Why did the Canucks try to trade for Jason Demers?

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      On July 1, while the Vancouver Canucks were busy signing up veteran players on reasonable, short-term contracts, Pierre Lebrun of TSN reported that Jason Demers had used his limited no-trade clause to nix a trade to Vancouver.

      Demers's contract specified that there were eight teams he could deny a trade to.

      Recently, Canucks Army reported that tax rates may have been a big factor in Demers’s decision, as Florida doesn’t apply a state income tax. Some observers said the same thing when Steven Stamkos chose to stay in Tampa Bay instead of chasing a massive contract elsewhere.

      And while this may be true, it doesn't answer the real question: Why did the Canucks want to bring in Demers?

      The Panthers currently have just under $11 million in salary cap space, but still have about five players to sign, unless their younger players, like former Canuck Jared McCann, can make the jump. (Speaking of McCann, the player rumoured to be going Florida's way in a possible Demers deal is the same man who was traded for the former Canucks first rounder: Erik Gudbranson, because it's written into NHL law that at least one quarter of former Panthers need to return to Florida at some point in their careers.

      The salary cap was one of the reasons that Florida let promising forward Jonathan Marchessault and his 30 goals last season go to the Vegas Golden Knights for free in the expansion draft, as they worked out a deal that would see the Knights take on Reilly Smith and his five year/ $5 million contract for a 2018 fourth round draft pick.

      Cap space was so important to the Panthers that they gave away their third leading scorer last year.

      So, of course they were looking to get out of another bad contract.

      Jason Demers was fifth on the Panthers in ice time per game, but he ate those minutes up ineffectively.

      Corsi is an advanced stats tool used to measure how many shot chances a team generates when a player is on the ice, versus when he's on the bench.

      Demers posted the worst even-strength Corsi of any Panthers defenceman who played more than 40 games. In fact, according to another advanced statistic kept by Hockey Reference, point share — similar to baseball's 'win share' stat, where a player is measured by how many points he helped his team achieve in the standings — Demers's career is closely aligned with that of formerly maligned Canuck (and Panther) Keith Ballard.

      Recently, Canucks' GM Jim Benning and his staff have been praised for embracing analytics in drafting and acquiring players. This has included drafting pint-sized Petrus Palmu and new coach Travis Green speaking about his excitement over using all the data available in the NHL, as opposed to what's offered in the AHL.

      But the Demers rumours don't jibe with that, and they represent a dangerous direction for the club to be headed in. While trading Gulbranson isn't the worst idea — it's likely the team won't resign him when his contract runs out at the end of this season — swapping him for Demers would be a disaster.

      Not only does Demers cost a million more per year against the cap at $4.5 million, he's signed for three more years than Gudbranson. Sometimes cap stability is important and acquiring a player on a longer term deal at a reasonable, cost-controlled price is a good move. This is not one of those times. Demers isn't worth $4.5 million right now, and he just turned 29. The odds that he will be worth that contract in 2020 are extremely low.

      It's moves like this that confound Canucks fans who have just started to get on board with the team's plan. Whether or not the rebuild ends up working out probably comes down to whether Benning is saved from himself or not. Jason Demers did him a massive favour by not coming to Vancouver. Whether Benning will acknowledge that or learn from it in the coming months remains to be seen.

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