Well, don't let it be said that Jim Benning is kicking back and enjoying his summer vacation.
The Vancouver Canucks general manager gave us something to talk about today, trading center Nick Bonino and defenseman Adam Clendening, along with a second-round draft pick, to Pittsburgh in exchange for Brandon Sutter and a conditional third-rounder.
To clarify the draft picks—there probably won't be a ton of difference between them:
Chances are, the Ducks' pick will be a late second-rounder. The two third-round picks that Pittsburgh holds originally belonged to the New York Islanders and—get this—the Canucks. That pick was quietly dealt to the Islanders last winter as part of the Andrey Pedan deal, then shuffled on from there to Buffalo, then the Penguins. If you go to the Canucks
team page, all the draft picks are listed in the left column. Picks marked in black have been acquired and if you click on them, you can run through their whole history.
Good on them for getting the site updated so quickly today!
As for Brandon, he's the son of Brent Sutter, a former first-round draft pick of the Carolina Hurricanes with Western Canadian roots. He played four years in Red Deer while Willie Desjardins was the coach of Medicine Hat:
If you're a fancy stats fan, the deal looks terrible for the Canucks as a one-for-one between Sutter and Bonino:
Both Bonino and Clendening were starting to put down roots here in Vancouver:
Over at
The Province, Ben Kuzma
postulates that Sutter is a better fit down the middle as the Canucks' young centers find their way:
The riddles in the middle meant Bonino was slipping down the depth chart with the ascension of Bo Horvat and Sutter might give the Canucks more options at centre. With a year left on Sutter’s expiring contract that’s a $3.3 million cap hit next season, it’s obvious that general manager Jim Benning is banking on the 26-year-old Sutter finding his game here before becoming an unrestricted free agent. It also buys the Canucks more time to develop centres Cole Cassels and Jared McCann.
Pittsburgh was a pretty chaotic place to play last season, with the mumps outbreak and all the team's other injuries causing constant turmoil on the lines. Yet Sutter managed to play 80 games. His 21 goals tied a career high and his 33 points were the second best total of his career.
At 6'3", he bring two inches more size than Bonino, he out-hit Bonino 86-31 and his faceoff percentage was 50.6 percent compared with Bonino's 47.4 percent.
Bonino started off strongly with the Canucks as Ryan Kesler's replacement last season, with seven goals in 14 games, but his performance dipped during the winter months. He bounced back with four goals and 13 points in the last 21 games of the regular season as the Canucks fought for a playoff spot in March and April. In the playoffs, he managed a goal and two assists, and was a minus-two, in six games against Calgary.
Bonino's last time on the ice for the season was a high point, when he was named player of the game with a goal and an assist in Team USA's 3-0 bronze-medal win over the host team from the Czech Republic at the World Championships in Prague.
Say what you will about Bonino's up-and-down season—he was a bargain at a cap hit of $1.9 million for the next two years. Sutter's current cap hit is $3.3 million, and Benning's looking to sign him to a contract extension:
Here's how Benning describes Sutter's game:
As for Adam Clendening, Benning did a big back-track here from his previous position that he wanted lots of depth on defense:
He feels that the Utica Comets will have enough depth to offer up injury replacements if needed.
The move does give the team the option to carry 14 forwards and seven defensemen, instead of being locked into eight D. That could provide more opportunity for players like Ronalds Kenins, Alex Grenier, Hunter Shinkaruk or Brendan Gaunce.
The trade leaves the Canucks with 21 players signed and $2.17 in available cap space. Whether it's on forward or defense, a minor-league call-up that takes Clendening's spot will carry a cap hit in the range of $600-$900,000, which would leave about $1.2 million to sign Sven Baertschi.
I guess this deal is what Benning was waiting to do while he's been telling Baertschi to wait on inking his new deal. It looks like he has left enough cap space available to now get that contract signed.
Though I was not in favour of bringing in Brandon Sutter as a replacement for Ryan Kesler when the Canucks were talking with Pittsburgh at the 2014 trade deadline, here we are. I didn't feel like Bonino showed enough strength on the puck to be a long-term solution at center and I thought Clendening was pretty *meh* while he was with the Canucks, so I'm not heartbroken about what has been given up. Just curious, I guess, to see what kind of extension Benning gives Sutter and whether or not he can finally live up to his potential.
What do you think?
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