[Rumor] Ryan Miller to Vancouver Thread

[funkyfresh]

Exactly.l We need a 'bridge' veteran goaltender for one or two years while Lack matures. We won't last the year with Lack/Markstrom if we're dumb enough to try a kid duo.

I agree but Miller doesn't seem like the type of guy you sign for 2-3 years. Hence, the reluctance from fans.

Miller was on a better team than the Canucks?

The Canucks had a bad season, but they were a much better team on paper.

Those are the 19 regular season games he played for the Blues. The Blues were a better team than the Canucks on paper and in real life.

[oldnews]

So you already know the terms they're discussing?

They're not gonna give the guy a 5 year ridiculous contract, they're not stupid. I bet it's 2 years max, if they do sign him.

I bet there will be fans that hope he fails if we do sign him. That seems to be the nature of Canucks fans. Not enough fans have actually watched him very much from the reaction I'm seeing. It's the "what have you done for me lately" phenomenon that we saw with Lu.

Throwing out his stats from his last 5 years in Buffalo means nothing. Those teams were bottom of the league bad.

Ironic question - which you follow by suggesting you know what the terms will look like.

Ryan MIller at 2 years max...What will the cap hit be then?

The rest of that tangent - about betting "Canucks fans" will want him to fail is out of left field and irrelevent. There is no "nature of Canucks fans". Painting millions of people with a brush like that is nonsense. I could really care less about how certain contingents of Canucks fans felt about Luongo or will about Miller.

I don't think MIller is the best option for the hockey reasons I've already stated. If you don't agree that is fine, but MIller's career is not invisible to the rest of us - it's certainly not something that only DeNiro has glimpsed. The last five years of it are relevent, as was what he did recently in St Louis. Luongo was a great goaltender in 2010, but very few players can make a selling point of what they did 5 years ago.

He could turn out, he could be average. Only time will tell, but he's not the guy I'd be looking to add.

[He-Lord]

Those are the 19 regular season games he played for the Blues. The Blues were a better team than the Canucks on paper and in real life.

Yet we still beat them each time we faced them.

[Tangerines]

I wouldn't mind Miller for 2 years at 4 mill per. Good mentor for Lack. Lack still needs more seasoning in the NHL. He was thrown to the wolves last year and faired pretty well, but we don't want to ruin a natural path in his development. Letting Lack start this year would be a mistake IMO. Having MIller there will give the team and Lack more confidence too.

Looks like Markstrom might be the odd man out. Can't send him doen or we'll lose him off waivers.

Markstom, Tanev, Hansen for Myers. Miller and Myers are fimiliar with how eachother plays from the BUF days. Would be a good trade for BUF too.

[funkyfresh]

Yet we still beat them each time we faced them.

Can't argue with that.

[TimberWolf]

This is stupid if true.

I had a feeling Aquaman would still have a huge influence and under no circumstances would he want to rebuild and risk losing more ticket revenue.

He wants to win more then anything.

If all he cared about was butts in seats then he`d have kept Torts and Gillis till their deals expired. Being willing to pay people to not work and bring in new guys shows he`s committed. Shows he`s willing to lose money if it helps the team win in the end. I also believe if there was no cap he`d have bought this town a cup by now.

Sure he wants sellouts in the end but this team is not his main source of revenue.

[UFCanuck]

The only thing I like about Miller is that he flipped out on Jacobs during the lockout.

Other then that I'd rather have Hiller.

[Provost]

Apparently you can only discuss basic parameters in this window.

Trading for his rights would allow them to put pen to paper before free agency.

Understand that... but even though no promises can be made, one would think there is agreement enough to not have to waste even a low draft pick.

I suppose if you really think you have competition, throwing a 6th round pick to really show him that you want to sign him could be "something". Just don't buy it though.

[GLASSJAW]

Exactly.l We need a 'bridge' veteran goaltender for one or two years while Lack matures. We won't last the year with Lack/Markstrom if we're dumb enough to try a kid duo.

