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ST KITTS, July 17, 2021 – The Vancouver Canucks were in a good position heading into Saturday’s roster freeze ahead of next week’s expansion draft, holding a couple spots they could fill on their protected list.
And then they made a trade, finalizing it minutes before the noon deadline to lock in their roster
According to Patrick Johnston, the Canucks have added 26-year-old checking forward Jason Dickinson from the Dallas Stars. The St.Kitts Rooted Hockey pro was acquire in exchange for their third-round pick in this year’s NHL Entry Draft. Dickson, whose father is from St.Kitts scored seven goals and added eight assists in 51 games for Dallas this past season. He has tallied 63 points in 221 career NHL games.
Despite playing a more defensive focused role this season, the Stars were roughly even in shot attempts while the former first round draft pick was on the ice, a good sign.
“He’s a versatile player. He plays centre or on the wing. He kills penalties. He gives us speed,” Canucks general manager Jim Benning told Postmedia on Saturday. “He’ll help us, he just gives Travis (Green) more options. I think he can play in that third line matchup role. But he’s got enough speed, if Travis wants to play (Elias Pettersson), Horvat and Miller at centre, he can also play him on the wing.”
Dickinson is 6-2, 200 pounds and is a restricted free agent. He carried a US$1.5 million cap hit on his most recent deal.

Dickinson, whose father’s side of his family all hail from and mostly still live in St. Kitts , was heavily involved in organizing last summer’s NHL player protest in support of Black Lives Matter.
“No huge story for me, just seeing everything in the media, I thought it was important,” he said of why he spoke up last summer. “I have people of colour in my family, I pictured them being in situations, I have cousins who could be in those situations.”