Sportsnet: The Vancouver Canucks traded forward Anthony Beauvillier and his $4.15 million salary cap hit to the Chicago Blackhawks. It gives the Canucks some financial flexibility to make another move.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Jason Brough: “Getting back to the trade. I just want to start with the trade. We are, we were recently bemoaning Beauvillier’s lack of production this season and we kind of threw him in the same camp as Conor Garland. Where you look at the registered shots, they’ve had scoring chances but the finish wasn’t there.
You know the Canucks will keep Conor Garland and I think Conor Garland is a more useful player than Beauvillier. I think he does more things. Like I get frustrated when I watch Garland because of his finish and like he just doesn’t have a very hard shot and the pucks not going in for him right now. So that’s frustrating, but I think he does, I think Garland has more of an ability to drive a line than Beauvillier does.
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Mike Halford: “He does more things for 60. He’s got a higher thing per 60.
Producer: “Great stat.”
Halford: “He does things.”
Brough: “So thanks to Taylor Hall‘s injury, and again, whatever the heck happened with Corey Perry, the Canucks pounced on an opportunity to dump Beauvillier’s entire $4.15 million cap hit.
Would have been better for the Canucks to have done that trade over the summer. Yeah, but it probably wasn’t there. They probably weren’t able to make that move without any, without adding any sweeteners and the Canucks have kind of been like we’re not doing sweeteners for these deals, right.
And they found a chance and good for them because they didn’t have to add anything. They got rid of Beauvillier’s entire cap hit, not because of really anything that they did strategically. They did get a little bit lucky. But they made the deal. They called up Chicago, they realized like hey, Chicago has got a problem right now.
Halford: “Sure.
Brough: “And they’re gonna be a place where maybe they might want a veteran forward who’s like a good guy in the room. And for Chicago, this might make sense in addition to bringing in someone to help Beauvillier and someone to help, not Beauvillier but (Connor) Bedard, someone to help beyond you know, Taylor Hall and Corey Perry. Because maybe Beauvillier goes there and has a really good stretch for 20 or 30 games and then the Blackhawks are able to say, ‘Okay, well we’ll train them at the trade deadline and we’ll retain salary and we’ll get even more than the fifth round pick that we were able to, that we had to give up to get Beauvillier.’
So hopefully, it works out for everyone involved and that includes Beauvillier, who comes from the Islanders to Vancouver and plays well for the first part and I remember people being like, I would rather have Beauvillier than Horvat. And I’m like, Okay, well that’s, that’s alright, your, your emotional right now you’re lashing out at Bo Horvat, but you know, ultimately Beauvillier didn’t really have a spot in the lineup that worked for him.
The question now is, what did the Canucks do with their newfound cap space because you know, they’re not.
Producer: “Phil Kessel.”
Brough: “You know they’re not savers. The Canucks aren’t savers. They’re gonna, they’re gonna, they’re gonna use this money. They’re gonna use this cap space as soon as they…”
Halford: “They’re gonna buy municipal bonds with it.
Procuder: “Well, you assume as Ethan Bear, right? like,
Brough: “Well, look, it’s worth noting that Cole McWard and Noah Juulsen were both in the lineup yesterday. And for the record, (Quinn) Hughes and (Filip) Hronek weren’t together. Like that, I didn’t expect to see that. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention to, did everyone expect that? But Hughes and Hronek we’re not together for the full game. And maybe that’s because the coaching staff was like, we you know, we got Mcward and Noah Juulsen.
Halford: “Part of the committee approach.”
Brough: Ian Cole was in there too and Tyler Myers.
Producer: “They’re trying to bring Hronek’s re-signing price down.”
Brough: “But yeah, maybe they’re trying to bring Hronek, yeah, maybe they, maybe just over, maybe management heard our show they other day and was like, ‘Oh, my God, we were not going to be able to afford a Hronek.’
So Ethan Bear is the obvious choice, but nothing’s done yet and it remains to be seen when he’ll be ready to play. I’m sure we’re gonna get some more Ethan Bear updates now, but like, is he even close to being NHL-ready?”
Halford: “On Canucks talk yesterday Sat and Dan spent a considerable amount of time talking about the long-term projection as it would pertain to Ethan Bear, and trying to do a realistic one. And realistically, you’re going to have to, one, get him signed, which means he’s healthy enough to participate at a proper level. Like you can’t just sign him and then have to do the same skating regimen he’s doing right now.
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Then you’re talking about how long is it going to take to get a guy up to speed in the NHL, and not just for a run-of-the-mill NHL team, a team that has playoff aspirations. That is fighting tooth and nail for points because they want to get in the postseason.
Brough: “Well we keep hearing…”
Halford: “He hasn’t played in seven months.”
