It could happen.

Both The Province’s Jim Jamieson and the Vancouver Sun’s Brad Ziemer tweeted around lunch time that Tanev’s agent got out his pots and pans by suggesting that his client doesn’t want to go to Russia, but that he’ll go there if he doesn’t get a fair deal from the Canucks.

A mea culpa and a few other details after the jump.

So, I have to be honest. Two months ago I wrote about Tanev adding an agent; I figured at the time it was most likely he was close to signing. (Though, in fairness, Cam Charron did back me up by pointing out how little leverage a guy like Tanev has.)

Seems I was wrong.

Cue Jim Jamieson, who, admittedly has been doing this far longer and remains far better than I (ok yes, I work with him now, but I wouldn’ve said that anyway!). There’s this:

.. and this:

That’s a lot of smoke. It’s fair to say that these parties aren’t all that close, especially if Tanev is seriously considering a move to the land where they don’t like demonstrations but they did once purport to love workers.

So he may go, he may not. Is he replaceable? Probably? Would it be a loss? Yes, it most certainly would. Solid NHLers on cheap contracts are very valuable, and his role on the team’s back-end can’t be overlooked. But it wouldn’t be a disaster.