Bob, what's your take? Deals like this are so hard to accomplish, aren't they?
BOB: "They're hard to do. People in Vancouver, there seems to be a sentiment at this point that the Vancouver Canucks didn't get enough for Pavel Bure. Be that as it may, you can't have it both ways. You can't be on Brian Burke's case 'Trade him, Trade him, Trade him. The deals got to be done. Why are you waiting so long?' And then turn around and when he makes a deal that involves a significant amount of quantity and some degree of quality and the quality part is what we'll have to measure over the course of the long haul to decide whether this one is a good deal or a bad deal."
Of course the big part of whether it is a good deal or a bad deal is how long the Florida
Panthers are able to lock up Pavel Bure in the long-term. We spoke to Mike Gillis
a little earlier tonight (he's the player agent for Pavel Bure), he told us they worked out a
contract through the end of this season, but nothing long-term yet. They have had three days to
get the negotiations under way. Are you surprised they made this deal without getting anything
long-term locked up?
BOB: "Only mildly. They only started real negotiations with Mike Gillis this afternoon around 12 noon. It's a situation where he's got a contract for this year, but it's a little unusual because the exact dollar amount wasn't specified because it depended on averages and obviously, the Panthers and Gillis and Bure had to agree on what that amount was going to be. I'm sure that they are well on their way to getting something done. And even if they're not, they still are protected because Bure at the end of this season is a Group 2 Free Agent, which means he is Restricted. Which means if anyone was to sign him to an offer sheet, there would be 5 first round picks so there's some insurance there for the Florida Panthers and they thought it was well worth the risk. I'm sure that Bure, all things being equal, wants to get on with his career. Instead of being the 'tempermental bad boy' of Vancouver, he wants to go into Florida and take over the marketplace and be the Franchise player."
A quick look at the Canucks situation. Right away it does upgrade their defence but long-term
implication is what Brian Burke is looking at for this deal.
BOB: "I look at this and start breaking it out and I look at Kevin Weekes, as good a goaltender as he might be in the international league right now he still hasn't proven that he can play in the National Hockey League as the number one goaltender. So that's promise... that's potential. We can't measure that tonight. Mike Brown and Brad Ference, basically two guys who play junior hockey. There's no guarantee at this point they'll be front line NHL players. So what it boils down to for the Canucks is Ed Jovanovski and Dave Gagner. Gagner is a short-term, stop-gap proposition at centre. He'll help in the short-term, which is going to be great. They didn't have Bure in the lineup anyway and now they've got Gagner. He's a proven NHL-er, even though he's on in years. As for Jovanovski, he's obviously the centerpiece of this. And what strikes me the most about this more than anything else is that the Vancouver Canucks defence is very, very deep. You've got Jovanovski, you've got Adrian Aucoin, you've got Bryan McCabe, you've got Mattias Ohlund, you've got Bryan Allen coming. To me, what this sets up, not necessarily now, but within a year, is another trade for the Vancouver Canucks, where they trade one of these defencemen, maybe Bryan McCabe and get back somebody up front."
You get the impression there's alot of bitterness going on between Pavel Bure and Brian Burke
and the Vancouver Canucks team in general. I think what it comes down to is the fact in essence
the team did not stand behind him... if anything, they went against him saying, 'You know what,
he wasn't as hurt as badly as he was making out, did not want to come back and play in the play-offs.'
It seems that that was the thing that really pushed Pavel Bure out of Vancouver.
BOB: "I have no idea. And you know what, I frankly get tired of thinking what it is. Pavel Bure can come on back from Russia now. He's got a deal to play this season. And he can answer for the fans in Vancouver and elsewhere as to why he didn't want to play for the Vancouver Canucks. The important thing for him and for the Florida Panthers is the Florida Panthers suddenly have some personality on this team now, a team that went to the Stanley Cup final on the basis of John Vanbiesbrouck and a bunch of guys that work hard now have one of the most dynamic players in the National Hockey League. It's going to be very interesting. They should be able to weather the loss of Jovanovski on the blue line. They'll look to other guys: Svehla, and Warrener and some other guys to step it up, what they've got now in a market that really needs a boost is the dynamics of Pavel Bure. So it's a good deal, a great deal for the Florida Panthers. They lose Jovanovski. Dave Gagner they can live without as well. But they get Bure. It's a decent deal, a good short-term deal for the Vancouver Canucks. They didn't have Bure in the lineup anyway and now they've got Gagner to help out by the front and Jovanovski on the blue line."
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