What was Anaheim thinking?

[Antony]

I gather they wanted (needed) to dump salary but getting rid of Ehrhoff and getting nothing for him seems brutally stupid. From Day One he has been a star with Vancouver, in every part of the game.

It's unfortunate, but every time I see him skate I think of the Ducks and can't get my head around why they would let this guy go. Can anyone explain it? Is there more to it than crass stupidity?

[Cornuck]

Maybe you should worry about the Sharks - they're the ones that had to get rid of him.

It was a salary dump - pure and simple.

[Island Nucklehead]

I gather they wanted (needed) to dump salary but getting rid of Ehrhoff and getting nothing for him seems brutally stupid. From Day One he has been a star with Vancouver, in every part of the game.

It's unfortunate, but every time I see him skate I think of the Ducks and can't get my head around why they would let this guy go. Can anyone explain it? Is there more to it than crass stupidity?

Yup...Sharks.

If you think of it more like Michalek, Cheechoo, Ehrhoff and Lukowich for Heatley, White, Rahimi and a pick it makes a little more sense.

Either way, given the year Ehrhoff is having, they probably should have asked for more from the Canucks. To think we didn't even give up a (future) draft pick for this guy is astonishing.

Ottawa must be really pissed they didn't get him in the deal instead of Cheechoo. He even makes more money.

[Kel]

Ottawa must be really pissed they didn't get him in the deal instead of Cheechoo. He even makes more money.

I'm pretty sure Ottawa told the Sharks which players they wanted for Heatley before the Canucks-Sharks trade. If Ottawa had told the Sharks that they would take Ehrhoff, the Sharks would not have traded him to the Canucks. The Sharks pretty much knew what Ottawa wanted before dumping Ehrhoff and Lukowich to clear cap space.

[jchockey]

The Sharks didn't need Ehrhoff - they've got Boyle (the most underrated and overlooked player in Tampa's 2004 Cup run) and Vlasic.

It was a little odd that they chose to dump Ehrhoff to a Western Conference team but from what I gather Ottawa had been looking hard at Brian Campbell for awhile.

I don't know who offered the trade but credit to Gillis for noticing that SJ was in cap trouble.

[Fred]

The mystery to me was not that they needed to rid themselves of Cap space but the fact that they would let Erhoff go to a team in the same conference, that's disrespect for the players IMO. I'm sure there had to be other eastern teams willing to take Erhoff

[jchockey]

Speaking of Anaheim, while I still agree that Bob Murray has done a great job since Burke's departure, especially getting so much for Pronger, they've got to be the most disappointing team this year. Getzlaf and Perry have been great. Niedermayer's trying to do too much. Whitney still has his ups and downs. Wisniewski and Ryan seem to have hit a bit of a wall. Lupul's been injured all year. Selanne's age is really catching up on him. Koivu's been so-so.

Something needs to give.

[Cornuck]

...but the fact that they would let Erhoff go to a team in the same conference, that's disrespect for the players IMO.

I don't get this - how so?

[Mantle]

...but the fact that they would let Erhoff go to a team in the same conference, that's disrespect for the players IMO.

I don't get this - how so?

He is saying the Sharks didn't think Erhoff was good enough to come back to haunt them.

[Antony]

So, is the point here that Erhoff is playing much better than ever expected so trading him for, say, a second round pick was out of the question? I still don't get it. Guys like this don't just arrive, they're hyped for years. Would the Canucks dump Elder just to get more cap space (in a trade for, say, Nash)?

[Island Nucklehead]

I would think the bigger slap in the face would have to be that he was traded for essentially nothing. Obviously we couldn't give up any roster players, given they were dumping salary... but seriously you would think that they would take an AHL-calibre player to at least call up in case of injuries (McIver etc.), or at least a draft choice given the players we gave up.

I think the biggest factor working in the Canucks' favour was their ability to bury 1-way deals in the minors. There are a lot of teams that aren't willing or capable of doing that. Ehrhoff's deal isn't exactly cheap, but to just throw 1.6M down there with Lukowich, as well as put ourselves that close to the cap... probably meant Vancouver was one of the only capable teams.

Looking around the league, I figure that Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, NYR, Boston, Philly and maybe one or two more are probably some of the only ownership groups that aren't going to mind a guy eating millions of bucks and not playing on the big squad. Considering that Calgary, Toronto and Philly pretty much have their D set, and Boston, NYR and Montreal are so close to the Cap, Vancouver becomes one of the only teams league-wide with both the financial ability and cap space required to add a guy like Ehrhoff at the expense of burying Lukowich.

[dr.dork]

So, is the point here that Erhoff is playing much better than ever expected so trading him for, say, a second round pick was out of the question? I still don't get it. Guys like this don't just arrive, they're hyped for years. Would the Canucks dump Elder just to get more cap space (in a trade for, say, Nash)?

It was effectively a salary dump. We took on Erhoff's salary and (more importantly) Lukowich's salary even though we knew we were going to be paying the latter almost $2M to play for the Texas Stars. Think of Lukowich as that second round pick or the "extra". The teams that would do this sort of thing are limited, and usually they have cap problems of their own. But yes, you would think that San Jose could have got a bit more, and everyone at the time around here thought it was a great trade by Gillis.

As for the "disrespect", I suppose Wilson is secure enough in his job to not care if this comes back to bite him in the bum. If, for example, the 'nucks beat the Sharks in the playoffs on an overtime goal by Bobby Erhoff, Wilson is going to have some 'splaining to do. And given the Shark's monumental flops in the postseason I too am surprised Wilson traded Erhoff to a western team. I don't think they had to free up the cap space before the trade, so there wasn't any urgency.

But either way, San Jose has some pretty good offensive minded defencemen and so they had the luxury of moving Erhoff. This was probably the best move (not including the resignings) the Gillis has made.

[Todd Bersnoozi]

Well, put it this way. If u can dump salary to get a Danny Heatley and not touch your core, u gotta do it.

[Antony]

I think I'm getting it and I'm not even an accountant: its not how you play but how you play, in what position, in relation to others, at what salary, under what cap space, vs other teams' cap space, in an out of your division, while trying to win as many games possible while soaking the consumer for everything they've got. Ya, I think I've got it now. Thanks.

[ClamRussel]

Lets keep this in context, while Erhoff has been a very good acquisition for the Canucks he's hardly the 2nd coming of Lidstrom. Amazing pickup for what it cost us but thats the way salary dumps go. He has been good but inconsistent in the past w/ the Sharks; looks like he's really finding his legs now.