knucklehead91

But what does hard work look like? A guy still standing at the end of practice, or a guy that cant stand?

He may not beat out Rathbone and thats a completely fair statement. But if Rathbone doesnt require waivers and Juolevi does, would it not be better asset management to send Rathbone down and keep Juolevi up? And say if injury occurs, Rathbone can come up. Why risk losing a prospect for nothing, when the kid has hardly had a fair shake. Also Idk if Juolevi is brittle or just had some bad luck, sorta like Salo. Just because a guy gets injured lots doesnt mean hes brittle, he just plays a really hard f***ing game. Personally I’d like to see Juolevi get caught up to game shape after all hes gone through the past couple years and then see where hes at before I make my own personal assessment

I think there will be a team out there willing to take a free flyer on a guy. Hes a former 5th overall, he’s young, he showed some decent potential in a short amount of time. Carries a low cap hit, its a low risk waiver guy. If he doesnt pan out, he gets put back on waivers. The reason I could see him getting claimed is despite some injuries and the length of time he has spent rehabilitating etc, he’s shown some potential in a small sample size and is still a relatively unknown. Someone could take a chance and give him an opportunity and he could very well flourish with a couple healthy seasons. I’d rather gamble on the unknown than gamble on a guy who is clearly waiver bound because he is not NHL quality. Low risk high reward. Wouldnt you think? I get thats how you feel and thats your honest view/opinion and i respect that. But I think we need to consider his past history of knee surgeries and back surgeries at a young age, the kid has hardly gone a mile in the league and has gone through more repairs than a Ford. His slow turns could still be part of a long road to back/knee recovery. Those are some serious area’s to rehab and get back up to the professional level. That being said, that could be a deterrent for claiming him on waivers, but at the same time he’s basically being put in a box at the side of the road with a free sign. Who wouldnt take a look and see if they have use?

True dat. My bad, but hopefully this will shut him up

You left your give a f*** in my inbox lol. Why do YOU lie about this not givin a f*** statement and then sending me a private message? Trying to be tough mr. man? Have some decency and spew your venom on the page for everyone to see how pathetic you are

Its not attitude or lack of learning hindering his development. He has had some real bad luck with injuries. Also… kid looks kinda weak? Ummm ya think??? He had COVID and was hit the hardest by it. Its no wonder he looks weak. The kid lost a bunch of weight and could still be dealing with lingering effects.

COVID, knee surgeries, back surgeries… all before the age of 25. Im not going to read too much into training camp, especially this early into it. This kid has probably spent more time rehabbing and recovering from injuries/surgeries/illness than he has actually preparing for an NHL camp. I think fans need to just back off a bit on their worries this early into camp when the kid has gone through a lot the past few years. He just needs a good stretch of good health

I just thought it was a little ridiculous to say a guy looks completely lost out there in 4:55 of ice time… thats a little quick to jump to an assumption. Maybe the guy has been sitting around a bit? Hasnt seen much game action the past 2 years. Sat on the taxi squad for a bit. Played 19 games in the A last season and 38 the season prior? Dont you think you’re being a little overly critical of a guy who hasnt played a full game let alone a period worth of shifts? The comment about the instigator penalty in a game when we are already out of playoffs? Seriously dude? Like really?? You dont give a kid any credit for stepping up and dropping the mitts in his debut, some fan you are bud.

Out of place in his 4:55TOI? And his 17 mins in pims for dropping the gloves? Just a little critical of the kid dont ya think?

100% It’s his body and his future that he is gambling on. Its his choice, If he’s more comfortable with the other form of surgery, well then if sh*t goes wrong its his own choice and regret. It wouldnt be on the organization. So idk why the organization would want to wear the blame if their guidance leads to a career killing surgery and one that sounds like it is longer recovery and far more invasive? When I saw fusion, right away I’m thinkin hell f***in no. Fusing means less motion…Hows Eichel gunna keep his head on a swivel, use his vision if he doesnt have full range of motion? why not let Eichel go with this other option and if it doesnt work out, perhaps they can still go down the route of fusion. Whereas if they fuse sh*t together, can it be alternatively redone? Like thats not just a gamble on his career, thats a life long choice.

