The trade deadline did not go as planned for Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning. Focusing on youth and the future of the team, Benning had wanted to make big moves at the deadline, moving out Brandon Prust, Yannick Weber, Matt Bartkowski and Chris Higgins, but most of all aging Dan Hamhuis and Radim Vrbata. The bad news for Benning is that, other than Adam Cracknell, he could not make any other moves.
"They're both good players," said Benning of Hamhuis and Vrbata. "They both could help winning teams make a difference in the playoffs."
"We tried hard to give our players an opportunity to go to a winning team and have playoff success and be a part of a Stanley Cup team," a frustrated Benning continued. "Then the other part is, from an organizational standpoint, it would've been nice to recover some picks for them."
The Blackhawks and Stars were interested in Hamhuis, but after the acquisition of Andrew Ladd by Chicago, they could not also afford the veteran defenseman. That left the Stars. Benning stated on Monday that Dallas had decided to take Calgary's Kris Russell instead as he was a better fit, but a highly reputable source from the Stars claims that the Stars attempted to deal for Hamhuis twice.
The source claims that the Stars and Canucks already had a deal in place which was similar to the eventual Calgary-Dallas trade, but Canucks management wanted more. When the Stars rejected offering more and made the deal with the Flames, they came back a second time with an offer for Hamhuis, thought to be a trade for a draft pick in 2017, but it was rejected again.
"They lost the deal," the source said. "The deal Calgary got was pretty much available to Vancouver."
Benning denies this happened. "It's not true," the Canucks GM said. "We set out the framework for the deal. The next call we got was from (Dallas) saying they did the deal with Calgary."
"If we could have got draft picks..." Benning said on Monday. "I come from a draft background. I value picks, and that's how we're going to rebuild this thing, through getting draft picks and drafting well and developing our players. So if we could've recouped draft picks, we would've done that and we would've been on our way."
Not only did they not get anything, but divisional rival Calgary got three assets for Russell alone. Other selling teams around the league have been getting draft picks and prospects, but Benning, who has been focusing on obtaining some for months, has received nothing.
Hamhuis will most probably be re-signed as a result of this.