Tuesday February 28 - Detroit Red Wings 3 - Vancouver Canucks 2 (OT)
The major drama went down off the ice, but two active trade deadline teams did put together 60-plus minutes of hockey as the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Vancouver Canucks in overtime at Rogers Arena on Tuesday.
Here are your highlights:
Little did we know that when Jannik Hansen took warmup in his special "Hockey Is For Everyone" jersey, that would be the last time we'd see the 10-year veteran in Canucks colours.
Click here if you'd like to place a bid on that jersey. That's one unique collector's item!
During the game, there were whispers that Edmonton could be a possible destination for Hansen. By the third period, the deal was made official—Hansen was on his way to San Jose, in exchange for prospect Nikolay Goldobin and a conditional fourth-round draft pick.
A few interesting details about the deal:
The 4th-round pick San Jose is sending Vancouver becomes a 1st-rounder if #Sharks win the Cup. Whole lotta Shark fans in #Canucks Nation now
Since the Canucks are also retaining salary on Roberto Luongo's contract until the end of time, they'll only have room to retain on one more player until Hansen's contract expires at the end of 2017-18.
Alex Burrows has been lauded for working his way from undrafted status to an excellent NHL career. Hansen's career path is just as unlikely. QuantHockey shows that just 12 players from Denmark have ever reached the NHL—and seven of those 12 came in after Hansen. He was drafted in the ninth round—287th overall—in 2004. Nowadays, the draft ends after Round 7. After one year with the Portland Winter Hawks in the WHL, Hansen joined the Manitoba Moose.
Just like Burrows, he worked his way from there up to the right-wing spot with the Sedins—where he scored his career-high 22 goals last season.
I don't have a particular standout offensive moment for Hansen. Honestly, I remember him more for those years when he was maligned by Canucks nation for never being able to finish on his breakaways. I figured it was a good sign that he was getting those breakaways, so I was just happy to see him finding the net last year.
Personally, my favourite moment came last spring in St. Petersburg, during World Championships. Hansen had been playing well for Team Denmark during round-robin play in Moscow, so the Danes crossed over to play Finland in St. Petersburg in the quarterfinal.
I was able to arrange an interview with Hansen, which was supposed to happen after Denmark's practice on the day before the quarterfinal game.
Turned out they didn't practice after all—and I got stuck in horrendous Russian rush-hour traffic on my way to meet him for the interview.
Data plans were outrageously expensive in Russia, so I couldn't email or text to let them know that I was running late. Eventually, I hopped off the shuttle bus and dashed across the bridge to the arena on foot in an effort to save time.
Out of breath, I finally made it to the almost-deserted media area to find the grumpy Danish P.R. rep—thank goodness. He went to get Hansen for me. He'd waited!
After I apologized profusely and explained about the traffic, Hansen shrugged it off. "It happens here," he nodded, then gave me a solid, thorough interview, talking about World Championships and the Canucks. You can read it here.
I'll always appreciate the fact that he took the time to wait for me and talk to me that day, so I wish him all the best in San Jose. It has to be exciting for him that he's joining the team that went to the Stanley Cup Final out of the Western Conference last year and looks well-positioned to make another good run.
I've always been reluctant to cheer for the Sharks to win a cup before the Canucks but thanks to that conditional draft pick, now a win for San Jose is also a win for Vancouver!
In addition to that draft pick, Jim Benning also acquired Nikolay Goldobin, a 21-year-old Russian winger who was chosen 27th overall in 2014—three spots after Jared McCann.
Since the Sharks have a ton of young forward prospects, Goldobin has spent most of the last two seasons in the AHL. He has logged 11 NHL games—and Canucks fans have seen him play a bit during the last two preseasons.
Click here for a profile of Goldobin by Lucas Aykroyd of IIHF.com from the night he scored his first-ever NHL preseason goal—against the Canucks in September of 2015.
So far, Jim Benning has been pretty astute in his assessment of the young, European scorers that he has brought into the Canucks organization. Sven Baertschi and Markus Granlund have both panned out nicely—Granlund scored a beauty last night for his 16th of the year.
He'll get the opportunity for a fresh start in Vancouver, where he's expected to join the big club immediately—likely in time to play against the Sharks on Thursday night.
The other good thing about Goldobin—since he's in his second pro season, he's expansion-draft exempt.
Hansen's not expected to be in the lineup for San Jose on Thursday.
Hansen won't be playing against Canucks Thursday. Says he needs US work visa. Also needs a passport for his baby to travel.
Cramarossa is a 24-year-old centre, originally from Toronto. He was drafted by the Ducks in the third round in 2011. He's not huge at 6'1" and 192 pounds, but he has a little bit of an edge to his game. He has 10 points and 51 penalty minutes in 49 games with the Ducks this season.
What do you think? Will the Canucks make any moves before the end of the day?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»