Report: Canucks grant Garland permission to seek trade

The Vancouver Canucks have given forward Conor Garland permission to speak with other teams about a potential trade, reports Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

Garland also switched agents on Tuesday and is now represented by Judd Moldaver of Wasserman Hockey, according to PuckPedia.

The 5-foot-10, 165-pound winger tallied 17 goals and 29 assists in 81 games with the Canucks last season. Garland's most productive campaign on a per-game basis came in 2020-21 with the Arizona Coyotes when he recorded 39 points in 49 contests. He's posted stellar underlying numbers over the past three seasons.

However, his ice time dropped from 17:55 in 2020-21 to 16:24 in his first campaign with the Canucks in 2021-22 to 15:07 last season. But that could rise again as he's currently skating on the team's top line with Elias Pettersson and Andrei Kuzmenko.

Garland, 27, has three years remaining on his contract with a $4.95-million cap hit, and he's still owed $17 million in actual dollars. Only five teams (Anaheim, Arizona, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit) can currently afford to take on his full cap hit.

The Canucks acquired Garland from Arizona in the 2021 trade that brought Oliver Ekman-Larsson to Vancouver.