Waived: Brandon Prust on waivers (Update: Clears, sent to Utica)

[opendoor]

Who said we'd get a 2nd, I heard anywhere from a 3rd to a 5th on here, but exaggerate away.

Just from the first few pages I looked at in a July Prust thread:

Benning shopped Kass for a 2nd and there were no takers. So he shipped him to the Habs with a 5th for Prust who should garner a 2nd at the trade deadline.

If Zac ******* Rinaldo garners a 3rd, then Brandon Prust can get a 2nd easily.

A 3rd Rd pick is the very low end of what he garners at the deadline. 2nd being the high end. Not sure what you don't get here.

 

[vanarchy]

I honestly don't want him anywhere near our prospects. You're damned if you don't , though. Benning really really needs to stop picking up garbage as we already have more than enough to deal with.

 

[coastal_nuck]

Just from the first few pages I looked at in a July Prust thread:

Ouch - the amount of hypocrisy

 

[Huggy]

I honestly don't want him anywhere near our prospects. You're damned if you don't , though. Benning really really needs to stop picking up garbage as we already have more than enough to deal with.

So what would you do with Kassian if 29 GM's know he has off ice issue that have destroyed his value?

Keep him? I would have just because I love the guy and would give him 1000 chances.

But to rip Benning when 29 GM's didnt take Zack it's like not fair plain and simple

 

[coldsteel79]

Just from the first few pages I looked at in a July Prust thread:

I stand corrected, if he didn't get injured I could see him maybe getting a third I never thought he'd be worth a 2nd though.

 

[vanarchy]

So what would you do with Kassian if 29 GM's know he has off ice issue that have destroyed his value?

Keep him? I would have just because I love the guy and would give him 1000 chances.

But to rip Benning when 29 GM's didnt take Zack it's like not fair plain and simple

...Trade him for the 5th if you have to. Yes, the forum would have imploded but not once it became clear why Kassian needed to be moved.

 

[Hit the post]

I stand corrected, if he didn't get injured I could see him maybe getting a third I never thought he'd be worth a 2nd though.

For the style he needs to play to be effective - it pretty much lends itself to getting injured given his age (and mileage on this body).

 

[mathonwy]

...Trade him for the 5th if you have to. Yes, the forum would have imploded but not once it became clear why Kassian needed to be moved.

Stop please.

So how about that Prust guy.

 

[vanarchy]

Stop please.

So how about that Prust guy.

Stop what? What a useless response. If you disagree, then make it known.

And yes, this is the Prust thread so let us discuss Prust.

 

[drax0s]

For the style he needs to play to be effective - it pretty much lends itself to getting injured given his age (and mileage on this body).

Maybe concussions and hand injuries, but hitting a rough patch of ice when stopping and messing up his left ankle is hardly an injury earned by "his style of play". His age likely didn't help him heal though.

 

[FroshaugFan2]

Has it been confirmed that he has been assigned to Utica? I know his agent said he will report if he's assigned.

 

[RandV]

What exactly is the value of comparing Prust and Kassian as players? We all know that's not why the trade was made, it's not like Benning was sitting there thinking oh damn this Prust guy is gonna light it up.

Benning traded a 3rd rounder for RW Derek Dorsett then extended him for 4 years @ $2.65 per. Prust is a slightly older LW version of Dorsett. Saying he thought he'd "light it up" is disingenuous as these guys aren't scorers, but Prust is totally a player Benning would target and pay for.

 

[tc 23]

I wish the Canucks had tried harder, too. WTH? You'd think an org that suffered a loss to mental illness would be more active. Tons of kids have trouble with life in pro sports, this is a given. Do they have no mechanisms in place to deal with it? FFS! Is it a cost issue? They don't mind hiring sleep doctors.

It is disgusting to think they are just pocketing the money and kicking troubled players to the curb but that is the optics of it. Massive fail!

Not sure if they still have them or not. I remember reading that Linden and Benning weren't really on board with some of the innovative stuff brought in during the Gillis regime.

 

[opendoor]

Benning traded a 3rd rounder for RW Derek Dorsett then extended him for 4 years @ $2.65 per. Prust is a slightly older LW version of Dorsett. Saying he thought he'd "light it up" is disingenuous as these guys aren't scorers, but Prust is totally a player Benning would target and pay for.

