It would appear that a pair of Canadian teams have had some relatively serious conversations about a potential one for one trade deal.
On Saturday night, National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman revealed that the Ottawa Senators and the Vancouver Canucks had discussed a rather interesting trade deal. According to Friedman it sounds like we were looking at a 1 for 1 type of deal between the two teams, with the two players involved being Ottawa Senators veteran defenseman Nikita Zaitsev and veteran Vancouver Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers.
"I do think them and Vancouver talked about a Tyler Myers/Nikita Zaitsev trade," said Friedman on Saturday night. "I don't think it ever got to Myers.... I don't think it ever got to him but I do think the two teams talked about it. It would give Vancouver a bit of cap relief, Ottawa help on defense, I don't know where it stands right now or if it can be revived but it was discussed."
It's easy to see why the Senators would make the move given that Zaitsev isn't even currently playing for them at the moment, but is instead down in the American Hockey League with the Belleville Senators. This in spite of the fact that Zaitsev is still under contract for this season and the next at a cap hit of $4.5 million.
Myers is also under contract for 2 more years and carries a larger cap hit with an average annual value of $6 million per season on his current deal, but Myers has appeared in 15 games for the Canucks this season and has averaged over 20 minutes of ice time per night while doing so.
This would appear to be purely a cap move on the part of the Vancouver Canucks and you have to wonder what kind of message president Jim Rutherford would have been sending to his struggling team if the trade had gone through, or if it does eventually materialize.