You’re my f***ing hero

Can everyone just take a deep breath and relax a little on OJ and OEL?? Its the beginning of training camp, some guys need a few skates to get back into the rhythm. A few other things to consider about OEL and OJ Juolevi - has not played a full season or close to one since Junior. Those Junior days were probably far less intense, many moons ago and nowhere near as demanding as at the NHL level. To add to that note, Juolevi has had knee and back injuries that required surgery the last few years. He was also one of the hardest hit by COVID and lost weight due to the virus. He has hardly had an opportunity to be healthy and free of rehabilitation to train and prepare for any pro camps. OJ could still be battling some lingering respiratory issues and may very well need a bit more time to get the lungs back to normal, thats if there are no serious long term effects. Without proper oxygen intake, OJ’s body isnt going to be able to handle the demand. OEL - Had knee surgery a year ago. Perhaps he isn’t trying to push himself too hard and suffer any potential set backs early in camp. Let him get his legs under him, focus on proper stride/technique to help reinforce muscle memory. Repetition. Focus on stride and build that into a natural process to avoid re-injury/strain. Lets just let training camp get the guys back into shape and worry about the game time performance.

I believe OJ was hit the hardest by COVID. Wasnt there an interview or something saying how OJ was one of the guys who had it the worst? Maybe hes still dealing with some lingering effects? That and he hasnt played a ton of hockey the past few years… the kid hasnt even really had a chance to get fully conditioned in 3-4 years. All I hope is that he’s able to stay healthy and get a full season of hockey under his belt, be it in the minors or with the big club.

And right there you have it. Perhaps he is focusing more on proper stride instead of speed? Rehabbing through repetition, reducing chance of re-injury. It is just the beginning of training camp… no need to go all out and potentially have a set back.

I seem to remember a couple of calls because Myers was the bigger guy too… He did take a couple bad ones tough, but also got nailed for being big. Its kinda BS when Chara is able to excercise his size and take some “bad penalties” but everyone praises him for being big and nasty, Myers tries and gets crucified by the reffs AND the fans.

This is my personal view on these teams LAK is still a couple years away, not to mention Kopitar and Doughty’s careers are winding down. They have a ton of youth, but like all young teams, they need some experience. I give them a couple years and they are going to be a good team NJD have a fair amount of young talent. Once again though, they need some time to marinate OTT is pretty damn close to being a seriously competitive team. Goaltending is where they are a bit weak, for now. CHI could be a pretty good team, but how is Toews going to be when he comes back? How is Fleury going to follow up that unreal season on a weaker Chicago team? He had a great run in VGK, but they were a contending team. Hes not on a contender anymore and there are some holes/weak spots on his new team. MTL - No weber, they upgraded on Kotkaniemi with Dvorak, Drouin is back this season, they’ll have Caufield, But I really feel like last season was their one shot at a cup, until they can find a Carey Price replacement at 1/2 the cap hit, they are going to struggle. I just dont really do not see them making the playoffs in a divisional spot, but maybe sneak into a wildcard spot, the east still has quite a few beasts. NYR - I’ll agree that they are a good lookin, up and coming team. I just feel like we are a little ahead of them. CGY - that team got another year older and up until today, they havent done much to get better. They remind me of the 2013-14 Canucks, stale and they stink. Idk what it is, but whenever Calgary is on TV i feel like puking watching them play, they are just blehhhh. PHI - they’ve got quite a few guys 29+ and they are core guys…. Sure they have some decent young guys, but the bigger pieces on that team are older and going to be big holes to fill. MIN - those buyouts are going to cause some migraines for the next 5 years…

I was actually moreso going at another fan, i just threw in the Jack Hughes comment at the end. Also being his brother, you think he would be privy to what the Quinn Hughes and the team went through with COVID. Calling us one of the worst teams is incorrect, we were a better team than where we finished and we finished ahead of 7 teams while we battled COVID, no star player, the handsdown worst scheduling for an entire season (thanks to the timing of COVID hitting us) and we still only missed the playoffs by 9 points. Thats pretty impressive considering all that we went through.

