BurgerKing

his teammates`numbers were by no means exceptional, I think it`s his potential that excited the canucks, if he was a month younger he would not even have been eligiable for the draft, for the kind of team Benning wants to build he was the right choice, you look at the teams having success, they are full of big tough north americans. Ritchie was an option but he reportedly has disipline issues. If he pans out you are looking at a guy like Kreider or Dustin Brown.

I remember Schroeder being at the prospect camp one year, he did participate in the grind. Is Hutton not able to do the same?

    I would suggest 210lbs, dude is only 6 ft, unless he is super stocky like Torres

agreed.

Not really a team first guy, left on bad terms in MTL and LA

I would take him for 5 mil a season, if matt carle can get 5.5, Hoff is atleast worth that, he is what we need, puck moving D. A lot of teams will be interested. It will also be a mess to figure out who you move to pick him up, Linden said Edler isn't going anywhere, you can't afford to lose Hamhuis, those are your 2 best lefties. You gotta keep Bieksa and Tanev, great right d men, it is ideal to have lefties paired with righties. Although Ehrhoff did play the right side with Edler here, and did okay. I would trade tanev for an forward with upside and sign Ehrhoff, and then hope Corrado developes sooner. Ehrhoff had the most success here, he might be inclined to come back.

He played with the injury for around half the season, you would think his numbers would be even better had he been healthy

Is it a given he is back with the Hitmen next year?

Any history with Melanson?

You can put this under the glass-half-full category. For people that have him pegged as a 3rd line center already, in the year following their draft Horvat had 1.37 ppg, Ryan Johansen had 1.46 ppg. 0.09 is a very nominal difference also Horvat was dealing with an injury during the season.

So what does this mean for van's plans for the coming season? Was it to open a spot for the young players coming up or clearing room to add salary in a trade or UFA signing? Or do they not want a guy who is a little too aloof on the roster moving forward? Need more guys who are about wins and losses. He was an odd dude, but by all accounts his work ethic was never in question.

Agreed, his first season here he was on 20+ goal pace, 16 goals in 56 games. Then the injuries started. I think he will bounce back, it takes time to recover from the type of injury he had.

you're giving Sutter too much credit

so are 23 other teams, what's your point?

Benning said we are going to try to make the playoffs and at the same time get younger. Getting younger means replacing older players with younger ones; that's a rebuild

I still put a premium on size and toughness, it's what appears to win out more often in the playoffs, if you are convinced Virtanen or Ritchie can play top six, take one of them.

So if AV was our coach we would be in the cup final? Really? Here's a news flash, if NYR was in the western conference they would be a wildcard playoff team and would not make it past the second rd.

Can we make the arguement that giving up two goal leads in two consecutive games is partly on the coach? NYR is a good team but they have had help along the way this playoffs, Pit imploded to a certain extent, MTL lost their MVP goalie, now NYR is seeing the type of competition canucks have had to deal in rd 1 of the playoffs the last few years.

But we are rebuilding, we are a few years away from being a contender, so makes sense to give younger guys with upside an opportunity over older guys, provided they earn it of course. Makes little sense to potentially lose him on waivers, Grabner is a perfect example.

I liked Gillis' strategy on not drafting dmen in the first 2 or 3 rounds, only one he did draft was Sauve. They have reasonalbe depth at the position regardless of this, Tanev, Corrado, Hutton, and maybe Cedarholm. I hope they contiue with this, so many dmen draft in the first are busts or marginal NHL player. Ofcourse you take one if there is a can't miss guy out there like Doughty.

One of the newspaper guys were on team 1040 with don and barry, he said linden is a big edler supporter, he was impressed with edler when they were teammates so expect him to go no where. I don't understand why some people on CDC have such a big problem giving this a guy a chance to rebound .

Ritchie's numbers are very similar to Jeff Carter's in his draft year, both were the best player on teams with not too many NHL level prospects.

None of those guys are as good offensively as Edler. Even after a horrific year he was tied for most goals by a d on this team, despite playing 19 less games than Garrison. It makes no sense to trade him now, his stock is likely at an all-time low. Not everyone is born with the right mindset to be successful on their own, if he requires a bit more attention to be a great player it's not a big deal. There are only a handful of guys in the NHL who are that big, fast and offensively gifted; that's why he gets 5 mil a year and that's why you give him every opportunity to turn it around.

Keep him on the roster, play him bottom 6 minutes in situations where he can prove himself. There's always injuries or players struggling during a season, spot him in where you can, way too soon to give up on this guy. Give him every reasonalbe opportunity, we are a team thats looking to get younger anyways. Also how he performs against other young players in training camp will tell us where he stands with respect to his developement, He should be amoung the top 2 or 3 atleast.

Virtanen, if he reaches his potential the guy will be a beauty. Worstcase scenerio you have a solid 3rd liner. Wouldn't mind Ritchie provided his fitness improves and his lack of fitness isn't a reflection of his character/commitment, but this can fight along with having some very good offensive skills.