Note: On October 5 2010 Grabner was placed on waivers by the Florida Panthers and picked up by the New York Islanders. The former first rounder couldn't crack the Panthers line-up, a bit of a surprise as some thought for Florida of the Ballard deal. He'll have a chance to stick in Long Island.
With the amateur draft taking place to be followed by the July 1st unrestricted free-agent free-for-all it is a good time to let player movement begin and on Friday, June 25 the Vancouver Canucks and Florida Panthers were the first to dive into the trade waters.
And the two made a pretty big splash.
As the 2010 amateur draft was getting underway in Los Angeles – the first round was conducted Friday and Edmonton took Taylor Hall first overall - the Canucks acquired from Florida a defenseman that has it all, size, toughness, speed, puck moving ability and, at 27, Keith Ballard still has youth.
Canucks Trade Away First Round Pick, Grabner and Steve Bernier
To get the top four d-man the Canadian club had to give something up and that something turned out to be 2006 first round pick (14th overall) Michael Grabner, Steve Bernier (a player you can now officially call a veteran journeyman), and their 2010 first round pick, the 25th pick overall (Florida selected Quinton Howden). As part of the deal Vancouver also got 23-year-old tough guy Victor Oreskovich.
Despite giving up Grabner and their first rounder GM Mike Gillis, quoted on the team’s website, sounded confident that his club had made a significant upgrade and did not seem to be overly concerned about giving up their 2010 first rounder.
“When you begin to look around at top three, top four defencemen who can play 22 or 24 minutes a game, they come with a steep price tag,” Gillis said. “We’re at a position now with our team where we have a number of young development players and have signed a number of college free agents, and our pick was at the end of the first round and we didn’t feel there were players there that could help us for a number of years.”
Michael Grabner Spent Most Time as a Canuck with Manitoba Mooose
Grabner has spent most of his pro career in Manitoba where he played 200 games and scored 68 goals and 59 assists for 127 points. The native of Austria played 20 games for the Canucks in the 2009-10 season and had 5 goals and six assists and showed promise.
The Canucks gave Buffalo two draft choices for Bernier in 2008 but after producing only 26 goals and 28 assists in 140 games over two seasons his move was no surprise.
Oreskovich is an interesting player, he failed to catch on with Colorado two years ago and was sent to the AHL but the forward from Whitby , Ontario said he had lost the drive to pursue a hockey career and retired. The 23-year-old then studied finance at Notre Dame for two years and somehow that rekindled his desire to play hockey and he wound up in Florida where he split the season between the Panthers, playing 50 games with two goals and four assists, and Rochester, their AHL affiliate.
Vancouver Canucks Got Quality Defenseman in Keith Ballard
The best player in the deal is clearly Ballard and getting the big rearguard gives the Canucks a Top Four defence of Ballard, Alexander Edler, Kevin Bieska and last year’s off-season trade acquisition Christian Ehroff. Veteran Sami Salo, 35, is also in the mix.
“He brings a real edge. He’s a puck moving skilled defenseman who plays real hard,” Gillis said of his new defender. “He can play on the power play and can kill penalties. We felt that we wanted a defenseman who hit really hard and competed really hard and we got that.
Gillis Says That the Canucks Will Be Looking to Make More Deals
"We're not finished yet. We're going to look at every free agent that comes out but we're going to continue to concentrate on defence, as well as a couple of other players if they make it to free agency.”
Ballard was the player who accidentally hit his own goalie, Tomas Vokoun over the head with his stick after becoming angry when a goal went in against Atlanta last season, cutting Vokoun’s left ear for ten stitches. He had meant to slam his stick on the post and Vokoun said that Ballard apologized so often the goalie finally told him to stop.
No word on how Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo was reacting to the deal.
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