3 hilarious trade stories involving Canucks players
Trades are always exciting for hockey fans, to follow but the actual human side of the story is just as interesting.
A big story that was trending for a while involved Braden Holtby and his two pet tortoises, Honey and Maple. After signing with the Vancouver Canucks in free agency, Holtby had to move his entire family (and pets) north of the border.
Because they forgot to file export papers for their pet tortoises, Holtby was stuck at the border for a while until they could figure everything out. The entire story truly highlights the human side of a hockey trade.
This story inspired me to find hilarious trade stories involving Canucks players. Here are three that I found to be quite entertaining:
1. Anders Nilsson
The Canucks visited the Ottawa Senators for a Jan. 2, 2019 road game. Anders Nilsson was the backup goalie for Vancouver while Mike McKenna was backing up for the Senators. That afternoon, the two teams made a trade which led to both goalies getting swapped.
Here’s what Nilsson said after the trade, per Sportsnet:
“Today’s going to be a very, very unique day, a very special day. It’s not often a player gets traded from one team to another and then play their team right away. It’s going to be a different feeling for sure sitting on the bench with Vancouver colours and the pads and helmet with an Ottawa jersey on.”
After getting the news of the trade at the hotel, Nilsson opted to take a car himself to the rink for the game rather than take the Canucks’ team bus. That night he looked extremely strange during pregame warmups with all his Vancouver equipment on with a Senators jersey. His stick was even blue and green as well. It made for quite the story and a very funny sight.
2. Brandon Prust
In the 2015 offseason, Brandon Prust was on a vacation in Rome with his fiancé at the time. On July 1, he saw the headline that the Canucks had traded Zack Kassian to the Montreal Canadiens, but Prust didn’t look at who Montreal was sending the other way.
He told his fiancé about the trade and explained how Kassian’s playing style was very similar to his and adding a player like that will be beneficial to the team. A few minutes later, he received a call from general manager Marc Bergevin.
Turns out, Bergevin had traded Prust to Vancouver to the shock of both him and many of his teammates.
“I had no clue,” Prust explained after the trade, per the Montreal Gazette. “I know on July 1 there’s a lot of action and I’m going into the last year of my contract. But after the playoffs I had (a postseason career-high goal and three assists in 12 games, and some industrial-strength work), I didn’t think there was any way they’d trade me.”
Nothing like a nice trade to complete your beautiful vacation in Rome, right?
3. Erik Gudbranson
In May of 2016, Erik Gudbranson was having the adventure of a lifetime with his teammate and friend, Shawn Matthias. They travelled all over Africa, went on a safari, and did a riverboat cruise in Botswana.
The cruise didn’t have cellphone service, so no one could reach him to tell him that the Florida Panthers had traded him to Vancouver.
He ended up finding out about the trade three days after the deal was done over lunch with Matthias in Zimbabwe.
“It was pretty funny,” Gudbranson said, per Sportsnet. “I went to sit down at the table, and he was dying laughing: ‘Dude, you just got traded.’ I said, ‘C’mon, no chance.’ He said, ‘Yep. You’re gonna be a Canuck now.'”
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Luckily for Gudbranson, his girlfriend took care of everything with the agent and played a big part in helping him get set up in Vancouver. That was the first time he had ever been traded, and he found out in quite aunique way.