highwayman3

If Seattle was open to moving him in the first place, and if he was willing to waive his NTC to come here, maybe? I love Larsson and think a top, shutdown pairing of him and OEL would be fantastic but I don't see swapping Myers for him is in any way realistic or fits Seattle's needs at all.

It would be ideal but no way Seattle does that.

No lol. Lazar isn't anywhere close to peak Malhotra. He's a RW for Lammiko who could maybe fill in Lammiko's spot if he gets injured.

This!

Who was calling him that? Wasn't that before JT Miller was even acquired? When I watch them play seems like Miller is the guy leading the troops into the fray...Horvat is often pretty invisible. Not sure why everyone thinks he's such an amazing leader when the guy has led his team to one playoff victory lol.

This is insane. We are watching the season being flushed down the toilet with no accountability or changes. It's bizarre, no idea wtf the organization is doing.

Horvat can't lead his way out of a wet paper bag. Trade this player when his value is still high.

Well said and great comparisons.

People think Horvat is as good of a captain as Linden or Smyl? Give your head a shake, those captains led our Canucks to the finals. Horvat will go down as one of the most bland, boring & forgettable Canucks captains in team history.

If Horvat is a leader he doesn't need verbal support, he needs to actually lead. He's way too much of a nice guy to do that though, and instead such repeats bland, meaningless platitudes. Giving him the captaincy seems like a mistake at this point, dude can't sort out these locker-room issues and reportedly made a big stink about re-signing Pearson and Green which is why the team is in this mess. Don't let the door hit you on the way out Bo.

It's a mix of a few things: Ownership, Benning, Green and his assistants, and Horvat. Before folks jump down my throat on how could anyone criticize their beloved Horvat - this guy is the supposed to be the leader of the players. Team captain definitely bears some responsibility for the team's performance and any reported locker-room issues.

The Sedins were an exception to the rule, pretty silly to think Horvat won't decline as just about every NHL'er does based on an extreme outlier.

Yes, he did rise to the occasion for one year however it's such a limited sample size. I just don't think this guy is a very good leader - he's bland, boring and repeats the usual platitudes but if there are locker room issues we need someone to take the bull by the horns and sort that out. Unfortunately Horvat is too much of a "nice guy" to do that. The team's record under his captaincy speaks for itself sadly. I would wish him all the best but would not shed any tears if the organization traded him for a great haul (a la Linden back in the day).

I've thought this for a while myself actually, it's a very unpopular opinion but Horvat seems more focused on family these days. I don't think he's a particularly good leader and his play seems to have significantly deteriorated this season. I'd much rather move him for Miller - and now would be the time do so imo.

You'd think. Yet the guy has the 2nd longest tenure of any Canuck GM with one of the worst records to show for it - all the while spending to the cap. I think Aquilini values his yes men puppets and he knows that another, more experienced GM will argue with him or give him sass. Benning may very well end up the longest Canuck GM of all time if Aquilini is still the owner in 3 years.

Excellent post and I completely agree (well except for Markstrom). But that 2020 offseason was disastrous and may have had more long-term, damaging consequences than even the god awful 2016 offseason (drafting Juolevi instead of Tkachuk and signing Player Name). Choosing to re-sign Virtanen, when he still had a bit of value, and signing Holtby to that dumb contract was brutal. And it cost us Toffoli and Tanev - the room and the team has never been the same since. We couldn't have, and shouldn't have, offered Markstrom that contract - especially with Demko on the rise. But yeah, it's looking like that 2020 offseason absolutely killed this incarnation of the Canucks. Such a shame as the team had such potential.

Most predictions had us slightly better than we are now but the vast majority didn't think we were a playoff team heading into this season. You factor in our atrocious special teams, missing top line and inability to score due to tweaks in the play style and here we are. But to be fair, even I (not a fan of Benning) didn't expect us to be this bad. I guess one silver lining is that we have a chance to get a high pick and Benning and Green will finally be canned at the end of the year.

Yup. Garland and OEL were nice adds but the team and the coaching just isn't that good. Still too many holes in the roster, no defensive structure, no accountability for poor play (today Horvat and Petterson were atrocious I thought) and our special teams seem significantly worse.

The only thing we are missing is moving Myers, somehow, someway for Connor Murphy. Re-unite OEL with the player he played his best with and put him in the absolute best position for a rebound possible. Would rather have Tanev than Hamonic on the 2nd pairing but it is what it is.

I don't think he's that bad, but in any case I'm not talking specifically about Rielly. I'm referring to the defence as a whole.

So your argument is that we can't make any opinions on the matter because the defence has been rebuilt so throw all past precedence and history out the window. Sure, so the Canucks could be first or worst, the Sabres could win the cup because who knows?? There are new players and no practices yet. What an absolutely asinine and quite frankly retarded point of view. I am not demanding proof of anything, don't know where you got that bizarre notion from. Let me clarify things for you, and underline and bold the letters to assist your understanding: based on statistical probabilities, and recent history, swapping Edler and Schmidt for OEL and Poolman is unlikely to shoot us 20 spots up in goals against. As such, I think it's pretty reasonable and realistic to project Toronto having a better defence than us yet again.

Lol. One clip of Morgan Rielly making a mistake agains the best player in the league is meaningless. Again the Leafs were 24th in GA compared to the Canucks being 6th and they haven't had great goaltending. It's silly to think that the Canucks defense is better after losing Edler and Schmidt (who I don't blame JB for).

Ad hominems and personal attacks against those who don't agree with you, how mature. Rielly, Brodie, Muzzin and Holl at at least complement each other and Toronto did have a lower GA than we did (24th to 6th actually) with worse goaltending. You can bury your head in the sand all you like. Here, let me phrase things in a fashion you can understand: CaNuCKZZZ for DA CuPPP If Yoou don t like Benigng and DA DEFENSE You ARE BIG DUMB DUMB@!!!! WOOOOO

What? We were 6th in GA and lost our two best ES defenders. Toronto's defence is much better than ours - although their forwards don't have what it takes to win even one round in the playoffs. Not sure why you keep saying I'm relying on the media for my opinions, I couldn't give a rats ass what the media says. A lot of the media for example loved the Myers contract which I knew was a mistake the minute the ink was dry. Apart from the hardcore homers on this site no one thinks the Canucks defense is good. What is your evidence to state the contrary?

I'm not lol. I'm looking at past history, statistics and how the defence fits together and am not liking what I'm seeing. Jim has put together a fantastic group of forwards but the d is putrid.