Are the Vancouver Canucks buying or selling at this year’s trade deadline? We don’t know. We can’t know. Not even Jim Benning can. Because both Radim Vrbata and Dan Hamhuis, the club’s most valuable trade baits, will have a word in this conversation.
The reason why Dan Hamhuis has a full no-trade clause in his contract should be clear. He wants to stay where he is. Or, since he signed his six-year contract extension in 2010 and can’t have known what will be in six years, he wants to decide when he will go where and whether he will go at all.