In a surprise trade Wednesday night, the Vancouver Canucks announced they have acquired defenseman Erik Gudbranson and a 2016 fifth-round pick from the Florida Panthers for former first-round pick Jared McCann, a second-round and a fourth-round pick for the 2016 NHL Draft.

In addition to the timing of the trade, there are a lot of layers to this surprising move to cut through.

First off, the Panthers had just re-signed Gudbranson, their former No. 3 pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, to a one-year deal at an affordable $3.5 million only two weeks ago. Secondly, the Canucks are giving up quite a bit to get a defenseman that had nine points in 64 games last season and has never really come close to the potential the Panthers saw in him when they picked him so high.

McCann, who was selected 24th overall by the club in 2014 and appeared in 69 games with Vancouver as a 19-year-old rookie last season, still has a lot of upside. He probably should have spent last year in junior hockey, but showed some flashes of his potential in his rookie year. He put up 18 points in a limited role over his first season in the NHL. But then you add in the draft picks and with the range the Canucks would be picking in, they're going to be able to get a pretty strong prospect with that second-round pick. Not anymore.

Vancouver isn't exactly in a position right now to be giving away young players and draft picks that could be part of them building for the future. That said, GM Jim Benning and team president Trevor Linden have never looked or sounded terribly interested in a rebuild, especially not with Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin still contributing at a high level.

Based on what we saw last season, though, this is a team that may need to start working on its three- or four-year plan instead of trying to stick band-aids on their roster, which is what this looks like.

Gudbranson may not even be all that significant of an upgrade over what they have, even though they do have some holes on the blue line to fill. There's a chance the Canucks are going to lose Dan Hamhuis to unrestricted free agency. Yannick Weber and Matt Bartkowski are also pending UFAs.

Gudbranson played a top-four role for the Panthers last year, but it was not exactly a role he thrived in. If he did, the Panthers would have given him a long-term deal to eat up some of his UFA seasons, but they opted for another one-year bridge to see if he could take a step forward. He'll be a restricted free agent when the deal expires, so that's at least another positive for the Canucks.

What Gudbranson does bring is a heavy dose of physicality and shot blocking. He's also only 24 years old and might have some more time to take another step forward in his game. However, when you look at the teams that are going deeper into the playoffs, they're going heavier on puck-movers that help drive possession. That's not something that they're going to be able to count on their new acquisition bringing.

As far as the Panthers are concerned, they've built a stable of young players that are already growing into the new core of the team. Now they add another high-potential forward in McCann, who still has plenty of room to improve, and get a few more draft picks to help keep their strong prospect system well-stocked.

On top of that, the Panthers clear a little cap space and also will be able to insert former first-rounder Michael Matheson into a more established role next season. Matheson spent most of the year in the AHL, but was just named best defenseman at the recent World Championship as Canada won gold. The Panthers may need to explore free agency or the trade market to address other blue line needs, however.

Additionally, this was the first major move of the new management structure for the Panthers. The team announced just over a week ago that Dale Tallon was being promoted from general manager to president of hockey operations, while Tom Rowe slid into the GM's chair. They also jettisoned longtime chief scout Scott Luce, which was easily the most surprising move of the shuffle.

It sounds like the Panthers are looking to bring more of an analytical approach to team management and a move like this one would suggest that to be true. Gudbranson's underlying numbers, particularly his possession metrics, have never been good.

On a final note, as was pointed out by the folks over at CapFriendly, with Gudbranson traded, five of the top six picks selected in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft have now been dealt. The only one that remains is No. 1 overall pick Taylor Hall of the Edmonton Oilers. Gudbranson joins the ranks of No. 2 Tyler Seguin, No. 4 Ryan Johansen, No. 5 Nino Niederreiter and No. 6 Brett Connolly. It's not often you see so many top guys gone within six years of their draft season.

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Erik Gudbranson is headed to the Canucks just two weeks after signing a one-year extension with the Panthers. USATSI