Today the Canucks traded Bonino, Adam Clendening (a 22 year old Dman) and a conditional 2016 3rd round draft pick to the Penguins for Brandon Sutter and their 2016 2nd round draft pick.
Why? Supposedly Sutter is better than Bonino. Is he? It looks like they were tired of Bonino who was brought in to score but didn't produce when needed on the PP. But is Sutter the answer we are looking for in our top 6 fwd group?
Benning did comment today and confirmed this reasoning, "When the games mean something that's when he's at his best. We looked at the other teams in our division and they all improved from the end of last season to now, and I think this move makes our team deeper and it gives us a better chance to compete with the teams in our division and in our conference."
Sutter makes $3.3M and is becoming at UFA after this season. Supposedly they are going to be working on an extension asap because Benning said Sutter's going to be a key to the foundation of the Canucks going forward. I appreciate them trying to get a deal done but I feel they are going to overpay him.
Yikes...what does Sutter bring?
Experience.
50% Face-off efficiency.
Leadership. He was an alternate captain in Pitts.
Benning also said, "He has high-end intangibles and we're going to have some young players that are going to make our team over the next few years along with Bo Horvat, so Brandon will be the leader of that younger group."
The problems I have with this trade are that Sutter isn't the guy we need to be building around. His offensive upside is limited. His PK and face-offs will be valuable. But at the end of the day he's another 3rd line C that we don't need. I don't think he's good enough to produce top 6 production. We need someone to score other than the twins. Sutter isn't that guy.
I had a great twitter conversation with Jeff Patterson from TSN 1040 today.
He posted an interesting tweet about our new potential lines:
Sedin-Sedin-Burrows
Baertschi-Horvat-Vrbata
Higgins-Sutter-Hansen
Prust-Vey-Dorsett
Kenins
This scares me...I'm not a fan of Sutter. I think he's overrated and will make more $$$ with this new contract than he's actually worth.
I believe the best Vancouver will do this season is come 8th and make the playoffs but lose again in the 1st round. If I was Sutter I'd be excited to make more $$$ and get more playing time but I would hate the fact that I just got traded from the Penguins who are always Cup contenders. He's going to miss playing with Crosby and Malkin.
I hope I'm wrong but I highly doubt it...
