How a minor trade with the Ottawa Senators helped the Vancouver Canucks defeat the Nashville Predators in 2024.

The Vancouver Canucks are off to the second round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs after defeating the Nashville Predators 1-0 in Game 6. While many players stepped up, arguably the best player on the ice was goaltender Artūrs Šilovs. While he was a Canucks draft pick, fans in Vancouver can thank the Ottawa Senators, as without them, Šilovs may have never made it to the organization. 

To explain how Šilovs with the Canucks, we need to go back to Jan. 2, 2019. At the time, the Senators needed a goaltender with experience as Craig Anderson was out of the lineup with a concussion. After some negotiations, Vancouver and Ottawa agreed to a deal that would send Darren Archibald and Anders Nilsson to the Senators in exchange for Mike McKenna, Tom Pyatt and a 2019 sixth-round pick.

From Vancouver's perspective, this deal had a lot of benefits. Not only did they clear cap space, but they also opened a roster spot for Thatcher Demko to come up and start his NHL career. What the Canucks didn't know at the time was the most valuable part of the deal was the 2019 sixth-round pick, as just a few months later, they would use it to select Šilovs 156th overall. 

Fast forward to the present and this trade has the potential to become one of the most lopsided in franchise history. Nilsson would only play 44 career games with the Senators, while Darren Darren Archibald only played three games for Ottawa. As for Vancouver, they were able to turn that sixth-round pick into a goaltender who not only has a bright future but was instrumental in winning their first-round series against the Predators.

Since becoming a Canucks prospect, Šilovs has continually delivered on the big stage. He helped Latvia capture their first-ever medal at the World Championship in 2023 and has now become the youngest goaltender in franchise history to post a shutout in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. While at the time, the inclusion of a sixth-round pick may not have seemed like a big deal, fast forward five years, and it has become arguably one of the most important traded assets Vancouver has acquired in the last decade. 

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