The trade deadline came and went and Dan Hamhuis was not moved. Needless to say, the Canucks fanbase was left confused and frustrated that he Canucks were unable to move the pending unrestricted free agent.

In anticipation of a possible move, Dan Hamhuis was held out of practice today but met the media later on. He was extremely forthright and open about what had transpired.

Let’s start with the most important part:

To further expand on that information from Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy, Hamhuis mentioned that those two teams had actually started the whole process, originally reaching out to the Canucks and expressing interest. The Canucks then spoke to Hamhuis about it as a possible situation:

Irfaan Gaffar summarized and added on. So basically, Hamhuis was open to trade to the Blackhawks from Wednesday onwards, and Dallas from Thursday onwards. Yet no deal was done. There was five and half days for Chicago and four and half days for Dallas to get a deal done. So wasn’t a rushed situation, nor was anyone put into a corner. Yet, no deal was done.

There were a couple of Eastern Teams that had expressed interest, but Hamhuis was only willing to go to the two aforementioned teams. Hamhuis had rightfully earned his no trade clause, but was willing to work with the Canucks to make a deal possible by accepting a trade to two contenders that are expressed continued interest. 

Dan Murphy summarizes this situation perfectly:

Now that the trading deadline has passed, hopefully, the Canucks plan to re-sign Hamhuis otherwise they risk allowing another asset to reach zero value. Which given the situation the Canucks are in, is the worst possible outcome. You only have to look over the Rockies, to see the Calgary Flames properly manage their assets. Now Canucks fans can only hope for the second best thing.