Can somebody actually argue this for me? I do not at all understand why people are referring to Lack as a young goalie who needs a mentor. Again: he will be 27 during the next year. Miller, signed over 2 years, will keep Lack on the bench for a large portion of that time. Are we meant to believe that Lack can learn more from watching Miller than actually playing? Lack cannot be a true starter until he is 28/29 years old? Do people actually believe this?

Rask, Price, Bishop, Varlamov, Halak, Bobrovsky, Quick, Lundqvist, Crawford, Luongo, Lehtonen, and Fleury, who all make up TSN'S top goalie list, were starters years before their 28th birthday.

The only one I left out is Schneider, and that's because Schneider's very easily could have been our starter if Luongo wasn't here.

If Lack isn't good enough to be a starter for us now, he probably won't be good enough to be a starter for us when he's 28.

[Vansicle]

Ummmmmm

No

That is MY opinion.

That is a stated fact about the youth of goaltenders on marquee teams

And that is the truth about our current goaltending depth.

Looking at our Goals Against last year, that was not the issue as we were middle of the pack with Lack who supplanted Luongo and then played something like 19 straight games where our teams goals per game hovered around 1.14.

Goaltending is not our problem. Goal scoring is

Youth is one thing. Comparing Lack and Markstrom to the goalies you listed is farcical.

How many cups between the five guys you listed?

Even they had tutelage. Miller could mentor Lack to greatness.

Seriously. Quick, Howard, Niemi , Crawford and Rask? Could you have tried any harder to cherry pick a better handful of young goalies to illustrate your point? How about a list , now, of all of the worst NHL goal tenders under 26 to offset the list of elites you just trotted out?

For christ sake.

[DeNiro]

Ironic question - which you follow by suggesting you know what the terms will look like.

Ryan MIller at 2 years max...What will the cap hit be then?

Based on what Benning and Linden have both said about youth, I doubt they tie themselves to another vet long term. That's just logic.

They just got rid of two big contracts too, so I doubt they rush into taking on another one.

At Miller's age, it makes perfect sense for him to be on a shorter term deal.

[DeNiro]

I agree but Miller doesn't seem like the type of guy you sign for 2-3 years. Hence, the reluctance from fans.

Those are the 19 regular season games he played for the Blues. The Blues were a better team than the Canucks on paper and in real life.

Why focus on 19 games and ignore his previous body of work?

Goalies go through bad stretches like any player. Using such a small sample for a basis of what kind of player he is isn't a very accurate way to assess him IMO.

[Trebreh]

I don't know why people have a negative reaction to this... we're adding an NHL starter (and a good one) to be Lack's backup or co-starter... As long as its not a 3-4 year deal with NMC/NTC.. im fine with him coming here.

[Plum]

WTF is wrong with you guys!? Why wouldn't you like a quality starter that can get the job done and help Lack develop? Vezina trophy winner, proven goalie with one bad year? Or is his persona that intolerable?

No matter how much we sucked last year and are no retooling/mini rebuilding, I want to watch my team win on a nightly basis and enjoy good hockey. If this improves our team and our chances, I'll take it in a heartbeat.

I guess most of you weren't here when we grinder it out on the absolute bottom in the late 90's and early 2000... Loss after loss. Sometimes 10 losses in a row. Goalies coming and going, each with worse stats than the one before. At least when they left us. Gave us that goalie graveyard reputation. No thank you!

Help Lack develop? I think he had a great season and ready to be a full time NHL starter. He's 26 and entering his prime with the way he is playing. Miller doesn't want to look for a 1 year deal, he wants more for a starting goalie like him but that's stupid to sign him for multi year, he's already 33 turning 34. Again, fans like you are looking into the short term of just wanting to see this team win. No we are not falling into that trap again.

[Absent Canuck]

Canucks signing an overage rental is a big mistake. I hope we dont sign him.

[Plum]

The only thing I like about Miller is that he flipped out on Jacobs during the lockout.

Other then that I'd rather have Hiller.

