December 15th, 2023
Zach Mason
Vancouver Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin announced this afternoon that the team had traded forward Jack Studnicka to lottery contender San Jose, in return for 23-year-old LHD Nick Cicek and a sixth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.
The trade is the latest in a line of moves designed to close holes in the previous season's porous defence, following Nikita Zadorov's acquisitions from Calgary and Carson Soucy and Ian Cole in free agency.
Cicek would appear to be a player for the future, given his young age of 23, and the fact that the only NHL experience he has had has been 16 games on the leaky SJ defence. However, he is likely to at least get some big league game time up north, since Vancouver is currently saddled with a few injuries to a defence that is hardly the deepest in the league without the injury bug.
Accompanying Cicek in his trip across the border is a sixth-round pick in this offseason's Entry Draft. Despite not carrying the glitz or glamour of the top picks, if developed properly, whoever we draft using this selection has a chance to become a serviceable NHL player or perhaps better (ever heard of a man named Pavel Datsyuk?).
In return for Cicek and the pick, San Jose receives a player in Studnicka who always seemed to be the odd man out. Playing just over 50 times for Vancouver since his arrival in late October last year, he’s ended up playing only a fifth of that this season under Rick Tocchet, playing nearly twice the games for the AHL affiliate an hour down the road
Time will tell who the trade favours, though it is unlikely to show drastic changes in fortune overnight.