“I do want to slowly chip away. I think by even small changes, you add a different energy and an excitement.” – Canucks general manager Ryan Johnson on Thursday

VANCOUVER – For a negligible difference under their salary cap, the Vancouver Canucks on Monday added winger Brendan Gallagher to the bottom of their National Hockey League lineup while subtracting Nils Hoglander.

The Canucks paid nothing to the Montreal Canadiens for Gallagher, who returns home to Vancouver at 50 per cent of his salary and cap hit, and pocketed only a distant, 2029 third-round draft pick from the Nashville Predators for Hoglander.

And yet, these small transactions affect the Canucks’ dynamics.

With Vancouver embarking on a rebuild, Gallagher, 34, is coming for his character and leadership. And if he has a bounce-back season, the Canucks could trade him again at next season’s deadline for another asset.

And Hoglander, 25, gets a fresh start with the Predators after six largely frustrating seasons in Vancouver, where he exasperated four different head coaches and, by the end, couldn’t get out of his own way mentally after failing to make himself consistent, dependable and needed.

One of the best-conditioned Canucks -- which actually only highlighted the cultural failings in a dressing room where some of the priciest veterans were not -- Hoglander could do in Nashville what former Canuck Vasily Podkolzin did in Edmonton in becoming an everyday, middle-six player.

But........

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