Gawdzukes

Just brutal lol. I can ice a cap compliant team too with my buddies from high school. Hmmm, I wonder if "The pimple", is still around. Man that kid was good. He'd look awesome on Petey's wing, and he'd probably sign for cheap.

What an absolute rubbish roster. No panic though.

Yeah that's true. When it gets this close I would have to defer to the scouts. It would be a lot easier if we just kept some of our own seconds for a change. Best of both worlds. I would hope our scouts are good enough to see which players are better at 11 than they would be at 19 though. We'll see what happens. Maybe they let the potato pick. I've also heard the top 12 or so picks are ahead of the curve as in a strong draft class, where as the 16th or so on drop down to normal levels. I think that graph was posted here or in the thread in Canucks talk.

Whenever I watch him he is incredibly gifted and skilled. He will be an elite play driver with a good chance to be a center if they go that way. Top line winger for sure. I almost have him ahead of Smith. He's got playmaking, Goal scoring, and individual puck skill abilities rarely seen. As someone mentioned he's also gritty and has size. Honzek I agree probably goes earlier due to his tools and ceiling. Sale will be incredible too I think. I really like Bonk too. Simashev also. Which one would you pick first. Less than 10% chance you get both imo.

Totally get what you're saying but it does scare me a fair bit. My analogy was over the top lol. You're correct it does address multiple problems. If Leonard falls and we trade the pick though I'm done for the year. Same with Moore, Danielson, Sale, and Wood. Imo these guys are too good to mess around with trading back. Cristall and Dragicevic would be absolutely terrible picks at 19 imo. The following would leave us with Honzek imo. Hmmm, I would still way rather have one of the better players at 11 if it were my choice. It's hard enough to get one solid player in a draft let alone two. I'm not even sold on Willander myself at this point and I guess I'd settle for him at 19 but I wouldn't be overly happy about it. Bedard Fantilli Carlsson Michkov Smith Reinbacher Dvorsky Benson Leonard Moore Wood Danielson ASP Perreault Sale Barlow Yager Willander

Yeah it could definitely work out pretty good but it could also go quite poorly. I would have to think there are far better odds of focusing on one player higher up in the draft, even though there appear to be an awful lot of intriguing prospects in the top 90. The thing with Stramel, Haltunnen, Lindstein, Stenberg, and Musty, type players is they all seem to project good floors but the ceilings are not overly high. This is the type of move a TB, or NJ, can afford to make. I don't ever like trading down though as I think it's a fools game so I'm biased. Sacrificing draft quality for cap space would be a pretty dumb move imo. I'll give you this though. It's definitely an option with merit and this year seems like a good year for it if any ever truly is. It's a bad sign though if our scouts lose track of who is better than who after the first 10 picks.

You see the problem with this line of thinking right?

I'd actually be curious to see your list of quality (non liability) RD in the league. I actually come from the same school of (defence first and foremost) thought but I have adjusted my thinking on actuality in the past 7-10 years as I've become more knowledgeable at the NHL level. Off the top of my head I would guess there are probably only 20-40 players that are rock solid on RD. The rest have varying degrees of liability when put under pressure, and use other skills to minimize this or a concerted effort by teammates to cover the deficiencies. Some use offence and escape problems by being on the offensive most of the time (Hughes), some are deployed in favorable situations (Dunn), some are taught to keep it simple (Chatfield), some play big (Gudas), and some just panic and lay spread eagle on the ice (Myers). Anyways long story short I don't think ASP is going to be in the Myers category. He's actually quite good at the skill of defending. He's just got to work on his obvious size deficiency, committing to the defensive side of the game, and also picking his moments. I think he's capable of growing into a decent defender with huge offensive upside. He'd be a very real target if we didn't already have Quinn and Filip. Having said that I agree Reinbacher, Willander, and Bonk, are much more what we're looking for.

You could walk away from a really good player for two projects. If you trust your scouting staff at all there should be a pretty big difference between 11 and 19. Unless someone slips but you can't hope someone slips 8 spots. This would be like shooting ourselves in the foot, and then cutting off our hands.

