Noble 6

This is the place that expanded my hockey fandom and I learned about the NHL in ways that poured over into every aspect of my life. This was the place that I learned a lot about how expansive an NHL organization is. As a young kid and casual fan, I just saw the Sedins, Burrows, Kesler, Hansen, Bieksa, Edler, Luongo, etc. on the ice every game and a lot of success that came with that. I was young and thought that we'd have these players forever and we'd be the best team in the league forever. Once that changed after the Torts year and the Benning hire is when I actually became more invested as a fan, trying to find every possible reason why our success had vanished. That led into learning about concepts like player ageing curves and declines in production, prospect development, drafting, cap management, etc. I remember reading every single post in every prospect thread over a summer and loving every second of it after not even knowing what an NHL "prospect" was a month earlier. As I grew up and expanded my mind, one of the biggest areas where I could actually feel that happening was in the hockey world because of all the time I spent on CDC. I went from watching games as a casual fan just hoping for the Canucks to win to following the entire league in detail. It felt like I knew every team's cap situation, roster and prospect pool and every player's cap hit, position, number, handedness, special teams usage, player type, path to the NHL, etc. I could literally feel myself absorbing and applying concepts that I did not have the capacity to years or even months earlier and figuring out how they related and interacted with each other. The entire hockey world and outside world grew exponentially and I grew as a person. My favourite time on here would have to be following the 2018 draft. I followed that entire draft year and developed informed opinions on the entire top half of the first round as we knew the Canucks would be in that range and had a chance to land a good player. That was the year of defensemen with Dahlin, Bouchard, Boqvist, Dobson, Merkley, Smith and Q. Hughes all potentially in the top-10 early on. It was so much fun tracking the development and ups and downs of each prospect, comparing against different leagues, teams, playing styles, usage, skillsets, potentials, etc. and debating with others on here. I remember by January-ish I declared that Hughes was my favourite prospect of the draft. I jumped for joy, screamed and celebrated harder when we drafted him than I have for anything else relating to the Canucks. Even though I didn't actually have any input on what the Canucks did, it was tremendously satisfying to see my vision align with the Canucks' in one important moment. And now that guy is the Captain of our team. The framework that I developed to see the hockey world through is a major part of the framework that I see the world through. This place was the foundation that built that framework.

I agree that Karlsson's defense is terrible and I would even take it further by saying that she entire Shark's system was based around allowing Karlsson as much freedom and opportunity as possible, even at the expense of winning games. With that said, Karlsson's finished with more even strength points than McDavid. I say again, Karlsson, the defenseman for a bottom-5 team in the league scored more even strength points than the guy who had the single best scoring season the NHL has seen in generations. Karlsson was the league leader in even strength scoring for the significant amounts of time this year. He had 6 more even strength points than our 100 point elite franchise center. Quinn Hughes has smashed our franchise defenseman scoring stats year by year and Karlsson had 25 more points than him this year. This is truly earth-shattering production even with the sudden explosion in defenseman point totals this year. This year I think the options for the Norris are less obvious than last year when there was an obvious top-2. I think that if you are not going to give it to Karlsson this year then you might as well just give it to Josi since he deserved it last year.

This is a weird move. Positive value and opens up roster flexibility but its probably a bad look moving a free agent signing half a season later.

If Hronek is a long term partner for Hughes then this trade addresses the single biggest need the Canucks have had for years and he is an invaluable asset. If Hronek is a solid top-4 guy then the trade is still an overall net positive but a bit more questionable. Why make this move at the deadline when prices are high and demand for picks is through the roof? Why couldn't we make a similar move in the offseason? What prevented them from getting Marino last year? I don't want to think about anything else.

Hronek is sneaky good but wow.

Carolina has said they're more aggressive now than they've ever been. Demko maybe possibly getting showcased. His contract fits their window perfectly.

Love this deal for the Lightning.

Highlights from his draft year (2018, same year as Hughes) where he was taken 9th overall.

