• What does Burrows do for the Senators?
• Has Canucks GM Jim Benning finally decided a rebuild is best?
For a long time, Alex Burrows symbolized what was right with the Vancouver Canucks. Now, as he heads out the door, it may be an overdue signal the team is making good decisions again.
Burrows was traded to the Ottawa Senators on Monday afternoon for Swedish prospect Jonathan Dahlen. From the Sens’ perspective, they’re hoping the man who carved out a career riding shotgun with the Sedins can kick in some goals for a team that averages 2.6 of them per game, a mark that ranks 19th in the NHL.
At first blush, the Sens—a squad with legitimate designs on top spot in the Atlantic Division—seemed to play a significant price for a 35-year-old who hasn’t scored at a 20-goal pace for four seasons. If your mental image of Burrows involves his arms being raised regularly, it’s time for a refresh.
Whatever Ottawa gets from the left-shooting right winger, it won’t be anything like those halcyon days in Vancouver, when Burrows provided the perfect complement to Henrik and Daniel Sedin. Burrows netted a career-best 35 goals with the Canucks in 2009-10 during the midst of a four-year stretch from 2008-2012 in which he never scored fewer than 26 times for the club. All this from an undrafted player who the Canucks signed in 2003 and developed into a first-line presence.
But it’s time for Vancouver to let go of past success stories.
In recent years, Canucks transactions have too often triggered head-scratching and musing about what, exactly, the team believes it is. As recently as last summer the middling Canucks were all about the veteran additions, signing Loui Eriksson to a monster free-agent deal.
Maybe the selling of Burrows for a prospect many people believe has a little something to him is the first sign of real change in Vancouver. It can’t come fast enough for a team that needs to acknowledge the limitations of the current roster and get to work rebuilding it with young players who can contribute down the road.
Finding Burrows on the scrapheap once upon a time was a huge victory for Vancouver. Moving him on Monday for a skilled youngster was another and, more importantly, shifts the team firmly toward the lane it needs to be in for the foreseeable future.
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