Why in the world did we trade Schneider?
(I’m sure Cory Schneider was loved by most Canucks fans out there, and we are all sad to see him go. Although Luongo is not horrible like some complain, I want to know exactly why in the world we traded Schneider to the New Jersey Devils!
Let’s look at this issue from a economics perspective. In econ, the idea of opportunity cost has been consistently drilled into our heads. Although many people would have preferred to keep their beloved Cory in a blue and green jersey, the trade that was made seems to be the financially logical one. Essentially, there were 2 alternatives to the goalie problem in Vancouver, we either trade Luongo or Schneider, because it was far too expensive to keep both high-profile netminders on our bench. Luongo signed a contract with the Canucks in 2009 that ends in 2022 (source). This contract included a no-trade clause, which makes it extremely difficult to trade him. The opportunity cost would be the lost incurred from ending Luongo’s contract as well as Schneider’s salary.
After considering this, it is much easier to understand why Schneider was let loose instead of Luongo. We may not like it, but it makes sense.