NHL insider shares the actual reason the Vancouver Canucks traded Tanner Pearson
The Vancouver Canucks made a move on Tuesday to become cap compliant with training camp set to open this week. Vancouver traded winger Tanner Pearson and a 2025 third-round pick to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for goalie Casey DeSmith.
The move became a necessity with Pearson healing from his hand injuries earlier than Vancouver anticipated. Pearson has one year remaining with a cap hit of $3.25M. DeSmith also has one year remaining with a cap hit of $1.8M. The Canucks now have $503,333 in cap space available with defenceman Tucker Poolman going on LTIR.
The 31 year old Pearson has had an excruciating recovery the last couple years dealing with his hand injuries. According to a report from Rick Dhaliwal, Pearson has had 6-7 surgeries so far.
«Pearson was shut down with a hand injury on January 12th, he hurt the hand on November 9th. The latest on Pearson is that he has had 6-7 surgeries so far and the hope is he is done with surgeries. The rehab is still a long road ahead for Pearson, still too early to know if he will play next season.»
Sportsnet Insider Elliotte Friedman thinks the trade was best case scenario for all involved. He detailed as much in his 32 Thoughts piece:
"Vancouver trading Tanner Pearson to Montreal is the best thing for everyone involved, including the player. There were a lot of hard feelings in the aftermath of the multi-surgery mayhem that put his career into uncertainty and cast doubt on the Canucks medical staff. It's great to see him looking healthy enough to play. When the summer began Vancouver wasn't expecting him to be ready so they made other moves, but Pearson's potential return would have caused a salary-cap and positional logjam for the Canucks. One of the things they could have considered was putting Pearson on waivers. That wouldn't have been good for anyone."
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/32-thoughts-whats-next-for-the-blue-jackets/
In the end Pearson gets out of Vancouver where the trust is broken between himself and the medical staff and the Canucks save a little bit of money. They can now also give a bigger role to some of the younger players on the team like Nils Hoglander, Conor Garland and Vasili Podkolzin.
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