Canucks give up on Kassian, add depth on defence
It was Jim Benning talking about Zack Kassian, but it sounded a lot like Mike Gillis talking about Cody Hodgson.
“We have spent a lot of time working with Zack Kassian. Trust me when I say that,” Benning said after dealing the big winger and a fifth-round draft pick to the Montreal Canadiens for rugged winger Brandon Prust on Wednesday.
Gillis, Benning’s predecessor as Canucks general manager, said pretty much the same thing when he traded away Hodgson for Kassian at the 2012 trade deadline.
The Kassian deal was the biggest Canuck news on the first day of NHL free agency. Other notable moves by Benning on Wednesday included re-signing defenceman Yannick Weber and adding free-agent defenceman Matt Bartkowski.
On the surface, the KassianPrust deal seems to fly in the face of Benning’s desire to get his team younger.
Prust, after all, is 31 and carries a hefty $2.5-million salary for a fourth-line role player. Kassian, 24, was in the last year of a deal that will pay him $1.75 million next season.
Benning said the Canucks needed to add grit after trading veteran defenceman Kevin Bieksa to the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday for a second-round pick.
“Having moved Kevin yesterday we felt as an organization we wanted to add some toughness to our group,” Benning said. “Brandon Prust is a good penalty-killer. He’s a high-character person and we think he is going to come in and help our group.”
Benning also said the Canucks were over-stocked at Kassian’s position, right wing.
Kassian simply could not find any consistent level of success under three different coaches.
“With a young player, they have a window of opportunity to prove what they can be in the league and for whatever reason we couldn’t find it with Zack on a consistent basis,” Benning said.
“That’s not to say he gets a fresh start with a new team that he can’t become the player that he thinks that he should be.”
In a TSN interview after the trade, Kassian acknowledged he could have done more with the Canucks.
“At the end of the day I am going to a great organization,” he said. “To be honest I am thrilled and I know this is really a big opportunity for me and I am going to take advantage of it.”
Prust, on vacation in Italy, piles up more penalty minutes than points.
He had 18 points and 134 penalty minutes — sixth highest in the league — last season with Montreal. A left winger, Prust has 39 goals, 108 points and 977 penalty minutes in 451 regularseason NHL games.
He should help shoulder the enforcer role with fellow winger Derek Dorsett.
Prust was third in the NHL last year with 16 fighting majors, behind only Dorsett (17) and Colorado’s Cody McLeod (19).
“Derek sent me a text thanking me,” Benning said.
Bartkowski, who signed a oneyear deal worth $1.75 million, is a player Benning knows from his days in Boston. The 27-year-old has spent the past three seasons with the Bruins. He is a strong skater, who Benning hopes will help the Canucks move the puck out of the defensive zone more quickly.
“He’s good defensively and he is a transition defensive defenceman, where in his own end he is real good at boxing players out and being in the right spots,” Benning said.
“Defensively, he has got a good stick but he’s an excellent skater and he can carry the puck up the ice and rush the puck up the ice. Being in the Western Conference is going to suit his game real good.”
“I am a pretty good skater, so I can skate the puck out of situations, move it forward and get it in the forwards’ hands, play a little physical here and there,” is how Bartkowski described his game in a telephone interview from his Pittsburgh home. “Other than that, it’s a pretty simple game.”
Bartkowski, a left-hand shot, is anxious for a fresh start after a frustrating 2014-15 season with the Bruins. Bartkowski was in and out of the lineup and played only 47 games last season. He had four assists and 37 penalty minutes.
“I just didn’t have the best start to the year,” he said. “I wasn’t playing to 100 per cent of my ability. I got off on that foot and just had to dig out of that and
“Defensively, he has got a good stick but he’s an excellent skater and he can carry the puck up the ice and rush the puck up the ice.
CANUCKS’ GM JIM BENNING ON NEWLY ACQUIRED DEFENCEMAN MATT BARTKOWSKI
eventually toward the end of the year I started playing more.”
Weber returns after leading Canucks defencemen with 11 goals last season. The 26-yearold Swiss native signed a oneyear deal worth $1.5 million.
“Yannick gives us a dimension we don’t have from the back end because he has a real good shot,” Benning said.
“The second half of the year he really took off and played good and got his shot through and on the net and he ended up scoring some goals for us. It was important that when we moved Kevin that we knew he was going to come back.”
The Canucks also added depth defenceman Taylor Fedun, a 27-year-old who has had brief NHL stints with San Jose and Edmonton, and goalie Richard Bachman.
Bachman, who played seven games with the Oilers last season, will partner with Joe Cannata in Utica next season.