Ilya Mikheyev

His height isn't what I'm worried about.. but his 1+ giveaways (often blunders) per game with very few takeaways in the last year (like fewer than Brad Hunt...), a CF% of 39 (43 at EV) percent last year, is as chaotic as Tyler Myers in terms of position, even though bigger players have an easier time making a hit he's not terribly physical - he generated 6.06 hit/60 the last two seasons (about Juho Lammikko range), lack of any positives around his transition, zone exits (something Allvin and JR firmly believe need to be improved on) or offensive abilities. He played 20 minutes a night last year on the last place team in the league, finishing below Arizona. In Montreal's miracle playoff run he had some brutal gaffs which costed them the T-Bay series. Dom's GVSA model valued his worth at 800,000 last year, and he's got another year at 3.5 on his contract after this one. I would much rather take a chance with Dermott on the right-side who put up impressive (but limited and likely unsustainable) numbers under Boudreau after the trade. I think he has the tools to be decent, although I'm all for an improvement, but nevermind moving Nils for this guy. The only somewhat redeeming quality from a Canucks' perspective is that his best career defensive play came under Mike Yeo - but I don't really see Vancouver's defensive structure moving to the one Yeo used (and did terribly with overall) in St Louis.

pssst Joel Edmundson isn't good

Sens gonna be under the radar battling for a playoff spot next year I think. Lots of good moves this summer , high compete players on the team. Never thought I'd be saying such nice things about a GM who paid for Hamonic's contract last year

In July I proposed the Canucks sign Stone to a contract that can easily be buried in the AHL based on his size, RHD, previously chemistry with OEL and lack of RHD in Abby. Still think this should be a consideration if they can't snag de Haan.

Yeah, many players wanna play in the US - but his options may be limited. Maybe he wants to contend, maybe he wants term. We really haven't had any insight from his camp. Hoping he signs a 1 or 2 year deal here still if there's no other options for D improvements on the horizon.

Some PTO players end up signing with different teams after camp (i.e., Owen Nolan, Brendan Morrison) - still a chance he has Vancouver as an option.

Ex BCHLer! Don't really see how he would fit in Vancouver OR Abbotsford, but PTO-based camp competition never hurts.

I agree on your second point - I'd absolutely prefer Schneider. It doesn't seem like he's available, but if there's a straight Garland for Schneider trade on the table, sign me up. Perfect partner for Quinn.

I don't think you're necessarily wrong about overpayment - but I do think it's worth considering that Krav and Lund are both players that have requested trades at some point, one of which has held out to play in the KHL and one who is threatening to do the same with the SHL this year. I think this lowers their value significantly although as my posts suggests, there's not a whole lot of comparable trades, so it is hard to gauge. Drury is in a bind because they're both likely gonna be waiver eligible after this year, so this provides an opportunity to get a high end winger for them, rather than potentially lose them for nothing or for at their lowest value, like Benning with Juolevi. But I could be wrong on the exact value for sure. I think Lundkvist & OEL could form a really good 2-way pairing if best came to best. He does have offensive skills, but he's more generally just a good defenseman who is sound positionally and good in transition. If his offensive game can hit his ceiling at the NHL level then we're looking at a very solid top-4 guy. It is of course a risk on a player who hasn't gotten significant NHL time. For this year, he'd be competing for TOI and both he and Rathbone would be waiver exempt. Thinking competition might not be a bad thing this year where Allvin struggled to directly fill the top-4 gap, which is fair considering what has been available. A top-8 of Hughes - (UFA (Severson?),trade, etc.) OEL - Lundkvist Rathbone - Myers Schenn, Burroughs to start the season after next could be quite good if Rathbone and Lundkvist could come into their own.

