MUMPS HIT THE CANUCKS
Potential outbreak, recent losses force GM’s hand
There is a contagion working insidiously through the Vancouver Canucks, attacking them and making them weak and feverish. It’s called losing. As the NHL team ended its 4½-day break with a practice late Friday, missing a quarter of its lineup due to a mumps outbreak, the Canucks had drifted eight points behind in the playoff race.
With the San Jose Sharks visiting Rogers Arena tonight, the Canucks are 3-8 in their last 11 games. No one in the league has done worse over that span.
It is easier to catch the mumps than eighth place in the Western Conference, which is why the Canucks’ season has become a salvage mission ahead of Wednesday’s NHL trade deadline. Starting goalie Ryan Miller and two-way winger Jannik Hansen, who has spent his 11-year professional career in the Canucks organization, confirmed they have submitted trade lists requested by general manager Jim Benning, as per the modified no-trade clauses in the players’ contracts.
Benning insisted Friday, “I haven’t asked anybody else with a (full) NTC to waive it.”
But the GM, keenly aware where the Canucks stand in their rebuild and transition toward younger and faster players, is expected to present to his players reasonable offers made by other teams.
Winger Alex Burrows, a 12-year Canuck who like Miller is due to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, will draw trade interest but can veto a move with his NTC.
Not so Miller and Hansen, who can limit Benning’s trade field but cannot fully prevent a deal.
Miller, 36, submitted a list of five teams he can be traded to, while Hansen was required to identify eight potential trade destinations.
A year ago, former Canuck Radim Vrbata sabotaged Benning’s trade plans by listing teams with no interest in acquiring him.
But Hansen said Friday there are “six or seven” playoff teams on his list, plus another listed for personal reasons — possibly Winnipeg, where Hansen met his wife and spends time in the off-season.
“I think it was a fair list, at least from my perception,” Hansen said. “Whether or not he can make a deal with them ... I can’t tell you that.
“It’s easy to pick eight teams you want to play for in this league. You can pick more if you wanted to. It’s a privilege to play. That being said, I want to stay here. I’ve never made that a secret. But it’s not hard to pick eight teams you’re willing to go to.”
Miller said his trade list was drafted last summer and merely needed to be ratified by his signature this week. The goalie’s list is believed to be geography-based, weighted toward California teams. Miller has a home in Los Angeles, where his wife, Noureen DeWulf, may resume her acting career after taking time off to start a family.
“It just comes down to the business of the game,” Miller said. “It’s not really a decision I can make. These are deals that Jim makes. He’s got to look ahead to the future of the team and decide what the plan is. And with the expansion draft, that’s just another wrinkle you have to consider.
“There’s a lot of different angles now.” Spoken like a goaltender. Any mid-season trade involving a starting goalie carrying a salary-cap hit of US$6 million would be difficult to orchestrate while dealing with 29 teams, let alone five. So it’s unlikely Miller is going anywhere.
But the trade of Hansen, a versatile and experienced player who has a year remaining under contract at a bargain US$2.5 million, would have been a slam dunk at any trade deadline except this one.
The Las Vegas expansion draft in June and the difficulty many teams would have protecting Hansen could dramatically affect what assets teams are willing to surrender for him.
“There are a lot of different things involved at this deadline,” Benning said, also citing flat projections for next season’s salary cap. “If they can’t protect a player in an expansion draft, how does that affect a trade? We haven’t had this to deal with in other years at the deadline.”
Hansen said he doesn’t view the Canucks’ request for his trade list as a betrayal of Benning’s public vow in December to not ask players with no-trade clauses to waive them.
“You definitely don’t want to tie your hands if you’re in his shoes,” Hansen said.
“Now he has the list and if something pops up, he doesn’t have to approach me. He can do what he feels is right for the organization.
“For myself, again, it’s out of my hands and has been out of my hands the whole season. Obviously, it moved a step closer now that he actually asked (for a trade list) but it’s something that has always been there.
“It’s always in the back of your mind that it might happen. Obviously, I’ve had the (NTC) protection now for the duration of this contract and they’ve never approached me before. It was never really an option, whereas now it is.
“If it happens it happens, and then we’ll uproot and go wherever it might be.”