And his wife

[funkyfresh]

Why focus on 19 games and ignore his previous body of work?

Goalies go through bad stretches like any player. Using such a small sample for a basis of what kind of player he is isn't a very accurate way to assess him IMO.

I just used the 19 games because it shows that even on a great team, which the Canucks are unlikely to be next season, he wasn't very good. He's getting older and he looked so jittery the couple of games I saw him. I don't like his attitude either so there is some personal bias on my part. But again, I don't mind 2-3 years of him as long as it isn't for more than 4.0 mil/yr. I could even live with 4.5 mil/yr.

[DeNiro]

Help Lack develop? I think he had a great season and ready to be a full time NHL starter. He's 26 and entering his prime with the way he is playing. Miller doesn't want to look for a 1 year deal, he wants more for a starting goalie like him but that's stupid to sign him for multi year, he's already 33 turning 34. Again, fans like you are looking into the short term of just wanting to see this team win. No we are not falling into that trap again.

No it's really about the short term and the long term. Having two guys share the crease is not a bad thing.

The best years this team had were with Lu and Schneider sharing the net.

Having a vet like Miller take some of the heat off of Lack can only benefit him at this point. People who think "oh he'll be fine" are ignoring how rabid this fan base is with their goalies. One long stretch of bad games and fans will be turning on him so quickly. Then what? Markstrom is going to come in and save the day?

Lack is not done being mentored yet. You can't expect him to be a starter after one season in the NHL. That's too much, too soon for a guy who's just getting his feet wet. I'm sure Miller can teach him quite a bit and help take his game to the next level.

[Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw]

Can somebody actually argue this for me? I do not at all understand why people are referring to Lack as a young goalie who needs a mentor. Again: he will be 27 during the next year. Miller, signed over 2 years, will keep Lack on the bench for a large portion of that time. Are we meant to believe that Lack can learn more from watching Miller than actually playing? Lack cannot be a true starter until he is 28/29 years old? Do people actually believe this?

Rask, Price, Bishop, Varlamov, Halak, Bobrovsky, Quick, Lundqvist, Crawford, Luongo, Lehtonen, and Fleury, who all make up TSN'S top goalie list, were starters years before their 28th birthday.

The only one I left out is Schneider, and that's because Schneider's very easily could have been our starter if Luongo wasn't here.

If Lack isn't good enough to be a starter for us now, he probably won't be good enough to be a starter for us when he's 28.

I doubt Ryan Miller will be that great as a starting goaltender. He has definitely lost his touch, but Lack SHOULD start as the backup goalie. As of today, he's still probably inferior to Miller, and regardless of Lack's age, he is inexperienced in the NHL. It would be better if he had to fight for his spot (kinda like he did last year) and play his way back into the starting position. If Lack doesn't have what it takes, he'll be a backup.

Backups can turn into heroes when the opportunity arises. Halak took advantage of a struggling Price and led the Habs to a great run. He got hot at the right time. Cam Ward took over for Gerber during their cup run and really took the most out of it. Neither are that great but they elevated themselves from backup to starter during the course of the season.

It's not like age is a defining factor in the NHL, though. Josh Harding got good late. Kiprusoff got really good late. Dwayne Roloson became a starter post-30 and he was excellent. Tim Thomas... is weird in every way, but he was also like Roloson, only he became the league's best in his late 30s. It's all about spending time in the league and slowly working your way into the coveted elite. Lack does not have to be like Rask or Quick or Price and become super-starters before age 25.

I'm also a believer that older goalies and inexperienced goalies feed off each other. Luongo played well and when he was injured, Lack really picked up his game. Once Luongo got traded, Lack played much worse. Miller could come in and put the pressure on Lack (forget this mentor crap), and vice versa.

[viking mama]

LOL reminds me of the Gaborik house shopping in Vancouver rumor..

Millers wife is an actress i believe... could simply be work related for her.. or nothing..

Do not want Miller.

Maybe his wife scored an episode or 2... in "Arrow"?