zduck14

I love the idea of that top 6. I'd actually like to keep Baertschi, Sutter and Hutton (if his salary is reasonable). Baertschi gives a legit fill in for the top 6 if one of them get hurt and Sutter, when healthy, is a really good shutdown center who takes pressure off Horvat in that role. Miller - Pettersson - Boeser Pearson - Horvat - Nyquist Baertschi - Sutter - Virtanen Gaudette - Beagle - Leivo Edler - Myers Hughes - Tanev Hutton - Stecher IMO, that's definitely a playoff caliber lineup. Especially when you add guys like Roussel (a regular once back from his own onjury), Granlund, Motte that can step in when injuries hit and not look out of place. Just not sure I'd make the trade with Edmonton. I know Puljujarvi would be a good young player to gamble on but to me Lucic isn't worth it. Loui will be tradeable to a team like Arizona or someone looking to reach the cap floor after his bonus is paid on July 1st.

That was Drew Miller when he was in Detroit.

I'm just curious, and maybe I missed something, but how is everyone certain that they had Podkolzin at 8? Benning said himself himself in his interview right after the pick that Podz was a top 5 talent in this draft. Seems to me the only reason he fell to the Canucks is because of the 2 year contract in the KHL but, like Benning also mentioned, everyone that was left would've been 2-3 years from making it anyways so it just made sense to take a top 5 talent at 10th.

I have a real strong feeling about St. Louis this year. Just don't think anyone has the depth to knock off Tampa.

Sounds an awful lot like Ryan Kesler.

I agree that it's good that these guys made it to the NHL. The part I find questionable is that none of these guys are playing up to what was considered their potential at the time they were drafted. Connolly, while he's a very good bottom 6 player, was drafted 6th overall because he was seen as a 1st or 2nd line player. DeAngelo is only now starting to show why he was a first rounder (even that is a stretch at this point so far) but he's on his 3rd organization in 5 years since being drafted. Koekkoek, a 10th overall pick, got in a whole 85 games in 6+ years since being drafted and was basically given away. Alex Picard was drafted 8th overall and saw a total of just 67 NHL games and while Lindstrom may have played 150 career games, they were spread out over 10 seasons and 5 different teams. It's easy to pick out guys like Sestito (not exactly a good hockey player but was around when toughness was still needed) and Dorsett and say Cull is able to produce NHLers. Every team has these guys. Even the Canucks had guys like Hutton and Connauton turn into decent NHL players. My point, however, is that the overwhelming majority of high draft picks (players expected to be top 6 guys) that Cull's had a hand in have failed to reach their potential. Your point about our expectations is right though. If you look back a few years, the most successful team we've ever seen had several players brought up through Manitoba and go on to be significant contributors to the big club throughout the lineup. The 2011 team consisted of Kesler, Raymond, Burrows, Hansen, Rypien, Edler, Bieksa and Schneider. All of whom spent a fairly significant amount of time in the AHL and eventually reached or exceeded their original draft projections. I feel like seeing that makes fans almost assume it's going to happen again I'm not saying there's an issue with Cull or not. As I mentioned in the first post, I know very little about him but looking at his history of dealing with high draft picks, I think it's fair to question whether or not guys like Juolevi, Lind, Gadjovich, etc are in the right hands for their development. The last thing fans want to see is for all these higher drafted guys to turn into Connolly types. While those players are valuable, the team will be mediocre at best if they can't get the Juolevi's and Linds to reach a higher level than just bottom 6/bottom D pair role players.

Looking through Cull's history with Syracuse (both stints) there doesn't seem to be much development overall. The only high draft pick that spent any time with him and turned out half decent has been Derick Brassard. Aside from him, he's seen quite a long list of 1st and 2nd round picks become below average NHLers or worse. Joakim Lindstrom (41st pick in 2002), Alex Picard (8th pick in 2004), Adam Pineault (46th pick in 2004), Nikita Filatov (6th pick in 2008), Brett Connolly (6th pick in 2010), Vladislav Namestnikov (27th pick in 2011), Slater Koekkoek (10th pick in 2012), Adam Erne (33rd pick in 2013), Tony DeAngelo (19th pick in 2014), Dominik Masin (35th pick in 2014). These guys all spent a significant amount of time with Cull in the AHL and most were highly regarded prospects. I'm not saying that I have anything against Cull as I know very little about him but this history definitely leaves me questioning whether or not he's the right guy to be developing prospects like Lind, Gadjovich, Juolevi, etc...

I had a chance to watch Bowen Byram in PG last weekend and I have to say I can see why he's being ranked as high as 4th overall for next years draft. His vision and puck skills really stood out and he just seemed to understand the game better than anyone else out there. I definitely wouldn't be upset with the Canucks selecting Byram next year. Just curious what the rest of you guys think of the local BC boy playing for the Giants.

Exactly!!! The part I don't understand is that people here still love the potential of Alex Nylander (7 NHL games) and Jake Bean (0 NHL games) and would gladly take either one in the Canucks system right now but somehow Juolevi is a complete bust.....

