theo5789 Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 13 minutes ago, Rob_Zepp said: For young players? It is likely one of the top destinations...in fact, given your awesome city and reputation for being one of the best places to live on the entire planet, that only helps add to the fact that as a hockey place for young players, few are better right now. Young players want to go where a team is on the build and has openings. The Canucks have those and in particular on the back end. They also want to go where a team develops its young players - the growth of Virtanen and Boeser over the year would be noticed - particularly with Boeser. Further, seeing an undrafted Dman from their school getting top four minutes with Vancouver in just his second season has to help the cause too. Signing older FAs is harder for a rebuild team as they are looking for playoffs and cup potential whereas for the young ones, they want EXACTLY what Vancouver has to offer. I'm not so sure we are a top destination. We are a bottom team right now and yet there isn't really a lot of open roster spots available. We have a bunch of middling to low end D prospects and these guys would just be another one to that list. Stetcher would be a good example, but Molino would be the other end of the spectrum. Boeser is an elite talent drafted in the first round, so it is unlikely he would be a prime example of a player going through the college route being undrafted and finding success with the club. We have a great city, but it is also one of the most expensive to live in and have high taxes. Plus it is more likely these guys will be in Utica instead unless they impress and force us to move out Hutton (another college player), Pouliot or maybe Del Zotto. Plus needing to surpass whatever depth we have currently coming up in the ranks like Brisebois, McEneny, Chatfield, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 Agreed. Vancouver is attractive for young players. Full of opportunity, due to the current weak d-men group. I trust Benning whose history of signings are great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Zepp Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 1 minute ago, theo5789 said: I'm not so sure we are a top destination. We are a bottom team right now and yet there isn't really a lot of open roster spots available. We have a bunch of middling to low end D prospects and these guys would just be another one to that list. Stetcher would be a good example, but Molino would be the other end of the spectrum. Boeser is an elite talent drafted in the first round, so it is unlikely he would be a prime example of a player going through the college route being undrafted and finding success with the club. We have a great city, but it is also one of the most expensive to live in and have high taxes. Plus it is more likely these guys will be in Utica instead unless they impress and force us to move out Hutton (another college player), Pouliot or maybe Del Zotto. Plus needing to surpass whatever depth we have currently coming up in the ranks like Brisebois, McEneny, Chatfield, etc. You guys have a LOT of rosters spots actually. Your organization is very thin on the back end. There is no NHL team where there are easy openings but yours is as close as any and AHL spots are hard to find too but your club as several of those. Why do you assume these guys would be "low end" prospects? You have Stecher playing top 4 minutes - was he a "low end" prospect? Just because a guy isn't a first round pick or even drafted for that matter doesn't mean he cannot become an NHL player and a good one. Even your team with the Burrows experience should know that. Stecher showing you that too. I brought up Boeser as he was from same uni for these kids and that can be an attraction for them. Your taxes in BC are actually not all that bad. That is a bit of a myth though your NDP government may change all of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ajax- Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 4 hours ago, combover said: BUT do they have any interest in Vancouver. Vancouver not exactly a hot destination for many quality UFAs. I do Hope we can nab a few dmen since the system is a bleak with d depth as it was 4-5 years ago. Well considering these are not quality UFA's but rather college players that went undrafted.... Any NHL team that doesn't have a ton of depth on defense, a good AHL team, and they see an opportunity to crack a lineup, they should be interested and listening to offers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 They’re development camp invites from the sounds of things. Both are solid choices, and I’d say they each trend toward the higher end of our typical invite crop. Keeper also went to LA’s camp last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 Brady Keeper, Right Defence, University of Maine, 6’2″ 194 lbs, Freshman Keeper has put up six goals and 20 points in 35 games in his first year of NCAA hockey. Just a freshman, he could stay in school if the offers are not good enough to knock his socks off. He has also put up 86 penalty minutes. Keeper is very physical in the defensive end of the ice but will need to learn where to draw the line and stay disciplined. He is a two-way