Kind of funny seeing how Prust's contract was used by many as the justification of why Dorsett needed to be paid that much. Less than a year later and he has cleared waivers because no one wants to pay that much for a 4th liner.

 

[geebaan]

Kind of funny seeing how Prust's contract was used by many as the justification of why Dorsett needed to be paid that much. Less than a year later and he has cleared waivers because no one wants to pay that much for a 4th liner.

The hypocrisy train is full steam ahead haha

 

[TruGr1t]

Kind of funny seeing how Prust's contract was used by many as the justification of why Dorsett needed to be paid that much. Less than a year later and he has cleared waivers because no one wants to pay that much for a 4th liner.

To be fair Prust's contract was signed what...nearly four years ago? Maybe he was worth it then, who knows? By all accounts he was pretty good up until last year. As noted, he actually wasn't bad to start the season either. His decline has been quite precipitous since then, however.

 

[FroshaugFan2]

Has it been confirmed that he has been assigned to Utica? I know his agent said he will report if he's assigned.

Botchford confirms that he hasn't been sent to the AHL as of yet.

@DudeAb1ded pretty sure it's 400 games but prust hasn't been assigned to Utica yet

https://twitter.com/botchford/status/694993936314544128

 

[Pip]

And yet all of them have cited to play in various spots on the Canucks roster. Gaunce being better than Prust when the actual trade happened was certainly debatable, but you have to appreciate management being wary of another kid mking it out of training camp unless he blew it out of the water.

Perhaps there should have been less emphasis on forcing Virtanen on the roster instead looked at the players who were NHL ready.

So is Baertschi, who just happens to be developing into one of our best players not named Sedin recently. How quickly were people to wave him off as yet another supposed failure? Age does not necessarily equate to experience. Granted, I don't think Vey will amount to anything noteworthy, but he is still considered a young player. The difference between him and the idolization over Zack Kassian is only one kept getting vaulted to the top line.

Vey was giften first PP opportunities for the majority of last season and got plenty of time up the lineup and at no point did he really showcase himself to be a future contributor. He's been a little better this year but still is simply not very good. Zack spent some time with the Sedins, but the vast majority of the time in the bottom 6 and produced at a good rate considering his ice time. He showed flashes of being a real difference maker.

Ironic, yes. But my point was not to compare Vey's over-usage, but essentially an inherent bias. Certain players are deemed bad based on a few games and that narrative never changes. Take Sutter, who frankly, outplayed Horvat and Vrbata handedly at the beginning of the season. Nope, he still sucks.

A few games? Sutter has over 500 NHL games. Taking his 15 or so games at the beginning of the year oftentimes playing next to the Sedins over his career would be completely ridiculous. Sutter is a useful player but is overpaid and not someone who needed to be locked down long-term. He skates fast, has a decent shot and is a good PKer while at even strength is largely trapped in his own zone.

Virtanen is a unique case where sending him back would mean going to junior, thus management kept him around the lockerroom-- an action that ultimately paid dividends. Had they been allowed to send him to the AHL, I suspect he would have been playing there most of this season. As for Higgins and Prust. It's a mixture of both. If we didn't have as many kids playing up and beyond expectations, we wouldn't have waived the aforementioned as we'd have no one to adequately fill the spot.

It's really not an overly unique case since many teams face this situation with one or more prospects every year. How has keeping Jake up paid dividends? This season has been pretty much worse case scenario for Virtanen. He's shown flashes of skill but largely is completely our of his element in the NHL.

It is not a mixture of both for Higgins and Prust. Both players were so god awful that they would have lost spots to AHLers.

Of which we required neither. You're right though, we acquired him to mentor the kids and fight. Perhaps not the best assortment of skills, but given the circumstances of why the trade happened, Prust was basically all we could get. How is Benning supposed to know Prust would throw a hissy fit when every word out of Montreal is how much of a purported character guy he is? The Habs only made the move to clear salary after re-upping Plekanec. They never actually wanted to move him.

If the Habs really didn't want to move him then they would have made room for him. In reality he's an overpaid plug and when you acquire plugs for their supposed character and it blows up in your face you deserve to be criticized. We didn't need a fighter, we didn't need a mentor. His best attributes were redundant.