Perhaps. Not everything can be blamed on coaching though. He also has the same goalie coach this year in the NHL who is very highly regarded. If this management group is planning on going for a playoff spot it would be a huge gamble. He looks unreliable except in a spot start here or there. It would be a big mistake imo.

Yep. Martin doesn't belong in the NHL except in a pinch.

Totally. Look at all the very special people.

We have a better hockey team than Arizona (not for long) for sure and probably Philly. The rest are close but they have infinitely more (quality) prospects, picks, and cap space. I'd rather be in any of these teams shoes besides the fact I am biased and I love having Petterson on the team. Good point.

Yup, we've been rinsing and repeating the same cycle. Things for the most part never work out exactly as planned. That's why you need cap space when building ... so you can address the areas big or small that didn't quite go as planned the year before as you near competitiveness. Since we just spend to the cap every year we don't have the ability to do this. Then we waste the next year trying to figure out how to unravel parts and create cap. Once we waste assets doing that then we spend to the cap again and figure we're set, find out we aren't, and then repeat the cycle again the following year. It's beyond nauseating at this point.

Yup, just blindly running headfirst with their hands over their ears yelling Charge It, to our cap structure in 2-4 years we don't care about anything but noooooooooooow! Lol, his response says it all. We have no money right now. We don't care though, we're spending money on something, we have no clue what, but it will be significant. And people wonder why we struggle.

Didn't we also give up close to the most goals in modern history or something? I'd rather the team get the goals down and that would offset some of the production. I think even a moderate player puts up close to the same amount of points once you factor in his PP production as well. I think Beauvillier, a healthy Mik, and a PP replacement can almost provide that on their own.

Wish I could give you multiple emoticons. Stop blowing money like some business tycoon's rich kid for just one second and we might just have a chance at competing.

I agree. I was playing along with the other poster. I'm not on the playoffs or bust model of management so I would swap him out just to get the cap under control and begin to build the top 6 the right way production or no production this year ... but that's just me.

Leonard is my favorite player outside Bedard and Fantilli. There was actually a point where I thought we had a shot at him. Absolutely dynamite with the puck and making terrific hockey plays all the time. Just a great player.

Beauvillier is the only player I actually want to see in a Canuck uniform again. Just tired of seeing the other two in the line-up on the GTD.

Ideally you find the production in a tougher, more complete player. One with more defensive acumen and hustle. Not that it would be easily done or anything.

The cap may go up but so does the price of contracts. It's just like inflation. If you get a modest raise every couple years you don't really have any more money but you can sure fool yourself into thinking you do.

Yeah it's absolutely pointless to waste draft position simply to gain cap space to go out and pay for a couple players likely no better than what we got. If we had the cap space and the same assets to get a good young player to fit on our team for many years than it might be a good idea, but we don't. It's just a parallel move that ensures mediocrity for another 3 or 4 years. Especially a guy like Beauvillier, who is expiring, played very well with Petey, and will easily return a decent pick on it's own either in the offseason or at the TDL. Like you've mentioned a number of times. We can't really afford not to hit on our #11. Just wait out the contracts and get assets for what we can along the way. If we do that we might finally be in a position to use our cap wisely moving forward. Garland is probably currently playing his way into being a positive asset as well. In a year or two I would look to replacing Boes, Beau, and Gar, with one impact top 6 winger. Maybe that in addition to our #11 makes our top 6 look pretty formidable. Kuz Petey UFA/trade #11 Miller Mik Lekkerimaki X Podkolzin Maybe something along those lines although I'm not counting on Lekk making it in that time frame. The #11 though I'm hoping can make an impact sooner than later.

It's ridiculous to think you can keep paying assets to get out of self afflicted cap problems and ice a good and competitive hockey team. At some point we have to stop paying for the short term like this. It just makes out team less talented overall. For once just accept we're not winning the Cup this year and go from there.