[DEBATE] Which is the worst trade in Vancouver Canucks history?

[Iron Man]

The OEL trade strictly due to salary cap implications. The Neely trade was terrible but it didn't prevent us from being competitive in theory. With OEL, all we had to do was wait out one more year to let Eriksson, Beagle, and Roussel's contacts to expire. Instead, we pick up another anchor contract in OEL. That hamstrung our ability to put together a competitive team and we're still going to be feeling the effects of the buy out for years to come.

[ilduce39]

I just spent yesterday ripping the OEL buyout (which indicts the trade as well) but come on.  Neely is an HOF’er so him alone is terrible.  I didn’t realize the 3OA went as well. That guy played 1400 nhl games and was in the league until 2008.  
 

OEL deal can have a strong silver but Neely / 3OA has to be one of the worst trades in the history of the *league* 

[canucksnihilist]

7 hours ago, Ghostsof1915 said:

He had 120 points in 1982-83 for Portland. I figured he'd be a gritty 40-50 point guy. And Watt was a jackass. I would have been fine with that trade if it was Pederson for Neely 1 for 1. But to throw in a top 5 draft pick??? Canucks got fleeced.

Ok touché.    Just saying that both were known commodities and the Canucks have a history on giving up on draft picks (mostly recently they even pick) fairly quickly.  And not developing them at all.  So the Canucks would have probably ruined neelys career haha but who knows.

 

oel was a known BAD commodity so it’s obviously worse inho

 

 

[Tiger-Hearted]

17 hours ago, Kevin Biestra said:

Did Vancouver enjoy going to the Cup final in 1982?  If so then don't complain about the Tiger Williams trade.

Getting Tiger was absolutely needed for the club, absolutely. The problem was getting Jerry Butler, an average tough guy in the trade. Should have acquired a future 1st rounder, considering both Derlago and Vaive were 1st rounders.

[TheAce]

8 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said:

Mogilny had one great year and then didn't do much after that.  Mike Peca became a Selke trophy winner and consistent top 3 best defensive player in the NHL.  As for 1982, that was one run to the finals.  Tiger didn't do much after that and Vaive and Derlago were lights out with Toronto.  Vaive became a 3 time 50 goal scorer.  

Mogilny was still close to a point a game with his time in Vancouver and then was traded for Brendan Morrison. Although the combo of Bure/Mogilny never materialized because of Bure's injury and then I remember hearing that Messier complained about having to center those 2 because they would only look for each other on the ice , I would still do that trade over again.

[johngould21]

1 hour ago, Tiger-Hearted said:

Getting Tiger was absolutely needed for the club, absolutely. The problem was getting Jerry Butler, an average tough guy in the trade. Should have acquired a future 1st rounder, considering both Derlago and Vaive were 1st rounders.

He wasn't any kind of a tough guy, he was a pk'er and bottom 6 center. He certainly wasn't brought in to be a tough guy. Tiger did more than enough of that all by himself.

[Oregon.Duck]

Conversely we have one of the most lopsided trades in history within our favor as well with Naslund for Stojanov. 
 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

[Rounoush]

I'm leaning towards #1 but we really should wait a little longer to see if those picks pan out.

[24K PureCool]

OEL and it is not even close.

At time if trade we know OEL sucks and suck bad.

At time of Neely trade, Neely ultimate success is a complete unknown. 

 

Also at least with Neely trade, we didn't have to deal with a cap so being this reckless with the OEL trade with a cap system makes it even worse. 

 

JB cemented himself as worst or at second worst GM in Canucks history with that one single trade. 

[BC_Hawk]

10 hours ago, 24K PureCool said:

OEL and it is not even close.

At time if trade we know OEL sucks and suck bad.

At time of Neely trade, Neely ultimate success is a complete unknown. 

 

Also at least with Neely trade, we didn't have to deal with a cap so being this reckless with the OEL trade with a cap system makes it even worse. 

 

JB cemented himself as worst or at second worst GM in Canucks history with that one single trade. 

That’s a little harsh; at the time of the trade everyone thought OEL would be at least a top4 option for us. The issue was the contract term and the pre-Covid cap hit. Some of that was negated by Arz’s retention. We also received Garland, which was seen as a 2nd line option on a team that missed out on Toffoli. It was a gamble…..all caused by ownerships impatience.
 

In the end, it didn’t work out, and our current FO is making short term decisions again that will cost us for 8 years. I will wait to see what they do with the $ before rendering complete judgement, but I don’t understand why we didn’t give him another year (while the team is in a rebuild year) to see what he can do healthy.

 

Vancouver Canucks; home of knee jerk short sighted management/ownership 

[Alflives]

5 minutes ago, BC_Hawk said:

That’s a little harsh; at the time of the trade everyone thought OEL would be at least a top4 option for us. The issue was the contract term and the pre-Covid cap hit. Some of that was negated by Arz’s retention. We also received Garland, which was seen as a 2nd line option on a team that missed out on Toffoli. It was a gamble…..all caused by ownerships impatience.
 

In the end, it didn’t work out, and our current FO is making short term decisions again that will cost us for 8 years. I will wait to see what they do with the $ before rendering complete judgement, but I don’t understand why we didn’t give him another year (while the team is in a rebuild year) to see what he can do healthy.

