Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Canucks Community

question: do we know why gillis let gragnani walk?


billabong

Recommended Posts

Gragnani was absolutely terrible from what I saw. A minor offensive upside (but nothing that special) with absolutely no ability to stay in position defensively. I can't believe we 'had' to play him in that many games to keep him while it was ruining our defense pairings' chemistry before the playoffs. And it was all for nothing anyways since they let him go. Good riddance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

this is a question that 1040 should ask him on air... Id like an explanation aswell.

My guess is since the Canucks have a maximum # of contracts they can hand out, and theres an offensive project d-man in the system in Connaughton already, that they decided they had something else better in mind... Maybe they thought they had Schultz in the bag aswell...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think MG needs to take a serious look at his scouts.

We sign players who look marginal at best and MG then faces the media and gives us a whole lot of guff fed to him by his scouts and ends up embarrassing himself.............it's getting a bit thin.

MG should re-asigne his scouts to selling homes or real estate where creative description is more appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He should've had a significant breakthrough in Buffalo before he was traded. After 4 complete AHL seasons, he has yet to be called up to be a consistent NHLer. He appears to be an AHL-type guy. Buffalo dumped his RFA contract, then we did.

He might've been good if the NHL had kept it's post-lockout rulebook intact, but they didn't. Prediction: He tries his luck in Carolina, does not get the job he wants, then heads off to Europe to play there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think MG honestly thought Shultz signing here was in the bag.. Even tho Gragani sucks, the guy was here for like 20 games and you go thru all that effort to keep him an RFA only to let him walk. It makes no sense and for a team that's used to carrying 9+ NHL defenseman were a little thin now. Alberts as your #7, i guess Joslin as #8.. i don't exactly feel anyone else is ready at this point in time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe Gragnani was brought in with the team being fully aware of his short-comings on defence.

The guy is a good skater, has decent size and does have a lot of offensive potential. Gillis rolled the dice in hopes of getting a guy who might be able to help them (some) during the playoffs, but mostly with the thought of him being a project who could be developed, likely for the AHL with some time at the NHL level. If they didn't have to play him last season in order to maintain his RFA rights I suspect he might never have been up here for more than a game or two.

He didn't work out as hoped. Perhaps the coaching staff thought he was going to be more work than what the potential reward would be. They tried to move him, received no interest and let him go. Not a huge loss in any way.

What did the Canucks give up to get Gragnani? Answer: Sulzer, a guy who was not playing with the big club, and very likely wasn't going to see much action in the NHL (if any) in his remaining time with the Canucks. I suspect there was a 50/50 chance that Sulzer would have been re-signed by the Canucks this off-season.

Did the Canucks fail in their assessment of Sulzer? Some might say that. Buffalo has so much faith in what Sulzer brings to the table that they signed him to a one year deal at $725,000.

The Canucks kicked the tires on Gragnani and took him for a test drive. They decided they didn't like what they saw. They traded for him a guy who was likely never going to play here, and may well have been released this off-season.

There's nothing here except folks wanting to use a minor move of two players who were going to have a minimal impact on this team.

regards,

G.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...