VIC_CITY

Lol I thought you were a Leafs fan Alf? Well, you got your wish for now. Demko won't be wearing blue and white any time soon.

Sure but how do we fit his $5.4M salary under our cap? Even with Baertschi and Demko's salaries combined we still come up short. Also, Buffalo already has Ullmark, who has quietly had an impressive season. If they add Demko, they're in the same position we were in risking losing Ullmark or Demko to Seattle for nothing. So I don't think Buffalo is shopping for goaltending.

It's 2020, at least 80% of league is "soft". Kapanen is a 2nd line winger, maybe 3rd on a contender. He would easily become our fastest skating forward, an area where we could use improvement. I think he would fit nicely along Bo's wing. He's on pace for a 46 point season playing 15.59 min/game. Bump him up another minute or two and we're talking about a 50+ point player that kills penalties. That's a solid 2nd line winger. You're right, 3rd round picks (or any draft pick for that matter) are a gamble. But sometimes 3rd round picks turn into guys like Tyler Madden and (4th round) Jack Rathbone. So I like our scouting department's chances. Also, we all know Demko has potential. But that's all it is at this point. Kapanen alone has at least the value of an early 2nd round pick. Taking on Baertschi is probably worth a 3rd. Plus TO's 3rd round pick. That's some damn good value IMO. Demko isn't in the same category that Schneider was in when we traded him. We're not going to get a top 10 pick or anything close. Who knows, maybe there's a better package out there, but I think you're downplaying the TO offer a little.

I'd be more than fine with that deal. We would need to do a separate deal for a backup though and that could become difficult with our financial restraints. But that's some serious value for Demko.

Yes and no. Dipietro is at least 2 years away. The longest we can keep Demko for is a couple weeks over 1 year from now before we risk losing him for nothing (when the season ends) or giving up serious assets in a side deal Seattle so we can keep him. So the clock is ticking and history has shown that Benning is better off getting out in front of these things rather than wait to the last moment and deal from a position of weakness.

I'm assuming you don't like the trade because of the assets involved, not because you'd be helping the Leafs. Because that is of no concern to any GM with a brain. Kapanen and a 3rd AND dumping Baertschi...you aren't going to get a better offer than that for Demko.

I'm personally of the belief that Benning will re-sign Markstrom and will trade Demko by next year's deadline, maybe even the draft. I don't think a side deal with Seattle makes sense given what they would likely demand for not drafting Demko. With Anderson going down in TO, they need a goalie more than ever. I know half of this board hates the Leafs but I'd personally rather trade Demko out east than say Edmonton who has needed a #1 goalie since well before Schneider was traded to NJ. So I ask...is now the time to trade Demko? It seems almost inevitable that Markstrom's extension is right around the corner. We would need to add another backup goalie in a separate deal, as TO doesn't have a goalie that would interest us. But Dubas could be desperate and that would be the recipe required to extract as much value in a deal for Demko as possible. Also, what would a realistic trade look like? Remember, Carolina has their 1st round pick for the upcoming draft. TO has a couple young defensemen with potential (Liljegren and Sandin). They've also been rumoured to have Kapanen on the block...

I don't follow a ton of basketball but didn't TO do this with either Gasol or Jeremy Lin? Seems like odd practice to me. If a player has enough value that a championship calibre team wants them, you'd think they would have some sort of value in a trade. Maybe I'm wrong? Maybe the money saved is the value? Edit: Same with Byfuglien. Does he really have zero value? I was surprised to hear about the potential contract termination. We're talking about a sure fire 1st pairing dman when healthy. I guess it depends what shape his ankle is in?

Do we know for a fact that everyone in the Kings dressing room thought he was great? Typically teams don't eat $6M+ to send a player packing when he's a good influence. Like I said, we don't know all of the facts here. But Kovalchuk had a poor performance in LA, he was sent packing and at that point, there wasn't really a ton of motivation to sign him. Like I said, Montreal took a chance and it paid off. But most of the time these situations don't pan out. So I place no blame on JB or Canucks management. I also have no interest in giving up half decent assets for him at the deadline.

No one knows for sure but if you're an NHL GM, it's a pretty big red flag when another team says we'll pay $6M+ for you to stay the hell away from our team. Half of the other GMs can probably just pick up the phone and call Rob Blake and find out exactly what happened. So like I said, we don't really know for sure but that's a big red flag and you can't fault other GMs for staying away. Montreal took a risk and it paid off for them.

Shots fired!

I think both of those things are probably true. He probably didn't fit in in LA and LA was probably justified in cutting bait. But it could also be true that Kovy has been a model player in Montreal. It was clearly his last shot at an NHL gig and he's made the most of it. Plus when you're scoring and things are going well for you, it's easy to be a good team guy. You're playing, you're scoring, contributing to the team, what is there to complain about? But when you're paid big money and things don't go well for you, things can get toxic. Look no further than our own Loui Eriksson and what happened in the summer with his comments about Travis Green. Players can turn it around though and all the credit too them. Loui had another horrible start to the season but still managed to be a good team guy. He's currently being rewarded for that. Same with Kovalchuk. Good for them.

