Last season, Carson Soucy was a steadying force on the blue line for the Vancouver Canucks. While he struggled with injuries that limited him to just 40 games, he stabilized the Canucks' defence corps when he was healthy, providing a calming influence on the back end with his dependable defensive game and poised puck-moving.
This season, Soucy has been anything but steady, and now the Canucks have traded the 30-year-old defenceman to the New York Rangers for a third-round pick.
The trade involves no salary retention on Soucy's contract, which is key for the Canucks, as they're already retaining salary on both Ilya Mikheyev and Tucker Poolman this season and each team has just three salary retention slots. If the Canucks want to retain salary on one more deal ahead of the trade deadline on Friday, they can.
The 2025 third-round pick first belonged to the San Jose Sharks, who are last place in the NHL right now. The Rangers also have the Seattle Kraken's third-round pick, so that means the Canucks got the higher of the two picks the Rangers had available in that round.
Soucy had to waive his no-trade clause to go to the Rangers, with ChekTV's Rick Dhaliwal reporting that on joining him in New York.
Why the Canucks were willing to trade Soucy
The Canucks were counting on Soucy to play second-pairing minutes this season while facing tough competition the way he did last season. Instead, Soucy's game fell off a cliff. His previously poised puck-moving disappeared, and he struggled to transition the puck up ice. That led to long shifts stuck in the defensive zone, where his once-reliable defensive awareness abandoned him, and he frequently lost track of his check.
Soucy's struggles were readily apparent just from watching him play but those struggles also show up in his underlying numbers.
Among the 178 NHL defencemen who have played at least 600 minutes at 5-on-5 this season, Soucy ranks 171st in corsi percentage and high-danger chance percentage, according to . That means the Canucks have been significantly out-shot and out-chanced with Soucy on the ice at 5-on-5.
Just looking at the Canucks defencemen, Soucy has been on the ice for the highest rate of shot attempts against, shots on goal against, and scoring chances against at 5-on-5. Even worse, the penalty kill, which was once a strength of his game, has become a major weakness. He's been on the ice for the highest rate of unblocked shot attempts and goals against among Canucks defencemen on the penalty kill by a wide margin.
Instead of being a second-pairing defenceman, Soucy has been on the third pairing of late, at least when he hasn't been a healthy scratch. He was even a scratch in a couple of games where Quinn Hughes was out of the lineup due to injury.
To top it off, the Canucks added a true top-four defenceman on the left side in Marcus Pettersson and have been pleasantly surprised by the solid play of the young Elias Pettersson since he was called up from the Abbotsford Canucks in the AHL. Combined with Hughes and Derek Forbort, that makes the left side of the Canucks' defence quite crowded.
That said, Soucy can also play on the right side, where things have suddenly grown quite thin with Noah Juulsen out for the rest of the regular season after hernia surgery. The Canucks have Vittorio Mancini — — available to step in, Cole McWard in the AHL, and the possibility of signing Tom Willander after his NCAA season ends, but you have to wonder if they have plans to acquire another right-side defenceman for the third pairing ahead of the trade deadline.
Why the Rangers are taking a chance on Soucy
The Canucks have plenty of reasons to move on from Soucy but they're also all reasons why the Rangers ought to be reluctant to acquire Soucy.
For the Rangers, Soucy is a buy-low opportunity. As much as the Canucks can be happy to even get a third-round pick for Soucy, that's not a huge price to pay for the Rangers if Soucy can bounce back in a different environment.
Here's the thing: up until this season, Soucy has been a reliable two-way defenceman, with great size and reach and an ability to play both sides of the ice. There's a reason why the Canucks gave Soucy a three-year contract ahead of last season. The question to be answered is why his game fell off a cliff.
It's entirely possible that age and the injuries Soucy has suffered in his career have caught up to him. Some NHL players decline gracefully in their careers; some hit a wall around the age of 30.
The remaining year of Soucy's contract is also key: the Canucks might see the trade as getting out from under the final year of Soucy's contract, freeing up $3.25 million in cap space for next season, while the Rangers might see value in having Soucy signed for another year.
The Rangers can hope that Soucy can replace Zac Jones on the right side, as trade rumours have surrounded the 24-year-old Jones for most of the season and he could get moved.
Alternately, the Rangers could see value in reuniting Soucy with Will Borgen. The two played on a pairing together with the Seattle Kraken a couple of seasons ago.
If Soucy does bounce back, the Rangers could look like geniuses, as a third-round pick is a small price to pay for a reliable third-pairing defenceman who can slide up into second-pairing minutes if needed.
If Soucy continues to play the way he has this season, this trade could be problematic for the Rangers, as he'll take up a not-insignificant amount of cap space next season as well as a roster spot that could go to a younger player.