defender with the stickhandling and speed to lead and join the rush, and get back defensively. Keeper has a good wrist shot and quick release, as well as powerful slapshot. http://lastwordonhockey.com/2018/03/06/top-2018-college-hockey-free-agents-part-two/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 UND defenseman Colton Poolman continues dominant stretch http://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/hockey/4415757-und-defenseman-colton-poolman-continues-dominant-stretch UND junior defender Christian Wolanin is having one of the best seasons from the blue line in program history. He's the team's leading scorer, and he's one goal away from the school record for goals by a defenseman in a season. Who does he credit for this standout season? Defensive partner Colton Poolman. "He makes my job so much easier," Wolanin said. "Without him, I wouldn't be the player I am this year, for sure." Poolman, a sophomore from East Grand Forks, continues to dominate all over the ice yet seems to remain under the radar. Poolman had two assists Friday as the Fighting Hawks beat Nebraska Omaha 4-0 in the first round of the NCHC playoffs at Ralph Engelstad Arena. "I think perceptually around the nation and league (he's under the radar) but in our locker room he isn't," UND coach Brad Berry said. "He leads by example on the ice and our guys know it. Our guys know he puts his heart on his shoulder every night. He gives up his body. He's been doing that all year. "He has done everything you want as a defenseman. He adds to the offense and he's a great team guy. He encapsulates what you want in a top-end defenseman." That was on display in the first period when Poolman stole the show to get the Fighting Hawks on the scoreboard first. With speed in the neutral zone, Poolman chipped the puck to forward Austin Poganski. Poolman immediately raced to the top of the crease. Poganski dropped a pass for linemate Shane Gersich, who was in the top of the right circle. As Gersich wristed a shot toward the net, Poolman jumped to avoid the shot and his screen was enough to give the Fighting Hawks the early lead. "He's unbelievable," Wolanin said. "I think Colton deserves a lot more credit than he gets." Poolman now has seven goals and 18 assists this season. The 25 points is tied with Nick Jones for third on the team in scoring. Those 25 points also surpass the sophomore season at UND output by his older brother Tucker Poolman. Colton has eight points in last seven games and sits as a team-best plus-12. "I think he's a guy who brings it every day and doesn't take any shortcuts," UND goalie Cam Johnson said. "It shows in his game. He's going to have a great career and play for a long time." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crabcakes Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 2 hours ago, Nail said: Poolman looks like a Minnesota boy. Keep in mind that if he's going back to UND, in order to keep his amateur status, he will have to pay his own way to prospects camp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Heffy Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 I like free prospects, especially defensemen. Even if they don't pan out, strengthening the Comets is helpful to the guys we'll have developing there in the near future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nooks Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 2 hours ago, Nail said: I don't mind UND funneling all their stars to us. Worked out pretty good so far Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theo5789 Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 3 hours ago, Rob_Zepp said: You guys have a LOT of rosters spots actually. Your organization is very thin on the back end. There is no NHL team where there are easy openings but yours is as close as any and AHL spots are hard to find too but your club as several of those. Why do you assume these guys would be "low end" prospects? You have Stecher playing top 4 minutes - was he a "low end" prospect? Just because a guy isn't a first round pick or even drafted for that matter doesn't mean he cannot become an NHL player and a good one. Even your team with the Burrows experience should know that. Stecher showing you that too. I brought up Boeser as he was from same uni for these kids and that can be an attraction for them. Your taxes in BC are actually not all that bad. That is a bit of a myth though your NDP government may change all of that. We are thin on high end talent on defense. Add in a high end dman or two and everyone else bumps down to the minutes that are more suited for them and suddenly the roster spots are very few. There are already 6 signed dmen for next year, plus two RFAs which include Stetcher and Pouliot who are likely to re-sign. Any college signing would more likely start out in Utica, so I guess it'll depend if they are looking for a longer term potential spot or wanting to get into the NHL ASAP. Even with that said, the Canucks have Juolevi, Brisebois, Chatfield, potential draft picks this year, etc coming up the ranks as well to compete with. These guys in this thread are looking more to be along the lines of camp invites rather than signings it seems which lead me to believe they are middling to low