most boring trade deadline ever

thats for sure...

trade deadline for guys is like Days of our lives drama

lol

i bet no team chemistry for calgary messes everything up and getting knocked out first round

n this a point tsn hasnt said yet
lolol

Calgary still lacks toughness down the middle, and as ppl have said if the moves disrupt chemistry or don't pan out they could be in a worse position than before the deadline

Phx trading jokinen kinda gets u thinking that he may not be the best player in the world on the ice nor in the dressing room

The Flames also lost Bert for a month.....

I think the Sedins will have a much better playoffs then in the past. We finally have 2 scoring lines, the other teams shutdown players won't only be focusing on the Sedins this time around, which was the problem in 07.

The Sedins game also seems like its changed from playing with burrows. They have been actually scoring on the rush, but still playing their cycle game when they have the chance.

http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/1...0219290vl6.jpg

wellwood ftw!

Wellwood Beer Belly hahaha

hot lifeguard

Jay Feaster on OTR claims that Jokinin is a bit of a selfish player.

Only cause she's white!!!

Ray Ferraro was talking about Jokinen (cause they played together) and said he isn't exactly "a bad guy" but he is a bit of a loner.

damn right

:haha::haha::haha:

at least he keeps good company! lol

Pretty sure they wanna shed that 5 mill contract of Jokinen's. PHX is doing horrible financially.

I wouldn't be surprised if PHX relocates come next season.

Canucks were losers at the trade deadline......

"The Wild and Canucks are the same, maybe good enough to sneak into the playoffs, but in no way, shape or form are they ready to compete with the bigger teams in the West. Don’t forget, Edmonton got better, too, and Calgary is a lock. Four teams are not going to make the playoffs from the Northwest division. So someone from that group will be out."

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns

^ Meh, whatever. They have to write something.
Just because Canucks didn't do anything doesn't necessarily mean it was a losing cause.

Seeded 7th in the conference, the '94 Canucks were not supposed to do much in the playoffs that year. Anything can happen and I believe this year's team may have what it takes to go pretty far. If not, do well this year and build on it.

All the sports writers seem to forget that if the Canucks have all their players playing in top form, they're a very competitive team. Just need to have Luongo 100% focused and get those solid defensemen back in form. The top two forward lines are already playing as good as anyone can expect.

with the current team we have, we can make it far

Ohlund will be remembered no matter what

Pending UFA might go, might stay but will always be blueline horse

By Ed Willes, The ProvinceMarch 4, 2009


Canucks defenceman Mattias Ohlund puts a hit on Minnesota's Cal Clutterbuck during the second period at GM Place Tuesday. Ohlund has 320 career points, one shy of the Canucks' all-time record for blueliners. Jyrki Lumme and Dennis Kearns both have 321.

Canucks defenceman Mattias Ohlund puts a hit on Minnesota's Cal Clutterbuck during the second period at GM Place Tuesday. Ohlund has 320 career points, one shy of the Canucks' all-time record for blueliners. Jyrki Lumme and Dennis Kearns both have 321.
Photograph by: Nick Procaylo, The Province

After 11 seasons and 751 regular-season games, the best defenceman in Vancouver Canucks' history understands the future holds no guarantees.

And he's OK with that. Back at the start of this season, it was made clear to Mattias Ohlund there's a fundamental difference in the way the Canucks interpret his value and the way he interprets his value. He believes he's a front-line NHL defenceman and should be compensated as such.

The Canucks, who already have four proven blueliners under contract for next season, have a slightly different take on things.

But far from being a source of angst, that knowledge has been liberating to the 32-year-old Ohlund. Six months ago, he went through his dark night of the soul and now he's at peace with his circumstances. Whatever happens will happen. And if that means a new team and a new start, it won't for a second diminish Ohlund's affection for a place he's called home for over a decade.

"This is a positive thing," Ohlund said before Tuesday night's 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild. "I'm not sitting around feeling sorry for myself because I know how lucky I've been the last 11 years.

"I'm excited about the future. I'm excited about the uncertainty. This hasn't been a distraction. It's way past that. I've had a lot of times to reflect on things."

And in that reflection there's been little room for sorrow.

Ohlund, as the faithful know, is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer after 11 seasons of meritorious service to the Canucks. The organization has said it won't ask him to waive his no-trade clause for today's deadline, which means they run the risk of losing him without compensation this summer.

But, despite some wild rumours to the contrary, GM Mike Gillis and his staff have seemingly made the determination that Ohlund is more valuable to the Canucks in their playoff drive than he is as a trade bauble.

That's also the way the system should work. Ohlund earned the no-trade clause and he's earned the right to sell himself on the open market. The Canucks, for their part, have options of their own and they don't believe Ohlund is a fit in their future payroll at front-line dollars.

It's nothing personal. It's just business. It's also possible Ohlund will return to the Canucks next season.

As of this writing, it's just not very likely.

"I see myself as a good player, a player you'd want to have on your team," Ohlund said. "Maybe they have a different feeling, but I don't want to be kept around just because I've been here a long time.

"Maybe when I'm 36 I'll feel that way."

"He wants to play this thing out," said his agent J.P. Barry. "This might be the last thing he does with this team and he wants to help them win."

