Yesterday marked the three-year anniversary of one of the most controversial trades in Vancouver Canucks history. Needing to save his career, Canucks General Manager Jim Benning decided to right his wrongs at the expense of the club’s future.

In a pure desperation move, Benning attached Vancouver’s first-round pick in 2021 (Dylan Guenther, ninth-overall), a second-round pick in 2022 (Hunter Haight, 47th-overall) and a seventh-round pick in 2023 (Yegor Rimashevskiy, 203rd-overall) to get out from three of the bad contracts he signed: Loui Eriksson ($6 million), Jay Beagle ($3 million) and Antoine Roussel ($3 million) to the Arizona Coyotes.

In exchange, Vancouver received Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Garland. While the goal of every trade is always to land the two best players in the trade – and the Canucks definitely did that – it seemed more like a lateral move.

While it was great to see the team get rid of a wasted $12 million that played in the bottom six, the Canucks actually added more to their salary cap. Ekman-Larsson had six years remaining on his contract that paid him $8.25 million annually, and Garland’s $4.95 million extension had just kicked in. So the club was now spending $1.2 million more, albeit on effective players.

But what was the most detrimental to the team was the timing of the trade.

All three contracts Benning traded away were in the final year of their deals. The trade could have potentially been more well-received by the fan base if it had been done years prior. Benning waited until they were nearly scot-free of the bad contracts before deciding to bite the bullet and pay a premium to off-load them: Eriksson was in the final year of his six-year deal, and Beagle and Roussel were in the final year of their four-year deals.

At the time of the trade, Ekman-Larsson was 30 years old and a shell of himself. In his prime, the former Coyotes captain was a perennial number-one option on the back end. Through the first nine years of his career, he scored 116 goals and 334 points in 657 games. However, in the final two years of his tenure as a Coyote, he showed an evident decline. He lost out on powerplay one duties and finished with 54 points and a combined minus-20 rating over that span.

The bright spot of the trade was 25-year-old Conor Garland. The young forward was just three years into his NHL career and was on the rise. He had 47 goals and 96 points in 164 games and was quickly climbing up the lineup, graduating to the top line at points. But what was most impressive was that he always hovered around a plus player. He finished his three seasons with a plus-one, plus-one, and minus-three rating for a poor Coyotes squad.

So, that trade doesn’t look so bad, right? A team on the rise acquired a former top defenceman in need of a change of scenery and a young forward that matched the age of their current core in exchange for bottom-six dead weight. What could go wrong?

Well, we already know the story. Both players had completely different trajectories as a member of the Canucks.

Garland started playing top-six minutes, scoring 19 goals, a career-high 52 points, and a plus-18 rating in 77 games. Although, when things went rough in the 2022-2023 season, Garland’s name came up in trade talks. Thankfully for the organization, those trades never materialized. In the 2023-2024 season, Garland drove the Canucks’ third line to one of the best across the entire National Hockey League. He’s now a go-to depth option for Rick Tocchet, who has the versatility to play up in the lineup. Garland has two years remaining on his contract.

However, it was a different story for Ekman-Larsson. He did help alleviate the offensive pressure on the back end from Quinn Hughes, but it wasn’t nearly as much as the club had hoped. Ekman-Larsson scored seven goals and 51 points in 133 games, finishing with a minus-19 rating in a Canucks uniform. In the 2023-2024 offseason, Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford made the difficult decision to buy out the remaining four years of Ekman-Larsson’s contract.

But hey, despite the embarrassment of being bought out, it wasn’t all bad for Ekman-Larsson. He signed a one-year, $2.25 million contract with the Florida Panthers. Given the injuries to Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour to start the season, Ekman-Larsson got a chance to play top pairing minutes, finishing with 10 points in the first 15 games.

Oh, yeah, and he finished the year by winning the Stanley Cup, becoming the first player to lift the coveted trophy while on the Canucks payroll. His efforts earned him a four-year, $14 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, which pays him $3.25 million annually.

In their first seasons after the trade with the Coyotes, Eriksson finished with three goals and 19 points in 73 games; Beagle scored one goal and two points in 33 games; and Roussel had four goals and eight points in 53 games. After the 2021-2022 season, each player w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ g̶o̶ o̶n̶ t̶o̶ p̶l̶a̶y̶ l̶e̶n̶g̶t̶h̶y̶ N̶H̶L̶ c̶a̶r̶e̶e̶r̶s̶  would not sign another contract in the NHL.

The big kicker here is the ninth overall pick, Dylan Guenther. The 21-year-old has shown promise in his young NHL career. He debuted in the 2022-2023 season, scoring six goals and 15 points in 33 games. This past season, Guenther found chemistry with rookie Logan Cooley, and his game started to blossom. Guenther finished the 2023-2024 campaign with 18 goals and 35 points in 45 games. With the Coyotes now moving to Utah, Guenther projects to be an essential building block to what new owner Ryan Smith hopes to be a success for years to come.

What was originally an eight-part deal, the real test will seemingly now come down to three parts to see which side comes out of the winner of this trade:

The Canucks – Conor Garland and $19.5 million of the Oliver Ekman-Larsson buyout that expands over eight seasons.

The Coyotes – Dylan Guenther.

It might be easier to answer this question after we see if the Canucks can retain Garland’s services after the 2025-2026 season. And if they cannot, what assets could the club get back in a potential trade for the feisty winger?

Now that we’ve had three years to reflect on this trade, who do you think won the trade, Canucks fans?