Post Kaberle, How Does the Trade Market Look For The Canucks?

Well, as everyone (Leafs fan or not) knows by now, Tomas Kaberle was not traded by Brian Burke, despite having "10 offers" on the table. Now Kaberle's No Trade Clause (NTC) has kicked in, and he will have to approve any trade, something he is probably unlikely to do given his past unwillingness to leave the Leafs.

There are not a lot of other offensive defencemen available on the trade market at the moment.

Sheldon Souray is a possibility, but his contract and malcontent status in Edmonton combine to make him as tradable as Brian Campbell. Which is to say not at all.

Which brings us to the Canucks, who have a couple of offensive defencemen that could be had in a trade.

The Canucks have to dump a defenceman to get under the Salary Cap. Popular opinion in the media is that Kevin Bieksa will be traded, but I still maintain Christian Erhoff is a possibility as well.

Lets compare the three of them (Kaberle, Bieksa, Erhoff)

All three have comparable cap hits and are also UFA next summer. Kaberle is $4,250,000, Bieksa is $3,750,000 and Erhoff is $3,100,000.

Kaberle is 32, Bieksa and Erhoff are a bit younger at 29 and 28 respectively.

Stats wise, Kaberle has put up 482 points in 820 NHL games for a point per game average of 0.59. Last season he had 7 goals and 42 assists for 49 points.

Bieksa has put up 125 points in 281 NHL games for a point per game average of 0.44. In an injury-shortened 2009-2010 season (55 GP due to a skate cut), Bieksa had 3 goals and 19 assists for 22 points.

Erhoff has put up 176 points in 421 NHL games, for a point per game average of 0.42. Last season he had 14 goals and 30 assists for 44 points.

Now for Kaberle, Burke was reportedly looking for a top 6 power forward, or a decent NHL player + prospect(s), or a “futures” package of picks + prospects. By Burke’s own words, there were more than 10 teams interested in Kaberle.

Obviously none of the offers were good enough for Burke, as Kaberle stayed put. So I think we can safely rule out of the more outlandish offers that were rumored, such as James Neal (Dallas) or Dustin Brown (LA).

Given the situation now, those 10+ teams interested in Kaberle have probably moved on to looking at the Canucks and their surplus of D.

Canucks GM Mike Gillis is looking for something a bit different than Burke. Sure he would love a top 6 power forward, but really what the Canucks need is cap space. So more realistically it would be a picks+prospects deal unless a top 6 forward for the Canucks was included as well. (i.e. Mason Raymond + Kevin Bieksa for a top 6 forward)

I would think that now with Kaberle essentially off the table, we’ll see a relatively quick trade by the Canucks, sometime in the next week or two.

Erhoff or Bieksa should be able to grab a 1st rounder from any of the teams out there looking for D, as Gillis is now dealing from a position of strength with Kaberle off the market.

What do you think a realistic return is? Who will be traded, Bieksa or Erhoff? Will it happen before training camp?

*And do you think whatever Gillis gets in return for the trade would have been acceptable to Toronto fans as an offer for Kaberle?