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Nicklas Jensen Needs To Play Next Year


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Enough babbling about needing more offence then suggesting we trade for it all. This kid has some unreal skills in his arsenal and deserves a chance at the top 6 next year. It's time to start actually letting our rookies play if they're capable. Teams like Boston, Philadelphia, etc.. They all do it. It's Vancouver's time to do it. I want to see him given the chance.

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As Kack has pointed out, there is a difference in the quality of the prospect. Jensen will likely become a very good player, once he has earned his time. You note that the Canucks rookies should get a chance to play 'if they're capable". Jensen will get that chance in training camp, just like every other player.

Why do all of these amazing prospects *deserve* more ice time? Why can't they earn more ice time, like the rest of the team? One of the ways that a player earns more ice time is to be defensively sound (at least, more often than not). All of the guys listed are not good in the defensive zone. Even Hodgson, who is the best of the lot still has many instances where he is stripped of the puck, knocked off the puck and so on resulting in opposition scoring chances.

Yeah, the Canucks could have all of those guys on one line, and they'd each score a goal every game... and their defensive play would result in at least as many being scored against. They are all soft players and I believe the team is better off without them.

And Raymond showed that potential by scoring 25 goals in '09 - 10. While he has not been able to re-capture that scoring touch these last two years, his defensive play has remained pretty good. True, as a top-6 winger he now leaves much to be desired (lack of scoring) but I would still keep him over Grabner or Shirokov.

Fun fact: Grabner got 20g but was a -18 this year while Raymond (in an injury recovery year), had 10 goals and was a +4.

I'm sure those 20 goals which Grabner got were really spectacular.

Certainly the 4th line is an energy line, but they also have to be sound checkers. If a prospect shows he can fill that role, to check and crash and bang, then indeed why not let him play on the 4th line. However, if we're talking about Jensen then I'd think his development would be better served playing more minutes in the AHL than 5 minutes or less at the NHL level.

What coach wouldn't dress the players who he feels give the team the best chance to win on any given night?

If you believe that the Canucks should give ice time to prospects then why shouldn't they sit the entire starting roster and play the guys from the farm team? For a MONTH? You'll get a chance to see them for ten or so games, and since nobody cares about the President's Trophy, or the personal stats of the starters then all will good, right?

Of course, you might want to remember this past season's pre-season games which featured a team pretty much made out of prospects, try-outs and few of the first team guys who don't normally play all that much. It was only pre-season, but how happy were the majority of the fanbase while watching that hockey?

As to demoralizing events in a young player's life, can you imagine this scenario: "Sorry Hodgson, I know you have tried hard your whole life and accomplished a lot already, but there's this other guy (eg. Grabner/Shirokov) whose training camp sucked, and we are taking that bum who hasn't even tried hard in this camp over you."

You'd be okay with this, right?

regards,

G.

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Enough babbling about needing more offence then suggesting we trade for it all. This kid has some unreal skills in his arsenal and deserves a chance at the top 6 next year. It's time to start actually letting our rookies play if they're capable. Teams like Boston, Philadelphia, etc.. They all do it. It's Vancouver's time to do it. I want to see him given the chance.

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Under Alain Vigneault it's not likely he ever gets that chance. Case in point? Shirokov, Grabner, Hodgson, etc. They all deserved more ice time than they got (although with Hodgson it's understandable to a degree).

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I hate how AV only dresses players that will win him the game that night. No room for rookies in his system. If that doesn't change then we don't have to worry about getting good draft picks since they will all want out anyways. I also dislike how they pick people who have the best training camp and completely disregard everything else they have done up to that point. I can't imagine something more demoralizing to a young players confidence. "Sorry kid, you have tried hard your whole life and accomplished a lot already, but since this one training camp sucked, we are taking that other bum who has sucked 90% of the year but tried hard this one time."

In this instance, I could see why Gary Roberts would have liked to call MG a moron.

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Agreed! Schroeder has paid his dues and is ready for an opportunnity. Kassian may need a year in the AHL for conditioning and Jensen needs to play against men first as Schroeder has been doing; he was drafted higher than Jensen. Get over the height issue and play him with two solid vets and who knows.

I'd see great balance in scoring, size and grit if next yeat they decided it was the cup or bust and iced a lineup similar to something like this if Kassian and Schroeder are ready and the team goal is the cup.

Sedin Sedin Kassian( big guy with hands)

Booth Kesler Higgins

Hansen Schroeder Burrows (shut down line with goal scorers)

Duco Lappierre Bitz

If no trades were made. Burrows on the third seems like a stretch but if it meant a cup he might do it. Afterall the third line could now shutdown and score with the two vets brigging along Schroeder.

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