The Vancouver Canucks (22-12-3) are in second place in the Pacific Division and winners of four of their last seven games.
Yesterday, coach Willie Desjardins moved former first-line winger Alex Burrows back to the top unit with the Sedin twins and hugely successful free agent addition Radim Vrbata down to the struggling second line, hoping the recent buzz Burrows has added to the power-play and the sizzling scoring touch Vrbata has shown this season can trickle down to their 5-on-5.
But the Canucks may not stop at some light lineup shifts to add power to their organizational punch.
TSN's Bob McKenzie, appearing on an episode of Vancouver's TSN 1040 Tuesday morning and as transcribed by NicholsOnHockey.com, revealed that rumors have been circulating that current Canucks general manager and former Boston Bruins personnel czar Jim Benning was seen talking to embattled Boston GM Peter Chiarelli, which has led to speculation that there could be trade talk brewing between the two sides.
"...what that was about I don't know for a fact, but there's lot of speculation that Loui Eriksson was a name that potentially might end up on the move out of Boston and would Vancouver have some interest in him," McKenzie said.
The teams were rumored to have been talking trade in mid-December, with Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet floating Canucks forward Zach Kassian's name as a possibility to move.
Now, we can add Eriksson's name to the list of potential trade bait.
The 29-year-old Eriksson, a former second round pick of the Dallas Stars brought over as part of the now ill-fated Tyler Seguin trade, has nine goals and 16 assists this season, putting him on pace for about 51 points and 20 goals. In the three years prior to his final, injury-marred campaign in Dallas, Eriksson averaged about 72 points a season.
Now in his second year in the Bruins organization, the finally-healthy Eriksson - he battled concussion symptoms most of last season - seems to be hitting his stride with Boston.
His cap hit is large at $4.25 million, especially considering his good, not great, output, but Benning and the Canucks may think they can get an ascending player out of the desperate-to-deal Bruins.
