Vancouver Canucks Acquire Ben Bishop

Going into the trade deadline, the Canucks appeared to be sellers. With the playoffs appearing to be out of the picture, everyone assumed the team would simply be looking to offload some of their pending UFA’s and add to their pool of draft picks and prospects.

However, that was not the case.

In a surprising move, the Canucks traded Collin Delia, Nic Hague, and Arizona’s 1st round pick in the 2019 draft for star goalie Ben Bishop. Vancouver also received a 3rd round selection in the deal.

When asked why a team that was supposedly in a rebuild would trade young assets for an older netminder, GM Travis Fleming related the importance he places on the goaltending position.

“You can never have too many goalies,” he said. “Goaltending is the hardest position to fill, so we’re always looking to acquire guys there. I didn’t wake up today planning on trading for a number one goalie, but an opportunity was presented to us and we took it. Ben is an elite goalie and we got him for what we feel was a very reasonable price. So, we’re very happy with the deal.”

He went on to explain how the deal fits in to the ongoing rebuild.

“I’ve said many times that I don’t plan to be one of those teams who are in a never ending rebuild,” Fleming said. “Our goal is to get this team back into contention in the next year or two. And when we’re ready to compete again, I want to have a goalie in place that I can count on. Now, between Ben, Cory (Schneider), and Thatcher (Demko), I think we’re extremely deep in net. I have no doubt that when this team is in a position to make a run at the playoffs, we’ll have the depth in net to make that happen.”

Vancouver Trades Thomas Greiss for 2nd Round Pick

Fleming wasn’t done after acquiring Ben Bishop. With just 16 seconds left in this year’s deadline, the Canucks and Ranger finalized a deal that sent back-up goalie Thomas Greiss to New York for Vegas’ 2nd round pick in the upcoming draft.

Here’s what Fleming had to say about the deal:

“After acquiring Ben, we had too many goalies on our roster. If we hadn’t traded Greiss we would have had to put Kevin Boyle on waivers. Kevin’s a guy we picked up off waivers earlier this year and we like his potential. We didn’t want to risk losing him for nothing, so we made the decision to deal Greiss. It’s all about asset management.”

Canucks Make Minor Deal with Wild

Finally, the Canucks and Wild made a minor trade that saw long-time Canuck Tom Kuhnhakl dealt for a 2020 5th round pick and $1,000,000.

“Tom’s been a hardworking guy for us for many years,” Fleming said. “(Minnesota Wild GM) Harald came to me looking to acquire him, and he offered me a fair price. We wish Tom the best of luck in Minnesota. With the way that team is playing right now it’s a great opportunity for him and he’ll have a chance at winning a Stanley Cup.”