Vancouver Canucks tried to acquire former first-overall pick and could attempt again

The problem is that the Canucks who chased him are gone.

Kuzma of The Province traced the interest to Lafreniere's rough 2022-23 season, then noted it spiked again during the J.T. Miller trade talks.

Both of those moments belonged to a different franchise. Patrik Allvin ran that front office, and Quinn Hughes anchored a roster still trying to win.

Neither is true anymore.

Vancouver traded Hughes to Minnesota in December, finished dead last in the league, and fired Allvin in April.

Ryan Johnson is the general manager now, with Daniel and Henrik Sedin as co-presidents. Any Lafreniere pursuit today would be his call, not a continuation of Allvin's.

Here is the detail the recycled version leaves out. When the Miller deal actually closed, Lafreniere was not in it.

Vancouver sent Miller to New York for Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini, and a first-round pick. The Rangers held onto Lafreniere then, just as they brushed off Vancouver's 2023 check-in.

That first-round pick has since been flipped to Pittsburgh for Marcus Pettersson and Drew O'Connor, another sign the roster has turned over completely.

So the recurring story is not really about Vancouver's desire. It is about New York's refusal, which has never wavered across three separate windows.

The twist is that Lafreniere suits Vancouver now more than he did then. At 24, signed through 2032 at a $7.45 million cap hit, he is a rebuild asset, not a win-now rental.

He is coming off a 24-goal, 57-point season, steady output for a player still entering his prime.

Allvin wanted a scorer to push a contender over the top. Johnson would be buying a cornerstone for a team years from contention.

Same player, opposite logic. That inversion, not the recycled interest, is the actual news here.

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