Canucks & Coyotes Talking?

RUMOUR			2009/2010 NHL Statistics			2010 Cap Hit
To Vancouver	Position	Age	GP	Goals	Points	Years	Per Year
Peter Mueller	Forward	21	24	1	4	1	$1.7 million
--------
To Phoenix	Position	Age	GP	Goals	Points	Years	Per Year
Shane O'Brien	Defenseman	25	20	0	0	1	$1.6 million

In an interesting tweet I saw today, the Canucks and Coyotes may be talking trade to help deal a couple of underachieving players from one team to the other. As you can see above, the Coyotes would ship Peter Mueller to Vancouver for Shane O'Brien. Both Mueller and O'Brien have drawn the ire of their coaches, being healthy scratches in the line-up of late, which does help to facilitate a trade and upon further review, you notice that they are both worth the same against the cap this season and they are both free agents at the end of the season.

Now, I do find it a tad hard to believe that this is a deal worth doing, as O'Brien is very one dimensional as a pugilistic defender, but if Mueller is available, there does seem to be some merit here. I would have to think that there is some extra value in Mueller being much younger than O'Brien, so if there was any discussion in this direction, the Coyotes would likely be looking for a 2nd round pick to make up the difference. Mueller comes with plenty of upside and the Canucks could use a little more depth up front, so if the Canucks can part with a decent pick, I suppose I could see it happening.