Report: Canucks are in on Ethan Bear; ‘vultures are out’ trying to get their young players
1 year ago
This past offseason, the Vancouver Canucks were reportedly in on Ethan Bear, and once again, they’re being connected to the 25-year-old right-shot defenceman.
This, from Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie and Dhali – The Team:
“There’s a rumour going around that Ethan Bear is close to being traded. The Carolina defenceman can’t get into Rod Brind’Amour’s lineup. I believe the Canucks are still trying to acquire Bear. He falls into that category of 26 and younger right-shot D, the Canucks like this player.“He hasn’t played, he would need two to three weeks to get into game shape. All these injuries are hurting the Canucks’ flexibility right now to make trades. The six guys on the injured list is not helping them to make trades, but they are in on Bear, they’re open to trades, but it’s hard with some of their bad contracts.”
With the current state of the Canucks’ defence, Bear could easily find himself playing top four minutes in Vancouver, as the right side of the blueline is wide open with Tucker Poolman being placed on the long-term injured reserve list earlier this week.
Bear has yet to get into a game this season, as former Canuck Jalen Chatfield has been among those ahead of him on the Hurricanes’ depth chart.
Through 58 games last season with Carolina, Bear put up five goals and nine assists and put up decent underlying numbers.
Dhaliwal added that “vultures are out around the league right now trying to get the Canucks’ young players,” further stating that he was “told this morning that the preference is not to move Nils Höglander” at this time, as Höglander is rumoured to be a player the Hurricanes like and who’s name “keeps popping up.”
The Bear trade rumours have been around for a while now, as the Hurricanes gave Bear permission to talk with other teams to help facilitate a trade out of Carolina.
Bear’s agent reportedly contacted the Canucks in late June this past offseason.
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