Hurricanes trade Bear, Pederson to Canucks for 5th-round pick

The Carolina Hurricanes have traded defenseman Ethan Bear and forward Lane Pederson to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a 2023 fifth-round pick, the team announced Friday.

The Canes are also retaining $400,000 of Bear's $2.2-million cap hit, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

Bear had fallen out of favor in Carolina, as he'd been a healthy scratch in every game this season. He played the fewest minutes of his career - 16:05 per contest - in his lone campaign with the Canes last year, and the club even granted him permission to speak with other teams as a restricted free agent. Carolina acquired Bear from Edmonton in July 2021 in exchange for winger Warren Foegele.

Bear, 25, spent the first three seasons of his career with the Oilers after the club drafted him in the fifth round in 2015. He played a significant role for the team in 2019-20, skating in all 71 games and averaging 21:58 per contest - the third-most among Oilers defensemen.

The 5-foot-11, 197-pound defender excels at moving the puck but has been prone to defensive mistakes at times. He's posted fairly average underlying numbers over the last three seasons.

For his career, he's tallied 13 goals and 34 assists in 190 games.

Bear will be an RFA at the end of the 2022-23 season and can become an unrestricted free agent in 2024.

The Regina, Saskatchewan, product will immediately fill a need for Vancouver as a right-handed defenseman. The right side of the Canucks' blue line currently consists of Tyler Myers, Luke Schenn, and Kyle Burroughs.

This marks the second trade in as many days for the Canucks, who acquired forward Jack Studnicka from the Boston Bruins on Thursday.

Pederson, meanwhile, has tallied one goal and four assists in 44 career NHL games split between the Arizona Coyotes and San Jose Sharks. The 25-year-old was acquired by Carolina as part of the Brent Burns trade this past summer.