In the wake of Jaromir Jagr leaving the Vancouver Canucks for parts unknown, GM Bachul made a call of support to Vancouver GM Michael Sambataro. Out of the discussion, came the decision that the Canucks were moving into rebuild mode.
"Yep, pretty simple. Michael said, 'Interested in Gonchar?' So we decided to move on it. Sixty to seventy point blueliners don't jump into the available mode very often. Economically he is a salary that is a bargain at his price. One might say that dollar for dollar, he is more valuable than a guy like Joe Thornton that makes a bushel."
There was one problem with the whole enterprise. There was no way to structure the deal to get the Hawks under the cap and process the deal.
"We had to make another move. We had several things on the go, and we are happy with the player we acquired to stay under the cap. Adding Schaeffer keeps the offence of Dumont but Petr is better defensively. The difference in salary was more than enough to make the deal worthwhile, and allowed us to pull the trigger on our Gonchar deal."
The Hawks were pretty candid about the players they moved out. "Kronvall is a good young blueliner, but he could be two seasons from making an impact. Gonchar is an elite offensive blueliner that will add offense. When you look at our blueliner with Gonchar, Rozival, Markov, Volchenkov, Visnovsky and Jones, I don't think anyone can touch it. I got some words of congratulations from some GMs on the work Dave and I have done on this team. It feels good but is all for naught if you don't win. And that is what we are trying to do, win."
The Hawks completed the deal that sent Kronvall, Niklas Wallin, Andrej Sekera, and two draft choices to Vancouver while taking the two blueliners in return in Gonchar and Jones.
"At some point we won't be able to keep moving out youth. And looking at the possible raises, we might have to look at who we can move to cut some salary to keep our core together. But, that is after this year. We are going to live in the now."