Alf showing restraint! I don't know if I've seen him angry yet...

I think I'm also leaning towards shipping Demko out east (far, far away from Seattle). Kinda like the Scnheider deal but not nearly the same value. Oddly enough, after all these years, it could be Edmonton once again that puts together the best offer. Their need for goaltending hasn't changed one bit since the Schneider deal. But they could be a goalie away from competing, with basically an identical window as us, so no thanks. As far as what a deal would look like. Well, next year we can realistically look at trading Eriksson. His salary will be less than half of his AAV for any acquiring team and Demko + Loui for a pick makes sense. Even if it isn't the pick we want, that $6M in cap space is enormous when you consider guys like Markstrom, JV, Leivo, Tanev, Stetcher, etc are all in line for a raise. Sure we can cut bait with Stetcher and Leivo but that isn't going to be enough. I know this is probably an unpopular perspective but there's just no way Benning doesn't re-sign Markstrom. Probably Tanev too. And Jake. Something's gotta give.

I think we need to take into account the cost of making a side deal with Seattle when determining whether or not we trade Demko before the expansion draft. IMO it will cost as at least a 2nd round pick, likely more given our 2nd round pick will likey be in the 45-55 range. Demko is surely worth more than that. So how much would Seattle realistically need to pass up on Demko? A 2nd and a 3rd? Well what if we could keep those 2 draft picks and add a late 1st rounder or top prospect by trading Demko. A serviceable backup could be signed to a 1-2 year deal and then hopefully DiPietro is ready for back up duty by then. Food for thought.

It's a different animal. I'm not opposed to that many rounds. If rich organizations are willing to invest in that many kids, all the power to them. Even if you don't make it to the bigs, that's still a pretty big feather in your cap to be drafted. I remember my old neighbour in Victoria got drafted as a pitcher by the Yankees when he was younger and I thought that was so cool. He'd probably be 90 now if he's still alive.

No secrets. There used to be more rounds. Maybe 9? I believe Jannik Hansen was a 9th round pick. At some point they reduced it to 7 rounds. Still quite low compared to Major League Baseball, which has 937 rounds each year. Eventually they run out of players and start drafting umpires and mascots.

If Virtanen can keep this up, Gaudette takes another step forward and we can stay somewhat healthy as a team, hollllly that lineup is DEEP. Not to mention what we have in the pipeline. It's a good time to be a Canucks fan.

I never thought I'd see myself advocating for Loui Eriksson, but given that we aren't the most defensively sound team, perhaps we'd be better served keeping Loui in the lineup? If that line can handle defensive duties and keep chipping in at this rate, I don't think there's any need to change it. Especially if it means giving up futures. If I were Benning, I'd hold tight at the deadline. I would probably try to trade Tryamkin's rights for a cheap rental, maybe Will Lockwood if someone valued him. That's about it though, unless they're convinced that either Tryamkin, Rathbone or Rafferty are already better than Stetcher.

100%. A few wanna be Tony Gallaghers on Canucks Twitter thought we should have either signed Nyquist and kept the pick, or traded the pick for Barrie instead (assuming that trade was actually on the table). They're a little quiet these days though. With the exception of Benning's recent interview where he didn't admit he had cap problems. It's like they thought he would come straight out and call for his own resignation or something? I don't know about you guys, but I haven't been on CapFriendly since opening night. I'm not here to throw shade at Benning and I'm not here to give him any fake love. I just wanna see us win a Stanley Cup one day and this is the closest it's felt for a long time. Pettersson and Hughes got me hyped. Brock, Bo, JT and Marky are 4 more pieces. More prospects are on the way. Let's enjoy the ride.

What would he get if he was a free agent on July 1st? $8M for 7 years? JT is a legit part of our core moving forward. It always hurts giving away 1st round picks but damn is he ever worth it. Unreal return on our investment. Don't underrate his contribution off the ice either. He's fit seamlessly into that leadership group and by all accounts has been a great role model, on one of the younger, more impressionable teams in the league. Hell ya! I've been a fan since 94, so I've been through a few of these waves. Damn it feels good on the come up.

I read somewhere that Dale Weise was supposed to be coming back our way but it didn't work out. Can't remember where I read it but I'm sure there was more involved on our end as Weise makes $1M less and is on an expiring deal.

I agree, although we may even be hard pressed getting a pick back even at 50% retained. There's just no market for guys like Baertschi, especially since he isn't on an expiring contract. I would even take back another expiring contract instead of a pick if the pick wasn't an option. Still beats a buy out.

Mrs Alf is a Lesfs fan?! For all the time you spend trashing the Leafs, you went and married a die hard? Saturday nights must be fun

Even Pettersson has done this (god love Petey). You will never stop this. Players who compete never give up on a puck. Doesn't matter if they're near the blue paint or at the top of the D zone, they're going to try and get infront of the shot. I know sometimes down low they end up looking stupid but you know what looks even worse? When they jump out of the way. #Edler4Vezina