Alienhuggyflow

Welcome to the flat cap. The only teams with cap are the ones who have openly been tanking. Time to turn the page, cap jumps up next season and aside from JT we have nobody over 30 locked up long-term and no real contract that makes us want to ship a 1st out to get rid of it. The fact Alvin has completely rebuilt the D, built up our depth and prospects and avoided any bad UFA deals, quite honestly is pretty impressive.

Podkolzin will be on the 3rd line.

His path is quite literally a dream scenario imo. I'm very bullish on drafting from Europe and the NCAA and unless it's a Bedard type prospect I have trepidation over the CHL, double for dmen. There's just to many variables and the back to JR rule also isn't favorable for developing the ones who do pass the hype. Just going back to 2017, the draft is loaded with top 10 picks from the CHL that stumbled once they played against bigger stronger players. Sure that happens everywhere but at least in Europe and College, they have already played against men. Now obviously not in this case but just like in the CHL the ones that can skate and have the iq are usually fine.

Feel the same way about the WCE. They are now my favorite colour scheme and the ones that for me best capture the province

I've always thought the reason our media is constantly negative and loves to stir the spot is because for years now the mandate from the owners is to actively keep them in the dark. There hasn't been a trade or re-signing leaked here in a very long-time, instead we get rumours like Demko wants out, JT wants to go back to the states etc etc.

You know what they say about big hands, sadly my hands are just adequate. Hope you enjoyed the cigs mum. Lol

I have to disagree with pretty much everything you said. Starting with Silovs, he's always been a big game goalie since his games in the WC at 18 where he was excellent. His time in Abby (AHL) has been more impressive than Demko on weaker teams to boot. His brief stint up here he clearly demonstrated how much better he was than the other two guys and that was behind a true definition of a "patchwork" defense. The only time I truly advocate the AHL over the NHL is if the player is underwhelming or not playing. Demko is injury prone and giving him ample rest is crucial, Silovs allows Tochett to maximize Demko against the top tier teams while letting get a bunch of starts against weaker teams and not just back to backs and spot starts. 28-30 starts while practicing with NHLers and being under the tutelage of Ian is imo, superior to 50 starts, grinding it out against teams constructed of journeymen and prospects. It also acclimates him sooner while allowing Alvin to get a handle on the near future. As for the view you have on the team, first of basing any opinion on last year comes with a grain of salt, due to the historically bad goaltending, coaching and PK over the first 50 games, nevermind the huge turnover of the roster. Even without the moves this summer just getting a full season of Hronek, Mikhayev, Pearson and Beauvillier is huge. It's fair to be skeptical but you just come across as one of those who just wants to paint everything in the worst light to push your narrative rebuilding while somehow keeping our best young players. It's not viable and when you have legitimate superstars in the 3 most important positions along with a lot of talented players while still being the 8th youngest team in the league along with 1 guy over 30 locked up for more than a season, you build, not subtract. How many failed rebuilds and busted prospects around the league along with veteran laden teams almost exclusively winning the cup will it take before people realize if you can draft your 1C 1D 1G close together and they are stars, you don't need to suck year after year? The teams that do that do so because they can't land those key pieces. We finally have depth being added, a favorable cap after this season and are like a Pecse away from being a really strong team. After all the crap seasons there's finally a plan and Alvin has rebuilt the defense without long deals. Improved the depth and generally has improved us everywhere. With the huge cap increases and only a few locked up long-term I'm excited, not delusional.

Oh man. As a guy who thinks we are a playoff team as long as we get at worst league average and a top 4 team in the west with what I think Demko is capable of, I don't want Martin here like at all. I have PTSD after last season, watching our goalies quite literally almost singlehandedly kill our playoff hopes by November and that's including Demko. He redeemed himself and TBF he was always going too, Martin didn't and there's too much invested in this season to not have the best possible backup and that's Silovs. He's going to be our #1, I've said that since the day we drafted him, the kid has ice in his veins and has shown that since his first go around with Latvia at 18. I still can't believe that despite how putrid the goaltending was we somehow managed to get to 500 just before Demmer got hurt.

I see it as we were 10th last year offensively while guys like Mikhayev, Pearson and Hoglander weren't really, or at all a part of the team. There is also the huge turnaround from guys like JT, Podkolzin and Garland once they were away from Bruce and his head scratching deployment of players. I am really curious to see this team and all the changes under a full camp with the new staff.

He got the Quinn Hughes bump. Good on him .

I would love to get him and would gladly move either type of package, one like you proposed or even one with Lekkerimaki and a 1st plus a winger. RHD like Pecse are seldom available and if he is it's such an obvious fit here that all options should be explored. The only young winger off limits for me 26 and under, is Podkolzin.

Myers is Sept 1st. Probably done for this exact scenario, making it harder to move him in his final year. I gotta say, dude really did want to play here and only here. I'm fine if we move him because we make a big trade but if not might as well keep him since we know injuries always happen to this team.

