bigbadcanucks

Tonight's game was a little hard to take, but serious props to the Canucks players...been a tough tough tough season. Win or lose, I love this team. I'm certain the dark clouds of 2020-21 will lift soon with better days in the very near future. The Canucks have a solid group to build on, with players in the right age cohorts... The "Old Guys": Myers, Schmidt, Hamonic, MIller The "Middle Agers": Horvat, Boeser, Motte, Demko The "Rising Superstars": Pettersson and Hughes The "Next Wave": Podkolzin, Hoglander, Juolevi The "Next Next Wave": Rathbone, Lind, Gadjovich, Dipietro, Woo Pencil is a "highly probables": Tryamkin (edit: just saw in the Tryamkin thread that he's signed with his KHL club). Thank the high heavens that the team will be rid of Eriksson and Virtanen in the very near future, and will have the burden of Luongo's cap recapture done in a year. The boys continue to compete hard...gotta love them for it. The future is bright.

Canucks need to sign Arsenault to an NHL contract as soon as the ED is done. I heard jersey no. 18 is available for next season.

Gonna have to take Law of Goalies off my ignore list for a while. Can't wait to see what sort of rhetoric he writes about Virtanen.

Jaromir is a rock star. Anyone remember Jagr hooking up with an 18 yo when he was 43 yo? Funniest part of that story was the girl trying to extort cash from him with the threat of posting a selfie of the two of them in bed to which Jaromir responded, "Go ahead, I don't care". Gotta love for JJ on two fronts...that he's able to attract 18 yo's, and for telling her to beat it after her blackmail attempt (apologies to all the fairer/better sex on these boards if this sounds even a little chauvanistic...disclosure statement: I am happily married and love my wife more than anyone/anything in this world and would mean no disrespect to her or any other female). https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3245282/Jaromir-Jagr-selfie-Catherine-Moravia-popular-Instagram-meme.html

This is exactly what I do with this guy's^^^^^posts.

I wish I was more like you^^^^^. I grew up a Winnipeg Jets, circa 1970s, fan and as a kid/teenager, thought that David Babych was going to be the second coming of Denis Potvin...Morris Lukowich was going to be the next Mike Bossy...Scott Campbell the next Larry Robinson, Pokey Reddick the next Grant Fuhr, Normand Dupont the next Pierre Larouche...Jim Kyte, Scott Arniel, Brian Mullen, Andrew McBain, Pat Elynuik all stars in the NHL. None of that happened. Only superstar in waiting that panned out was Dale Hawerchuk (and I had moved to Vancouver right after university by the time Teemu Selanne joined the Jets). All others, albeit respectable NHLers, ended up being pretenders. I have high hopes for all young Canuck prospects, but as I have gotten older (much older), I find that I like to be surprised (so thank you - Demko, Boeser, Pettersson, Hughes). Like good ol' Willie used to say, the NHL is a show me league, and until a player is able to do it, he can't (paraphrasing).

Thanks for clarifying...sounded like Shaw was retiring.

Wouldn't it be something if a certain over-aged, over-paid, slow-skating Swede wearing no. 21 chose to retire? Shaw could have played out the rest of his contract on LTIR collecting collecting $2.9M he's contractually owed and saving the 'Hawks $3.9M AAV, but chose to retire.

Apparently what you and I see with our eyes open is much different than what someone else sees. Perhaps our 20/20 vision is flawed in some way. As much as I have wanted to see Virtanen succeed, it's time to get rid of him. The cap space Virtanen takes up is more valuable to the team than the player himself. Time to bite the bullet, admit the past seven years with Virtanen has amounted to a whole pile of nothing.

Andrew Shaw...an honest, hard nosed, hard working, more heart than skill, pain-in-the-ass to play against type player with a motor and mouth that never stopped. The prototypical modern day bottom six player. When the Canucks got Highmore from Chicago, my immediate thought was, "wouldn't it be great if the Canucks got the next Andrew Shaw?". As much as I hated Shaw, he's the type of player I wish the Canucks had more of.

My sentiments exactly.

A big guy who can bang and score would be a welcomed addition to the Canucks down the stretch and into 2021-22. Fingers crossed that he is either protected or if left unprotected Gadjovich is not taken in the Expansion Draft so that we can see him don the #21 jersey sooner than later.

As contrary as this may sound about my statement of being an ardent Virtanen supporter, I would have cut Jake loose both before and after his current contract. After last season, if given the choice, I would have let Jake walk and sign Tofolli than what actually took place. I've wanted to see Jake succeed. On paper, there's no doubt it appears that he has all the tools to be an effective power forward. Unfortunately, the game is played on the ice and Virtanen hasn't shown enough development to warrant a $2.55M cap hit and a $3.4M qualifying offer at the end of next season. When he was signed after last season, I tried to keep an open mind (or more accurately, hoped) about Jake's prospects as a second line RW/replacement for Tofolli. IMO, he's had his shot in this shortened season and he's fallen flat, so as mentioned in my last post, I believe it's time for him to be cut loose. IMO, Virtanen's cap space is more valuable to the team than the player himself, so I would be open to the idea of letting him go for nothing.

Small sample size, but Highmore showing that he's as advertised -- tenacious, hard working, well aware of his role, fast, defensively aware. So far, a much better fit on the bottom six than Gaudette. Based on the Canucks' needs, I would say that this is a win for the Canucks. IMO, Gaudette is the prototypical player who isn't good enough to be a top six and doesn't have the attributes you want in the bottom six. Gaudette = Baertschi. If I'm Gaudette's agent, I would tell him to follow in the steps of Linden Vey in KHL or go play in the Swiss or German League. 10 years of $700K per year (tax free in Switzerland) is a nice income for a marginal professional hockey player (if he stays in North America).

Yeah he was. Gaudette is an RFA at the end of this season.

If comment^^^^^is sarcastic - yah, I agree. If Jake only had better and more offensively gifted linemates to play with, he wouldn't have a big fat donut under the assist column. If comment^^^^^is for real - ahhh no. Plays go to die on Jake Virtanen's stick. I have been an ardent Jake Virtanen supporter, but the time has come to cut him loose. He's sorely lacking on hockey intelligence, creativity, abrasiveness/agitation, puck skills, and takes the momentum-killer crown (in another words, he's a dunce on the ice). He's improved on the hitting and positional play, but he doesn't do nearly enough to be a regular roster player. It's time to move on from Virtanen. Fingers crossed the Kraken take him in the expansion draft.

Love how Greener is slapping around that POS Thomas Drance.

Hamonic, since his return from injury has been really good as well. Hamonic and Schmidt > Tanev and Stecher Myers 2020-21 > Myers 2019-20 Hughes 2020-21< Hughes 2019-20...fully expecting (hoping) Hughes 2021-22 >>>>>> Hughes 2019-20 Edler 2020-21 = Edler 2019-20 Juolevi/Benn 2020-21 = Fantenberg/Benn 2019-20

I would be in favor of giving Jack Rathbone a good look on the first unit PP...there's no shooting threat from the blue line with Hughes right now. Give Rathbone a shot. He can't be any worse than what the Canucks have on the first unit at this time.

Highmore for Gaudette deal looking more and more like a win for the Canucks.

Quinn Hughes...slowly working his way off the $7.0M to $8.0M AAV discussion to the $5.0M level. Doing his best to help with the cap.

There's just zero quickness on the Canucks PP...pathetic display.

If he's not taken in the ED by Seattle, I would buy him out. His cap hit with a buyout is next to nothing ($50K and $500K, next season and the season after). I wouldn't even bother burying him the minors.

Really starting to hate Virtanen...can't wait til he's no longer a Canuck.