Former Canucks Thread 2023-24 Off-Season Edition

[4th line culture]

Jovanovski was a superstar if all you ever watched was Rock’em Sock’em tapes.

Was there anything else to watch back then?

 

[Curm]

Yeah, this is the problem with the Bure trade.

We inexplicably threw Bret Hedican into the trade, who was a 28 y/o top-pairing defender and was the 1D on a Cup winner 8 years after this trade was made. Hedican was nearly as good a player as Jovanovski, and honestly when you take into account Jovo's general braindead-ness was probably more of a player you could win with.

Then we lost the Ference-Brown prospect swap.

So that means that we essentially traded the best goal scorer in the NHL, at age 27, for Kevin Weekes, a Dave Gagner cap dump, and a 1st. And that's bloody awful.

If we didn't include Hedican it was defensible but that inclusion was colossally underrated and Hedican was hugely underrated as a player, then and now.

No question, as an all-around defender with terrific wheels, Hedican was easily one of the most underappreciated d-men in franchise history. I hated that trade.

I liked Jovo, but 5 on 5 he could be a real adventure, and he was far closer in value to Hedican than he was to Bure as the centerpiece.

Another underappreciated guy who only gave them a couple of years was Scott Lachance.

 

[Jyrki21]

Another underappreciated guy who only gave them a couple of years was Scott Lachance.

Great call. Even Bryan Helmer held his own on that 2001-02 team.