Vancouver Canucks forward Ryan Kesler didn’t enjoy his time with the Vancouver Canucks in 2013-14 and while he respects Canucks president Trevor Linden, he feels the team is nowhere close to being a contender again.
“They’re in a rebuild and are years away from being a contender,” Kesler said, per the Los Angeles Times’ Helene Elliott. “It was time for me to move on.”
The 29-year-old forward got his wish today when the Anaheim Ducks acquired him from Vancouver in exchange for Nick Bonino, defenseman Luca Sbisa, and Anaheim’s first-round pick (24th overall) in the 2014 draft.
With the Ducks he’ll be the second-line center on a team that has won their division twice and took the Stanley Cup-winning Los Angeles Kings to Game 7 in the second round. In short, a team that’s more poised to win than Vancouver.
“At the end of the day, I want to win a championship and I want to win it now,” Kesler said, according to the Ducks’ Twitter feed.
Kesler had 25 goals and 43 points in 77 games in 2013-14, but the Canucks’ offense was anemic overall during coach John Tortorella’s brief tenure. When he was at his height, Kesler had back-to-back 70-point campaigns in 2009-10 and 2010-11.
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