The rumored rift between Vancouver Canucks centers Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller ended Friday when Miller was traded to the New York Rangers. The Canucks followed that by acquiring defenseman Marcus Pettersson and left winger Drew O'Connor from the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Welcome back to NHL Predictions. Each day, Last Word on Hockey takes a look at the games that are scheduled and offers insight and analysis to help predict who will be victorious in head-to-head matchups.

Dorrington is a big defenseman who skates well and is highly physical. His puck play is quite limited, but the tools are intriguing enough to be a long shot to make it to the NHL. Brännström, 25, has become an AHL/NHL tweener. His skating is high-end, but he’s not a premier puck-mover or that competitive which isn’t ideal as a smaller defenseman.

In a normal season, any sort of January trade would be notable. This season, there's barely room to breathe in between breaking news announcements. Unlike

The Canucks were reportedly highly interested in acquiring Drew Fortescue, but got Victor Mancini from the Rangers instead.