When Mike Gillis first came to town, it was on the premise that the Canucks needed to be competitive enough to make some noise in the playoffs. After signing Sundin, it looks like Gillis has done more than his fair share to this point (well, once Sundin gets over his extended flu and starts racking up the goals) but Vancouver is still very clearly at least a piece away from being able to compete with San Jose and Detroit.

With the trade deadline rapidly approaching, giddy Vancouver fans are ripe with excitement about which player is going to be Gillis’ first deadline acquisition – what rental player is going to put us over the top?

And, while Gillis has repeatedly said in interviews, articles, and media scrums that he is only looking for hockey moves and he is NOT going to make a rental move, this hasn’t stopped the usual deadline fervor.

Looking at Vancouver’s recent trade deadline history, this might not be the worst strategy.

To illuminate our blunders in this respect, I’ve composed a list of what I think are the five worst deadline deals in Canucks history.

5) March 9, 2004:

Vancouver acquired F Martin Rucinsky from NYR for F RJ Umberger and D Martin Grenier.
After what probably seemed like aeons of contract squabbles with big-mouthed prospect RJ Umberger, Burke was in a bit of a pickle. Umberger had publically requested a trade and, with the trade deadline approaching, it was obvious to mostly everyone that RJ wouldn’t be a Canuck for too much longer. But at the very least we had assumed we’d get an impact rental in exchange.

Umberger continued the trend of being involved in management squabbles during his time with the Rangers and was subsequently shipped to Philadelphia, but he eventually matured into a good top-six center and he’s enjoying a career season in Columbus.

On the other end of the stick, Rucinsky was an ineffectual floater for a couple of months and then fucked off.

If the contract squabbles hadn’t forced Burke’s hand, this deal may have been higher up the list, but the discrepancy in the value of the players exchanged too high to go unnoticed.

Now, I’m a fan of Dave Nonis, and he did some good things for the organization. He brought us Roberto Luongo and he re-stocked the farm system that Brian Burke so carelessly depleted. But the trade deadline for the 2005-06 season has to go down as one of the major disappointments in Canucks history. The saddest part of the whole situation is that, if the Canucks played well down the stretch, they would have made the playoffs and Nonis would be hailed as a genius for making the next three moves, but things don’t always go your way – the Canucks missed, and Nonis is a loser.

4) March 9, 2006:

Acquired G Mika Noronen from BUF for 2nd round pick (G Jhonas Enroth)
This move in particular was made awful through a misunderstanding of Crawford’s policy on goaltenders – which was, at the time, think of something good and then do the opposite, which also resulted in Cloutier starting far too many games.

Many felt that adding a goaltender at the trade deadline was a bad idea to begin with – a goaltender can not easily integrate into a new team for a stretch run so late in the season.

But most felt that Nonis had the right idea, and simply acted too late on it, as Cloutier had experienced a rash of injuries and Alex Auld - an inexperienced starter - was bearing the brunt of the goaltending load.

Auld continued to do so - Mika Noronen played in four games for Vancouver, registered one win, and then bolted to Europe.

3) March 9, 2006:

Acquired D Eric Weinrich from STL for D Tomas Mojzis and 3rd round pick (F Vladimir Zharkov)
This move is bad from all angles. Perhaps the trait was inherited from his predecessor Brian Burke, but it was still obvious that Dave Nonis undervalued draft picks – and this is the shining example.

The going rate for a depth defenseman as a rental should normally be around a 4th round pick. The going rate for a fringe defenseman on the verge of retirement should be even less. How Larry Pleau convinced Nonis to not only give up a third-round pick for Wiener-itch but toss in a solid AHL-call-up defenseman is mind-boggling.

Weiner-itch played like total garbage for a couple of months and then retired.

2) March 9, 2006:

Acquired D Brent Sopel from LA for 2nd round pick (F Wayne Simmonds) and a 4th round pick (F Justin Jokinen)
I have to admit – at the time, I loved this trade. Sopel was one of my favorite Canucks before being lost to free agency, and I was eagerly anticipating him being reunited with another of my favorite Canucks – Mattias Ohlund. Still, I felt the Canucks overpaid.

But this trade turned out to be a disaster.

None of the old chemistry existed between Sopel and Ohlund. Soaps was tried on pairings with other defensemen but continued to be a sloppy turnover machine who couldn’t contribute nearly as well as he could in the past.

To add insult to injury, the 2nd round pick – Wayne Simmonds – has cracked the NHL and is contributing soundly to the surging Los Angeles Kings.

1) April 7, 1995:

Acquired F Russ Courtnall from DAL for F Greg Adams, F Dan Kesa, and a 5th round pick (F Jason Morgan)
In retrospect, Pat Quinn has called this move his worst trade. I would be inclined to agree.

In a deal that was hardly popular at the time, Quinn severely fractured the core of the ’94 team by shipping one of its vital organs – Greg Adams – to Dallas for Russ Courtnall, whose brother Geoff was already on the Canucks.

Russ and his mullet were actually quite effective for Vancouver – combined, they came up with a 65 point season and were among the top scorers for the team in ’95 and ’96 playoffs.

And, while injury-riddled Adams didn’t make much of a splash in Dallas, the point remains:

This is not how you end your team’s relationship with the player who scored the goal that sent you to the Stanley Cup Finals. This is not how you treat one of the franchise’s all-time most popular players – by converting him into a family reunion.

Now, after surveying the list I think we can all come to a safe conclusion - Gillis, if your saggy eyes ever read this, please know that if you want to skip this deadline, that’s okay with us.