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Did Benning make a mistake not swapping Eriksson for another bad contract?

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snipes2539

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Although it's obviously still very early in the season, I've seen a lot of reactions to how Neal and Lucic are looking with their new teams and how Benning made a huge mistake by not getting in on the action on Lucic when there was interest on both sides.  What i'm not seeing are the reasons for why that was such a bad thing so I wanted to start a discussion to get some of the opinions behind why those who believe JB missed an opportunity here, believe that.

 

So to kick off the discussion i'll start by sharing my personal thoughts on this.  I'm very relived we didn't take on Lucic's contract for 2 key reasons:

 

1) Lucic's contract is 1 year longer.  Even if you think Lucic is a better player than Eriksson (which I don't), I think everyone can agree on; if you had the choice you'd want neither player on your roster and that 6M AAV is better spent elsewhere.  So why would the Canucks extend an already bad situation by an extra year?  I'm glad that we're done with this ugly situation 1 year early than our provincial neighbours.

 

2)Lucic must be protected during Seattle's expansion draft Eriksson does not.  This is huge, Lucic has a full on No Movement Clause, which means Calgary will now be forced to protect Lucic while leaving another younger player exposed.  This is something the Canucks could not have afforded, it's the reason why everyone was freaking out about Edler getting a NMC on a 3yr deal.

 

I can deal with Eriksson riding the pine or being shipped down to Utica for this and the next 2 seasons and then this all becomes a bad memory.  I mean who knows, maybe by some miracle the new Seattle team might want some veteran presence in Eriksson and draft him! Pipe-dream I know, but one can stilll dream.

 

Anyway, interested to hear other's thoughts on this.

 

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No, he didn't.

 

I don't like the Loui deal, but at least he's a known quantity. It's still possible to "get worse than this" from another bad contract. Maybe it isn't a bad deal, but... if it was a good deal the other team wouldn't want to offload their guy either.

 

He's exceedingly overpaid, but not "bad". If he was on a 1.5-2m contract he'd be absolutely ideal for us in a specialty role. It's just that extra 4+ million he's getting that is "the problem".

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There wasnt "another bad contract". There was Lucic, and Lucic alone. No way there would be a Neal/Eriksson trade.

 

I think the Flames wanted toughness, so Eriksson/Neal wouldn't have been a possibility.

 

The expansion draft is good enough a reason to keep Eriksson instead IMO.

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Word on the street is that Eriksson actually nixed a trade that Benning had in the works... presumably for Lucic. However, the fact that Eriksson does not have to be protected in the expansion draft and Lucic does have to be protected is enough reason for me to prefer Eriksson. I think LE has a modified NTC starting next year so maybe he will get traded after all.

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4 minutes ago, Maginator said:

There wasnt "another bad contract". There was Lucic, and Lucic alone. No way there would be a Neal/Eriksson trade.

 

I think the Flames wanted toughness, so Eriksson/Neal wouldn't have been a possibility.

 

The expansion draft is good enough a reason to keep Eriksson instead IMO.

Another possibility could've been David Backes out of Boston, Eriksson had some of his most successful years playiing there and there were rumors of some discussions going on there.

 

Kyle Okposo is another option, he's got an extra year over Eriksson, and Eriksson's ability to play a solid defensive game could help Buffalo as they're lacking in that area while Okposo has been on a steady decline and now dealing with recurring injuries.  

 

Anyway, as bad as Eriksson's contract is, I think people sometimes forget, every team has got a really bad contract and if Benning really wanted to move him, I believe he can, I just hope he won't because whatever is coming back would likely be worse.  Eriksson is bad..but imo not the ugliest of ugly situations out there lol.

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One way or another Eriksson will be gone after next July when he gets another $3M bonus from the Canucks for his effforts. 

With $5M left for the remaining 2 years the Canucks could even retain.  I also think after he gets his next $3M he may just ride off into the sunset at age 35 after earning more than $60M USD in total.  Not a bad gig.

 

image.thumb.png.401d178125b13cdaf36272c0d03c97b0.png

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I agree with @snipes2539 here. Eriksson was and might still be the better player over Lucic. That in addition to the fact that his contract is less terrible makes him have much less negative value. The biggest issue by far is the necessity to protect him, though unless I'm mistaken, Calgary got around that somehow didn't they?

