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[Trade] Cody Hodgson to Buffalo


Guest AriGold

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Well considering how much crap I got from effectively everyone in the past year for calling that Hodgson was not in the long-term plans of the Canucks and was most certainly going to be traded in the near future... I feel fully vindicated in being a jerk right back at ya...

I TOLD YOU SO!!!!

It had nothing to do with his potential, and everything to do with the fact that we have two of the best centres in the league ahead of him. There was almost no chance of him remaining a Canuck based on this simple fact. He did not complement our existing core.

Good luck to him in a place where he will get top 6 ice time, that would never have happened here in his position aside from injury fill-in time.

If both he and Kassian manage to fulfill their entire potential, we just traded away Giroux for Lucic. I can live with that, but we won't know how this trade pans out for years still.

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I've seen Kassian play for BUF. He hits like a Mac truck, but what impressed and wowwed me more was his hands. Dude can stickhandle and shoot. This guy has toughness AND talent. That said, the big concern I have with him are the reports that he isn't committed, at times. Hopefully, that's just immaturity, and with the direction he'll get from the Canucks' staff, it won't be a long-term

problem.

As for Hodgson, AV is adamant that his forwards think and commit to defense on every shift. If they miss -- or worse, can't manage -- defensive assignments, they get benched, as Hodgson was, often in third periods of close games. Could he have improved this part of his game? Of course. Cody's a highly imtelligent player. But I'm just conjecturing that AV and MG didn't have the patience to give it one or two years to find out.

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All I've heard from Buffalo fans is that he is the worst dman in the league. They're obviously exaggerating but they were relieved to get rid of the guy. We'll see how he'll do on a new team but haven't heard a single positive thing from them about him yet.

That's cool. Who cares what the Buffalo fans think? If the reality of situations where what fans think than Cory Schneider would've been traded in '07 and Bieksa would be waiver wire fodder.

Remember all the SJ fans were stoked to get rid of 'Error' who turned out to be a 50 pointer here, all the Panthers fans were so happy to clear Booth's contract - now the guy is on pace for 54 points over his last 35 games.

MAG has struggled this year, but so has EVERY player on that team. Even Derek Roy who has been good for quite a few years in a row.

The fact is MAG does make mistakes defensively, he's a rookie & and offensive one at that. On top of those facts, he's paired with Ehrhoff who is already suspect defensively. Now he's going to get a chance to play with the 1st place team in the league, who despite what 'fans' might think play a pretty tight game and he's probably going to get a chance to play with a right-handed stay at home defenseman in Tanev who is always poised and rarely makes a giant blunder.

He's on pace to put up about 20 assists (once again on a bad team) and he had a PPG in the playoff last year as well as being named the AHL defenseman of the year. I like his chances of turning it back around.

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Well considering how much crap I got from effectively everyone in the past year for calling that Hodgson was not in the long-term plans of the Canucks and was most certainly going to be traded in the near future... I feel fully vindicated in being a jerk right back at ya...

I TOLD YOU SO!!!!

It had nothing to do with his potential, and everything to do with the fact that we have two of the best centres in the league ahead of him. There was almost no chance of him remaining a Canuck based on this simple fact. He did not complement our existing core.

Good luck to him in a place where he will get top 6 ice time, that would never have happened here in his position aside from injury fill-in time.

If both he and Kassian manage to fulfill their entire potential, we just traded away Giroux for Lucic. I can live with that, but we won't know how this trade pans out for years still.

:picard: . Malkin, Stamkos and Giroux are 3x better than Hank and Kesler.

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:picard: . Malkin, Stamkos and Giroux are 3x better than Hank and Kesler.

I disagree with that assessment for a start.. I don't recall Giroux getting 300+ points in each of the last few seasons.

Plus, the likelihood of either Hodgson or Kassian reaching those levels is still VERY MUCH in doubt. There is a ton of risk and it is altogether possible that they are never better than 2nd liners.

The real point is, considering our current roster... if I was given the choice of adding a Giroux or Lucic, I would pick the latter. They are players that are almost impossible to compare because of how different their styles are.

You pick one or the other for your team based on how they complement our existing core.

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This team was big and tough enough. Last year we had Samuelsson and Raymond as our 2nd line wingers. This season we have Booth and Higgins. Both of them are big powerforwards so I believe we would have been big enough.

Now we lose the only skill we actually had on our bottom-6 and replace it with more toughness and grit.

Its simple really - all the last few cup winners have had big top-6 forwards, giant defenceman and skilled bottom-6 forwards who can score goals in the Cup Finals when their top lines are getting checked. Thats why this trade angers me so much - we finally had something we hadn't had almost in franchise history - a few 20-goal scorers on our 3rd line - the common theme of Cup winners, and MG trades it away. It wasn't a luxury, it was a necessity and now its gone.

