Noseforthenet

Wanted to throw my 2 cents in here. First of all, I don't think OEL even wants to move in the first place. I think the fact that Arizona ownership is looking at no gate for the entire season and they have to ice a team, while being up against the cap scares the living hell out of them. So what does OEL's agent do? He gives 2 places which he'll okay a trade to, but they're not exactly a match trade-wise. Now that is out of the way, let's see *cracks fingers*. OEL is 29 years old and making a cap of 8.25 until he's 37. Okay, the optics look scary, HOWEVER, we should probably look at this as him being a replacement for Edler. Right now, we have 1 more season with Edler on the books. Let's compare some stat lines, shall we? Edler https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=78705 OEL https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=120283 A few jump out at me. One is games played. OEL has not missed more than 8 games in an entire season during his whole career. As a matter of fact, he started 4 seasons after Edler and is only behind him by 150 games. Secondly OEL is only behind Edler by around 37 points in his whole career Third, he has more goals in a shorter career, indicating either one of two things. A) a better shot and/or he was one of the few good players Arizona has had for years. Forth, they take around the same amount of penalties. We might be able to expect the same kind of defending style from him. And Fifth- Just watching the games, can anyone honestly say that Edler's skating even comes close to how capable OEL is on his skates? The reality is Alex Edler is the best, highest scoring and longest standing defenseman the Canucks have ever had and there's an actual chance he can be replaced by someone better. Not only better, but consistently more healthy and under contract until he's 37 and many are balking because of the cap hit. Fact is, it's a high cap hit. However, if there's a way of getting OEL for the right trade, he would be worth it. Not only that, but we're gonna need him. Either that or we take the chance Juolevi pans out. OEL is the sure thing though.

No...fire is orange.

They're probably actually VERY interested in Sutter or Beagle as they don't really have guys like them down the lineup. Maybe even Gaudette to a lesser extent. TBH, I wouldn't wanna trade either of those guys. Sutter is a dressing room glue guy and Beagle is our recent bottom 6 cup experience. Neither of those guys really make me want to spring them for defensive depth. Maybe Roussel?

Honestly, I'd be good with this being a 1 for 1 trade. My issue is the fact that should we trade Stetcher, it leaves us vulnerable on the right side. We all know how Tanev gets hurt. Right now Myers has helped share that load along with Stetcher, but if we slot Barrie in there and he can't handle the hard minutes, it will lead to Tanev and Myers getting those minutes and THAT will lead to injuries. I'm good for upgrading Stetcher by adding a prospect or pick, but I definitely don't wanna be boosting one thing by lessening the other. Our defense isn't THAT deep. We just got these guys to a place where they aren't getting over played!!!

I smell high percentage starts for MDZ and Guddy so they can pump and dump them at the deadline.

Ewwww. I grew up there too. Just more confirmation to never go to Buffalo.

Since the Rangers happen to like Russians, they might ACTUALLY be willing to take Goldy off our hands for him. Only thing is I don't think he's worth Goldy. Goldy is a higher depth possibility. It's a trade down, unless we believe in Lias enough to take the chance.

There isn't an option for: Angry Karen trying to return an item on Boxing Day. I would much rather listen to that than either of those.

Combination of things, I think. Alot of home games close to Christmas. The mind tends to be elsewhere and not on the game. Inability to lock down the leads we have, which could be a personnel issue or a coaching issue. The other thing is the book is out on us by now. The team is struggling to score 5 on 5. Practice and lock down the PK and you have a good chance at beating the Canucks. TBH, I kinda want Mike Babcock in here. We need some better defensive systems and our young players are hungry, teachable, and they want to win. Not sure Travis Green has that at this level.

Damn...JT has been a revelation. He's found a home. He's playing like he belongs here. Great trade, at the moment. We make the playoffs, I would fully say that 1st rounder is worth it. Honestly, gotta say though...the team seems to be missing Sutter. They just started falling off when he got injured. Gaudette is scoring pretty well, but holding leads has been a problem. Makes me wonder how the future of our bottom 6 is truly gonna look.

Not when your coach is this experienced with a $6.5 million a year contract. Plus there's no one better to replace Babcock right now!

