Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday. Sign up for our free newsletter.

When Nils Höglander first came on the scene, it was hard for Vancouver Canucks fans to not fall in love with the small Swede. 

Even when he was drafted—with the 40th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft held here in Vancovuer—the positive reports from scouts and analysts were everywhere. And it must be said that he was a good pick in that spot. 

In terms of players taken after Höglander who you’d rather have on your NHL squad, there are only a handful over the next several rounds. (The same can’t be said for that same draft’s selection of Vasily Podkolzin, of course.)

And Höglander acquitted himself pretty well right away, spending three seasons with the Canucks and mostly chipping in with solid bottom-six numbers while forechecking hard and giving the team a jolt of energy when it needed it. In 2023-24, Höglander scored 24 goals, many of which happened while on a line with Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser. 

In hindsight, that was an outlier. Over the next two seasons, Höglander scored 10 goals while becoming a frequent scratch under head coach Adam Foote last year. 

Even though it was sometimes hard to understand why Höglander was getting scratched over some other players, it was also not exactly easy to make the case for him. Offensively, he had become something of a black hole, and defensively at times he was getting hemmed in his own zone. Still though, Höglander maintained a positive Corsi percentage, one of three players to finish the season with Vancouver and accomplish that. (Zeev Buium and Linus Karlsson were the other two.)

With that said, the news that Höglander was traded to the Nashville Predators in exchange for a third-round pick in 2029 wasn’t exactly a surprise. New GM Ryan Johnson said that he didn’t want to keep running it back with the same group in Vancouver and he’s proving that true. 

It does seem like a bit of a low sell on Höglander, who can undoubtedly be an effective player and is still just 25 years old. It’s possible (even probable) that Foote completely tanked the winger’s value with his questionable deployment. That’s tough to swallow. 

One maybe hoped that the Canucks would start the season with Höglander in a bottom six role and see what new coach Manny Malhotra could do with a player that has a strong work ethic and is like a dog on the puck. He seems like he’d be Malhotra’s kind of player.

Grade: C

It’s also a tad concerning that the trade is being made with Nashville, where general manager Chris McFarland was just hired after years of success in Colorado. McFarland’s staff in Colorado was known for making bets on hard-working forwards that hadn’t realized their full potential yet, names like Arturri Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin. 

The move asks another question: What happens with Elias Pettersson? 

Pettersson and Höglander have been close since the latter was drafted, and with all the rumours around the former, it’s very possible that the decision has already been made to ship them both out of town.