Cole plays both sides equally well, per Dhaliwal. But ya one can dream that we somehow get Pecse.

Got a lot more than 6 million after LTIR and saying goodbye to Bear and Dermott.

He's not a raw prospect all and his timeline could very well see him turn pro that similar drafted college dmen do. Him going to college allows him to adjust this season to NA ice and while he would seriously have to impress to be one and done, he likely turns pro in March of 2025 after his 2nd season like majority of college D, that are high 1st round picks. Judging on your history, you are being purposely negative cuz that's kind of your thing.

Well 12 million in cap space should ease that burden. Quinn is the biggest winner today.

Can we really count on him for 65 games? One good thing is we could always send Silovs down during lulls in the schedule, especially extended home stands where we play every 2 days.

I don't want Martin anywhere near Vancouver if we are competing for a playoff spot. For me it's not that I don't think the AHL is a bad place, not at all but I think if he's ready than 27-30 starts in Vancouver and being around Demko and Ian is better than 50 starts in the AHL. Plus I expect us to be a much improved team and he's the best option we have. There's also the added bonus of getting some clarity as too how to negotiate the starters job after Demko's contract end after the 24-25 season.

Demko only has a couple of seasons left and I'm not trading Silovs. I'm a big fan of Demko but I've been a huge Silovs guy since before we drafted him and with Demko's injury history, (especially the hips, Cory 2.0?) I think the smartest play is too have Silovs back-up Demko the next couple of seasons. There's nothing wrong with having a 1A, 1B situation and if Demko gets hurt, Silovs is easily a better option than Martin. If Demko goes balls out next season and Silovs needs more work just send him to Abby but I think we need to accept that Demko likely benefits from a lesser workload. The only thing that sucks is if we are a really good team in 24-25 and let's say Silovs continues to get better and becomes the future but Demko is still elite as well do we risk moving him at the deadline? Goalies don't return a ton and imagine if Silovs got hurt. So most likely we see a similar scenario that we did with Marky. I guess we could always extend Demko and bring Silovs along more slow and have Demko become the 1B but he would still be paid like a 1A. Either way great problem to have and another gift from the previous regime.

Not playing Demko every game? WTF? Sarters play most games, you knew to the sport? We had a rough start no doubt but with even with just Demko playing to his normality, we win a lot of those games we lost early in the season. As far as your theory of no star players, that's just dumb and anointing kids stars is just absolutely absurd. BTW go look at the history of teams that sucked on purpose and then look at the ones who drafted a few tentpole types pieces,which by the way we have drafted already in Quinn, EP, and Demko and then built around the through trades and ufa. Which ones do you aspire to be? Sabres, oilers, etc or the Avs, TB etc? You don't need years of lottery picks when you manage to get a franchise 1C, 1D, 1G all around the same time. My God the Sabres and oilers have drafted so high so many times and neither have drafted all 3 yet. Sabres for all their suck have drafted Jack and Dahlin and traded one cause he got sick of losing. Imagine them without Tage, The average age of cup teams is 29, you can't draft and draft and expect each pick to be around for years of losing. At some point you need to build around a group of similar age and we have the right pieces now. The team is past the drafting stage, at some point that step needs to happen. Bedard would be awesome, so would Matvei, the rest are years from helping but losing enough to snag them would have only meant this team really and truly sucks and then imagine not getting them? Or getting Bedard but at the cost of 7 more years of losing? No thanks. If #97 who is flat put dominating can't will his team and they have exactly the same amount of playoff wins since 2019 then us what does that tell you?

Thing is the best odds we realistically would get is 6%. The teams below us are bad hockey teams planning on tanking. We just got 50 games of bad goaltending and coaching. While Bedard would be awesome it's always been a long-shot. Imagine losing with Demko and still not getting Bedard? I was much more invested in seeing positive changes and the return of the Demko we know and love. I just don't believe losing is ever good and I especially don't think one player is worth blowing up your team for cuz that would have been the only way to auck enough to get past the 4 or 5 truly terrible teams.

You've been around awhile and while obviously points don't carry over, everything else does. If we continued to suck with Demko and the players still played like it was shinny, chances are the team gets blown up. So ya it's important to win and win properly, especially important to see Demko has found his form. I mean the alternative goes like this, we lose the draft, Demko isn't a #1 anymore and our team assembled clearly sucks. Sorry but that's not the type of offseason I want. I want to see a few contracts moved and a few new faces brought in and see how they do hopefully playing a full year of hockey with a system. If we still struggle next season than fundamental changes might be needed.

Only in Vancouver is a team finally playing to its potential in a season that never should have played out the way it did is it a bad thing. Forget all the positives,we want that 94% chance of not getting Bedard.

If only Myers could play this way consistently. Maybe Hughes is his kryptonite to sucking?

My God imagine the momentum they would have. I mean the chances are obviously miniscule but jeez our schedule is real easy, much easier than the Preda, Jets and flames. It's funny cause the usual crowd would still complain for missing Bedard lol.