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Just under four years later, on Feb. 26, 2012, The Province’s Ed Willes mused that in a season where the Canucks were still contending for the Presidents Trophy, most players’ production was down. “Individually,” he wrote, “the only players exceeding expectations are Cory Schneider and Cody Hodgson.”

A day later, Hodgson was gone. Fifteen months after that, Schneider was gone.

Wrote the Vancouver Sun’s Iain MacIntyre after the Hodgson trade: “The problem with judging this stunning trade is we probably would never have known how good Hodgson could be in Vancouver because he was stuck behind centres Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler and was not going to get the minutes to be a star here.

“What’s unclear is how the Canucks can be stronger today after trading their rookie-of-the-year candidate and second-unit power-play quarterback to the Sabres for someone less developed and who spent half his season in the minors.”

Added The Province’s Tony Gallagher: “Hodgson wasn’t going to be satisfied with a situation where the team felt it needed to have a rugged, checking-type third-line centre as opposed to a finesse centre, which is where he slots in. And Hodgson has always been a star and wants to be a star and that wasn’t going to happen here for at least three years.

“And if you have a player in that situation whose family is involved and is so keen to get going that he’s changed agents three times in four years, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what might have been going on.”

Hodgson went on to score 107 more points in parts of five seasons with the Sabres and Predators.

The reaction to today’s news: