Putgolzin

They're shutting it down in 3-4 years?

He was considered a possibility for first overall by some prior to his draft year. I guess questions about his skating etc put him way back, but there's hype around him from way back when. Let's hope whatever is actually there can get developed into a real hockey player.

Or what if Joshua was flanked by two offensive wingers like Beauvilleur and Garland? That way they wouldn’t just be skating around doing almost nothing. If they could all score 30-40 points each we’d have a real team! If they could also be defensively responsible and leave most of the real shutdown work to the 4th line (Aman, Bleuger, DiGuiseppe for example), we could really have something.

Kuzmenko Pettersson Podkolzin Mikheyev Miller Boeser Beauvilleur Joshua Garland Aman Beugler DiGuiseppe Hughes Juulsen Cole Hronek Soucy Myers Demko Silovs

I got thinking about this. His points were excellent last season for his role. His small-sample-size faceoff % is very respectable (as has been pointed out prior). He's big and fast and the coach thinks he could be much better than he's been. We keep talking about having too many wingers - and we do. What if Joshua played between Beauvilleur and Garland (all of a sudden the 3rd line isn't so terribly overpaid cause they're paying peanuts to the 3C). That would be a spicy line that could actually do some damage on the scoreboard. Kuzmenko Pettersson Podkolzin (I've said elsewhere why I think Podz would work well here, just cause he can dig for the other's scoring) Mikheyev Miller Boeser (again Mikheyev's speed and digging/forecheck for the benefit of the other two) Beauvilleur Joshua Garland (speed, tenacity, finish - this could be a legitimately excellent line) Aman Bleuger DiGuiseppe

I'd like to see him bumped all the way up to the first line. Probably Mikheyev will go back there, but I think Mikheyev would be better suited to the 2nd line where Boeser can be the beneficiary of his speed, forecheck and board work. On the top line, Pettersson and Kuzmenko will score enough that Podz can help on the forecheck and grow his confidence as stuff starts bouncing off of him into the net. Third line could even be Beauvilleur Bleuger/Raty Garland. Get a line going with some forecheck that will actually lead to some goals rather than just "bringing energy" and being hard to play against.

I’m doing a bit of a mid-deep-dive on Ian Cole and becoming convinced what a fantastic pick-up this is. One interesting thing - he and Soucy were the top two +\- a couple years back in Minny. And by time on ice it looks like maybe they played together? Anyone have knowledge about that? Cole said in an interview he’s played almost 50% of his career on the right side. Not sure if that makes sense on our team, but the flexibility certainly can’t hurt!

Agreed, though none that were as illustrious as two handing his goalie in the face

The losers said the same thing about me too. Hopefully he's closer to Bossy on that spectrum.

Kind of a Forsling for Clendening sort of deal!

I actually read the article. It was a circular discussion of them saying he didn't do good because a reporter wasn't impressed by Reinbacher's answers. If he can clear out the front of the net and make a good outlet pass, I'll let this black stain pass.

Totally. People talk about the mistake in letting him go, but for years after we could have rectified that mistake by offering a conditional 7th.

An argument is an intellectual process, contradiction is just the automatic gainsaying of anything the other persons says.

Yes! And he improved from being a - player every year on a bad team to a + player on that same team (I get that Seider was probably eating up more of the hard minutes Hronek had previously played). And Juulsen. I’m excited about Johansson, but I feel his game might be similar to a lot of our current dmen - kind of offensive dmen who can also kind of defend. I feel like Juulsen might end up being more of the type of old school Dman we could really use in our lineup.

Agreed on all of this. I’m actually very happy about the Hronek trade. We’ve been screaming for a good RHD for years and every year it seems more of the same. It will be nice to hopefully have a legit RHD this year. I like this plan of slowly trying to get the pieces all moving together in an upward trajectory.

Fair enough, I'm just taking this as it's presented. So playing with #43 I'd probably look ok-ish, but according to this even Hughes experienced a bit of a bump alongside Bear (not bad). And sure, against lesser competition he's also going to look better, but so did whoever was playing with him. And I guess that's what I'm sort of hoping for, that the addition of Hronek (and hopefully at least one good stay at home guy, either on the right or on the left) allows someone like Bear to filter down the lineup and find more success. Hughes Hronek Gavrikov? Bear OEL Schenn?/Juulsen?

I keep hearing this thing over and over and it's so ridiculous. I like the Hronek trade and generally agree with the thinking behind it - but this tired trope that there's only two options available is so reductionist. Like we can, at this moment, only choose between a scorched earth rebuild and going for the Cup? What about the hundred other available versions of developing a team? Because obviously Hronek wasn't turning us into a cup contender, but keeping the pick wasn't forcing anyone to trade away our stars either. It's just so classically CDC to only line up behind one of two extremes.

According to this article he makes his partners demonstrably better in every case. https://canucksarmy.com/news/ethan-bear-demonstrably-made-his-canucks-teammates-better-throughout-2022-23 If given a partner like Gavrikov for example, perhaps he could be a legitimately good second pair Dman

I read somewhere recently that Beauvilleur was drafted as a C/LW and that he's said C is his favourite position. Now his FO% percentage would say otherwise, but if he could figure that (albeit major) part of being a C - is there any way he could vie for the 3C position this coming season?

It's an interesting discussion! I'd love Fantilli but PA probably prefers Carlsson. I wonder how huge the package would need to be for either of those picks. It would solve our 3C discussion (assuming they would rush him into that spot, but I think that's a safe assumption). Then we just have to fix our D and we're good!

Especially the time we got one even better

That's true. And a bunch more in the 7/8 territory I actually wonder if the addition of Hronek doesn't do more for the collective than he does by himself, what I mean is do players filter down the lineup to a spot where they can find success now that we've gotten another Top 4 Dman? Could Juulsen become a legit full time player on the right side now that Hronek can hopefully eat up the hardest minutes?

I’m all in for Malhotra

A center? Hockey Reference says he's won a grand total of 29 faceoffs in 7 seasons. Including 0 last season. Don't think that's a player for us.

I've heard a dozen different people and media talking about dropping in the draft in order to dump cap space. Is there a thing where management gets certain media members to drip-feed an unpopular plan so that we're somewhat braced for it when it comes about? For the record, I will not be braced.