Pieces to dangle at trade deadline come with catches
Canucks would like to move Burrows and Hansen, but players have big say in matter
The NHL trade deadline is ruining Alex Burrows’ life. And he hasn’t even been traded yet.
“I’ve cut off my Twitter,” the Vancouver Canucks winger said. “I’ve cut off TSN and Canadian websites. I watch ESPN right now. I’m more aware of the Charles Oakley incident and what happened in the NBA last night (than in the NHL). I’m a huge sports fan; I have to follow sports. But right now, I’m staying away from anything where my name could be.”
And Burrows’ name seems to be everywhere in hockey. So is Jannik Hansen’s.
These two gritty wingers, who just combined with centre Bo Horvat on a 10-point weekend for the Canucks, have devoted a total of 21 NHL seasons to the franchise. Neither has played for another NHL team and neither wants to.
But it’s obvious to everyone, and especially to Canucks president of hockey operations Trevor Linden and general manager Jim Benning, that the rebuilding team can’t afford to lose marketable assets for nothing.
Burrows, 35, and Hansen, 30, appear to have trade value. But they also possess in their contracts no-trade clauses — full and partial NTCs, respectively — that could prevent their movement before the March 1 trade deadline.
For all the populist demand in Vancouver that the Canucks leverage their assets and not lose Burrows to unrestricted free agency and Hansen to the June expansion draft for nothing, the players will still largely determine whether they’re traded.
This is partly why 36-year-old Canucks starting goalie Ryan Miller, who is having a strong season and also is on an expiring contract, probably won’t be moved. The only time Miller was traded in-season, to St. Louis from Buffalo three years ago, it was a disaster for both the finely tuned goalkeeper and the team that acquired him. And both the market for starting goalies and Miller’s trade list — he can restrict the Canucks to five teams — are so small, that a fit by the March 1 deadline seems highly unlikely. Miller can sign wherever he wants July 1.
The Canucks’ most marketable commodity is 25-year-old defenceman Erik Gudbranson, a former third-overall draft pick who is a pending restricted free agent rendered expendable by the unforeseen development this season of rookie blue-liners Troy Stecher and Nikita Tryamkin.
But Gudbranson is out indefinitely after surgery on his hand. And the looming expansion draft to stock the Las Vegas franchise complicates a straight hockey trade even more than a rental deal. Any non-exempt player a team adds before the expansion draft must be accounted for on its protection list.
Hansen has a year left on his contract at a salary-cap bargain of US$2.5 million. But how much less might a team surrender for him if it knows the Vegas Golden Knights will claim him in June?
And even if the team that wants him is trying to win the Stanley Cup this spring and is willing to risk the full-market rate for Hansen — let’s say a second-round draft pick and a prospect or a decent young forward — would Hansen want to go there knowing he could be changing teams three times in a year?
The first move would be March 1, the second the June 21 expansion-draft announcement and the probable third at the trade deadline next season. That’s a lot of moving for a player who loves Vancouver, has a new house, a new baby and four-year-old twins.
“If and if and if and if,” Hansen said after helping the Canucks beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-2 Sunday. “There are too many variables where I have little control over. If the team comes to me, I give them my (trade list of eight teams) and then it’s in their hands. I can’t veto a trade. If (Benning) wants to trade me, he can trade me.”
Not necessarily. The Canucks badly wanted to trade soon-to-be-UFA Radim Vrbata this time last year, but the offensive winger provided a trade list that contained more dogs than the Iditarod. The California Seals and the Cleveland Barons may as well have been on it. For some reason, poor teams about to miss the playoffs have no interest in surrendering assets to rent players who damage their draft-lottery chances.
“I don’t know about that,” Hansen said of trying to stymie the Canucks. “I have another year on my contract, so maybe a team that’s not in the playoffs would want me for next year. It’s tough for me to figure out what’s going to happen. If he comes to me, I’ll give him eight teams. But I’ve made it very clear I’d prefer to stay here.”
Burrows and Hansen certainly aren’t playing like disgruntled employees. Each had two points in Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Boston Bruins, and their line with Horvat again drove the team in Buffalo as the Canucks improved to 2-2 on their difficult, six-game road trip that continues Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Burrows, especially, delivered a quintessential performance Sunday, scuffling with Sabres’ goalie Robin Lehner, drawing and killing penalties, and scoring the winner. He has four points in two games after scoring none in 13.
His fierce loyalty to the Canucks may work in the team’s favour before March 1.
“If they think they’ve got to rebuild and they can get an asset for me, I’d feel ... not an obligation, but I’d think about it,” Burrows said. “Deep down in my heart, I want to make the playoffs with this team. And if something else happens, we’ll think about it. We’ll have a discussion for sure.”
The weekend split left the Canucks four points adrift of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
As Hansen noted, there are a lot of ifs. But he and Burrows are winners. They have 134 playoff games between them and want to win a Cup.
“Yeah, right here,” Hansen said.