The Vancouver Canucks aren’t realistic Stanley Cup contenders.
That’s OK – they don’t fancy themselves as such, and they certainly didn’t carry themselves like contenders at the 2015 NHL trade deadline.
Monday’s deadline will be remembered more for the extended NHL trading season that preceded it than for what happened on deadline day itself. February turned into a month-long season of overpayment and creative problem-solving in the NHL, and through it all the Canucks stayed quiet.
Of the NHL’s 30 teams, only the Canucks and the Ottawa Senators entered deadline day without having made a trade in February. While Vancouver was eventually heard from, it doesn’t seem likely that either of the players the Canucks added on Monday – Cory Conacher and Sven Baertschi – will play an NHL game this season.
As every team with a realistic shot of contending in the post-season loaded up, the Canucks refused to part with futures for rental pieces.
“We listened to teams on their (rental) players, we didn’t feel the prices were right for us to do that right now,” Canucks rookie general manager Jim Benning explained to reporters on Monday.
As sellers took advantage of the favourable market prices, the Canucks didn’t seriously consider dealing any of their pending unrestricted free agents.
“We like the chemistry of our group,” Benning said. “Our players have shown a commitment to each other and to the coaches. We wanted to give this group an opportunity to see what they can do as a team, so we weren’t shopping any of our unrestricted players.”
Instead, the Canucks seemed content to spend their deadline bolstering the Calder Cup hopes of the Utica Comets, Vancouver’s American Hockey League affiliate. Success at the AHL level is a key part of Vancouver’s player development strategy.
“We have a good team down in Utica this year and we have some good prospects that are developing,” said Benning. “But we think playoff success is a good teaching tool for that group to continue to grow and learn from.”
The Comets are currently the AHL’s third-best puck possession team, according to CHLstats.com purveyor Josh Weissbock’s unblocked shot attempt estimates.
On Monday, Benning described his long-term goals for the Canucks and his comments suggested his belief in icing a team that can compete for a playoff spot annually isn’t altogether dissimilar from his approach to the Calder Cup playoffs. It’s all “a good teaching tool.”
“We want to make the playoffs, that’s our goal each and every year,” Benning explained. “We’re going to bring new players, young players, into our lineup every year, but we want them to develop in a winning environment; so they get a taste of what it takes to win, to learn to play the right way… So at some point we’re going to have playoff success with this young group.”
In Benning’s view, winning is a habit to be instilled. Winning leads to more winning.
But Winning can also result in a depleted system, which might serve as a partial explanation for why the Canucks have been so reluctant to part with any sort of prospect wealth for a short-term fix in Benning’s first year on the job.
“What’s happened around here,” Benning said, “is that they’ve had such good teams over the years and they’ve been so close to winning the Stanley Cup that sometimes you sacrifice draft picks to buy players at the deadline that you think can make the difference in you winning the Cup. So we’ve had to regroup a little bit that way.”
The situation that Benning described and is seeking to mend is typical of the sort of internal conflict between a club’s short-term and long-term interests that we so often see at the NHL trade deadline. Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving, who ultimately decided to sell this weekend, described this conflict as “navigating parallel paths” following the trade of Curtis Glencross on Sunday.
In navigating his own “parallel paths” it’s clear Benning has prioritized the future. He’s just done so in his own way and on an accelerated timeline.
So while Benning wasn’t going to part with a draft pick for a rental player, he was excited about ponying up a high-value second-round pick in order to acquire Baertschi, 22, from the Flames, a Pacific Division rival.
It’s a deal that’s remarkably similar in intent to the trade that Benning completed with the Los Angeles Kings at the 2014 NHL Draft for Linden Vey. It’s also vaguely similar to the deal the Canucks made when they sent Gustav Forsling to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Adam Clendening; or the swap they made with the New York Islanders when they dealt a third-round pick for physical blueline prospect Andrey Pedan.
“We’re acquiring players that fit a profile that we like in terms of the way we play,” Benning explained. “From that 20-year-old to 26-year-old hockey player to set the foundation for our group going forward.”
Draft picks might be off-limits as currency to help the Canucks land veteran rental players, but Benning has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to ante up and gamble on successful AHL players in their early 20s.
“I love draft picks…” Benning said. “But you know what, sometimes when you make trades it’s got to hurt a little bit for the trade to be worth it. So giving up a second-round pick on our part, that hurts, but I believe that we’re getting a top-six forward back and a player that’s going to be really good for us for a long time.”
So far the Vey experiment has been met with mixed results and Baertschi – an undersized forward whose AHL scoring rate has fallen off in every campaign since his rookie season – comes with a generous helping of risk.
For now, Benning’s gambles are interesting, but at least a few of them need to pay off or it’ll be a long time before the Canucks can once again fancy themselves contenders and act like it at the deadline.
