| 2018 Season | July 1st, 2018 | |||||||
| To Columbus | POS | Age | GP | Goals | Points | Cap | Years | Cap |
| Thomas Vanek | F | 34 | 61 | 17 | 41 | $2 mil | 0 | UFA |
| ---- | ||||||||
| To Vancouver | POS | Age | GP | Goals | Points | Cap | Years | Cap |
| Jussi Jokinen | F | 34 | 46 | 1 | 7 | $1.1 mil | 0 | UFA |
| Tyler Motte | F | 22 | 31 | 3 | 5 | $925k | 1 | $925k |
The Vancouver Canucks were looking to help their rebuild process along by dealing forward Thomas Vanek as a serviceable rental to a contending team and they were able to deal him to the Columbus Blue Jackets for forwards Jussi Jokinen and Tyler Motte.
The Blue Jackets have acquired a seemingly refreshed veteran in Vanek, who has quietly had himself a very decent year with the Canucks and he comes at a very reasonable cost.
The Canucks, on the other hand, are the fourth NHL team that Jokinen has been a part of this season, failing to find any stable footing in either Edmonton, Los Angeles or Columbus, and now will join the Canucks who are just coasting to the finish. In Motte, the Canucks do get somewhat of a younger prospect, who has been traded once already and hasn't been able to stick with the big club in Columbus over the last year. He'll at least get a look in Vancouver.
This move is a bit of a toss up, as to whether or not there will be any great improvement in his production, as Benson's 2nd place team is in real need of a shot in the arm, since it has lost much of its buffer over 3rd place in the last week. Vanek wasn't under a lot of external pressure and may have been thriving because of it, since the last couple of deadline moves he's made, he hasn't done so well. Vanek will likely enjoy a playoff run with the Jackets, but there's still no real sense of just how far they might go this year.
