D-Money

Just another winger? So are Matthew Tkachuk & Jason Robertson… The upside is hard to ignore.

I have a family member that lives in Uculet. He works during the offseason, and has summers off. I asked him why he doesn’t AirBnb his place out for the summer, and he says he can’t. The town passed regulations that only areas that are zoned for it can do short-term rentals. Seems like a potential solution for the Okanagan. Sure, these corporations that item these properties will cry fowl… …but screw them!

The promising play by both Wolanin and Hirose firmly shut the door on Dermott returning. It doesn’t make sense for either side for him to re-sign in Vancouver…much like it doesn’t make any sense to call him McDermott.

DbtR posted it before picks 29-31 (after it was confirmed none were picking the same guy).

...And the "Understatement of the Year" award goes to...

I think you trade whoever you get the most back for. As a pending UFA, Beau probably has more value at the trade deadline. But that may be a reason why a team like Chicago would be interested (trade a pick for him now, plug a hole for 2/3 of year, then trade at deadline for a potentially better pick).

The future is now, for better or worse. Under “Bruce! There it is” we were a winning team. And when Demko came back from injury, we were a winning team. And by “winning”, I don’t mean over .500…we were one of the top teams in the league. In between those 2 streaks we were getting some of the worst goaltending in the league. Make no mistake, when our goaltending is at its average, this is a playoff team. The other major issue was the 2nd pair. When Hughes was on the ice, the team was pretty much elite. When he wasn’t, we got caved in. Adding Hronek (and a potentially less terrible OEL) should improve that to some degree… possibly to a large degree. This team is set to compete for the next 4 years. Whether they have the depth to actually succeed in the playoffs is another story. But the key players are locked in (or are about to be), and in 4 years they will be trending the wrong way. And nothing high-end is coming - there isn’t a single prospect in the system with legitimate top-line potential. Too many traded or failed picks along the way. Basically what we have is what we get. The bright side is, if it’s not working over the next 2-3 years, we have high-end players that should get us nice returns to jump-start another rebuild, rather than starting from absolute scratch like we did under Benning (partially his own doing).

The one I remember was Kyle Turris. Has been falling out of favour in Nashville, even getting healthy scratched. But then at the WCs, captained Team Canada to a silver medal, scoring 10 points in 10 games. Everyone thought: “Was Nashville misusing him?” A year later many thought he’d have a resurgence in Edmonton. Turns out that no…he just wasn’t very good anymore. So yeah - showing up for these tournaments is nice and all, but it doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.

I’m still in favour of an OEL buyout - and this is coming from someone who appreciated his game in the first year here. But I think he’s easily replaceable with the cap savings we’d get for the first 4 years (minimum $2.83M), and the extra savings in the first 2 years give us a lot of wiggle room. As for the last 4 years (with the $2.42M penalty) the cap is going up a lot, so those will be much easier to plan for and absorb.

I love watching Garland when he’s on his game. But he wasn’t as engaged this past season. Maybe all the losing is getting to him. Either way, agree that I’d rather move Beau/Boe than Garland.

Panthers had the 12th highest goals against in the league this year - highest of any playoff team. They allowed more goals than the Senators. Montour has been a nice find for them, but do you honestly think a bottom-4 of Gudas, Staal, Forsling, and Mahura are one of the best on the league? Boston’s bottom-4 creams those guys. IMO, Florida’s bottom-4 is actually below average. But the team is dialed in right now, and Bob is stopping nearly everything that gets through.

The biggest difference between the current Panthers and the 2012 Kings is the defence. That Kings team had a stacked blueline behind Darryl Sutter’s stifling system. Quick was excellent, but most of the time he didn’t have to be, because the quality chances were few and far between. The Panthers have a comparatively shallow blueline, a more loose team defence, and as such are giving up a lot of high quality scoring chances. But Bob is just in the zone, and stopping them at a ridiculous rate.

Last season they had a lot of career years offensively, but it didn’t translate to playoff success. Then they lost a lot of depth in the offseason (Giroux, Marchment, Chiarot, etc.), and made the big Tkachuk deal. They seem to be built better for the playoffs, with intense, physical players that elevate their game as the stakes raise. But the main reason for their success this postseason is far-and-away Bobrovsky. His save percentage this round is unreal, if it were even average they would be down 3-0 instead.

