Hunter Shinkaruk got a fair shake, at least in the mind of Jim Benning.
The Vancouver Canucks GM defended his contentious decision to part with the 21-year-old former first-round pick and perhaps the club's top prospect at wing to acquire Markus Granlund from the Calgary Flames in a trade completed Monday.
Related: Canucks deal Hunter Shinkaruk to Flames for Markus Granlund
"I don't think we gave up on Hunter Shinkaruk," Benning said in a conference call. "He's having a good year in the (AHL) for us this year. We worked with him to improve the details in his game. But we just felt that we're getting a good player for him in return.
"This is a move that when we get to where we want to be (competitively) and win on a nightly basis that Markus is the guy that can do that for us."
Benning further explained why Shinkaruk, who ranks seventh in American Hockey League goal scoring this season, had only been called up for one game in his brief tenure with Vancouver.
"When we call players up, it's to fit a role with our group," he said. "I think at the end of the day, we didn't feel he was ready to be a full-time NHL player yet. We thought it was important for him to stay down in Utica and keep developing the parts of the game that he needed to work on.
"Our goal, if we were to have kept him, was for him to be ready to play in the NHL next season."
Benning acknowledged Shinkaruk's penchant for finding the back of the net, but indicated he wasn't convinced that skill would translate to the next level.
Vancouver and its 29th-ranked offense sits nine points out of the final postseason spot in the Pacific Division.
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