Wake With Elias: Anson Carter says race impacted his contract negotiations with Canucks

Canucks News & Notes

• The most attention-grabbing Canucks story you might read this morning comes out after Anson Carter said that race played a role in his contract negotiations with the Canucks after his 33-goal season in 2005-06. [Sportsnet]

That included his time with the Canucks, where Carter was seemingly baffled by the lack of solid contract offer after he was voted the team’s “Most Exciting Player” in 2005-06.

Here’s a transcription of his comments about the incident with the Canucks.

“I told [Carter’s agent Pat Brisson], I love it here, I’m gonna take three times $2 (million) if they want to come to the table with that. He said ‘nope, but we’re working on Danny and Hank’s deal.’ (Brisson was also the agent for the Sedins at the time).

“I said Danny and Hank’s deal, what have they done before? ‘Well they wanna see you do it again, [Brisson said]’ I was like what do you mean do it again? How are you voted the most exciting player by the people in Vancouver and you have to do it again. I said check my stats Bris. I said Bris, I know what’s going on here. He said I know what’s going on too. And I was like okay, I’m done, I’m out of here.

“It was funny because all the people in Vancouver were ripping me for being greedy and they don’t know, they never really offered me a raise there. They said, you know, we’ll give you a slight bump, maybe $100,000 and that’s it, and I was like nope, I’ve got way too much pride for that. And then when Danny and Hank came out in the Tribune article that they said Anson was great for our careers, people are like oh yeah we knew it, we knew it all the time!

“No you didn’t, you’re the same people that were saying I was taking too much credit for what happened with the three of us. We had great chemistry and no one was afraid to admit that and I really believe, if I was a different colour hockey player, and I’m gonna say it, I really believe I would have been looked at a lot differently. I really do.”

So according to Carter, he was offered a contract with a cap hit of $1.1 million for the 2006-07 season. The Sedins meanwhile, signed matching contracts that offseason for three years at $3.575 million/season.

• The Canucks have submitted their list of 11 players to join the team as part of the league’s expanded roster initiative. I wouldn’t say there’s any surprises here. The Canucks went heavier on the defence knowing that they have more forwards available with guys like Micheal Ferland returning to health.

• It’s J.T. Miller elite? Hell yes. [The Athletic]
• Another interesting pieces from that mighty paywall site about the economic impact (or lack thereof) for hub cities that might host games. [The Athletic]

We talked about that briefly on our last roundtable. Again, experts would agree that the economic impact is minimal at best. The biggest gain might be the 1,000 or so employees who pick up extra work because of players and NHL staff flocking to the city.

• Matthew Zator asks the question that’s been debated throughout quarantine, who would you keep, Tanev or Stecher? [The Hockey Writers]

TSN’s Rick Dhaliwal touched on the likelihood of Tanev returning to the Canucks this morning.

• Finally hit publish on Part Two of this fun (or depressing) post I’ve been working on, ranking the most emotional playoff series in Canucks history. [Nucks Misconduct]

I’d love to hear your thoughts on what you make of the rankings, and which playoff match-up (aside from the obvious ones) made you the most emotional as a Canucks fan.

• Lastly, keep Mike Geno and his family in your thoughts this morning.