I absolutely love this deal. Kravtsov is exactly the kind of player that Rutherford was talking about in his press conference when he was talking about acquiring young players from other teams who haven't worked out yet and need another opportunity. I personally would have given up Hoglander for him so for the cost, this is an absolute win in my mind. Back in his draft year he was a bit of a wild card. The talent was evident but his regular season in the KHL was rather pedestrian, but he had an impressive showing in the Playoffs with 6 goals and 11 points in 16 games as a draft eligible. The talent is on display here, even within the first 3 clips. I think Kravtsov has a lot of talent but he hasn't gotten a real opportunity in New York due to their forward depth. His poise, awareness and skill always stuck out to me in the little that I've seen him there. It's evident that the offensive instincts are there for him to be an effective top-6 player in the right situation, and I can't imagine a better situation for him than playing with Pettersson and/or Kuzmenko. I think he still has 50+ point upside and hopefully our suddenly formed Russian mafia and a real opportunity with Pettersson can get him there.

This dream scenario is actually possible now. First, our pick wins the lottery, obviously, and we land Bedard. The Islanders pick is 15th and Michkov falls in the draft due to concerns of him staying in Russia and the geopolitical situation in general. Canucks take him with the Islanders pick. We get three years of Bedard on his ELC followed by 3 years of Michkov on his ELC. That would be incredible.

The 2020 Bubble Playoffs. He didn't score in the first three games against Minnesota and then got his first goal to tie the game with like 5 minutes left in the game before Tanev won it. He then proceeded to torch the defending Cup champions in the next round. The OT winner on the bank pass from Hughes. He was the leading goal scorer in the Playoffs before the Finals despite being eliminated a full round earlier. An incredible run. The bubble year where he scored 2 goals including the OT winner against the Leafs in our first game back after a month due to Covid shutting down our team. That year was terrible but that was a major bright spot, it was essentially our Playoffs. There was one road game against Detroit in 2019-20 where we were down by 2-0 heading into the 3rd and Horvat got his first career hat trick. I remember being impressed with him as a leader in that game.

The most interesting part of this is that it directly goes against the narrative that was created after Rutherford's press conference where he said we'd be targeting players instead of prospects/picks. The fact that they did in fact acquire prospects and picks (Beauvillier is a cap balancer and stop gap with Mikheyev out or even another trade piece) is an indication that what they are trying to do isn't necessarily what they said they were going to try to do. I mentioned it before, but there's no way management would come out and say that they want to rebuild and work with a 5 year plan due to ownership, but they can make moves with that plan in mind. Given that management likely isn't done with Boeser rumours swirling, Schenn as an expiring UFA and Garland/OEL talk, we could see this quickly turn into something closer to a rebuild rather than retool, or probably a combination of both.

Well now its crystal clear

Teams that potentially could be looking for a goalie are LA, EDM, CAR, NJD, PIT, BUF, OTT and TOR. Out of those options the most likely to make a move would probably be LA, NJD, PIT or OTT. I would imagine that NJD are the frontrunner. When the Demko rumours first started I was thinking Demko to OTT for 2023 1st (top-3 protected) + Zaitsev. Their pick is currently top-10 and I doubt they'd want to give it up, but that's the kind of deal I'd be looking for. Maybe a 2024 1st but I'd want more for taking back Zaitsev as well.

Carolina's management has been clear that they are very careful about long term contracts with players well into their 30s. Can't imagine that Miller would be of interest to them. They might be willing to make an exception for Horvat, but probably not Miller. @mll would probably have the quotes. Carolina makes sense for Horvat and/or Boeser though. A Miller trade at this point would be beyond shocking. Maybe the Islanders would do it if Lou can get him for cheap and shed some cap, they are also starved for offense. Maybe Florida if we took back Bobrovsky's full contract. Possibly Pittsburgh in the offseason if they can make enough room. That's not very many teams and I doubt any of them would do it anyways.