Waive Ballard or Straight Trade For Komisarek?

[LeanBeef]

Give Ballard a right handed Hamhuis and he'll be just as good as Bieksa.

Give Komisarek a Hamhuis and watch it become a one man pairing

[Dogbyte]

Dead horse. Which ironically is about the same use Grabner would have here.

[Pears]

How will that change anything? Unless Ballard magically finds a way to comfortably play right side, he's behind Hamhuis and Edler on the left side no matter who the coach is.

[Smashian Kassian]

How will that change anything? Unless Ballard magically finds a way to comfortably play right side, he's behind Hamhuis and Edler on the left side no matter who the coach is.

[Rypien.4.Ever]

For all you people ragging on Komisarek, sure he may not be a good defenceman but even a world-class defenceman like Phaneuf is looking pretty bad playing on one of if not the worst defensive teams in the league.

To me our defence needs to become bigger, more physical and stronger. Look at all the Cup winning defences over the last few years - sure you need to be big up front, but more importantly you need big bruisers on the back end who punish opposing teams forwards. Ballard is nowhere near that guy, Komisarek is at least a bit closer to what Cup-winning defences are made of.

You look at Boston's defence, they had a great top 4 obviously but even their bottom pairing consisted of a guy like McQuaid - not great defensively but a physical monster who ground down forwards during a series. Now take a look at Los Angeles. Guys like Mitchell and especially Greene pounded forwards all series long. Our bottom pairing right now is Ballard and Tanev, two tiny guys who don't pose a threat to anyone.

For those of you who say Ballard is a great hip-checker, he WAS a good hip checker, but the worst thing is that hip checking does next to nothing in the playoffs. It's a one-hit-wonder that sends a forward flying, but doesn't appear to hurt or grind them down as much as consistently banging their bodies against the boards or down to the ice, which is how Los Angeles and Boston played in the playoffs. You don't tire out forwards by throwing one hip check a game in a 7 game series, you do it by riding them hard into the boards every single shift. That's how our forwards were destroyed against Boston, and that's what L.A did to every single team.

Of all of Komisarek's bad traits, this is one good thing about him that the Canucks desperately need if they want to start thinking about playoff hockey as opposed to regular season success. Komi's game is built for the playoffs, not the regular season, and would fit in perfectly in our bottom-4.

Edler - Garrison

Hamhuis - Bieksa

Komisarek - Tanev

Alberts

His size complements Tanev's lack thereof and just like the past 2 Cup winners have shown us, you don't need a small, fast, mobile defence to win a Cup, you need a strong stay-at-home type with maybe one or two puck movers. Even going back to Chicago, they had Keith and Campbell as their puck movers, the rest were strong stay-at-home guys. Boston had Chara and Kaberle as their offensive defencemen, the rest were all physical shut down guys (Chara included). Look at Los Angeles, Doughty and Voynov were the only real offensive defencemen. Now with Komisarek in the mix, we suddenly have that same magic formula that has worked time and time again. You win Cups with grit and size on the BACK END, not just forwards which is something that has been neglected by the Canucks over the last 3 or 4 years and has been IMO our biggest downfall.

[Mauii]

Ballard is a keeper but his contract is a doozy. It would be nice if you could renegotiate it to a more realistic term if he truly wants to stay a Canuck.

[DeNiro]

No thanks.

If we're going to trade Ballard I would like to see us trade him to Dallas for Morrow.

Then we can acquire a bottom pairing D-man by trading Luongo.

[G-52]

For all you people ragging on Komisarek, sure he may not be a good defenceman but even a world-class defenceman like Phaneuf is looking pretty bad playing on one of if not the worst defensive teams in the league.

To me our defence needs to become bigger, more physical and stronger. Look at all the Cup winning defences over the last few years - sure you need to be big up front, but more importantly you need big bruisers on the back end who punish opposing teams forwards. Ballard is nowhere near that guy, Komisarek is at least a bit closer to what Cup-winning defences are made of.

You look at Boston's defence, they had a great top 4 obviously but even their bottom pairing consisted of a guy like McQuaid - not great defensively but a physical monster who ground down forwards during a series. Now take a look at Los Angeles. Guys like Mitchell and especially Greene pounded forwards all series long. Our bottom pairing right now is Ballard and Tanev, two tiny guys who don't pose a threat to anyone.

For those of you who say Ballard is a great hip-checker, he WAS a good hip checker, but the worst thing is that hip checking does next to nothing in the playoffs. It's a one-hit-wonder that sends a forward flying, but doesn't appear to hurt or grind them down as much as consistently banging their bodies against the boards or down to the ice, which is how Los Angeles and Boston played in the playoffs. You don't tire out forwards by throwing one hip check a game in a 7 game series, you do it by riding them hard into the boards every single shift. That's how our forwards were destroyed against Boston, and that's what L.A did to every single team.