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1 minute ago, Borvat said:

One way or another Eriksson will be gone after next July when he gets another $3M bonus from the Canucks for his effforts. 

With $5M left for the remaining 2 years the Canucks could even retain.  I also think after he gets his next $3M he may just ride off into the sunset at age 35 after earning more than $60M USD in total.  Not a bad gig.

 

image.thumb.png.401d178125b13cdaf36272c0d03c97b0.png

I was in full belief Loui would retire this season.  However, I see your point, and after he collects his July bonus is when he’s done.  I still am hopeful we send him to Utica now and he doesn’t report.  

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1 minute ago, -AJ- said:

I agree with @snipes2539 here. Eriksson was and might still be the better player over Lucic. That in addition to the fact that his contract is less terrible makes him have much less negative value. The biggest issue by far is the necessity to protect him, though unless I'm mistaken, Calgary got around that somehow didn't they?

Well the only way they can get around it is if Lucic agree's to waive his NMC, that would allow the Flames to leave him unprotected.

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4 minutes ago, Alflives said:

I was in full belief Loui would retire this season.  However, I see your point, and after he collects his July bonus is when he’s done.  I still am hopeful we send him to Utica now and he doesn’t report.  

Let's dream big Alf, maybe he'll retire mid-season when the Canucks send im down to Utica! lol.

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Takes two to tango, and for all we know EDM wanted VAN to add for Lucic. Eriksson will be alright. I think he'll have a pretty good season, for a 4th liner. That's where he plays, that's what he'll produce. Tough to produce on the PK too. Loui's had a tough few years here, but he's good defensively and in front of the net. I think he might be better this year, so I'm going to see how he does to start this new season.   

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If it were just Eriksson it would be palatable, but we also do not need Sutter AND Beagle, and their multi year over priced cap hits either.  I don't think Benning thought, when he signed Beagle, who he thought could be a tougher replacement for Sutter, how difficult it would be to move Sutter. It didn't help that for the first time in his career, he became injury prone as soon as he landed here.

 

This coming  cluster*** is a direct result of not building an even bigger pool of prospects earlier, instead of going all in with free agency and trading away picks and prospects his first years here.  Including now having to even dip into a future #1 to be able to ice a team that many pundits still do not see making the playoffs, but at least have a shot this season. Sorry,   Must . Not . Live . In . Past.   The glass is more than half full right now.  I pray this all works out, and we get some sucker GM willing to take one of our superfluous overpaid vets before next season, so we can add actual younger proven talent to top off our roster.  We still need a couple more of those top tier players who combine toughness with scoring ability, to seriously contend for the Cup. (I pray that Jake turns into one of those)

 

And hey, if we exceed expectations this season, then it would probably mean that Eriksson, or Sutter, or Beagle played well too, and so should be easier to move at the TD or summer. Fingers crossed.

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Edited by kilgore
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Well the rumor was he vetoed a trade to send him to the Oilers (which 99% likely was for Lucic). Would have loved for that trade to go down (yes as much as Lucic has declined and as much of an anchor contract he has). Makes me dislike him EVEN more for that move. This guy will really end up being this generations Messier. 

Edited by RRypien37
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People thinking Loui was going to walk away from 9 million dollars this summer (after his bonus was paid) just had their heads up their own butts lol.

 

That doesn't happen in real life and it didn't happen. Big surprise.

 

JB did not make any mistake. What mistake was their to make? No one could afford nor wanted Loui. Saying JB made some mistake is just more made up silliness.

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7 minutes ago, RRypien37 said:

Well the rumor was he vetoed a trade to send him to the Oilers (which 99% likely was for Lucic). Would have loved for that trade to go down (yes as much as Lucic has declined and as much of an anchor contract he has). Makes me dislike him EVEN more for that move. This guy will really end up being this generations Messier. 

Yay finally found someone who wanted the trade to happen lol  Ok cool, why would you have liked that trade to happen though?  Just trying to understand the reasons behind it.

 

No judgement just trying to understand :D

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