Ummm, no. The current Panthers have been getting outplayed on a regular basis. But they are riding an absolutely insane heater by Bobrovsky. They are like the Canucks with bubble Demko, only the team in front of the brick wall is at least decent. It’s crazy to think that they couldn’t even trust Bob as starter as recently as end of the season. He looked headed for a buyout this summer. And then suddenly…magic. We can all question the ability of the Leafs to succeed in the playoffs. But super-Bob and his band of merry men are doing the same thing they did to the Leafs to the Hurricanes, a proven playoff winner.

I thought OEL played the defensive role quite well in his first season in Vancouver. I mean…he made Myers look decent - that’s quite an accomplishment! Of course, he was hot garbage in his 2nd year, but the team seems to think that is related to the foot injury he suffered at the Worlds last year. The coach seems confident that he’ll return much stronger next season. If he plays anything like he did last year, I think he’ll be a good partner for Hronek. As for Hughes, I don’t think it matters that much who they pair him with - he’s that good. Schenn was good in that role, but Hughes didn’t miss a beat when he left either. I think the team should treat him like Tampa treats Hedman - he’s been playing with undervalued young guys for years (Ruuta, and now Perbix). Maybe they can leverage the opportunity to play with Hughes into getting a favourable contract from a guy like Mayfield or Gudas (or even Schenn again). But if not, maybe Johansson, Juulsen, or even Woo can fill that role on the cheap?

$5.25M cap hit, for a guy who hasn’t played hockey in ages. That’s a helluva risk. St. Louis took a shot on him, but only after Detroit retained 50%.

No, the full cap hit counts against whatever team he’s playing on, regardless of who paid the actual cash and when.

This is probably for the best. And it’s likely in the Canucks’ best interests to retain his rights. Kravtsov is only 23, so he won’t be UFA-eligible at the end of the 2 years. In the chance that he does really well in the KHL and wants to try the NHL again (like Nichushkin), those rights might be worth something at that point.

Defensemen that produce offence like Hronek and are also effective shut-down guys are not available for trade. Those are franchise defensemen. I believe effective team defence includes the ability for your D to be able to quickly and efficiently move the puck out of your zone. Hughes is a great example of this. He doesn’t hit, block, box-out, or do almost anything typical of a “defensive defenseman” all that well, and yet his defensive impact is fantastic. IMO, not being able to move the puck well was the main failing of our 2nd and 3rd pairs. Hronek potentially fixes that on the 2nd pair. We still need more positional/defensive guys to pair him and Hughes with, but those players are usually easier to acquire.

Garland - 6GP, 1G, 5A, 6Pts, +4 Myers - 5GP, 0Pts, +5, 6PIMs Bear - 5GP, 0Pts, +/-even, 4PIMs Silovs - 4GP, .952 save %, 1.22GAA Silovs is getting the spotlight, but Garland is quietly showing well. May bode well for his trade value. Myers at least hasn’t been a liability, so that’s something. Just need someone to at least claim him off waivers.

Hronek was injured, so he wasn’t going to be available for them if they kept him or not. And they also just got demolished by the Senators, so Yzerman publicly stated the team wasn’t ready to compete yet. There is a lot of data out there that suggests Hronek is a very good defenseman. He could be exactly what this team needs: someone who can anchor the 2nd pair, move the puck efficiently, and help the team not get caved in whenever Hughes is on the bench. I’m cautiously optimistic. As for the price to acquire him, it doesn’t seem much more than what we paid for Gudbranson. The same data suggested he was not good - and it proved to be right. And as for the expected cost to retain him, I’d rather the team pay a very good D-man $6M than Myers.

It’s tough to say, because so many of their better players are one year from UFA status: Lindholm, Toffoli, Hanifin, Backlund, Tanev, and Zadorov. But they probably want to see how they’ll respond to a coaching change. I suspect they’ll move a defenseman (Kylington is supposed to be back) - it might be Hanifin if he indicates that he doesn’t want to extend in Calgary. And I suspect they’ll move Vladar, and bring up Wolf, who has completely dominated the AHL. Other than that, I don’t suspect there will be many moves.

COVID derailed the cap right after the Mathews and Marner mega-deals. If it weren’t for that, they would have had a lot more flexibility. That said, Mathews and Marner have proven to be flakes, that wilt when things ramp up in the playoffs. Can have one of them, but a team built around both won’t win. They’ll need to make their decision and trade the other.

IMO, better than DARE. Just love the vocal hooks.