ENTHUSIASM IN SHORT SUPPLY AT THE DEADLINE

Canucks GM gets rid of Gudbranson, but pulls off ‘lateral move’ in ditching Dahlen

If there’s one thing we’ve come to know about Jim Benning ’s tenure as Vancouver Canucks general manager, one theme that has recurred with numbing regularity, it’s this: Drafting aside, Benning never seems to make consecutive moves that leave you confident in the assets he’s accumulated and the future direction of the franchise.

His trades, there have now been 33 of them, are seldom disasters. But neither have they accelerated the rebuild. Instead, it’s been half a step forward, half a step backward; three-quarters of a step forward followed by a full step backward.

The overall effect has slowed the Canucks’ development curve, offsetting the gains made at the draft table with an everchanging cast of support players. So tell me, did the trade deadline change any of that? Do you feel better about the Canucks’ future than you did before Monday?

Let’s ask a tougher question: Cher, do you think she’s had some work done?

“I think this is a lateral move,” Benning said when asked about the deal that sent Jonathan Dahlen to San Jose for Linus Karlsson.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

The Canucks’ deadline moves, in fact, epitomized so many things about the Benning administration. On the one hand, the faithful will rejoice over the deletion of Erik Gudbranson, whose struggles had reached critical mass on the team’s blueline and necessitated a move for both hockey and humanitarian reasons. If Tanner Pearson, the return from Pittsburgh, is still the 20-20 man he was through three seasons with the Los Angeles Kings, this deal is a massive win for the Canucks.

True, you wonder why two organizations have given up on Pearson this season, but let’s park those doubts for the moment.

Then, there’s the Dahlen trade. It’s not necessarily the deal itself that is the problem. It’s what it represents. Two years ago, Benning flipped a moribund Alex Burrows to Ottawa for Dahlen and Canucks supporters believed he’d pulled off a heist, which signalled a new era for the Canucks.

Last season, Dahlen was named the MVP of the second-tier Allsvenskan while leading Timra back to the Swedish elite league in an epic series win over Karlskrona. He’s also close pals with Elias Pettersson and demonstrated chemistry with the Alien both in Sweden and the Young Stars tournament in Penticton this September.

Dahlen, in short, looked like an elite prospect. Not a B-lister, but minimally a top-six NHLer with the potential to become a frontliner. The problem was there was tension brewing between the player and the organization as early as October 2017, when Dahlen opted to return to Timra instead of playing in the American Hockey League. Things were never really fixed. This season, Dahlen had produced a 14-15-29 line in 50 games in Utica and if that sounds underwhelming, bear in mind it’s similar to the AHL production of first-rounders Martin Necas, Michael McLeod and Filip Zadina. Still, Dahlen, through his agent J.P. Barry, requested a trade a week ago and on Monday he was sent to San Jose, an organization that tends to develop players like Dahlen.

“It was the inconsistency of where he fit in their plans,” Barry said when asked about the source of Dahlen’s frustration.

“We just felt there was some development left in his game before he’s ready for an NHL opportunity,” Benning said. “We thought he wasn’t there yet. That’s kind of the discrepancy on what they thought and we thought happened.”

Who knows? Maybe the Canucks were right on this one. Dahlen wouldn’t be the first young player who had an overinflated sense of his abilities and the organization, apparently, didn’t see a future star.

But, again, optics. The Canucks are supposed to be rebuilding. They have a genuine need for scoring on the wings. They had this 21-year-old kid who has excited a lot of people.

And they trade him for a third-rounder in Karlsson, who’s currently playing with, ta da, Karlskrona in the Allsvenskan, where he isn’t half the player Dahlen was at Timra.

As for Gudbranson, this trade had to be made, but it hardly qualifies as a win for the organization.

In May 2016, the former thirdoverall pick was acquired from Florida for the hefty price of first-rounder Jared McCann, a second-round pick and a fourthrounder, with the Canucks also getting a fifth.

Gudbranson was supposed to be a top-four guy. He was supposed to be a cornerstone piece on a rebuilding blue-line.

Suffice to say he was neither of those things.

“For whatever reason he just never got adjusted,” Benning said.

But he was another miscalculation by this organization, which has left a gaping hole on its blueline.

Pearson now steps in and he has been handed a top-six role with either Pettersson or Bo Horvat and he, too, fills a need. As mentioned, if he returns to the form he once had with the Kings, this is a good get by Benning.

But the GM now has to fix the blue-line and let’s just hope it isn’t another lateral move this time.