Gawdzukes

Absolutely. Would love Crouse. With all of our wingers and Suter now Pods will need to be exceptional to not be in Abby. I agree though he is who we need to break out.

Yeah, we're still tiny and need better 2 way players. Our small guys are skilled though and pretty hard working. We should be competitive even though we won't win it all.

Definitely agree with most of this. I never thought about Bear fitting in seamlessly. Good point. For those reasons I think it's best just to wait and see where we're at. If we can use him, cool, otherwise no need to force him into the lineup either. Hughes partner hopefully gets found TDL or next summer as you say. As far as being the last piece I think we still need a tougher two way forward group. We're a couple tweaks away there still. I like Aman, but I.I'm not sold on him either. He'll be fighting for a job in camp.

They have Helleson to play on the right. On Line up combinations they have LaCombe playing 2LD.

Who knows when he'll be ready. He'll be out of shape and coming off surgery. Let some other team deal with the unknown of Bear. He's not ideal for Hughes and he's not that good. League minimum as depth but I hope we have a better plan for our 1RD.

Yup, we're still small and lack defensive skill and two way play throughout the forwards but it's better than it was.

I don't think Rath has much of offer at the NHL level unfortunately. Pods is waiver eligible so I think he gets sent down unless he blows the doors off.

"T"ouche

So you're saying we lost a T.

I'd take any of them in a heartbeat. Maybe not as deep but the Vegas top 6 is incredible and Colorado isn't far behind with probably better high end. Those are defenses you win with ... as we have already seen.

73? Seems high considering all the crappy grades we've seen from other defenders. Isn't this guy a complete bum?

I agree he was pretty amazing during that run. Almost Gretzky like in controlling the games. Everything ran through him and he was on the ice constantly. I have a sneaky feeling SJ won't be quite as bad as everyone thinks. We'll see though. It would certainly be good for them to finish at the bottom at least once more and probably twice or thrice.

Right. No doubt. He never lived up to completely unreal expectations but he gave his all to the Canucks and has gone through a horrible illness and recovery suffered while he was a team member. Deserves some respect. Definitely didn't hurt our team except for his absence in his last contract year. His face-offs and PK alone would have made quite the difference that gloomy year.

Yeah, it's not guaranteed to fail but it is very close to it. He had a real good run with zero pressure where we were due to win some games. After that he absolutely tragic. It's a recipe for disaster unfortunately.

Yup, this one I agree with you 100% Martin blows and it will mean we run Demko into the ground. Either he wins the Vezina or far more likely injured again.

Season over before it starts.

Best of luck Brandon. I always liked him.

If he can keep it simple in a good system surrounded by good players he can be a good deterrent and provide some toughness. As soon as he's relied on to be Bobby Orr the plot is lost.

He's been pretty good throughout his career. He still had a record of 27-13 which is pretty damn good for a backup despite the save%. I think he'd be a good target. Somehow he still got the job done in Seattle and helped them to the playoffs. I can pretty much guarantee if we run Spencer Martin or Colin Delia we are done like dinner. I wouldn't want to run Silovs in there either. There is no point blowing his development when we don't even know what the team will look like.

Hirose is LD and Dumba a RD, but I agree it's too much.

They got what they could and probably plan on using that $10 mil by years 3 and 4. They have been sucking for 4 years now finishing 8,7,6,7 in the div after finishing worse than 3rd only once in 15 years. Very impressive. I'am sure they are expecting to be competitive again sooner than later, although I'm not convinced it will happen. I doubt they'll have much trouble attracting free agents when their young players and top draft picks start emerging.

No I really don't think it would hurt the league much at all if a Canadian team won the Cup, or if they did a bit better overall. It would be good for revenue from Canada as well. I personally think there would be a huge following. We love hockey in Canada and fans would be into it huge if we can finally bring it home. It's a fallacy to think that Canadian fans are not put off by losing and just put up all of their free time and money for it regardless. Just like any other fanbase. Only one team wins, their fans will spend money as will all the other teams that do well. It's not like all of America rejoices and hand's over 25% of their wealth every time an American team or Chicago wins. Most of them don't care. as we saw by the viewership numbers. The exact same number of games are played regardless of who wins. That's where they make their money. Sure they might have a few more viewers here and there, as well as some merchandise sales but that's not really provable, or even worth that much on top of their normal numbers. For every top 6 team that doesn't win it also generates money from those fanbases that it normally wouldn't either. Competition is good for fan interest and the overall product. That's an awful lot of people to be involved in a complete fix with no reports at all to the contrary. Why did the Oilers make the semi-final 2 years ago, and the Habs the final a year before then? Why haven't the Rangers won a Cup in 29 years while the Hawks, and Kings, have won 5? I think a lot of the owners and people high up in hockey have the highest regards for the sport and wouldn't condone the type of stuff you're suggesting. Look at our own Canucks. I would argue that the run in 2011 both rejuvenated and created a good portion of fans. Does the league put some teams in primetime, promote certain teams, even hope they win, and not put much effort into making it a more level playing field financially in Canada. Sure that's definitely possible, the level you're suggesting of forcing teams to make bad trades and give up their best players and take back crap, and pay for it. No, not a chance. The biggest reason Canadian teams don't win the cup is their lack of patience and proper building. As @Toews said every time we get one or two decent players the Canadian teams give up and start going for it without rebuilding properly. That is on the owners and GM's they choose, not the league. Just recently Ottawa and now Montreal are the first teams I've seen attempt to build a winner the right way here in Canada since I started following in 1979.

Why, the famous Dr. Crossbar of course. Some of his finest work.

The product regardless of blatant cheating would be wildly successful as is. Its one of the top 4 sports in N.A. despite being #4. I just don't think it's really possible or at all necessary for the league to be fixed. It sounds like you are possibly just coming up with excuses as to why the Canucks don't win. Whatever though. Your point is made. As long as your content watching a sports drama it's all good. I'd find something else if it was me though.