end prospects as I suggested previously. If they were more than that, they would have many suitors looking to lock them up. As for Stetcher, he's getting top 4 minutes right now because of injuries and lack of top end guys. On a good team, he's probably at best a bottom pairing guy as much as I enjoy the battle in his game. I know there are good players that can be found anywhere at anytime and it is good that we are looking at the options available, but I'm still not so certain that we are necessarily a top destination for free agents just yet. As for the Boeser connection, we thought the same with Cagguila and he signed elsewhere, so I don't put too much thought into that. Stetcher signed here more because he was a local kid rather than because of Boeser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoneypuckOverlord Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 If Colorado can sign Alex Kerfoot, last summer, we can be a solid choice of desination for any college UFA's looking for a good chance at making the NHL a little more quickly then a team that is pass their rebuilding stage. Poolman might be harder to sign since a lot of Minnesota born players dream of playing for Minnesota Wild. Get her done Benning! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cripplereh Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 yes any free signings are good going forward and will make our team more competitive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 5 hours ago, theo5789 said: These guys in this thread are looking more to be along the lines of camp invites rather than signings it seems which lead me to believe they are middling to low end prospects as I suggested previously. Pretty much every UDFA is a “middling to low end” prospect in a way, otherwise they’d have been drafted. But plenty of these types of guys have gone on to become pretty darn good pros. It’s always a crapshoot, but you have to “be in it to win it” and they’re worth taking on chance on because you get to save a draft pick and often get to shorten the commitment (in terms of contract slots) with a 2 year ELC (for signing age 22-23) and you can often burn the first year off by signing the deal at end of season. These players arrive close to fully developed so you can run them through the system and see what sticks. Cull the ones who don’t show well and repeat the process each year. But the reason these particular two guys are looking like invites (and not FA targets) is mostly because Keeper is a freshman and Poolman a sophomore (who’s already committed to returning for his junior year), so they’re both unlikely to sign this year. But they are both highly rated and will likely have many suitors whenever they decide to go pro. Bringing them into development camp builds a relationship and past signings around the league have shown that many of these players maintain a degree of loyalty to the teams that bring them into camps in previous years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theo5789 Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 5 hours ago, SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME said: Pretty much every UDFA is a “middling to low end” prospect in a way, otherwise they’d have been drafted. But plenty of these types of guys have gone on to become pretty darn good pros. It’s always a crapshoot, but you have to “be in it to win it” and they’re worth taking on chance on because you get to save a draft pick and often get to shorten the commitment (in terms of contract slots) with a 2 year ELC (for signing age 22-23) and you can often burn the first year off by signing the deal at end of season. These players arrive close to fully developed so you can run them through the system and see what sticks. Cull the ones who don’t show well and repeat the process each year. But the reason these particular two guys are looking like invites (and not FA targets) is mostly because Keeper is a freshman and Poolman a sophomore (who’s already committed to returning for his junior year), so they’re both unlikely to sign this year. But they are both highly rated and will likely have many suitors whenever they decide to go pro. Bringing them into development camp builds a relationship and past signings around the league have shown that many of these players maintain a degree of loyalty to the teams that bring them into camps in previous years. I'm not disagreeing with that we should keep our options open and to take a look at these guys. I'm not overlooking these guys because I believe they are middling to low end players, but saying that we have this depth and what the team is really lacking, at least on defense, is high end talent which these guys are unlikely to become aside from one beating the odds. I was more trying to state that we may not really be a top destination for these players and quite often we are interested in players and they choose to sign elsewhere anyway. Not to say that we aren't a good destination and we are maybe in the upper half of the league, but that is a lot of competition. It's great to bring these guys into camp to have a look, but I also don't think the loyalty is there especially since most of these guys pay for their own way to these camps. They're just glad to practice and learn from some NHLers regardless of who invited them for the most part. We signed Molino who went to the Detroit camp and I'm sure there are plenty of other examples as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfstonker Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 On 20/03/2018 at 7:45 PM, combover said: BUT do they have any interest in Vancouver. Vancouver not exactly a hot destination for many quality UFAs. I do Hope we can nab a few dmen since the system is a bleak with d depth as it was 4-5 years ago. Surely that depends on how you look at it. A team struggling and rebuilding is going to get some good draft picks and have more opportunities for getting into the NHL. These players also see how successful Brock has been coming from college. