I didn't jump on this story when it surfaced over the weekend, but in the interest of keeping you informed, I feel I should point out
this piece from Jason Botchford at
The Province, which attempts to hash out the inner workings of the Eddie Lack trade.
Botch postulates that the Canucks could have gotten a better return for Lack if they had traded him to a team in the Western Conference. Furthermore, he suggests that the reason why Jim Benning says the team didn't get a "firm offer" other than the one from Carolina is because those Western teams didn't think they had much of a chance of acquiring Lack.
According to Botchford:
The Canucks were in talks with Dallas, Edmonton, San Jose and Calgary and, no, they did not all see him as a backup. The Flames were out after they made the Dougie Hamilton move. The other three all acquired goalies and all paid steep prices after Lack was moved early on June 27.
Worth noting: the Flames secured their second goaltender for next season when they re-signed their unrestricted free agent Karri Ramo for $3.8 million on July 1. Considering Ramo ended up playing seven playoff games for Calgary including almost all of their second-round series against Anaheim, I'm not sure the Flames were so disappointed to be re-signing him rather than giving up assets to bring in a new netminder.
Botch says that Sharks' new goaltending coach, former Canuck Johan Hedberg, has been a fan of Lack's in the past: “Very well schooled. Balance and movement look great. Technically from what I’ve seen there’s no flaws.”
But let's not forget that the Kevin Bieksa deal went sideways when Benning was dealing with Doug Wilson. Even though the two consummated a lesser deal when Patrick McNally was dealt to the Sharks, it's not hard to imagine that Benning wasn't terribly excited to get deep with Wilson after aborting the Bieksa trade and dealing him to the Ducks instead.
The biggest revelation, perhaps, is that a higher pick could have been available from Edmonton than the one Benning received from Carolina:
Edmonton called the Canucks again on that Saturday morning of the draft, but were told the deal with the Canes was done, and he was gone.
Not long after, the Oilers traded second-round, third-round and seventh-round picks (57, 79 and 184 overall) to acquire Cam Talbot.
It’s believed the Oilers had been dangling No. 57 for Lack, but the Canucks now counter that by saying there was never a concrete offer from the Oilers.
Though, after the trade, Trevor Linden was asked on TSN 1040 if he could have got a late second and said:
“Perhaps.”
Linden went on to say there was just not a lot of difference between 57 and 66 and the Canucks would have selected the same player, Guillaume Brisebois, either way.
If this is correct, and the bottom line either way would have been the Canucks picking Brisebois, then I'd say this investigation is really much ado about nothing.
As we've discussed in the past, Benning has not shown cold feet about dealing within the division up till this point. Kesler and Bieksa are now both in Anaheim, Linden Vey was acquired from L.A., Baertschi was acquired from the Flames and he did the small Kellan Lain for Will Acton deal with the Oilers last year at midseason. The only team in the division that Benning hasn't made a trade with so far is Arizona—and he picked up Brandon McMillan off waivers from the Coyotes.
If it's all the same in terms of return—sure, why not trade Lack to an Eastern team? But I think it's wildly speculative to assume that Benning would have been able to create a bidding war on the draft floor to drive up the price on Lack. After all, it's not like that was the only thing going on at that moment in time.
Here's the part I do agree with.
They made a choice. They stuck with the goalies they believe in.
So, there remains no mystery in why they traded Eddie Lack. Debate it all you want, he wasn’t their guy.
I enjoyed Eddie while he was here and I'll always give him credit for doing his best to handle the workload in an impossible situation after the Luongo trade in 2014. My bottom line is that he was shaky in the playoffs this year. I'm not sure he has much upside beyond what we've already seen. And most importantly, it's all water under the bridge.
For his part, Lack still seems to be in good spirits, as you'd expect:
What's done is done. Let's put the issue to bed and move on.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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