NHL trade grade: Canucks go all-in by acquiring Tyler Toffoli from LA Kings

The Vancouver Canucks shocked the NHL on Monday night ahead of the trade deadline by acquiring Tyler Toffoli from the LA Kings.

With the NHL trade deadline coming up in merely six days, the trades are starting to flow. Sunday saw the New Jersey Devils trade both Andy Greene and Blake Coleman. On Monday, the Vancouver Canucks stole the show by trading for LA Kings forward Tyler Toffoli.

However, the price certainly wasn’t cheap, and rightfully so. Vancouver gave up a 2020 second-round pick, the rights to prospect Tyler Madden, forward Tim Schaller, and a 2022 conditional fourth-round pick. The conditions for that pick involve the Canucks re-signing Toffoli.

This trade signifies Vancouver’s going all-in. Meanwhile, the LA Kings continue to improve an already outstanding prospect pool. Let’s take a look at how both sides did in this huge trade.

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LA KINGS

This is a very nice trade for the LA Kings. They already had a very impressive prospect pool that was recently ranked by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic as the best in the NHL. Madden makes it even better. Right now, I’d say he’s at least in the Kings’ top 10 prospects and maybe even top five.

Here’s what Wheeler had to say about Madden, who he had as the Canucks’ third-best prospect.

This year, Madden has built on his slick puck skills and superb cross-ice vision to add a goal scoring element to his game, taking him from one of college hockey’s best freshmen to one of college hockey’s best players.

Madden had an impressive freshman season with 28 points in 37 games. This season, he is following it up with a super sophomore season, as he has 37 points (19 goals and 18 assists) in 27 games. Madden was easily in the Hober Baker discussion until he suffered a recent injury. He was drafted in the third round of the 2018 draft. Doing a re-draft this early would be silly, but I imagine Madden would go in the first round in a 2018 re-draft.

Getting an extra 2020 second-round pick is very nice too. The LA Kings now have two draft picks in each of the first four rounds in the 2020 NHL Draft except for the first round. That’s going to let them further improve an already outstanding prospect pool. If the Kings do as well at the 2020 draft as they did in 2019, their rebuild suddenly looks a lot better than it did a year ago.

Schaller is nothing to write home about. He was included in the trade to make the finances work out. Schaller has a $1.9 million cap hit and will be an unrestricted free agent after this season. In 51 games this season, he has six points. It’s plausible the Kings could retain 50% of his cap hit and flip him by the trade deadline, but I wouldn’t count on it.

The conditional fourth-rounder is meaningless because I don’t see how Vancouver’s going to be able to afford to re-sign Toffoli unless they clear some significant salary. But overall, it’s really hard to hate this trade for the LA Kings.

GRADE: A-. I would have liked to see the Kings get a first-round pick for Toffoli, but they still did extremely well in this trade.

CANUCKS

This was a hefty price to pay for the Canucks, but I get why they did it. General Manager Jim Benning knows his job could be on the line. Toffoli should help the Canucks make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which could be enough to justify keeping Benning around.

He adds a lot to their top six and he’s likely going to play with a center who can set him up. Toffoli has 18 goals and 16 assists for 34 points this season in 57 games. That’s even more impressive once you consider how bad the Kings are at scoring goals. Toffoli’s joining a team that ranks ninth in goals scored.

The Canucks are in a playoff race and Toffoli should be enough to help them ensure a spot in the postseason. He also has postseason experience, which is important because not a lot of players in Vancouver have that.

Now, with all of that said, the Canucks overpaid for Toffoli by quite a bit. Madden has all the tools to be a top-nine forward in the NHL and it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s a top-six forward. If Vancouver makes the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they won’t have a draft pick in the 2020 draft until the third round. That’s not ideal.

GRADE: C-. This is the kind of trade you make if you believe you’re one piece away from being serious Stanley Cup contenders. I’ve been wrong before and I’ll be wrong again, but I don’t think the Canucks are a serious Stanley Cup contender with Toffoli.