Canucks’ Biega gets his wish, traded to Red Wings
Long-serving, hard-working Vancouver defenceman off to Detroit for minor league winger Pope
Jim Benning did Alex Biega a favour Sunday.
The long-serving, hard-working Vancouver Canucks defenceman was rewarded for his professionalism with a trade to the Detroit Red Wings for minor-league left winger David Pope. It’s a move that may allow the 31-year-old blueliner another crack at the NHL while adding to the Canucks’ forward depth.
The Canucks have three set pairings and Oscar Fantenberg as the extra defenceman so Biega, who was placed on waivers last week along with Sven Baertschi and Nikolay Goldobin, was expendable. Biega has 36 points (4-32) in 179 regular-season games with the Canucks between the 2014-15 and 2018-19 seasons.
“I drafted Alex when I was with Buffalo, so I go way back with him and told him that he’s had such a great attitude for us and even when he wasn’t playing, he would work his ass off,” said Benning, the Canucks general manager.
“And he was good for our younger players to do the work every day and I gave him my word that we were moving on from him, but if I could find a spot in the league for him, I would try to work that out.
“We have six or seven good, young D-men down in Utica that we want to play and Alex has been a good player for us with a good attitude and we wanted to do the right thing by him. And we’re at the point where we have good players who we can call up if we have injuries.
“I want them to get minutes down in Utica in important situations because they’re knocking at the (NHL) door.”
Benning cited a strong camp and pre-season for Guillaume Brisebois and Jalen Chatfield and the poise that Brogan Rafferty displayed with the puck has him on the fast-track. Olli Juolevi had a strong first game with the Comets, while Mitch Eliot is making progress. Ashton Saunter looks like he could see more NHL games this season and provides the depth that Biega brought when called upon.
Pope, 25, spent the last four seasons at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and also played four years in the BCHL. The 6-foot-2, 197pound winger was a fourthround pick of the Red Wings in 2013 and has yet to play an NHL regular-season game.
The Edmonton native is on an expiring contract that pays $US925,000 in the NHL and $70,000 in the minors. In his senior NCAA season in 201718, he managed 41 points (2021) in 35 games.
“He’s got good size and had a good year in college in his senior year. He’s got a power-forward type of game,” said Benning.