When the Vancouver Canucks traded Thomas Vanek to the Columbus Blue Jackets at the 20178 NHL trade deadline, fans were quite rightly unhappy with the apparently meager return general manager Jim Benning secured.
While veteran forward Jussi Jokinen briefly shone with 10 points in 14 games in what was to be the final stretch of his NHL career, the real return was then-22 year-old forward Tyler Motte.
In another case of Canucks fans’ expectations setting an unfair bar for a player to reach, Tyler Motte was almost immediately panned by sections of the Canucks fanbase, and local media.