BigTramFan

This is possible, but moving Miller to 3C will weaken our Top 6. If you have a third line of Baer-Miller-Virt then you are relying on either Goldy or Loui to play in our top 6, e.g. Ferland Pettersson Boeser Pearson Horvat Goldobin/LE I am am not in favour of that! I would rather just keep a third line of Baer-Sutter-Virt and maintain a strong top 6 that includes Miller. The OP was aimed at revamping our third line without weakening our top 6.

Firstly there are no cap concerns with the OP. I think you missed the bit where Baer is traded. In summary...Add Perreault + Brassard + 4th. Take away Sutter + Baer. Cap wise = + 4.125 + 3.5 - 4.375 - 3.367 = -0.117m So we clear a little cap. Regarding your comment about promoting youth, I would like to see that too but the only youth we have ready to step in now and center the third line is Gaudette. He’s not exactly a playmaker. And based on last year he has a long way to go to be a difference maker at the NHL level. I would prefer to have him playing top minutes in the AHL for at least one more season. This is just my opinion. I can see your POV if you think we should just play Gaud as Canucks 3C and let him develop.

Thanks for the critique all. Its not that Perreault and Brassard would be major upgrades - and nor would you expect them to be since we trade the existing players for one of them and sign an as yet unsigned UFA at similar salary for the other. But my OP was more about thinking how we can turn our 3rd line into a more offense orientated line. As I said above, it’s more likely to be a healthier third line for a start! Moving Miller to 3C is one idea, but unless you double shift him as suggested above, then the move just weakens our top 6 - which we should NOT do at this stage. Perhaps my thinking is too early, maybe we just need to bed in the new look top 6 and only once we are happy with it then we look to improve the third line. Or maybe Baer-Sutter-Virt will surprise me! Cheers

Huh?

I am happy with the moves JB has made, but been missing hockey and just been thinking about options for the Nucks... My guess is that our third line will be Baer-Sutter-Virt. Having both Sutter and Beagle effectively means that VAN has two shut down lines. Even with some creative wingers on his flanks Sutter is where the play goes to die. I think we need to start transitioning to 3 legit scoring lines. That starts with moving Sutter for a driver of play. How about these trades and signings to get there? To WPG: Sutter To VAN: Perreault WPG need a third line center quite badly, one that is defensively strong and can take tough matchups. Sutter is a good fit. They move Perreault’s contract ($4.125m AAV) to fit Sutters $4.375m. Both contracts finish in 2 more years. With Sutter gone, I feel that Gaudette is not yet ready to center the third line and needs time to develop his game. Miller is an option as 3C but I want him in our top 6. So let’s sign UFA Derick Brassard to a one year deal. Give us time to see if Gaudette can improve and take the 3C next season. If he can’t then we get the opportunity to see how Brassard works in our system. If neither works out then we have bought some time to either bolster our top 6 with Podz/Hogs and move Miller to 3C, or sign a UFA such as Charlie Coyle. 2019 UFA signing: Brassard, $3.5m for 1 year Brassard is looking for a one year deal to prove that he is still legit and show he can be a 50pt+ player. His camp is likely looking for $4m+, but with his recent dip in form 3.5 should get it done. No team will pay him $4m until he proves he still has it. It’s a fair deal for both sides. Other landing options for Brassard may include the Oilers, so pretty sure he’d rather come to VAN! With Perreault on the roster we have an excess of LW depth. IMO this makes Baer the odd one out, and with the signing of Brassard we will need to clear Baer’s salary to be cap compliant. To OTT: Baertschi To VAN: 2020 4th round pick Forward lineup becomes: Ferland Pettersson Boeser Pearson Horvat Miller Perreault Brassard Virtanen Roussel Beagle Motte (Leivo) I think that third line looks much more offense oriented. If nothing else it’s likely to be healthier too! I don’t think JB will do this, but what do you think?

NY Rangers still got some work to do in order to resign Lemieux and Deangelo. With only $3m in cap space.