100% this team is going to be exciting to watch. I feel confident about the roster we have and that we can be a playoff team and make some noise. Our window is just opening and I think with just a little bit more experience playing at the NHL level to go with all the talent, heart and perseverance this club has… we are going to be headed for a great run. If you look at some of the usual contenders, they are pretty old… we are closing in on the careers of Ovechkin, Backstrom, Malkin, Crosby, Bergeron, we are only a handful of years away from seeing some of the most dominant players the last 15 years, call it a career. While teams like Boston, Washington, Pittsburgh are all past their best before dates and are heading towards an inevitable retool/rebuild, Vancouver is on the ascension. Teams like Vegas, Nashville, Dallas, St. Louis, New York Islanders, Winnipeg are all kinda hitting that plateau and are going to start regressing… They have a few young guys on those teams, but they have quite a few 28+ guys. I feel like Vancouver is on the climb at the right time and if teams like Toronto and Edmonton cant build a team around 2-3 players taking up 10+mil, their window to win will be very short and they may very well see a big start moved out of town to help afford building an actual team and not a one or two man show. Its all about timing… and I feel like this is good timing for us. I think Colorado, Florida and Carolina are going to be challenging teams as our window really begins, luckily for us our window is opening later than those teams. Our peak will be shortly after those top teams plateau… there will be some other teams on our heels, but they will have to go through some growing pains and get some experience under their belts just like we are starting to do. I think we can all agree that Vancouver is better than SJS LAK ANA ARI DET BUF - on paper they should be much better CBJ NJD OTT - Gunna be a sick team in a couple years CHI MTL NYR CGY PHI MIN - I feel like last year was a fluke for them getting into the playoffs based on the division they were in. Kaprizov is sick, but I feel they aren’t quite there yet. Teams who are heading down the hill BOS WSH PIT Teams whos window is closing in the next couple years TBL VGK DAL NSH WPG STL NYI Teams whos window is open but not convincing TOR EDM These 2 teams are relying far too much on star power and not a team game. As we saw with McDavid in the WPG series, they played the living crap out of him in that 4th and final game and he could hardly skate in the overtimes, he was played a ridiculous amount. As for TO they have failed every year to win the big games and its been due to depth. Teams whos window is open and will be for a few years COL FLA CAR TBD SEA Vancouvers window has just begun to open. Thats my take and how i see the future and the way I personally view the way its trending in the league and I think we are going to hit our peak at the right time.

I dont care as much about Jack’s comments as I do comments from our own fan base. I said F U to Jack, I am more disgusted with “fans”for saying this team was one of the worst teams. To follow this team and call them the worst team in the league and completely dismiss what this team went through, as a team is downright ignorant. The boys went through absolute hell and I will not stand for anyone bashing this team as a fan after what they went through. They finished low, but they were a lot better than what the standings if it wasnt for COVID.

Well maybe you should have at least read the last paragraph. It was the most important one. Unlucky season =/= bad team You are merely going off standings. They are not and were not the worst team. They had the hardest obstacles to overcome, unlike any other team in the NHL. I think you are getting your lingo mixed up. Calling a team the worst team is saying they flat out sucked at hockey which is not the case.

First off we were a winning team the prior season and we were not a laughing stock of the league. Thats Buffalol and Toronto. Buffalo has been in a perpetual rebuild. Toronto finds ways to choke harder than Riley Reid each time the post season comes around. Tanner Pearson and Poolman are on pretty cheap deals. Would you rather pay more for a declining Toffoli? He is turning 30 within the next year and is on that inevitable downward slope. And instead of Poolman, how about we keep Tanev and pay for a guy whos had a lot of mileage and a tonnnnn of injuries… those injuries are gunna catch up with him. Or hey, I know, lets just throw some young Abby guys into the lineup and hope to not derail their development. Its worked for Edmonton the past 15 years, why cant it work for us? See the thing with cheap, is you get what you pay for. Cheap young guys for cheap results and a continual learning process as each game goes on. Pay a little extra, put an NHLer in there and let the AHLer develop and graduate to the NHL. Less growing pains at the NHL level, let the learning happen at an understandable pace. Dont force it. You’ll end up with countless Yakupovs. Look at Lafrienierre, J. Hughes, Kakko, Patrick… guys thrown into the NHL when they werent ready, its still early, but those early years of learning are important to a players success as an NHLer, they might take a few years to figure it out and go from being the guy expected to score goals, to grinding it out in the bottom 6 and ultimately failing in that role because they arent that type of player, they are a skill player not a grinder, but the team cant wait forever for a player to figure it out, they gotta try something else. Also if Benning was clueless with the cap, why would he let Tanev, Markstrom, Toffoli, Stetcher all go? Wouldnt he cluelessly re-sign Toffoli in a flat cap and then let Pearson walk the following season? He’d pay more for Toffoli and have less room? Or resign Tanev and not even consider Poolman for half the value? Or use a buyout on Holtby and find Halak as a cheaper option? Benning is working his way around the flat cap and getting decent to good value for the players he is bringing in and the cap hit they come at. You blame a GM for a flat cap that no one saw coming. Had the cap risen, we would have ZERO cap concerns and despite these “cap concerns” hes put together a pretty damn fun looking team along with enough cap space to get his 2 big RFAs inked. If he really f***ed it up, we would have to pull a rabbit out of our arse to sign BOTH. Also, isnt EVERY UFA overpaid? You pay more because they ARE UFAs…. They can sign anywhere they want and take the best deal available. Not to mention even if its a fair deal today, in a few years they are no longer playing to the same level of the contract. They do slow down, they do age and they do decline, but their contract doesnt until its off the books.

