Music: {allcanada} Canucks deal for veteran center Pahlsson

Monday, February 27, 2012

{allcanada} Canucks deal for veteran center Pahlsson

Sami Pahlsson is going from 30th place to first, as the Columbus Blue Jackets have traded the veteran checking center to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for defenseman Taylor Ellington and a pair of fourth-round draft picks.

Pahlsson, 34, will be reunited with good friends and fellow Swedes Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin in Vancouver, where he joins a team that has 87 points and is currently first in the Western Conference.

Pahlsson had 11 points in 61 games with the Blue Jackets this season. He was averaging 15:02 of ice time per game and winning better than 51 percent of his faceoffs.

"I guess it's nice; it's been a tough run for us (in Columbus) and I just hope I have some good game left," Pahlsson told TSN. "I hope I do; don't see any reason why I couldn't do it again."

The Canucks are Pahlsson's fifth team.

He started his career in Boston in 2000, but moved to Anaheim after 17 games and played with the Ducks until 2009, when he was traded at the deadline to Chicago. Pahlsson signed a three-year contract with the Blue Jackets on July 1, 2009.

He never got to the playoffs with the Jackets, who are last in the NHL with 43 points this season.

"It's not fun, everyone wants to be in the playoffs," Pahlsson said before learning of his trade Monday. "It's the best part of hockey. We've had three years where we're not really close to it and it's hard on everyone."

Pahlsson knows what winning feels like. He won Olympic gold with Team Sweden in 2006 and was a finalist for the Selke Trophy in 2007, when he won the Stanley Cup with Anaheim.

In Pahlsson, the Canucks are getting a player that can help their bottom-six as well as their fifth-ranked penalty kill (86.3 percent). Pahlsson averaged nearly two and a half minutes of shorthanded ice time with the Blue Jackets this season.

Remember, too, that the Canucks also added forward depth at last year's deadline by acquiring Maxim Lapierre and Chris Higgins. Both players played key roles in Vancouver's run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.