Baertschi Pettersson Ferland Miller Horvat Boeser Pearson Sutter Virtanen Leivo Beagle Motte (Goldobin) Edler Myers Hughes Tanev Benn Stecher (Fantenberg) Markstrom (Demko)

My guess at our D in 2021-22: Hughes Myers Tryamkin Barrie Juolevi Stecher Rathbone Woo If this was the group, I would pair the smaller offensive guys with the bigger bodied Dmen. Hughes or Barrie might be considered our #1D. But rather than being top heavy, this is a balanced group. I think there is enough size and starch in this group. Especially factoring our larger group of forwards. Team-wide pushback! My guess is that our F group is probably going to get younger (more ELCs) to afford Pettersson’s pay rise. Something like: Miller Pettersson Boeser Hoglander Horvat Virtanen Ferland Gaudette Podkolzin Roussel Beagle Motte Leivo

Head to head. Who is the biggest deterrent? Miller or Ferland?.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-bAXZCGaVI

Sure but that won’t pay for Lemieux and Deangelo surely? Unless they have the same agent as Labanc!

Wow, this would make their blue line incredibly young and quite short on both experience and depth for a supposed contender. I wonder if they had a plan to replace Brodie via another trade? And perhaps that ship has sailed..

Going to be interesting to see what Rangers do now. They only have $1m in cap space. Need to resign Lemieux and Deangelo. Can they trade Namestnikov to clear some space?

Expendable, plus Calgary in a bit of a cap crunch... I posted this in the Rittick thread a few days ago... “If they waive Dube and Gillies their cap space reaches $6.198m They probably buy out Stone and save themselves another $2.333m Total space would become $8.531m Mangiapane may sign for about $1m This leaves $7.5m for Tkachuk. This will only give them 13 F, 7 D, 2 G on the roster.  All quite do-able. Definitely going to be a problem if they have injuries tho” Would $7.5m be a bridge deal for Tkachuk? Or will they sign him long term for that kind of amount?

Well the option of trading Baer to NJD is probably off the table now that they have landed Gusev. Any team want Schaller?!...

Yep I had spotted COL as the most likely landing spot for Tanev too. I'm not too sure they would give the 2020 3rd for 1 year of Tanev, let alone adding the 2021 2nd tho! Probably more realistic is the 2020 4th on its own? I would also love to create more cap space by trading Baer. He's a good player but seems like the odd one out, as I don't believe he will be in our top 6 and isn't really bottom 6 material. We might miss him on the PP. But I think NJD could use a 2LW to play alongside Hischier or Hughes. Baer has 2 years left on his contract but his concussion problems may be an issue. I would agree to a NJD 2020 3rd if he plays 65 or more games, NJD 2020 5th if he plays 45-64 games, NJD 2020 7th if he plays less than 45 games.

I’m not your pal. My friends aren’t dbags. IMO Petey and Baer are the best playmakers in the team. I would put Horvat on PP1 because you need to win the draw. Petey has poor face off %. I think Horvats 7 PP goals last season were pretty acceptable but the main guys that should be scoring on PP1 are Petey and Brock. Ferland played a total of 1 minute 39 seconds of PK last year. But yeah good idea to put him on the PK.

Assuming LE is in Utica... While Roussel is on LTIR I would like to see Virtanen on the PK. He needs to hone his skills for that sort of role moving forward IMO. I can see him grabbing about 4-6 short handed goals per season in that kind of role in the future. Also would like to see Stech used in a special teams role too. Likely PK, as I see Hughes, Myers, Edler on the PP. PK1: Motte Beagle Benn Tanev PK2: Virtanen Sutter Edler Stecher PP1: Boeser Horvat Pettersson Baer Edler PP2: Ferland Miller Pearson Hughes Myers

Cap friendly shows $4.67m space with 12 F, 8 D, 3 G. If they waive Dube and Gillies their cap space reaches $6.198m They probably buy out Stone and save themselves another $2.333m Total space would become $8.531m Mangiapane may sign for about $1m This leaves $7.5m for Tkachuk. This will only give them 13 F, 7 D, 2 G on the roster. All quite do-able. Definitely going to be a problem if they have injuries tho

Kevin Labanc (same points total as Boeser last season, 56pts) signed a $1m deal...makes $4.5m seem reasonable!!!