Worst division went to the finals lol? What does that say about the conference? If you want to describe the Canucks as one of the worst teams in the league based on last season, you can just head on over to the Maple Leafs forums and hangout with those guys. What do you base your analysis off of? What makes Vancouver one of the worst teams? Please tell me more than just the overall standings, because if all you have to point at is the standings, you arent much of a fan or a follower of the team and you are more of a bandwagoner. ‘The team is winning, they are good, I better hop on!! Hmm…. The team is kinda struggling, this team sucks’ The standings did not and do not tell the whole story of how the season went. Its a lazy and lame ass way to label a team based on where they finished. Dallas - SCF in 2019-20…. Dallas - Late start to the season due to COVID - somewhat tough scheduling, No Seguin… No playoffs. Vancouver - 2nd round Game 7 2019-20 Vancouver - harshest scheduling in the entire league (not a conspiracy, just how COVID effected the scheudule) - COVID, No Pettersson… No playoffs. 2 teams with 3 things in common and its the same result. No other team had the same hurdles. Injuries and tough scheduling at some point in the season are hurdles all teams go through. COVID is not a hurdle all teams go through or went through Vancouver is not and was not a garbage team, they had an extremely difficult season. Get that through your head and recognize the difference between a garbage team and a horrendously unlucky season.

Yea Vancouver finished low in the standings… but do you really believe thats how “good” our team is? We missed playoffs by 9 points with all the hurdles and crap we had to go through, which I am aware every team has hurdles such as injuries and scheduling… but COVID??? No one else, other than Dallas had a similar situation to our season and Dallas also missed the playoffs after being in the SCF. Vancouver was better than where they finished, it wasn’t a fluke we went 36-27-3 the season prior and we EARNED a playoff berth by winning a play-in round and then beat the defending champs in 6 games and took VGK to 7. Sure we were outmatched by VGK, but we had a great run and it was a ton of fun to watch and that is more the type of team we are, fun and exciting. Not an absolute disaster, which is what this season turned out to be after a rough start (most games played in the first 30 days) didnt have a practice until after our 13th game, new players trying to learn a new system on the fly, rather than repitition and then we get hit with the the loss of our best player for the season, decimated by COVID and then thrown back to the wolves after being sick and still not fully recovered. The team was getting on a roll prior to COVID and after returning from COVID we looked brutally slow and were a step behind until the end of the season. It pisses me off when people crap on the Canucks for last season when they went through absolute hell with COVID and people just look at the standings and say they sucked without taking into consideration what happened that season and how many more hurdles we had come our way that we kept having to maneuver by. It was too much for a team to combine the harshest scheduling, plus the loss of a star player as well as other injuries and then to top it off, have a virus run rampant through the dressing room and wipe the team out and then be forced back into action when they werent ready and JT Miller stood up and said f*** that and the league only took it into consideration slightly and extended it a couple more days. I refuse to believe or accept this team was as good as where they finished. They were a better team and now with Garland, Dickinson, OEL and Podkolzin, we are an even better team. So ya f*** anyone who said the canucks were a crap team and f*** Jack Hughes