Florida Panthers expired in 2019, he decided to go back home to Finland for a season. In 2019-20 with Kärpät, he posted 51 points in 57 games, his best offensive season as a pro and his best overall since his final junior season with Kingston in 2015-16.

He re-signed with Florida the following summer but, with the 2020-21 NHL season delayed because of COVID-19, he found a spot playing for Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the KHL for half a season before finally returning to the Panthers last January. He carved out a checking role with the Panthers but, heading into the current season, didn’t look set to fill an obvious role and instead was traded to Vancouver for Olli Juolevi, who wasn’t panning here, a painful truth given he was drafted fifth overall in 2016, with former general manager Jim Benning passing on drafting Matthew Tkachuk in order to take Juolevi.

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Injuries are a big part of Juolevi’s story, but even when he was drafted most draft observers felt there were better defense options available to draft.

In any case, Lammikko has been a far more useful NHLer for the Canucks than Juolevi, who continues to struggle with injuries for the Panthers.

Bouncing around a little in the last few seasons has taught Lammikko how to focus on who he is as a player, on what he can manage in his own play.

“I didn’t have a role in Florida,” he said about the decision to go back to Finland in 2019. “I thought it’s better to go back there and play more and try to get better because I was only 22 at that time , so I thought it’s better to go play.

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“It’s fun. It was a nice change from earlier seasons, I got to play like first line minutes back there, with good linemates and stuff,” he said of his year with Kärpät.

“It’s a little hard, but I think it helps a little bit (in the big picture),” he said of the course he ended up taking. “Try to just get a different atmosphere. Try to get out of the comfort zone a little bit and for some players, that works. I’ve done it.”

In Vancouver, it wasn’t immediate success for Lammikko, who struggled under former coach Travis Green. But under new coach Bruce Boudreau, he’s been a revelation and has found a bond with wingers Motte and Highmore.

Motte was picked up in trade for Thomas Vanek, the veteran scorer who the Canucks signed in 2017-18 and was fully expected to be dealt at the trade deadline, as he was. Adding Motte was a shrewd pickup by Benning and his staff from him, the kind of around-the-edges deal that was too rare during his 7 1/2 seasons in charge. They added a role player on an entry-level deal.

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And under Green, he proved to be a perfect depth forward.

Highmore was a similar move, traded for Adam Gaudette, a forward who was seen as a high-upside fifth round draft pick and who had some true spark in his sophomore season before losing the trust of the coaching staff. His defensive game of him remained a work-in-progress and, at age 24, it was reasonable to doubt whether there was much more to come.

Highmore doesn’t have the offensive chops that Gaudette does but is defensively responsible, the perfect fourth-line winger.

The trio drew the praise of their new coach for being what he wants in a fourth line: hustle, energy, the odd goal.

“They take direction really well and they do what you ask them to do. And they can all skate,” Boudreau said after Monday’s win over the Seattle Kraken. “And now they’re starting to score some goals and that makes them even more valuable in my mind.”

The players know their coach values ​​them.

“When we’re playing with confidence and we’re rolling it’s nice. I think we’ve earned a little bit of trust along the way too, which is good for our confidence,” Motte said. “We play simple. We play hard and fast.

“I’m going to be honest, it’s fun playing with those guys (Highmore and Lammikko).”

They’re playing well. And because they’re peaking in form and value, they may have appeal to a team making a true playoff push and looking to add a player or two who would be a reliable extra option.

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