I’m not really arguing what Gardiner is worth to some other team. My belief is that TO THE CANUCKS he is worth $4.5m. This is due to our situation. I would sign him for 4 years at that value, no more. He may be interested in the longer term. We cannot afford more than that as we have to keep room for Hughes and Pettersson. This is a potential opportunity to get a player for less per year by offering term, similar to how we signed Ferland. If Gardiner is not on board at that value, then I would walk away. We cannot afford to pay another UFA Dman $6m+ IMO. You can argue that we CAN afford him with our cap, but I mean moving forward in the next few years, I don’t think we can be paying him any more. Second pairing guys need to be at the $4-4.5m level. Bottom pairing at the $2m level. If we don’t keep a lid on what we are paying role players, then we will never win the Cup. And regarding your “passable” vs “good” comment. I believe a second pairing guy at the $4m level should be good enough to step up to the top pairing in case of injury. You can’t pay a player top pairing money just so he can step up in case of injury. Additionally, if we can sign Boeser to $6.5m then I would suggest that we could clear enough cap space for Gardiner (at $4.5m) just by trading Baer and Schaller. Tanev could stay with the Canucks until the TDL, then a decision could be made as to whether to trade him or keep Tanev for a playoff run. Canucks D could be something like: Edler Myers Gardiner Tanev Hughes Benn Fantenberg Stecher

If he’s a second pairing Dman then he should be worth about $4.5m per year. I would sign him for 4 years at $4.5m. But as many have said, if he was willing to take that he would already be signed.

I like this trade. Both Brown and Schaller are depth guys likely to be stuck in minors unless required. So no big deal for either team. VAN will likely have Gaudette, MacEwen, Eriksson, Goldobin in Utica. No need to hold onto Schaller as depth too. RD is a position where we could use more depth for call ups. Brown is only on $675k so means nil effect on our cap hit until he is called up, whereas Schaller’s AAV of $1.9m means there will be $825k of cap hit for him even when he is in Utica. Cant hurt to have a bit more truculence too...

You are right. Stecher is way better at being a #5 Dman than Edler is at being a #1 Dman!

Nah we will be fine without trading anyone this season, if the right deal doesn’t present itself. As much as I’d love to see LE gone. Right now we have 14 forwards signed without Brock and Goldy. Lets say we sign both at the values you state above. That gives us 16 forwards. And we will be about $2.7m over the cap. As you note, we are definitely fine to start the season because Roussel goes onto LTIR and we probably waive Goldy and Schaller to give us 13 forwards on the roster. The waiving clears about $2m and the LTIR relief is $3m, so there is no problem while Roussel is out. Once Roussel is ready we likely bring him back and waive Eriksson. This means with Schaller, Goldy and Loui waived we have save about $3m in cap hit. This saving is more than the $2.7m that we were over with all 16 forwards. Good to go. On a more positive note...having Goldy, Schaller, Loui, Gaudette, MacEwen, Sautner, Rafferty in Utica is a good amount of depth to call upon when injuries strike.

I know you don’t WANT to trade those guys and that your heart is in the right place, that you just want to be sure that we can stay competitive. Have no fear. It will work out. The straw man roster I outlined in 2021-22 is unlikely to be accurate, there are so many potential changes, including the Seattle expansion. Interesting point you make about Hughes-Myers potentially not being defensively sound. I have a feeling that Hughes is going to be very dependable in his own end and not a liability. Perhaps even the stronger defender in that possible pairing. But I like Myers size with Hughes and his puck moving ability that I hope will gel with Quin. It is quite possible this is not the pairing you match up against the opposition’s top line. I also think that, rather than looking to sign Barrie as a UFA next year, we should be focused on developing a very strong defensive D corps to compliment Hughes and Myers. I truly believe that Juolevi, Woo and Tryamkin will provide that. I have said it before, and been soundly reprimanded by several posters because we can’t afford him, but the guy I feel we truly need on this roster is Brett Pesce. I would trade any player and picks (except EP, BB, BH or QH) for him: Hughes Pesce Tryamkin Myers Juolevi Stecher Fantenberg Woo