Eddie

The decision to close these forums has left me really puzzled and i have to say doesn't do much to convince me that the organization is back on the track to be a strong bottom to top entity. I don't really have the time to try to engage the club personally but as someone who has lead strategy in a number of large, customer-focused organizations these are the main points that leave me puzzled with the decision : 1. Losing a way to engage with your fans directly and build a community that promotes brand retention is never a good thing. Different people prefer different methods of online communication. Not sure what the usage numbers of this site were but it was still overloading the servers from time to time even last season which takes a fair bit of effort. I also can't imagine the running costs were that high for the value it brings. 2. Losing access to the voice of the most highly engaged fans is also never a good thing. Especially for the Canucks who have for a long time been criticised for the saturation of hospitality fans at the arena who aren't engaged, don't generate an exciting atmosphere and don't benefit the on ice product. Your core fans are the heart of your product - not listening to them ultimately makes your product weaker. 3. Losing the ability to at least influence the narrative of conversations about your product can seriously hurt your brand in an age where hyperbole, fear and rage generate the most clicks the completely unmoderated media are always going to tend massively into the negative which makes entertainment brands seem actually less appealing to invest your time with. That's not to say the authoritarian censorship is acceptable. I always felt the moderation on this forum was really fair and they did a great job of promoting balance discussion - whereas other forums tend to just be complaining and negativity for the reasons mentioned above. 4. In the age of Machine Learning you're losing a hell of a lot of important data for targeting and product refinement purposes. This alone makes the decision insane at this time. I think finally after everything the club has been through the past few years, all the failures, the controversies the poorly handled departure of managers, captains, high-profile public figures and the entire era of being the laughing stock of the league to close the one place that people stuck by the club and still came together to get excited about every ray of hope they could seems like another bone headed, short sighted decision and major kick in the teeth to the many fans who frequented this site.

Yeah that's what i was thinking. That's an almost prototypical NHL 3rd line, Big, defensive responsible with scoring upside - let's hope it plays out that way. I was initially a bit surprised they didn't put Raty on the 'top' line, but I watched Sasson in the a good bit last year and his vision and IQ is seriously high, he could be setting up some plays for Klim and McD.

So happy to have some Hockey back - Young stars for me has always signaled that start of a new season, always enjoyed the event and I'm really glad that the teams are still doing it and streaming it to us fans. Will be really interesting too i think for us Canucks fans. While we don't have the high-end Swedish draft picks here we will get a really good look at both the 'maturing' set of players in the likes of Raty, Klimovie, McDonough Bains, Bloom, Sasson, Johansson, Hirose etc and some of the super interesting higher picks like Kudryavtsev, Brzustewicz etc. Its a mature side for sure, and hopefully we will get to see some returns on the organizational restructure with the Abo crew, the scouting network, and the twins impact on some of these players. We've never really had much in the way of developed prospects being promoted to, and sticking with the team for a lonnng time - some success here would be huge, especially with the OEL buyout bomb on its way next year.

Daaaamn - he will only be 29 at the end of this contract, and by then the salary cap will have gone up and hopefully, this recession will be over - this dude has absolutely milked the leafs.

Judging by his play when he joined the big club and in the AHL playoffs I'd say its slim he is ready for a NHL spot out of camp. His skating isn't terrible, but does need some work for sure. He looked a bit lacking still against men in terms of physical engagement and he also didn't really seem up to speed in terms of processing the speed of the game to me. That's not to bash the prospect at all tho, he had flashes of brilliance, u can see the IQ is there and the physical attributes are too - I think he will be real good NHL player. On projection, i also think there is a chance he makes the team after Xmas for some call-up action depending on injury. I do think he will learn in the A really quickly this year and be a huge star there by Xmas. You've seen from his past career he tends to take a while to settle into new surroundings and then lights it up.

Shame we ruined this kids career as well ...

Not gonna lie - development during the Benning years was absolutely terrible, and its gonna cost us for years to come, likely resulting in this 'core' never getting the chance to serious challenge for a cup, hope I'm wrong of course. Other things here that are important to remember are that fans were absolutely crying out for a McCann and Jake to make the team after an impressive camp, the team needed something to cheer about after a few bad years, and u gotta feel there was some pressure from ownership to help sell tickets. The other thing here, is that McCann certainly seems to have found a footing in Seattle - and good for him, he always had a ton of skill and potential. How many teams had he gone through before that tho ? I think there was a lot of credence to the rumors about his attitude than he's managed to cover up here, otherwise one of those other teams would not have given up on him so easily the same way as we did.

Yeah very similar deal - Zadina was a pretty consensus 3rd overall at the time if I remember correctly. Lots of people ( myself included ) were over the moon to get Hughes but there was the usual lot that complained we just missed on the generational talent hyper-skilled winger to draft a Smurf. I even remember the Hockey Guy being pretty disappointed when Zadina was picked right before us.

I'm happy with the way Free Agency was approached for a change. We didn't spend out way into any holes that will affect our ability to be competitive next year and beyond and give prevent a lot of our promising prospects, like Ratu, Hoglander, Petterson, and all the other young D from having a shot. Also, i feel there is zero point trading low on some of the surplus parts when they are all coming of pretty terrible seasons, Its just a waste of a potential high value asset. If we can have a bit of a bounce back this year and get more points and performances from Garland, Boeser, Beauvillier etc then we could get some very useful returns at the deadline or next offseason. I do totally agree with the people saying that we have signed players YET AGAIN with the hope they can outperform their historic ranking in a lineup the exact same way we did with Myers, Poolman, Bonino etc etc and they never have (maybe with the exception of Shenn) . The truth is that we will likely really struggle again to make the playoffs next year, let alone progress in them as realistically we have a top pair of D who are too similar to play together and then a laundry list of bottom pair D. The hope will be then Hughes, Hronek can stay fit and really carry a pair with larger, older veterans on it, similar to the way it worked with Shenn. That aside our competitiveness next year all depends on consistency - we haven't had a consistent season from this core since the bubble and if this management group can't get a season of performance from the key players were never gonna do anything.

Good to see we were not on the end of another bustaroo of a high draft pick there - we certainly got the luck for once when Det picked him over Hughes as I remember lot of people salivating as he dropped. I wouldn't get too excited on the pick-up someone way higher in the order will give this guy another chance, high draft picks always get 9 lives.

Could be a good thing, hoping it's a race to the bottom for these middle -> bottom roster signings that teams really can't afford to overpay on due to the cap and Jim Benning no longer being a GM

Gotta say I actually don't like what the Preds have done, lots of $$ and term for both ROR and Schenn who both got pretty exposed and burnt for pace in Toronto at the end of the season there. Would have been great at half that - glad we passed on both.

I'm actually happy at the lack of things for once. Yeah i want us to be competitive next year, but i also don't want us to sign more Myers / Poolman type deals. Paying bottom pairing D 4 x4M is not what we need no matter how big and bad they are now. Same goes for a 3C. Not when we will hopefully have future options there internally with Ratu and this years first. Personally, I'll be happy if we can pick up some older short-term upgrades on good value short-term contracts than over paying for players that are clearly lower lineup on contenders.

Dammn - massive overpay for this loser with a terrible attitude ! Jets fans should be happy. Tho LA was likely the best place for him as they always seem to get the most out of their players commitment, so it probably ends up being a win:win.

Yep - and i saw Poolman do the same to us when he was on that huge Jets D. . . I've also seen him get royaly piloned a few times Like I said I like the player at the right price as long as we don't follow the same time-honoured pattern of overpaying on term and AAV on players who are middling bottom-pair guys with a few 'intangibles'.