When the Boston Bruins were eliminated in the second round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Florida Panthers, it also brought an end to the time of former 2015 first-round draft pick Jake DeBrusk. It was a time in Boston that had its share of ups and its share of downs. There really was not much in the middle.
It wasn't surprising that both sides parted ways. Heck, there was a trade request, then there was an extension, and then Bruce Cassidy was fired, but there was always one thing that was consistent with DeBrusk: he was either noticeable every night on the ice or he was invisible.
When free agency opened in the summer of 2024, DeBrusk inked a deal with the Vancouver Canucks with an AAV of $5.5 million through the 2030-31 season with a full no-movement clause. However, things haven't gone as both DeBrusk and Vancouver would have hoped it would and now DeBrusk has become a potential trade candidate. He has yet to be moved, and Thomas Drance of The Athletic recently explained why he likely hasn't been moved, and it should serve as a wake-up call for the left-shot forward.
Jake DeBrusk gets message ahead of 2026-27 season
Lyle Richardson of The Hockey News pointed out that new Canucks GM Ryan Johnson has some franchise-defining decisions on some players, and one of them was DeBrusk, who made it clear that he wasn't interested in going through a rebuild that Vancouver is clearly heading down. However, despite being a trade candidate, no team made an offer for him that would make the Canucks move him, and Drance explains why that hasn't happened.
"The Canucks winger was cosmically snake-bitten as a finisher at five-on-five last season. In five-on-five situations, DeBrusk managed three goals on 121 shots on goal, good for a wildly anemic 2.48 shooting percentage,'' wrote Drance.
To compound how badly DeBrusk struggled last season at 5-on-5, he had 23 goals for the season, and 19 of them were on the power play. That's an insane stat. In his first season with Vancouver in 2024-25, DeBrusk had 28 goals; half of them were on the man advantage.
DeBrusk's AAV is not a bad one for a team to take on with the salary cap rising. However, unless he shows some consistency at even strength, he just might be stuck with the Canucks through a rebuild. There is a chance that someone takes a shot on him still, but in this day and age, teams want consistency before making an investment like that.
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