I'm banking on Nashville to win the Cup now, or even San Jose after the depth they added up front. 20 goal scorers on the 3rd line end up being cup winners. Mark my words. The only way we win a Cup now is if Hansen, Raymond or Kassian explode in the playoffs ala Marchand/Bolland or we somehow get a historic performance by Kesler, the Sedins or Luongo.

Last year we only had three 20-goal scorers TOTAL...yet, we seemed to do OK.

Boston had four.

We didn't lose to them because of our 3rd liners. We lost our top defenseman and our #2 RW to injury, and our #2 D and top two centers were all playing through some serious injuries. Then we lost another defenseman to suspension.

Our only healthy center was Lapierre. Guess who was our leading scorer for the series?

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When? He is not at all ready to play that role in this year's playoffs. Period...End of story.

Staal was a shutdown centerman when they won the Cup. Hodgson is not currently that player.

Get a clue and come back with an accurate comparison.

I was talking more about his potential rather than right now. People think he NEEDS to be in the top or second line to flourish if he were to stay here long-term. If you want to talk about this year then no, he's not ready to make the impact Staal did playing 3rd line but I don't see how Kassian is ready to be more of a difference maker than Hodgson with his experiences in last years playoffs and proving he's capable of scoring at the NHL level this season.

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I'm still not convinced that Hodgson was ever going to be a top-line center on a good team. Maybe a very good #2, with a leadership bonus.

On our team, with our top-2 centers, who both have leadership roles...moving him for what you need is almost too obvious.

Myself, I like the trade. NEVER saw it coming, though.

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Cody Hodgson was an unfortunate casualty of the times. The forward lines are overflowing with numbers, but devoid of toughness. Today, they traded for grit, size and skill all in one player, or at least that is what we are told. Is Kassian going to be the ultimate answer? Who knows, time will tell.

Question is, did we just trade away the future? Given the minimal amount of time Hodgson was on the ice, it's amazing he reached the level of scoring he did. And, on a team that more often than not finds difficulty in scoring, you have to ask yourself, why him? Why not any multitude of so called hot shots on this team who are just not converting chances?

It is what it is. What is done is done. Hope Kassian works out.

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I was talking more about his potential rather than right now. People think he NEEDS to be in the top or second line to flourish if he were to stay here long-term. If you want to talk about this year then no, he's not ready to make the impact Staal did playing 3rd line but I don't see how Kassian is ready to be more of a difference maker than Hodgson with his experiences in last years playoffs and proving he's capable of scoring at the NHL level this season.

Hodgson was missing one key element of an effective third line center "GRIT", especially on cup teams.

STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS - POST LOCKOUT

2006 - Matt Cullen (Carolina Hurricanes)

2007 - Samuel Pahlsson (Anaheim Ducks)

2008 - Chris Draper (Detroit Red Wings)

2009 - Jordan Staal (Pittsburgh Penguins

2010 Dave Bolland (Chicago Blackhawks)

2011 - Chris Kelly (Boston Bruins)

Key Ingredient is they all have sandpaper and strength. Hodgson is clearly not ready to play that role, and we can't wait around to see if he will ever fill that role. We only have a small window so we get Pahlsson.

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We were fleeced, goodbye cup ! :sadno::picard: Is'nt this the same kid we just spent the last three years babying and molding into a top calder finalist, just to kick his @ss out of town ? What if they don't meet a big tough bruising team in the playoffs and instead go against a pure highly skilled and talent team ? Man their mortgaging the future for this year ?

Well then I guess we become the "big tough bruising team".

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUsBzog2T4U&feature=related

The one thing i'd like to point out in these videos is Kassian's speed (albeit in the Buf-Nash game he beats a pinching dman...more of a mistake). He beats/tracks down two dmen, whose team's think of them as potential top-4 quality Puck-moving fast dmen (Gardiner is apparently one of the reasons Burke wouldn't trade for Nash...or so the media says; and Josi is highly regarded, so much so he's moved ahead of Ryan Ellis on the Nash depth chart). This is the speed, grit, skill-player we need. I am optimistic that with the canucks penchant for getting the most out of its players, dealing with "troubled" personalities, and recent ability to find potential and develop it properly, Kassian will be a gem very soon. Like the rest of canuck nation I will sorely miss CoHo and the intangibles and skills he displayed this season, but MG has filled a need that he (and many) feels the Canucks were desperate for. Let's hope this one pans out.

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