As much as I'd like to see it by then, I just can't see Dahlen beating out Goldobin or Liepsic yet. I'm certain Dahlen will be the better player but feel like he could use a year in Utica with a few callups throughout the year. I do think that Goldobin will have a decent year this year however and think by around the trade deadline that the lines will look like: Goldobin - Horvat - Boeser Baertschi - Pettersson - Virtanen

While I love what Sutter brings to the game, I would prefer him in a defensive specialist role. Although to start out, having a defensive That said, I agree with Pettersson and Virtanen likely having incredible chemistry simply due to their style of play. With Virtanen's physical game and game-breaking speed, feeding off Pettersson's playmaking and hockey IQ, I think the Canucks will have a 1B line within 2 years. On top of that, add Dahlen's history with Elias and it could make an extremely dangerous 1st line. How awesome would it be to have 2 players of Horvat and Boeser's caliber playing on what could be considered a 2nd line. Dahlen - Pettersson - Virtanen Baertschi - Horvat - Boeser Sure looks exciting to me..........

I believe Jim Benning was also pretty impressive as a teenager. 71 points in 71 games in the WHL as a defenseman at just 16 years old... Then at age 17 he had 139 points in just 72 games.....

If Jett can have a similar season to Dan's draft +1 year, that would very exciting..... Dan was coming off a year with 59 points in 62 games in his draft year. After Nashville drafted him 12th overall he put up 60 points in 59 games and won the awards for top defenceman in the WHL and the entire CHL... So ya, if Woo can have a similar season to that I'd be extremely excited.

I'd just like to add that when Guddy and Edler were paired together, Tanev was injured at the time so Edler and Guddy were playing against the oppositions top lines. So, while Edlers numbers may look slightly worse, I think the pairing did a very good job and were definitely better than the "advanced stats" show.

Ben Kuzma@benkuzma Pettersson's best line when pressed about his weight and how it's an issue for many and not him: "I'm trying to bulk up to 200 pounds. I'm just kidding. I don't even know what my weight is today — I think it's around 177." #Canucks 11:30 AM - May 25, 2018 50 See Ben Kuzma's other Tweets I feel like if he's up to 177 at the end of the season that it won't be unreasonable at all for him to get to camp at about 185.

I think I'd prefer to keep Baertschi around for another 2 or 3 years. I know there are options to replace him but if one or more of these kids come in a simply win the 1st or 2nd line wing spot, that just pushes Baertschi down the roster creating a fairly deep forward group. I'm sure Baer will sign a 2 or 3 year deal at a reasonable cap hit and once he's a UFA at least one or two of the young guys will have replaced him.

Ahhhh. I never read that before. It actually makes dislike Willie even more now. I can say though, having watched a few of Tryamkin's games in the KHL this year, he does remind me a lot of the way Pronger used to dominate minus the dirty play. For the record, I do realize it's only the KHL but I still think it's a good sign as to how he's developing.

In what way? Pronger was a great defender but not a generational player. As I and others said before, generational talents are extremely rare like Gretzky, Orr, Howe, Lidstrom, Crosby..... After that there are the elite talents like Pronger, Neidermayer, Sakic, Yzerman, etc....

Like I said in the post you quoted, generational talents are extremely rare. While I really believe Tryamkin can be top pairing d-man, I think the best he'll be is a Pronger type. Definitely a great defender but not a generational player.

I like the enthusiasm for Tryamkin here but I honestly think you guys are throwing around the "generational talent" term a little too loosely. In my opinion, that term should be reserved for guys like Orr, Gretzky, Howe, Lemieux, Lidstrom, Crosby, etc. While I think Tryamkin has the potential to be a top pairing, "Elite" defenseman in the NHL along the lines of a Suter or Weber, I can't see him ever being in the same category as the likes of Karlsson, Pronger or Niedermayer. That said, with this teams history of d-men, I would gladly take a Weber or Suter on this team any day.

I think you're right that it could become more difficult to get Tryamkin back here. It's easy to look at the stats and see that he's becoming a top D-man in the KHL but I can tell you from having watched several of Avtomobilists games this year, he really looks the part of a #1 D-man over there. Every game I've watched he's been the best player on the ice. His size obviously catches your eye first but the way he seems to control the game over there reminds me a lot of how Pronger used to do so in the NHL. I'm really hoping he comes back to Vancouver but you may be right that it's going to become harder to pry him away from the comfort zone of his home country and the KHL.

Amari Cooper is absolutely a game changer. That said, I'm in a 3 player keeper league and need to decide which 3 to keep. My options are: Mike Evans (obviously keeping him) Brandin Cooks Amari Cooper Sammy Watkins Latavius Murray Carlos Hyde

The touchdowns yes. Lynch will be the goal line back for sure.

The O-line is unreal but the Raiders running back committee and Lynch's age will hurt him a bit. I don't think he'll reach 1000 yds.

I guess as a 2 down back only but I just don't think he'll be the dominant force he was in SEA. With the committee that OAK has used recently he should be effective but definitely not as good as Murray was. If I was to guess I'd say he'll have between 900 and 1000 yards on the year if healthy. Not a bad season but not exactly the 1300 or 1500 that he had for a few years.