Horvat is a Boss

I guess its better to have some outrageous praise for a 6th rounder rather than not. I remember Zhukenov made an impression on me in one of the prospect games. He played a really responsible, smart game that it sounds like Zlodeyev plays as well.

Jurmo is the inverse of Juolevi.

Not even the arbitrators want to mess with Yzerman.

That article about KHL coaches not utilizing young players who will be leaving for North America in the near future looks more and more believable.

Pretty nice deal. He would have hit 20 goals and 20 assists playing limited minutes in the bottom-6.

Very cheap for this year. He'll have to be re-signed with Pettersson, Hughes and Demko in the summer.

Cheap players in the bottom-6 like Motte, MacEwan and now Hawryluk. Management seems to be learning. Good signing.

This is tough because he's a BC boy and great fit with the team, but his style of play would logically mean some serious regression at some point.

Thinking about another defenseman to add, I think Holl out of Toronto would be a great fit. Cheap 2nd/3rd pairing RHD signed for 3 more years. They may be looking to shed a defenseman after signing Brodie and Bogosian. Acquire Holl for a 4th, move Benn for future considerations and sign Leivo and Fantenberg Hughes - Myers Edler - Schmidt Juolevi - Holl Fantenberg, Rafferty

I slept on it last night and the more I think about it, the more I like this deal. Schmidt is a really good player. He was a #2/#3 defensemen on a contender who instantly upgrades our defense and fills an organizational need at RD (even though he isn't a RHD). He fits well with either Hughes or Edler, but pairing him with Edler would give us a puck mover on each of the top two pairings. He's also reliable enough defensively that he could play with Hughes in offensive situations. For next year at least, who have 4 defensemen who could realistically hit 30+ points, which is pretty exciting. This could be very similar to the Miller trade in terms of the impact it could have on our team. Schmidt will have the expectation of contending given his team's success over the last three years. That should be a positive influence on our young defensemen, especially if he gets to play with one of them like Juolevi. The contract is similar to Miller's in that there is some considerable term left on the deal, which means he'll be locked in with our group for the forseeable future. The main concern I had with this deal initially was the contract. The term left on the deal was considerable and right now we don't have much flexibility to fill out our roster. However, Schmidt isn't a complimentary or depth piece that is being overpaid, he is a quality piece with cost certainty. To me, this means we will likely be shedding the bloated contracts over the next few years (Beagle, Roussel, Myers, etc.) and committing cap space to important players. Schmidt's skating ability mitigates some of the fears of a decline in the back half of the contract too. The only thing that is an unrefutably negative is his injury history. The other thing that clicked for me was the situation that the trade was made under and our offseason as a whole. I realized that management had likely been planning for this or something like this since the beginning. They were always planning on acquiring a quality defensemen on the cheap from a team that gets squeezed out. The Pietrangelo/Vegas rumours have been going on for a while, so Schmidt was likely identified as a potential target before Free Agency opened. That helps to explain why they reportedly barely contacted Tanev and Stetcher; they already had their succession plan in place, it just didn't happen on the first day of Free Agency. And then as soon as Pietrangelo signed and Schmidt was made available, management offered a deal that was good enough for Vegas to close the deal fairly quickly after. This prevents negotiations with other teams and risking losing out on their targeted player. Even then, acquiring a top end defensemen for a 3rd is a gross underpayment. Schmidt would have been worth a 1st + A prospect in a normal trade. This is me filling in the blanks without all the information so I could be way off, but this is the way I interpret it at least. I've grown to really like this deal for us.

Adding Schmidt definitely makes us a better team. I like him as a fit with either Hughes or Edler.

The Canucks are still in a really good spot for Expansion next year. We could even add another defenseman and still be alright. Hughes being ineligible is a major win. Up front it we likely won't lose anyone worth worrying over and in net its obviously Demko. I really hope we can work out a deal to dump Myers to Seattle in Expansion.

I think Benning made this deal quickly to make sure he secured Schmidt. Ideally there would have been either some retention or a pick coming back from Vegas, but I think management made sure they didn't miss out. Even then, a 3rd is a really good price on paper. That's in the same ballpark as a 5th, which was used to get Gudbranson

Not too sure how to feel about this. Schmidt is a good player but I'm not sure how he fits in here; he doesn't fill our need for a defensive RHD. The contract is long too. The price is obviously scraps for a player like this though, but I guess I'm indifferent on this deal.

Now that the 2020 NHL draft has taken place virtually, its time to look ahead to 2021. Here are some early rankings: https://dobberprospects.com/2020/08/12/dobberprospects-preliminary-2021-nhl-draft-rankings/ https://thehockeywriters.com/2021-nhl-draft-rankings-bell-preseason-top-31/ Some interesting names near the top of the draft class: 1) Autu Raty - 6'1, 180 lbs, C 2) Owen Power - 6'5, 205 lbs, LHD 3) Brandt Clarke - 6,1, 180 lbs, RHD 4) Carson Lambos - 6'1, 200 lbs, LHD 5) Luke Hughes - 6'0, 161 lbs, LHD There are some really good defensemen that should be available throughout the draft, which should be good news for the Canucks.