*Buzzsaw* Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 It's clear this team is no contender, but what is really killing it is the lack of skill at center, especially in the faceoff circle. The Canucks are continually having to dig themselves out of a hole after they lose a faceoff in their own zone... it is killing them, both physically and mentally. The big difference this year? Sutter is out, Henrik can't be out every shift, and there is no Brad Richardson as backup to take the critical draws. Bo Horvat has dropped off in his win percentage so he is no replacement. Cracknell is a decent faceoff man, but nothing special. Every team needs a faceoff specialist, the Canucks don't have one. While I overall like Prust as a player, he is no better, and perhaps a little worse than Richardson as an offensive force, (both have similar points this year) and isn't a real physical presence. The big advantage to Richardson is he is an excellent faceoff man. Benning should have signed Richardson, and done one of two other things for the 4th line, either play Cracknell as a winger on the 4th line, or bring up one of the young big forwards form Utica. Either Grenier, Gaunce or Kenins. Right now, Benning is now over a barrel, every team in the league knows he needs a center ice man, and they are demanding real gold for a trade. Benning should have traded Kassian for a prospect who could develop instead Prust, and used the money to sign Richardson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift-4 Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 I miss Richardson. Solid #4 centre. Cracknell is doing well in that roll. But what we are really missing is higher level centres. Right now we are seeing the value of Sutter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zedlee Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 I liked Richardson a lot last year, but he was an UFA and got a 3 year contract from Arizona. No way JB should have given him that. We have young centres coming and they need ice time. A one year deal would have been great, but BR would not have signed that. Biggest mistake was trading a second round pick for Vey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 How about Richardson was UFA and he chose to leave? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winter Soldier Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 1 minute ago, Zedlee said: I liked Richardson a lot last year, but he was an UFA and got a 3 year contract from Arizona. No way JB should have given him that. We have young centres coming and they need ice time. A one year deal would have been great, but BR would not have signed that. Biggest mistake was trading a second round pick for Vey. This is what you have to do when you have no young players ready to step up and bridge the gap between old core and the new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred65 Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 It wasn't an option. Richardson who I really like was signed by Phx in the summer to a multi year deal ( 3 years at $2.0 ). JB offered a contract to Richardson, but he was unwilling to make it a multi year deal. Prust came in when JB found some one to take Kassian off his hands ( and we all know why ) By the way Jarratt Stoll is on waivers today he's minimum wage, a face off specialist and no one, no one drops the gloves with Stoll...down side he had problesm with drugs in LA ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Monahan Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 I loved Richy, but on a 3 year deal it wouldn't have made sense. I don't blame him at all for taking it when you see guys like Lappy and Goc failing to get contracts and land in Europe. I remember reading Glencross say that he wished he'd never taken a discount in the league, that he maximized every contract to the utmost extent. Richardson was looking out for himself, which you fully expect him to do, and I wish him the best down the road. Awesome team guy, solid bottom 6 center. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Buzzsaw* Posted December 14, 2015 Author Share Posted December 14, 2015 1 minute ago, Fred65 said: It wasn't an option. Richardson who I really like was signed by Phx in the summer to a multi year deal ( 3 years at $2.0 ). JB offered a contract to Richardson, but he was unwilling to make it a multi year deal. Prust came in when JB found some one to take Kassian off his hands ( and we all know why ) Benning still should have signed Richardson at 3 years, he could always unload him at the deadline if the team looked solid at center. By not signing Richardson, Benning was gambling there would be no injuries at center... that gamble lost big time. Kassian could have been traded for another prospect or a late draft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Sestito Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 richardson was my favorite player over the past two years. sucked to see him leave, but it doesn't make sense to give a bottom six forward a 3 year deal at that term when you have other guys who would have essentially pushed him to a fourth line role after this year. from a cap standpoint, it didn't make sense to re-sign richardson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canucks-12 Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Our 4th line has been the 2nd best line for the team. Prust fits in perfectly into the 4th line. It's not even close to the biggest mistake Benning has made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HC20.0 Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 2 minutes ago, *Buzzsaw* said: Benning still should have signed Richardson at 3 years, he could always unload him at the deadline if the team looked solid at center. By not signing Richardson, Benning was gambling there would be no injuries at center... that gamble lost big time. Kassian could have been traded for another prospect or a late draft. Why? Vey and Horvat were locked to be on the team this year at Center. Sedin Sutter(Bonino at the time.) Horvat Vey. And McCann and Cassels in the system looking to take spots. The center positions were locked, and obviously nobody saw McCann taking Vey's spot, but signing Richardson for 3 years would've clogged the Canucks down the middle. 