Canucks Off-load Garrison to Tampa

The Vancouver Canucks were not done with just dealing Ryan Kesler on Friday, as they were also able to move defenseman Jason Garrison to the Tampa Bay Lightning.  As the deal reads, Garrison, the rights to forward Jeff Costello and the Canucks 7th round pick in 2015 goes to Tampa Bay and coming back is the Bolts' 2nd round pick, which will be made tomorrow.

Garrison was a free agent acquisition for the Canucks back in the Summer of 2012 after he came off a 16-goal season with the Florida Panthers.  In 1.5 seasons with the Canucks, thanks to the lockout, Garrison scored 15 goals in 128 games and never really panned out to be the guy that they wanted at a $4.6 million cap hit.

In the 2014 season alone, Garrison scored 7 goals and 33 points in 81 games, which was good enough for 40th among defensemen in points, but there was a definite expectation for more out of the 29-year old rearguard.

Going to Tampa is a reasonably sized package, which includes a prospect and a late-round pick, which covers the cap hit, in theory, for Garrison, as the Lightning are taking the entire salary for the defender.

The addition in Tampa Bay means they have 15 players on their projected roster at $56.7 million, while the Canucks drop down to 16 players at $49 million.  Both teams still have some play for this off-season and I have my doubts that both teams are done at this point.