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.