Booth Traded To Vancouver In 4 Player Swap

Only five minutes before the puck was dropped against the New York Islanders it was announced that fan favorite David Booth was traded to the Vancouver Canucks. In addition to Booth Florida also sent Steven Reinprecht and a third round pick in 2013 to the Canucks in exchange for Mikael Samuelsson and Marco Sturm. Fans were rocked by the trade taking to Twitter to get any bit of information they could in hopes that it was just a rumor but the NHL confirmed it a few minutes later sending everyone into an uproar.

In return for Booth the Panthers get a more defensive reliable forward in Mikael Samuelsson, along with decent offensive numbers (18g 32a 50pts last season with Vancouver). Samuelsson also had a short stint with Florida in 03-04 (37GP) scoring 3g and 9pts. Sturm has scored 20+ goals 7 times in his 15 year career playing for San Jose, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington before signing with Vancouver in the off-season. After getting off to a slow start and not meeting expectations the Canucks had no problem including him in the deal which could end up being a steal for Florida if he returns to his past form. Comparable to Radek Dvorak he gives Florida a solid penalty killer with some speed, but the potential to put up higher numbers than Dvorak did while in Florida is there.

While fans will miss Booth they have to realize that overall this deal makes sense for both teams, Florida drops salary with getting rid of Reinprecht who was buried in the minors as well as defensive and offensive reliable forwards. Vancouver gets a good young player in Booth who could return to form if given time with Daniel and Henrik Sedin on the top line, or even with Ryan Kesler on line two. Booth became expendable when he didn’t meet expectations this past season and got off to a slow start this year going -36 in his past 88 games (he led the league last season with -30 +/- rating).

We all wish Booth well as he may get the push he needs to break out like we all thought he would in years past. He is all but assured a playoff opportunity moving to a weak Western division while playing on the powerhouse Canucks squad. If Samuelsson and Sturm don’t work out for Florida their contracts won’t be renewed (both scheduled to be UFA’s at end of season), and it will clear roster spots for Jonathan Huberdeau and Quinton Howden. Give this trade some time to set in, there is no need to break out the pitch forks and torches and storm the BankAtlantic Center. By February we’ll know exactly how the two teams made out in the deal and at worse we trade the players for more picks in this upcoming draft.