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Signing Bieksa Over Ehrhoff Was A Big Mistake


Lemieux

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No it wasn't. Bieksa's season and his abilities in general get severely overlooked. This season he's got 7 goals, 31 assists and 38 points, good for 12th in the NHL in D scoring. He's a great, smooth skater, he's physical and mean, and he's solid in his own end, despite the fact people want to solely credit Hamhuis for his success in the defensive zone. He has a +16 rating to show for it. He's more of an all around player than Ehrhoff and even has more points than him.

I was upset that we lost Ehrhoff to Buffalo but at the same time I won't deny Bieksa is having a fabulous season. Glad we kept him! I'm actually surprised there isn't more talk about him league wide. There aren't many defensemen that come with the full package that he does, except the obvious ones in the elite tier. The other perk is that he's a home grown late round pick of this organization. For a team that doesn't draft many serviceable NHL players, let alone top players, from the late rounds of the draft, they sure did a good job with Bieksa.

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I agree with you OP, Bieksa is so overrated as a player.

He had "seniority" so the Canucks organization made it a priority to sign him first before Ehrhoff. He's definitely not worth the $4.6M caphit, considering he needs a star stay-at-home defenseman (Mitchell, Hamhuis), to make him look good.

From a pure hockey standpoint, most teams would take Ehrhoff over Bieksa. But since he had roots in Vancouver, Bieksa was given a good offer.

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I agree with you OP, Bieksa is so overrated as a player.

He had "seniority" so the Canucks organization made it a priority to sign him first before Ehrhoff. He's definitely not worth the $4.6M caphit, considering he needs a star stay-at-home defenseman (Mitchell, Hamhuis), to make him look good.

From a pure hockey standpoint, most teams would take Ehrhoff over Bieksa. But since he had roots in Vancouver, Bieksa was given a good offer.

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I agree with you OP, Bieksa is so overrated as a player.

He had "seniority" so the Canucks organization made it a priority to sign him first before Ehrhoff. He's definitely not worth the $4.6M caphit, considering he needs a star stay-at-home defenseman (Mitchell, Hamhuis), to make him look good.

From a pure hockey standpoint, most teams would take Ehrhoff over Bieksa. But since he had roots in Vancouver, Bieksa was given a good offer.

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Bud. You have missed my point completely... my point is that IF the reason why we didn't resign Erhorff was due to his term being too long and too rich. Then to me it is BS since we are a big market club and can afford to give players term on their contract. Worst case we bury him in the minors IF and WHEN his production starts to slip. That bonanza from last year's playoff run more than covers the extra $s we have to spend parking him in the minors. BTW, Anyone wonder what happened to the $50 million revenue from last year's playoffs? With ticket prices as high as they are, Canucks ownership is laughing all the way to the bank with all the extra gravy.

Back to point. At least to me our defense is missing Erhorff more than most people realize or care to admit. Instead of having Hamhuis and Bieska playing a shut down role, we are now relying them for offense. Instead of having Edler playing a more defensive role as Erhorff's partner, again we have him gunning for more offense. Is there any wonder Edler looks so lost out there? Just look at his +/- and how bad he is playing. Did Edler's skill set change over night? Nope. Same tool belt, just different role he is being asked to fill (Erhorff's) and we can all agree it is still work in progress. Right?

As to your retort about having to be under the salary cap. Well let's say I'd rather play $5 million/yr to Erhorff as our No.1 offensive DMan than $4.2 million/yr to Ballard to be a healthy scratch. I am sure that we can find $0.8 million/yr somewhere (ie. Rome or Albert) to make sure that we fit under the cap.

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