Of all of Komisarek's bad traits, this is one good thing about him that the Canucks desperately need if they want to start thinking about playoff hockey as opposed to regular season success. Komi's game is built for the playoffs, not the regular season, and would fit in perfectly in our bottom-4.

Edler - Garrison

Hamhuis - Bieksa

Komisarek - Tanev

Alberts

His size complements Tanev's lack thereof and just like the past 2 Cup winners have shown us, you don't need a small, fast, mobile defence to win a Cup, you need a strong stay-at-home type with maybe one or two puck movers. Even going back to Chicago, they had Keith and Campbell as their puck movers, the rest were strong stay-at-home guys. Boston had Chara and Kaberle as their offensive defencemen, the rest were all physical shut down guys (Chara included). Look at Los Angeles, Doughty and Voynov were the only real offensive defencemen. Now with Komisarek in the mix, we suddenly have that same magic formula that has worked time and time again. You win Cups with grit and size on the BACK END, not just forwards which is something that has been neglected by the Canucks over the last 3 or 4 years and has been IMO our biggest downfall.

[eretz canucks]

Komisarek-No

[thehamburglar]

I still am a fan of Ballard. I'm giving him this season to come back. And if we miss the season, then he should be done on our contract? Maybe he'll sign for 2 million a year, and that'd be great.

[G-52]

I still am a fan of Ballard. I'm giving him this season to come back. And if we miss the season, then he should be done on our contract? Maybe he'll sign for 2 million a year, and that'd be great.

[oldnews]

What a pleasure to read this page.

Phaneuf is vastly over-rated.

Ballard is better than the noobs think - he has dealt with injuries and has faced a tough set of circumstances in Vancouver, but he has a hell of a lot of tools and he has handled things professionally. Proposing that the Canucks waive him is ridiculous.

Komisarek is a downgrade - a downright bad idea.

The time to stop whining about Grabner has long since passed.

[Kesler's Nose]

Komisarek could definitely make our D tougher, considering that he would be playing on the bottom pairing as Ballard has been doing I don't see why that would be such a bad thing? I'd do it if he was cheaper, but over all Ballard is the better player so there's not much point really... lol

[kmotamed]

I don't really mind Ballard, although I will admit his salary is unjustly high... But if keeping Edler means losing him, so be it. It won't be very fun to watch Edler walk away like Ehrhoff did!

[canucklehead44]

Both Ballard and Komisarek were decent top 4 guys on their previous teams. Ballard still looks like a top 4 guy in the wrong environment, whereas Komisarek has actually slowed down. I would much rather keep with Ballard, as Komisarek is similar to Alberts with a 4x greater cap hit.

If we trade Ballard I think he will be in a package OR it will be for a number 5, 16 minute per night defenseman making a couple million less.

Ian White, Hal Gill, Anton Stralman, Derek Morris, Matt Niskanen, Tom Poti, Jeff Schultz, John Erskine, Mark Stuart, Adam Pardy, Steve Montador, Andy Sutton are a few guys who could be swapped for Ballard. None of them are better but they all carry a smaller cap hit.

[hockeyking]

Grabner and Quiton Howden who looks like a promising prospect. It really sucks to think we could have grabners dynamic speed on this team he just needs to learn how to finish and he could become a similar player to gaborik but obviously not on his level..

[surtur]

let Edler walk if he won't resign for a deal and then move Ballard up with Mr. Garrison.

no need to let him go for a lower talent.

or for free.

as for AV... he picked Rome to play as a forward before Ballard i think Ballard would have been the obvious choice.

[Pouria]

Anyone who thinks Keith Ballard has a future with Canucks organization is living in denial. His future with this team looks bleak. Like Shane O Brien I think Ballard will be on the move either by waiver wire or a trade. Coach AV really has no love for Ballard and Keith has underwhelmed himself as a Canuck.

Do we just waive Ballard and hope another team picks him up or trade him for another project Dman like Komisarek. Who know, maybe a change of scenery for both players might revitalize their careers.

[riffraff]

Both Ballard and Komisarek were decent top 4 guys on their previous teams. Ballard still looks like a top 4 guy in the wrong environment, whereas Komisarek has actually slowed down. I would much rather keep with Ballard, as Komisarek is similar to Alberts with a 4x greater cap hit.

If we trade Ballard I think he will be in a package OR it will be for a number 5, 16 minute per night defenseman making a couple million less.

Ian White, Hal Gill, Anton Stralman, Derek Morris, Matt Niskanen, Tom Poti, Jeff Schultz, John Erskine, Mark Stuart, Adam Pardy, Steve Montador, Andy Sutton are a few guys who could be swapped for Ballard. None of them are better but they all carry a smaller cap hit.

[AnInconvenienceBrah]

Ballard was really good for us last season, might of been our best D man in the playoffs, Ballard starts turning it around and playing good and now we dump him for nothing or take on Komi?