theminister Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 I hope Ballard goes to the East and gives the Rangers fits all year long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duda Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 My favourite non-hipcheck Ballard moment was when he tried to prank Bieksa by hiding in his hockey bag and then Kes and Bur threw the bag in the trashcan instead. Will miss ya, too bad it didnt work out for you here. http://canucks.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=549623 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insomniac604 Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 I always thought Ballard didn't get a fair shake. He was brought in to stack the top 4 but when Edler's partners were Salo and Ehrhoff, getting PP time was difficult. I think he did the best with what he had. Wasn't worth his contract in any of the seasons. But that poor foresight is on management. Good luck to him elsewhere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danthecanucksfan Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 Lp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EternalCanuckFan Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 I was thinking he'd take a 1 year deal to re-established himself. He'd get some good exposure in Chicago for 1 season then seek a bigger contract and top 4 spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnews Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 OK so here are the numbers for Ballard: $4.2m /yr with 2 year remaining. Buyout would cost Canucks $5.6m spread over 4 years or $1.4m/year. Question: Why won't MG eat some of his salary in a trade, say $1.5m for 2 years (the duration of his contract ... is still only $3m in total)? I'm sure someone would want Ballard at $2.7 mill / yr? In the end, it is still less than $5.6m that Aqua has to dole out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burrkeshanlon Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 It's a shame he's going he didn't get a decent chance here Oh well all the best wherever you go Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynrgee Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 Good luck Ballard. I'm sure you will flourish with another team. The dog in the doghouse couldn't even get a bone with AV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Provost Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 Good luck Ballard... hope the next stop goes well for you. You did everything asked of you but it just wasn't a fit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonberries Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 It's such a shame that he never got a chance to play here. He should have been moved two years ago. Bad bungle by Gillis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 I'll miss him. He played really well with Tanev this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonberries Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 that's why your not the GM thank god for that his value was at it's highest right now its hilarious how many people consider 9th overall 0 value Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeNiro Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 Especially since LA settled for Frattin, Scrivens and a second for a very comparable young goalie. Goalies aren't fetching much these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KFBR392 Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 I was looking forward to seeing Ballard get a chance with Torts. Good luck, Ballard. Hope you tear it up with whatever team you sign with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallstreetamigo Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 It shows what a quality person and teammate Ballard is that he never let his situation affect the team negatively. Some good quotes from his agent. I know I for one hope Ballard rebounds somewhere else and puts the Vancouver and AV years behind him. Keith Ballard’s inauspicious Canucks career began on June 25, 2010. It was essentially over less than a week later. When the Canucks signed Dan Hamhuis on July 1 of that year, he leap-frogged Ballard on the depth chart. Hamhuis went into the top four, and head coach Alain Vigneault put the smooth skating Ballard in a hole he didn’t get out of until this week. Three years later, Ballard is about to be free. The Canucks will buy out his contract Thursday, leaving them with $7.49 million in cap space and giving him the fresh start he’s coveted. It will close the book on one of the more disappointing acquisitions of the Mike Gillis era. Both the Canucks and Ballard were eager to explore the idea that things could be different under new head coach John Tortorella. Ballard is a fast, north-south skater, who loves to block shots. He is the type of player who theoretically could thrive under Tortorella. Too bad the coaching change didn’t happen a year earlier. Now the Canucks cap crisis forced their hand. Even after the buyout, they need to sign seven players with that $7.49 million in cap space, including Chris Tanev and a third-line centre. Ballard’s agent, Ben Hankinson, said there’s already been interest from other teams and is confident Ballard will be signed again to play in the NHL. Maybe even by the New York Islanders, one of the teams thought to be into the idea of a Ballard reclamation project. “Immediately, he was behind the 8-ball (in Vancouver), especially when he started that first season injured,” Hankinson said. “He never got a chance to dig out of that hole. “But now, with a fresh start somewhere, this will be a great opportunity for him.” Whoever gets him will be getting a motivated, puck-moving blueliner who will be out to prove the Canucks were dead wrong to marginalize him for three years. For three difficult seasons in Vancouver he questioned himself, his game and his place in the NHL. He went from playing 22 minutes a game in Florida, to playing 15 in Vancouver. That’s if he was even in the lineup, which was never a sure thing. At the end of his Canucks stay, Ballard played 148 games and produced 16 points. For that, the Canucks paid $18.2 million. Even after the premium the Canucks paid in money and assets — it cost a first-round draft pick, Michael Grabner and Steve Bernier to get Ballard and Victor Oreskovich — Ballard started off as a bottom-pairing blueliner. It was a role he was miscast in and one he was uncomfortable with for at least half a season. He also became a regular healthy scratch, and by the end of his Canucks career was eighth on the defensive depth chart. He watched as journeymen and rookies passed by him in terms of ice time. For three seasons, the Canucks paid him $4.2 million. For four more, they will pay him $1.4 million, to make up the $5.6 million it cost to buy out the two final years on his deal. Through it all, Ballard handled himself with dignity and class. “Behind the scenes there was more there than anyone sees,” Hankinson said. “It was hard on him. But I don’t think he ever melted down. He coped with it by being positive. “Everyone has demons, but he never went off the deep end.” Ballard was the consummate teammate who never let the angst flood into the locker-room. He never became a distraction. In one fascinating interview with The Province, he said he would never ask for a trade. “How do you know what the next place will be like,” he said in March. Well, he’s about to find out. “How well he handled it all did kind of surprise me,” Hankinson said. “It killed him to be sitting in the stands, watching from afar. But he never brought anyone else down. “That’s probably why he lasted there. If he was a cancer or a squeaky wheel, he probably would have been out of there sooner. “He just kept taking his medicine and showing up every day, fighting to earn the respect of his teammates and the coaches. “He did everything he could there, but it just wasn’t a great fit. “As crazy as it sounds, this is a good ending, and it gives him some closure.” Ballard never did win over Vigneault. This year, in the Canucks four-game playoff sweep, he didn’t play a game. Instead, the Canucks played junior defenceman Frank Corrado, burning a year of his entry level contract as a result of the number of games he played. That decision could haunt the team a little as Corrado develops. So, even when Ballard’s gone and all paid for, he’ll still be costing the Canucks. Read more: http://www.theprovin...l#ixzz2Y3cdhQWk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salmonberries Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 If only Vig had been gassed a year earlier, when he should have been, MacTavish would be our coach and Ballard would likely have re-emerged as the player he was in Florida, sans Vig. Gillis was far too loyal to a coach who wasn't a straight shooter himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ride the red Pony Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 Well 3 years of his hockey career that he can never get back, I for one really liked his play when given a chance, a good character guy. I was hoping he would get another shot under Torts but such is life under the new cap. Hope he can rekindle what he had in Florida, a promising career stifled by AV. Good Luck Bally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnews Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 Had a good laugh reading that Botchford article - all of a sudden he's Ballard's biggest fan and defender. That guy's act is truly pathetic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuck73_3 Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 It shows what a quality person and teammate Ballard is that he never let his situation affect the team negatively. Some good quotes from his agent. I know I for one hope Ballard rebounds somewhere else and puts the Vancouver and AV years behind him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallstreetamigo Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 If only he was as good on the ice here as he was off the ice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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