Sportsnet 960: Frank Seravalli on the Big Show with Rusic and Rose on some expensive contracts that the Vancouver Canucks, San Jose Sharks, and Washington Capitals have been trying to move.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Host: “I’m interested to get your thoughts on some of the other Western Canadian clubs.
Conor Garland‘s name in trade rumors once again. Can you tell us what you’ve heard on that lately?
Seravalli: “Look, Conor Garland’s been on our trade targets board for 18 months plus. It’s been a long time. He’s never really formally requested the trade but the Canucks have made it clear for a lot of different reasons that they think the best way to handle the situation is to move on.
I don’t think he’s felt comfortable from the second he arrived in Van, and now when you look at their salary cap and how it needs better balancing, he’s the one guy that really kind of sticks out like a sore thumb.
The problem for the Canucks is, there’d be a bunch of takers for Conor Garland if this was the last year of his deal. Problem is he has two addition ones on top of this one. So, that makes it really difficult.
Like, just consider the San Jose Sharks and where they’re at with Kevin Labanc who was a healthy scratch for the first three games of the year before playing night. They’ve been trying to move him for a while.
But it’s a little bit easier, if it’s possible to say that cause he’s still there, because he’s still, this is the last year of his deal and he’s a pending UFA. That’s, you can make a swap somewhere. You can take someone else’s bad deal for yours and just go for the change of pace, change of scenery, if it was the last year of the deal.
Host: “There’s a lot of players around the league right now that are kind of like Labanc. Anthony Mantha‘s another one. Like what are you thinking about some of these players with a lot of money. A change of scenery is needed but just with the cap and lack of availability of cap space, probably gonna be difficult to move.
Seravalli: “What do all of those players have in common?”
Host: “They have vowels in their last name? They all had good seasons where they scored?”
Seravalli: “They’re all mid-scoring wingers.
Host: “Okay. Yeah.”
Seravalli: “Not high scoring. Not play drivers. And they’ve gotten caught up in giving these guys term that, if you can’t, you’re gonna pay that type of payscale. You get yourself into trouble more times than not.
And I think that is really where the market has changed significantly is, you don’t really see teams doing that anymore.”
Host: “What do you think happens with Anthony Mantha? Facinated by the player. Detroit he was big, he was helping that group.”
Seravalli: “How ’bout Washington? Look at what they gave up to get him.”
Host: “Yeah, they gave up a ton. Like, what has gone wrong here.”
Seravalli: “Everything. They think Anthony Mantha’s lazy. They think he doesn’t work. That’s really, in a nutshell, to boil it down for you in the most way possible. That’s their thought process.
They love the talent. He’s a tantalizing player in terms of you know, being packed into a big body, and they just feel like they haven’t gotten anywhere near the effort out of him that would be able to make that convert. And it’s driving them crazy.
And the crazy part about that trade when you go back and look at it, is, it didn’t work out for anyone. Like everyone leaves that trade absolutely sour at how that played out. And that was a whopper that came down in the final minutes before the 3:00 PM deadline. Mantha for a first, a second, Jakob Vrana and Richard Panik. Crazy deal. And everyone hates it.”
