We suspected that the Vancouver Canucks would be a team that wanted to make a big splash.
We talked about the cap room they had because of Keith Ballard going on injured reserve. We talked about players like Steve Ott and wondered if Dustin Brown might be available. We even tried to find out if Rick Nash was going to be available to them.
Then, all of a sudden we end up with one good young player for another good young player, or maybe a great young player for a great young player.
The obvious thing for Vancouver is they've already got what Cody Hodgson can give them. They've got Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler in the middle. Hodgson, unless he was going to play the wing - and it was even jammed up there - was going to be playing at more of a depth position as a centre. He was going to have a tough time flourishing like he has a chance to now in Buffalo.
Being able to get a guy like Zack Kassian, who has spent most of the year in the AHL, gives the Canucks somebody that they don't have. Maybe it's Milan Lucic, maybe not, we'll find out soon enough, but he has that quality and he's the kind of player who's unique to the Canucks, and they wanted to shake that up and make an impact in the playoffs.