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
combover Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 2 hours ago, alfstonker said: Surely that depends on how you look at it. A team struggling and rebuilding is going to get some good draft picks and have more opportunities for getting into the NHL. These players also see how successful Brock has been coming from college. Well it hasn’t worked in Vancouver’s favour with young ufas so far the appeal of playing over winning most if given the choice seem to pick winning. With Horvat and boeser we are starting to get some guys that other young guys might find it more attractive to play here with but the Nucks are probably pretty low on most lists for young players and I for one don’t blame them. Didnt benning own nephew choose edm over Vancouver....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfstonker Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 9 hours ago, combover said: Well it hasn’t worked in Vancouver’s favour with young ufas so far the appeal of playing over winning most if given the choice seem to pick winning. With Horvat and boeser we are starting to get some guys that other young guys might find it more attractive to play here with but the Nucks are probably pretty low on most lists for young players and I for one don’t blame them. Didnt benning own nephew choose edm over Vancouver....... Well I hate to point out the obvious with Benning. Bad example. Maybe the young forward playing with the Oilers might have been a better one, especially when one of his college team mates and one of his drafted team mates had chosen Vancouver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
combover Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 2 hours ago, alfstonker said: Well I hate to point out the obvious with Benning. Bad example. Maybe the young forward playing with the Oilers might have been a better one, especially when one of his college team mates and one of his drafted team mates had chosen Vancouver Yeah my point exactly, it’s actually a long list that have passed over the Canucks we aren’t the destination of choice. Benning wasn’t a poor choice vancouver had interest in him he didn’t have interest in Vancouver just like cagula. Why would we be turmoil media and a perineal loser. But I’m sure player agents are telling their clients Vancouver is a beautiful city.lol. The opportunity to play isn’t that great either assuming hutton gets traded (which I think he will) that opens up a total of one spot then if Ollie can stick in the nhl that’s gone and if any pending ufas or agents were watching the last 4 summers they most likely know benning has little to no self control come UFA time so unless the dream is to be a utica regular I don’t see us landing to many NCAA d men unless we are the the last resort. The only chance is if a guy is a vancouverite and really wants to play here. the denial by some is almost laughable young ufas don’t want to be part of a rebuild they didnt when Edmonton was mess either. When the Canucks start winning we will have a chance at the better ufas but until then it’s scraps/left overs or nothing. Recent history proves it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentSam Posted March 22, 2018 Share Posted March 22, 2018 On 2018-03-20 at 5:25 PM, SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME said: Brady Keeper, Right Defence, University of Maine, 6’2″ 194 lbs, Freshman Keeper has put up six goals and 20 points in 35 games in his first year of NCAA hockey. Just a freshman, he could stay in school if the offers are not good enough to knock his socks off. He has also put up 86 penalty minutes. Keeper is very physical in the defensive end of the ice but will need to learn where to draw the line and stay disciplined. He is a two-way defender with the stickhandling and speed to lead and join the rush, and get back defensively. Keeper has a good wrist shot and quick release, as well as powerful slapshot. http://lastwordonhockey.com/2018/03/06/top-2018-college-hockey-free-agents-part-two/ “Keeper is very physical in the defensive end of the ice but will need to learn where to draw the line and stay disciplined.” ... I say develop it.. the Canucks are guilty at times of staying disciplined. Great size , good stats, perfect prowess... this kid might prove to make Hutton easily expendable If signed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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