Vancouver Canucks GM Mike Gillis decided that no move was the best move for his team at the deadline.
“Coming into today, if we did nothing, we were going to be perfectly content,” Gillis said following a day of inactivity on the trade front.
Given the team’s record of late (11 wins in 13 games), it’s hard to argue with his position.
Vancouver’s play is beginning to mirror its results, although Saturday’s tilt with the San Jose Sharks may provide a better measuring stick of where this club really stands.
As with every club in the cap era, there are areas that could have been improved. A scoring forward would have allowed Alex Burrows or Ryan Kesler to resume the checking roles they excelled in earlier this season, but neither has shown that their offensive production will slow down.
A puck-moving defenceman who could quarterback the powerplay was also on the wish list, but the price tag on Florida’s Jay Bouwmeester was too high.
“I asked him what he needed in return and it wasn’t doable,” admitted Gillis when asked about his discussions with Panthers GM Jacques Martin.
Gillis confessed that he did feel pressure to make a move over the course of the day, presumably as a result of Calgary’s acquisition of Olli Jokinen. However, the Canucks triggerman qualified that by expressing his pleasure at not giving in to the temptation to engage in deals he referred to as “high-risk short-term and total-risk long-term.”
Though the Canucks are not of the same calibre as Detroit, it’s worth pointing out that the defending champs were also idle. Contenders San Jose and Washington did next to nothing, making Calgary the only upper-echelon team to significantly alter its chemistry.
Last year, Dave Nonis was skewered for a lack of activity. This year, Gillis has quieted those same critics by changing personnel over the course of the past eight months, most notably with the addition of Mats Sundin.
Though Vancouver could have improved its chances, it’s doubtful they could have done so without stripping either the current roster or the farm of vital ingredients.
