Western Confernce Trade Deadline Breakdown

Andrew Alberts? Sean Zimmerman? Yan Stastny?

Is that all you’ve got, Mike Gillis?

These are the guys that are going to put the Canucks over the top? Do they represent the infusion that will turn a good team into a great one?

Who knew this Deadline Day would make a powerhouse out of the … wait for it … Manitoba Moose.

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames were in greater need of wheeling and dealing heading into Deadline Day than the Vancouver Canucks were. We get that.

So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that both Flames GM Darryl Sutter and Oilers GM Steve Tambellini clearly outperformed the Canucks GM Gillis when it comes to meeting their own perceived needs.

But the Oilers are a last-place team. And even the Flames are not being looked at as a genuine Cup contender in the West, the way Vancouver is.

Gillis didn’t need quantity. But he surely needed some quality, with Willie Mitchell’s concussion problems, and with the season Kyle Wellwood is having as the third-line centre.

A little bit of upgrading in Vancouver could have led to games at GM Place in June. Now, even the most unrealistic Canucks fan can’t make a case for how his team has made up the gap between Vancouver and Chicago, which was a better team a year ago and still is today.

Now, the Canucks had better start looking over their shoulders, because almost every one of their Western rivals got better to some degree on Deadline Day.

“We’re really happy with our team,” Gillis said after the (non)dealing was done Wednesday. “We’ve had this road trip to contend with … we’re eight points ahead of the eighth-place team…”

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