Zack Kassian ruined Zack Kassian's value. Can we stop this nonsense? The kid is an alcoholic who the team spent three years attempting to work with. Three different coaches threw their hands up and demoted him. Montreal quite literally threw him off the team after he had just been kicked out of Vancouver. At what point do we lay the fault of Kassian on Kassian's shoulders? Benning spent almost all of last season trying to trade him, but no one wanted him. There's a reason we ultimately got Prust. And there's further reason Montreal had to take back Ben friggin' Scrivens.

Montreal got rid of deadweight and got a fifth round pick. Don't think they played it overly well either. Seems like Edmonton gave him a shot and he took it. Kassian deserves blame for getting himself in the situation, I've never argued otherwise, but Benning did not play the situation well at all.

Kassian may be idolized on this board. Around the league? He's a fringe NHL players with far too much baggage.

There you go again. Just because people want him back and think it was a bad trade must mean that we think he's a superstar that's idolized. Kassian had his faults, both on and obviously off the ice, but had enough skill and showed enough in his time here to be worth investing more time into.

Sadly, yes.

For me, it depends on how you evaluate the trade. Benning took a gamble on potentially flipping Prust, all whilst using him as a placeholder and mentor to a youthened line-up. Furthermore, he wanted to avoid the backlash associated with keeping Kassian, but couldn't find any takers. While it ultimately failed, the end result isn't a noteworthy loss.

It was a bad trade for bad reasons. Prust was never going to return a good pick. Benning ends up with the backlash anyway since Kassian is now playing real well in Edmonton.

Kassian had no value, which is why we eventually got Prust in the first place. After his incidents, they just wanted him gone.

and they were wrong to do so

 

[RandV]

To be fair Prust's contract was signed what...nearly four years ago? Maybe he was worth it then, who knows? By all accounts he was pretty good up until last year. As noted, he actually wasn't bad to start the season either. His decline has been quite precipitous since then, however.

Yes for a brief period of time high end 4th liners were getting $2.0-2.5 million contracts on the open market: Brandon Prust, Chris Neil, Eric Nystrom, etc.

...but that was 4 years ago, at the time Dorsett was signed these types of players had falling back to 3 years/$1.0-2.0 million per year contracts.

 

[me2]

Yes for a brief period of time high end 4th liners were getting $2.0-2.5 million contracts on the open market: Brandon Prust, Chris Neil, Eric Nystrom, etc.

...but that was 4 years ago, at the time Dorsett was signed these types of players had falling back to 3 years/$1.0-2.0 million per year contracts.

Those guys were in 3rd line roles not 4th ie Neil scored at a 25-30 / 82 place. Prust played with Eller. Etc

 

[Horrorshow]

Now that he's cleared waivers, is it possible that he actually might've gained some value? A team could acquire him and bury him in the minors, then call him up so he's eligible for the playoffs in case they need a veteran body in the lineup.

 

[alternate]

Those guys were in 3rd line roles not 4th ie Neil scored at a 25-30 / 82 place. Prust played with Eller. Etc

And Dorsett put up 25 points last year. Not pace, but actual points. While leading the league in fights. The issues with Dorsett are length of contract and usage.

 

[Wilch]

I don't like the acquisition and think he's not a good hockey player - especially considering what Benning gave up for him.

With that said, I am surprised at how he decided to pull something like this in a contract year, considering these enforcers typically look to scrape up as much money as they can before the hang the mitts.

 

[opendoor]

I don't like the acquisition and think he's not a good hockey player - especially considering what Benning gave up for him.

With that said, I am surprised at how he decided to pull something like this in a contract year, considering these enforcers typically look to scrape up as much money as they can before the hang the mitts.

Yeah, I found his whole tenure here pretty weird given his actual abilities at this point. With the way he looked to end last year and in training camp he probably should've considered himself lucky to have an NHL job at all, but instead all we heard was how he wasn't happy to be in the Western Conference. Then he throws a tantrum because the team wants to play an important prospect instead of him, like a guy with 2 points and 12 shots in his previous 25 games should be immune from being scratched.

This is a guy who should be playing for a 1 way deal with anyone next year, but he acted like he was just killing time in Vancouver until the bidding war for his services from Northeastern teams happens in the offseason.

 

[jigsaw99]

now he can continue to take ice times away from our prospect!