Canucks trade Travis Hamonic to Ottawa Senators for third-round pick

One day before the trade deadline, the Vancouver Canucks have decided to get in on the trading action.

Darren Dreger of TSN was the first to report that defenceman Travis Hamonic has been traded to the Ottawa Senators early Sunday afternoon.

Not long after, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun reported that the Canucks would be getting a third-round pick back for Hamonic.

Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff then confirmed that the Canucks would not be retaining any salary on Hamonic’s three million dollar cap hit. Hamonic also had a eight team no movement clause.

CHEK TV’s Rick Dhaliwal reported that the Senators were looking at Hamonic for quite some time and Sens assistant coach Jack Capuano really wanted him. Capuano was Hamonic’s head coach when he was with the New York Islanders.

The Canucks made the trade official not long after.

“I think Travis is disappointed, the team is pushing for playoffs and he wanted to be apart of that,” said Hamonic’s agent Kevin Epp per Dhaliwal. “Travis played hard in Vancouver, we kind of knew a defenceman was leaving VAN for cap reasons.”

Hamonic first became a Canuck prior to last season after successfully completing a PTO. He signed a one-year contract worth 1.25 million per season. After a three goals and seven assists in 38 games, he signed a two-year contract worth three million dollars per season in the summer.

Hamonic missed the start of the season due to a personal issue and did not join the team until November. Hamonic was also late to be double vaccinated which meant he couldn’t play games in the US for awhile. He has also missed a chunk of games due to injury.

So far, Hamonic has three goals and four assists in 24 games.

According to the official press release, the third-round pick was originally owned by the Canucks but they traded it to the Vegas Golden Knights in October of 2020 for Nate Schmidt. The Senators then traded Evgenii Dadonov in exchange for the pick and Nick Holden. So now, the Canucks have two third round picks in the 2022 draft with the other one being acquired from the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for Schmidt last summer.

The Canucks clearing up three million dollars and getting a third back is a steal for Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin. Could Hamonic be the first domino to fall in exchange for more picks and more cap space? We shall see as the trade deadline is at noon on Monday.

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