1 year I'd have been fine with, but with a lot of C prospects in our system, 3 would have been WAY too long. Nobody wanted Kassian. Period. He had 0 value. We basically had to give him away to Montreal, so how could we have gotten a prospect or pick back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DooBie604 Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 4 minutes ago, *Buzzsaw* said: Benning still should have signed Richardson at 3 years, he could always unload him at the deadline if the team looked solid at center. By not signing Richardson, Benning was gambling there would be no injuries at center... that gamble lost big time. Kassian could have been traded for another prospect or a late draft. You make it sound way to easy to just trade players and get a value return for them. It's really hard to trade players who still have multiple years left on their contracts unless they are a very hot commodity. Not too mention the reputation you would get for signing players and then trading them. Other players will see this and will not sign here without a no movement clause if they see you are the type of GM who signs to multi-year deals and then trades you off. Hockey players are people, when they sign for multiyear deals they expect to stay for most of that duration. How would you like to think you got a job in a city, settle your life and then the company decides to ship you off a year later? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winter Soldier Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 8 minutes ago, *Buzzsaw* said: Benning still should have signed Richardson at 3 years, he could always unload him at the deadline if the team looked solid at center. By not signing Richardson, Benning was gambling there would be no injuries at center... that gamble lost big time. Kassian could have been traded for another prospect or a late draft. You know Richardson made the choice to leave, right? You can't handcuff a guy to a table and refuse to release him until he agrees to play for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred65 Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 5 minutes ago, *Buzzsaw* said: Benning still should have signed Richardson at 3 years, he could always unload him at the deadline if the team looked solid at center. By not signing Richardson, Benning was gambling there would be no injuries at center... that gamble lost big time. Kassian could have been traded for another prospect or a late draft. Kassian could not be traded for a draft pick....every one new his life style, heck we had to add a 5th round pick just to get Mtl to take him for an older, slower, press box guy. With the move to youth you want to hold out prospects for 3 year for Richardson ....don't buy it...sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeNiro Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 You can't have it both ways. If we want young players transitioned into the lineup, you can't sign vets to multi years deals. It would have just created a log jam where McCann wouldn't have gotten his shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadcanucks Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Hey, check it out...Richie leaves Vancouver and is healthy. Guy couldn't stay healthy while he was a Canuck to save his life. When healthy, he was and is, IMO, the consummate/perfect 4th line centre - a guy who could move up to third if needed. He matched up well against the big centres in the Pac Div, even though he's a middleweight. As Torts described him, he was a whiskey drinking hard player. And he was more skilled than I had thought he was when he was a King. He's missed, and he could have been a good stop gap while Gaunce (who I think should be moved back to centre) and Cassels develop into 3rd/4th liners. I'm surprised that Benning let him walk...he was the Canucks equivalent to Gregory Campbell, a player who Benning seemed to like a lot when he was in Boston (though he didn't like him enough to sign him when Boston didn't re-sign him). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sockeye Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 I disagree completely with this topic. Prust has played fine and had a great start with a couple of points in his first several games. His injury was a major setback. We needed Prust's grit; Dorsett cannot be expected to be the only guy on this team who will drop the gloves and hit. If Sutter hadn't got hurt, this thread wouldn't have even been started. I like what our 4th line is doing. They're doing everything that one should expect from a 4th line (energy, grit and PKers, put up a few points, etc.). Nobody has a crystal ball. Who knew Sutter would be out this long? I always liked Richardson but he was very injury prone. Cracknell has done well as a cheap 4th line centre. However, besides being a good 2 way centreman, Richardson was decent on the faceoffs (as is Sutter). The bottom line, when we signed Sutter, Richardson was redundant - plus we had McCann as our 5th centreman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnews Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 Prust wasn't 'signed' - and he's a winger, whereas Richie is a center. Richie got term the Canucks couldnt' offer him. I absolutely love Richardson, but you couldn't expect him to sign a one year deal. If folks wanted players like Bo, McCann and eventually Gaunce in the lineup, you can't put Richardson in their way at the same time. In addition, hindsighting is easy stuff, but if Sutter isn't injured right now, this isn't a discussion. If folks want young players in the lineup, you need to have the stomach for it when things like this happen. That's the consequence - you leave spots open for your young players, a veteran gets injured, and now your teenagers are called upon to step up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nucker 67 Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 If this was Benning's biggest mistake, then he's doing pretty damn good. Richardson was no faceoff specialist, he was pretty good, when he could stay healthy. Horvat was our leading faceoff guy last year, so the question should be: why can't Horvat win faceoffs this year? I agree that the Canucks are terrible in the faceoff circle, they seem to lose more than win every game, which means giving up puck possession. Maybe our centres need to practice that more. Where's Manny when you need him? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnews Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 2 minutes ago, NUCKER67 said: If this was Benning's biggest mistake, then he's doing pretty damn good. Richardson was no faceoff specialist, he was pretty good, when he could stay healthy. Horvat was our leading faceoff guy last year, so the question should be: why can't Horvat win faceoffs this year? I agree that the Canucks are terrible in the faceoff circle, they seem to lose more than win every game, which means giving up puck possession. Maybe our centres need to practice that more. Where's Manny when you need him? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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