Compared to last season’s deadline, Vancouver weren’t as loud. However, it seems as if Dave Nonis learned his lesson. Last season, he gave up prospects and draft picks for rental players, who did not help us make the playoffs.
This season, the Canucks did not need to make a big splash at all, especially at the high cost it takes to acquire players. Nonis promised that he won’t take any players off the current roster or give up their future, and he stuck to his word.
He made two deals, which addressed the two needs of this Canuck’s team: a centre, and a depth defensemen.
Vancouver picked up Bryan Smolinski from the Chicago Blackhawks for a second round draft pick and Brent Sopel from the LA Kings for a second and fourth rounder. Now Smolinski makes for a good two-way forward who can play on the powerplay, and penalty kill. Plus, hopefully, he can complement Naslund, who desparately needs a steady line-mate. Sopel, who returns to the Canucks after a few years absence, provides a good fill-in for a 5th/6th dmen that can step into the top four if there is an injury. Also, he used to play with Mattias Ohlund, so the chemistry isn’t fully lacking.
Although Sopel adds size and skill on the back end, I would have preferred a more defensive, stay-at-home blueliner, who can help out Krajicek or Fitzpatrick. However, only time will tell if Nonis made the right decision in bringing back Sopel.
The draft picks we gave up were not a big deal since we already had three 2nd-round picks, plus this year’s draft is going to be pretty weak (hence the abundance of first round picks being thrown around the deadline).
The main criticism I have towards Nonis is his failure to get rid of Jan Bulis. This player lacks motivation and offense, as he provides nothing really valuable to Vancouver except a waste of cap space. His timely penalties and brain-dead give-a-ways just doesn’t fit into the style that the Canucks play. I’m sure somebody would have taken him for maybe a third or fourth rounder, apparently NJ and Buffalo were interested. I would rather see Brad Moran or Brandon Reid playing in his spot.
With that said, deadline is over and Nonis has done what he had to do. As cliche as this sounds, it’s up to the team to win. On paper, we have what it takes to win with our strong defesive corp, superb goaltending and ability to win close and gritty games. As much as people don’t like to admit it, we are a team built for success. According to Team 1040, there was survey done with General Managers around the league where they were asked “Which team do you least want to face in the first round?”, the answer was unanimous for the Vancouver Canucks.. Yes, they are scared.
It doesn’t take a big splash at the trade deadline to make loud noises in the playoffs.
Hosea C
