The Anaheim Ducks have just announced that they have acquired defensemen Kevin Bieksa from the Vancouver Canucks. The Ducks will send Vancouver a 2016 2nd round pick in the deal.
Bieksa is a 10 year veteran at 34 years of age. He was selected by the Canucks in the 5th round of the 2001 draft and has spent his entire career with Vancouver.
Bieksa is a rugged right shot defensemen who adds even more grit to the young Ducks blue-line. He served as an alternate captain in Vancouver and he is likely going to replace veteran Francois Beauchemin. Talks appear to have broken down between the Ducks and Beauchemin which suggests that this Bieksa deal is a move to add a new veteran presence.
He carries a cap hit of $4,600,000 for next season as he is entering the final year of a 5 year $23,000,000 deal. Speculation is that the Ducks will announce a contract extension for Bieksa tomorrow.
The Canucks have been trying to move Bieksa for a while now as many thought he would land in San Jose over the draft weekend but a deal eventually fell through.
Bieksa has always been a guy who has played the Ducks hard and Bob Murray knows his game well through the years of the Ducks and Canucks pacific division battles.
The move takes the Ducks from $45.9 million to $50.5 million committed to the cap for next season. The Ducks now are back to having nearly $20 million in cap space. An extension will be interesting to see how it affects the plans to re-sign those key free agents for the Ducks who need new deals next summer.
Bieksa will be reunited with Ryan Kesler, who seems to like the trade. This is the second summer in a row that Ducks GM bob Murray and Canucks GM Jim Benning have executed a big trade.
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