According to Dahlen's agent, Dahlen wasn't happy by the way he was being developed by the franchise, and is fine with the trade.
“There was frustration with the way he was being developed but they wanted to see more from him. It goes both ways. He's fine with this”, his agent JP Barry stated during a press conference.
Yeah, you’re right, absolutely trashed him. Benning should be Me Too’d for this brutal character assassination and racial discrimination and all of the Canucks management either forced to resign by the league or seek sensitivity training and perform community service…like cleaning up the garbage we see on the ice at the moment.
Sorry Timrafan, I get that you love Dahlen as a player and that’s cool with me, but when his own agent admits he needed to perform better or show a bit more to earn his place, and that the player accepts that, well, it says something.
I’m not arguing he could turn out to be an amazing player, but there are copious amounts of stories like this scattered through NHL history. And although you want to blame Benning for what transpired, I think you have to accept that there is a very strong likelihood that Dahlen’s agent JP Barry got involved and caused some friction. It takes two to tango. I don’t think it was an easy decision to trade away EP’s best friend but likely what was required for both parties at the time.
On the flip side of this, I also want to say it sounds as though the trade to SJ woke him up a bit and I hope he blows up in the NHL. He seems to have the right attitude and is in a better environment to succeed. That’s just the way it goes.
If he’s successful it might also cause some friendly competition between him and EP which is another way to keep a player’s fire lit.
Maybe he is Dahlen