 

Vancouver Canucks; home of knee jerk short sighted management/ownership 

If I remember correctly a full year before Benning made the worst trade in our history there were many ranking OEL as the worst contract in the league. Benning still made the trade and it was terrible. Now we have competent management and they are removing the Benning stains. Great job buying out OEL! Our core group will be super excited because they know we have smart management who are building the best supporting cast possible around them. 
Alf’s empties are getting vibes about how great our team will soon be again. Much like they did when Gillis was GM. 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

28 minutes ago, BC_Hawk said:

That’s a little harsh; at the time of the trade everyone thought OEL would be at least a top4 option for us. The issue was the contract term and the pre-Covid cap hit. Some of that was negated by Arz’s retention. We also received Garland, which was seen as a 2nd line option on a team that missed out on Toffoli. It was a gamble…..all caused by ownerships impatience.
 

In the end, it didn’t work out, and our current FO is making short term decisions again that will cost us for 8 years. I will wait to see what they do with the $ before rendering complete judgement, but I don’t understand why we didn’t give him another year (while the team is in a rebuild year) to see what he can do healthy.

 

Vancouver Canucks; home of knee jerk short sighted management/ownership 

hey, at least it made the Gudbranson for Jared "40 goal scorer" McCann & a high 2nd round pick seem not so bad.

 

Bad news is, the GM that Jim Benning manage to swindle in offloading that 3rd pairing defenseman was.......JR.

Edited June 18, 2023 by NewbieCanuckFan

[MikeyD]

17 hours ago, canucksnihilist said:

Ok touché.    Just saying that both were known commodities and the Canucks have a history on giving up on draft picks (mostly recently they even pick) fairly quickly.  And not developing them at all.  So the Canucks would have probably ruined neelys career haha but who knows.

 

oel was a known BAD commodity so it’s obviously worse inho

 

 

Canucks development has always been really bad. Has there been anybody they've really developed since the mid-2000's?

 

Also they've drafted and signed quite a few offensive dmen and developed exactly zero of them. They don't even bother giving them NHL experience. Guys like Subban, Rathbone, Connauton, and a plethora of others don't ever get a chance to learn the defensive game at the NHL level and then they wonder why they're not NHL ready when they come up. 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

4 minutes ago, MikeyD said:

Canucks development has always been really bad. Has there been anybody they've really developed since the mid-2000's?

 

Also they've drafted and signed quite a few offensive dmen and developed exactly zero of them. They don't even bother giving them NHL experience. Guys like Subban, Rathbone, Connauton, and a plethora of others don't ever get a chance to learn the defensive game at the NHL level and then they wonder why they're not NHL ready when they come up. 

https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=105112

 

Course some GM let him walk away for nothing.

 

 

Edited June 18, 2023 by NewbieCanuckFan

[MikeyD]

1 hour ago, NewbieCanuckFan said:

https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=105112

 

Course some GM let him walk away for nothing.

 

 

Ah yeah forgot Tanev was a bit later than guys like Kes and Hansen. 

[24K PureCool]

2 hours ago, BC_Hawk said:

That’s a little harsh; at the time of the trade everyone thought OEL would be at least a top4 option for us. The issue was the contract term and the pre-Covid cap hit. Some of that was negated by Arz’s retention. We also received Garland, which was seen as a 2nd line option on a team that missed out on Toffoli. It was a gamble…..all caused by ownerships impatience.
 

In the end, it didn’t work out, and our current FO is making short term decisions again that will cost us for 8 years. I will wait to see what they do with the $ before rendering complete judgement, but I don’t understand why we didn’t give him another year (while the team is in a rebuild year) to see what he can do healthy.

 

Vancouver Canucks; home of knee jerk short sighted management/ownership 

Given OEL another year makes no difference. It is more advantageous to buy him out now to get the full cap relieve next year. Only upside buying him out next year is one less 2M dead cap year at the end.

 

OEL advanced stat showed he was a replacement level player as does the eye test on his last year in Arizona. Everyone that was thinking he was a top 4 D was blinded by the fact he played in Arizona and though it was the team holding him back rather than him being part of he problem. 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

37 minutes ago, MikeyD said:

Ah yeah forgot Tanev was a bit later than guys like Kes and Hansen. 

Admittedly it was a pretty short list of one if you don't include goalies 

[iinatcc]

3 hours ago, BC_Hawk said:

That’s a little harsh; at the time of the trade everyone thought OEL would be at least a top4 option for us. The issue was the contract term and the pre-Covid cap hit. Some of that was negated by Arz’s retention. We also received Garland, which was seen as a 2nd line option on a team that missed out on Toffoli. It was a gamble…..all caused by ownerships impatience.
 

In the end, it didn’t work out, and our current FO is making short term decisions again that will cost us for 8 years. I will wait to see what they do with the $ before rendering complete judgement, but I don’t understand why we didn’t give him another year (while the team is in a rebuild year) to see what he can do healthy.

 

Vancouver Canucks; home of knee jerk short sighted management/ownership 

Because there's a good chance he's never going to recover from that injury. I am not saying he's always going to stay hurt but an injury at that age (for a guy whose skating is already in a decline), he's never going to return to form and even less likely live to that contract.

[BC_Hawk]

3 hours ago, iinatcc said:

Because there's a good chance he's never going to recover from that injury. I am not saying he's always going to stay hurt but an injury at that age (for a guy whose skating is already in a decline), he's never going to return to form and even less likely live to that contract.

That is definitely a possibility, and if that were the case, the move kinda makes sense. Having said that, if it were a career ender, LTIR would have been better for the team.

 

Once again, I hope this is not just a short term decision driven by an impatient owner. This has been the case now since 2011; poor short term decisions to appease him.

[Tiger-Hearted]

19 hours ago, johngould21 said:

He wasn't any kind of a tough guy, he was a pk'er and bottom 6 center. He certainly wasn't brought in to be a tough guy. Tiger did more than enough of that all by himself.

Regardless, Butler was a lousy acquisition at the expense of both Vaive and Derlago.