To that end, Ohlund hasn't enjoyed a vintage season. When healthy, he's knocked off 10-goal, 30-point, 25-minutes-per-game campaigns like clockwork.

But this year, much of his offence has been supplanted by young Alex Edler and Ohlund sits with just four goals and, more significantly, 21:45 of ice time per game, third among Canucks' defencemen.

"I'd like to play more," he said. "That's no secret."

Still, Ohlund doesn't believe his game has dropped off. Changed, yes. Deteriorated, no.

"I'm going to be honest," he said. "I think my season has been pretty good. My role has changed. But that's part of the business."

There's that word again.

In the right circumstances, Ohlund still believes he's that blueline horse who commands the big minutes and the big dollars. It remains to be seen, of course, if another team shares that conviction and, if they do, this will be Ohlund's last season in Vancouver.

But he'll be remembered here, remembered as a player who embodied the qualities of consistency and reliability.

There was never anything particularly flashy about Ohlund's game. He simply showed up for battle each night, lined up against the other team's best and played his heart out.

Maybe that sounds like it can be replaced. Maybe it's a lot more difficult than it seems.

One phone call was all it took Gillis

Jay Bouwmeester deal would have cost too much, says Canucks GM

By Jason Botchford, The ProvinceMarch 5, 2009 10:01 AM


Canucks GM Mike Gillis.

It took one phone call for GM Mike Gillis to realize the Canucks, along with 29 other teams, weren't going to get Jay Bouwmeester Wednesday.

That's because Jacques Martin wasn't trying to trade Bouwmeester. He was trying to use him as a heat-seeking torpedo to blow up another team.

In a 5:45 a.m. phone call, like he did with several other teams, Martin laid out for Gillis his criteria for a Bouwmeester deal. The conversation didn't last long.

Martin was looking for three things — a top defenceman, a prospect and a top draft pick. He didn't mention "Alex Edler" or "Kevin Bieksa," but he made it obvious the Canucks would have to include one of them to make a deal happen. Gillis didn't burst out laughing. Not on the phone anyway.

"I asked him what he needed in return, and he told me and it was undoable," Gillis said. "There was no pursuit. It was a good conversation. I've known Jacques for a long time. It was a brief discussion. And it didn't go any further." Of course it didn't.

The Canucks maybe could have worked out something if it would have taken a good young player (Mason Raymond) and a pick (a first rounder). But a top defenceman? For a rental player who has already turned down a 6-year, $40-million US contract extension? Edler is both the Canucks' present and future cornerstone. Meanwhile, Bieksa has the same number of points as Bouwmeester (34) despite the fact he plays significantly fewer minutes and has something Bouwmeester doesn't — a reasonable, cap-friendly contract which locks him up for the next two years.

So, it was with that the Canucks took their one swing at the fences and missed. They wanted to do more.

They wanted a third-line centre to replace the out-of-favour Kyle Wellwood. But the cost was a second-round pick and that was too much for Gillis, who is haunted by ghosts of drafts past.

Gillis was faced with the reality his organization has just three prospects outside of the NHL, while many teams have six, seven and as many as 10. If it's not a dire situation, it's close as a team can get.

"I think it's easier to trade draft picks if you have six, seven high-quality young players in your system who you see trending in a certain way, and that you're counting on playing on your team or on another NHL team in the next 18 months," Gillis said. "I think it's a lot easier to move a second-round pick if you have that luxury.

"Currently we don't." Gillis said he wasn't "close" to anything which would have upgraded his team. In the end, he decided to do nothing, choosing to go into the home stretch with the players who got them here.

And where they are is a pretty good spot, sitting solidly in fifth spot in the Western Conference, having won 11 of their previous 13 games.

"We talked to a number of teams about a number of possibilities, but giving up second-round picks for players that weren't long-term players was something that I decided not to do as long as eight months ago, and I wasn't going to change today," Gillis said.

"Second-round picks were the flavour of the month, and they went for players that are short-term players either to teams to recover from injuries or try to get into the playoffs." All around the Canucks, teams in the Western Conference improved. None more than Calgary, which was crowned by everyone the runaway winner of the day after obtaining Olli Jokinen and Jordan Leopold.

Gillis described himself as "perfectly content" the Canucks did nothing.

"Based on the last month, we feel like we're a playoff team here, and we feel like we're strong and we have depth," Gillis said. "We didn't have that pressure to try and get into the playoffs at this point, and we didn't have injury pressure." So, the Canucks are $2.7 million under the cap, money which will go unspent.

"If we can't improve our team, why would we just spend money?" Gillis said. "We made every attempt to do what we could do to improve the team. I think most fans who are logical thinkers, who are true Canuck fans, see just to spend money because we have it is not the best business model.

"I was completely prepared to spend every cent of that money if the right deal was there."

According to the Toronto Sun, in addition to Mason Raymond and 1st round draft pick, FLA wanted either Kevin Bieksa or Cody Hodgson for Jay Bouwmeester.

There will be no trade involving Jay Bouwmeester to Vancouver. In fact, there will be no trades involving the canucks on this NHL trading deadline day. Canucks management has confirmed this. The word around the campfire was that the Canucks and Florida Panthers agreed on a 1st round pick and Mason Raymond, but talks broke down when the Panthers wanted either D-man Kevin Bieksa or top prospect and Canucks top pick Cody Hodgson added to the package.