I get the feeling this is what Doug Gilmour was ACTUALLY hired for.

They should have reopened the CBA to have out clauses on contracts. The NFL does it. It's beneficial for both sides. These contracts are getting out of hand for sure.

Yeah, you've definitely convinced me too. I still believe there's something here in the works involving either Gaudette or Sutter (and maybe Stetcher to upgrade his position), but the likelihood of it being Nashville is extremely slim. The way you outlined it, I can't see them making any move of ANY sort!

I said upgrade. Whether it's him or someone else entirely is a different story. That's why I say, if there's rumblings about trading Stetcher, it's about upgrading him. Whether or not my idea was too far out of left field or what is irrelevant. The point was made. I'm sticking to that.

Whatever the case, it has gotta be frustrating for the kid. He needs to play. MAYBE it's a salary thing, with Roussel coming back, which might also be the reason Stetcher is coming up in "rumblings". They package him with Baertschi and there's some flexibility, which is why I was thinking about Nashville. You add in Gaudette and you MIGHT be able to get Ryan Ellis. But again, this is purely conjecture. The contract he has is big enough to devalue him enough that it could be of interest.

If we're moving Stetcher, I gotta think it's an upgrade. Not trading down. I'd like to think he's a 4-5 tweener kind of defenseman. I was thinking about this last night. If I HAD to guess, he'd be packaged with Gaudette and maybe some salary if the defenseman they're looking at is being paid more. To me there's no other reason to trade Stetcher at this point.

If that's the case, then why isn't he in Utica, playing top line minutes? I can't honestly believe he's here to keep a seat warm right now and Gaudette earned the spot in the everyday lineup IMO, so why is he bench warming? He was never going to be here to play 4th line minutes because that's not good for his development. It's 3rd line center or back to Utica and that's the position Sutter owns right now. Nashville has always had a good relationship with our team and there is definitely a trade history dating back 10 years or so. Whether they'd have any interest in Sutter is another story, but to just figure nothing is going on at all is definitely false. I'm actually pretty sure Benning said something about it at the end of last season as well, wanting to move a center and keeping Gaudette in the fold because his development was coming along.

I mean it would be like signing a big name free agent forward from the NY Islanders, when you have more important things to deal with and then wonder why you are having cap struggles.

That's a good point. It just made me wonder why he has been sitting out games instead of playing, unless there was something on the back burner for him. My initial thought is Sutter is the one being showcased and that's why he's sitting out, but if a team is sniffing around, I gotta go back to Nashville being an interesting party. Like they may have been more interested than what was let on?

Y'all ever think that maybe Nashville is sniffing around for Gaudette again and is offering up a decently substantial D-man? Maybe Ryan Ellis?

Wow...no on the Marky...yikes. Yeah, nope. He's just hitting his stride. Demko is not ready yet. Still need to stop the puck. We already gave them a great netminder and they screwed him up. Let's not do that again.

That sounds like a final signing before running to the cup, TBH. Any team who thinks they're close will buck up. I can't see NJ doing anything at all this season, so he's as good as gone. If I had to guess a trade with us, it would be Tanner Pearson +

Taking Horvat off the top unit was a mistake. I definitely want Newell Brown to go back to his "Load up the top unit" ways. Add JT Miller to the top unit and have Petey, Boeser, Horvat, Miller, and Hughes on it. Let Gaudette run the second unit. Give him Edler and Tyler Myers to play with on the back end and cycle out his wingers until they find something that works for the 30 seconds or so when they're on the ice. I'd almost put Sutter on that unit too if they're starting out the powerplay and we're needing to hold possession for the 1st unit to come out.

He already had some of that. The way I see it, you can run it 3 scoring and one checking or you can run it 2 scoring and 2 checking. This could be one of those situations where Bo's unit (being a bit heavier) draws some more of the heavier checking duties, while still drawing top 6 duties. Bo, Pearson, and Miller is gonna be a pretty tough line for opponents to deal with this year. So then instead, we'd be looking at a line of Ferland-Gaudette-Virtanen, which could draw some favourable 4th line match ups and put up some points this year. Kind of like when Cody Hodgson did decently in 2012 with his value being pumped up with favourable matchups.