Photo Credit: Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports

Kevin Bieksa is still a member of the Vancouver Canucks following a stalled trade with the San Jose Sharks during draft weekend, but it seems unlikely that he’ll begin the season with the club based on both the painful way this situation has played out and the high-level of interest in acquiring Bieksa around the league.

On Sunday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shed some light on how the Bieksa situation unfolded  – or, more accurately, didn’t – and also reported that there are as many as 10 teams with interest in completing a complicated transaction for the veteran defender.

In Friedman’s recent 30 thoughts column he reports that talks between the Canucks and the Sharks were advanced enough that Bieksa had taken his family down to North California to begin shopping for houses. That would corroborate what Darren Dreger was reporting regarding the productive contract negotiations between Bieksa’s side and the Sharks this weekend. 

I know the average fan isn’t disposed to being sympathetic to a millionaire professional athlete, but to have a difficult situation mature to that extent, and then to have the rug pulled out from under you, that has to be really tough on a man with a family…

On the Canucks side of thing, it seems that the team will still look to move Bieksa to free up salary cap space.

“I’ve been in contact with Kevin every step of the way and have been honest,” Canucks general manager Jim Benning told Friedman of the situation. “He understands our position and we’ll try to do what’s right for (him).”

That’s an interesting comment and strongly implies that a Bieksa deal of some sort will still be in the works in the coming days. The risk for Vancouver is that – since he has a full no-trade clause – Bieksa becomes less amenable to working with the team, and forces a deal to a particular spot (which would greatly limit his value). 

Anyway now that the draft – traditionally a high-volume player movement day – is over though, it’s anyones guess as to when they’ll be able to make the deal.

Perhaps, like with the Jason Spezza trade last season, the deal will be consummated in the lead up to the opening of the market on July 1. Or maybe the Canucks will need to do a deal a bit later in July, when a team or two has whiffed on acquiring one of the top available defensemen.

Though the precise specifics of why this trade fell apart remain vague, it’s evident that some sort of miscommunication or shared stubbornness caused the Canucks to miss an opportunity to shed salary and continue to restock the cupboard this weekend. Now we’ll wait to see if they, and Bieksa’s camp, can scramble and put together a difficult, multi-faceted Plan B transaction in the weeks to come.