To NYR: Conor Garland, Joni Jurmo, 5th round pick 2024 To Vancouver: Filip Chytil, Nils Lundkvist, Vitali Kravtsov, Colorado 3rd round pick 2023, 7th round pick 2023 Why - NYR is without a top line RWer. After Laf was tried at RW last off-season and did not look like a top-6 player, Drury traded for Andrew Copp and Frankie Vatrano to fill the gap. NYR ended up going on a long playoff run - but both RWs left the team as FAs. Vinny Trochek is expected to fill the 2C hole not the first line RW - Conor Garland is definitely a top-6 winger, and signed at a decent contract going forward. His 49 EV points last year in 77 games is impressive, and we all saw his fiestiness. With some reasonable PP time his point total would only increase. - While losing Garland would be a huge hit for the Canucks, the Canucks' area of strength right now is the wing, and IMO they have to somehow shift that over abundance into places they still have gaps to fill - This move would also give the Canucks more cap flexibility, something PA has been harping on since taking over - Chytil can immediately step into a 3C position, allowed for Boudreau to load up the top-6 with Miller, Petey and Horvat in it. Chytil still hasn't hit his offensive potential but all his other #s are pretty strong - Lundkvist and Kravtsov are both players who have requested trades if possible because NYR is so deep and opportunity is limited. They're both waiver exempt next year and would give the Canucks' strong depth to figure out the perfect team formation. Kravvy can also play C, a position where the Canucks in Abbotsford and Vancouver could use a little top-9 depth in case of injury, esp. if Boudreau wants to keep the 3 best players in the top-6. Lundkvist has big upside, is a RHD, won the Salming award in his last year in Sweden. He's good positionally and has a high-end offensive potential - a poor man's Sergei Gonchar at this point, but he's played on a team that has been extensively scouted by Patrik Allvin in Sweden and would come to Vancouver where there's a long history of Swedish mentorship still involved in the org (Gradin, Sedin x 2, Allvin, Petey, OEL, etc etc). Allvin and JR have also developed a trusting relationship with Dan Milstein this off-season, so this may be an environment Kravvy would be excited to be joining with Kuzie and Mikhe and Klimo having the same representation and language. - A minor addition to the trade is that Allvin gets a better, sooner draft pick as the Canucks try to quickly add to a barren prospect pipeline. - Having Hoggie, Garlie, Kuzie, and Petey in the potential top-6 or top-9 do give the Canucks a pretty diminutive top-9, whereas Chytil adds a bigger frame to make up for the imbalance. - Chytil was rumoured to be mentioned in the Miller-to-NYR deal, meaning there's some openness from both teams that he could be swapped. - Overall the Canucks get younger, get two Cs and a RHD, and some cap flexibility. The Rangers get a definite top-6 winger while accommodating trade requests for another playoff run.

I would love a Rathbone-Subban ozone deployment oriented bottom pairing and an OEL - Subban PP2 unit, but I voted de Haan because I weighted some realism into my vote. Adding de Haan to the PK and snagging the best defenseman left in terms of defensive zone play (outside of zone exits) would give Boudreau more options to find the perfect pairings. I've long gone on about de Haan's flaws in terms of being trusted in the top-4 at this point in his career, but at this point there's no UFA D left who would come in as safe top-4 options and I do think he'd excel in a diminished, structured role. Not on the list, but I would like to see ZAR here, but if he's willing to come to camp I'd rather just see him on 1 year/1.125 million dollar deal. If the Canucks can land both ZAR and one of Subban or de Haan by waiving Dickinson, I hope they consider that, as much as Dickie could rebound next year, these are all players who would improve the teams depth quite a bit. PK units of Petey-Mikhe and ZAR-Lazar would be huge steps up compared to last year. Once the season starts, you never know where injuries would hit and Dickinson would likely eventually get a call back up.

I'm someone who was shocked that JT was re-signed this off-season, but Miller did take a 'hometown' discount of approx .5m-1m to stay. He would've fetched at least 8.5x7 on the open market (59.5 million), and maybe more- he also could have targeted an organization with reduced income taxes.

what if he asks for 7

4 x 3.36

Prokop should absolutely be a target if there's any sense at all that he could be available, especially after his WHL playoffs last year. Always difficult to determine if players that big have too much of an advantage at the the WHL level and will struggle when faced with more pro sized players. But if he's on the table for a 3rd or 4th round pick in 2024 or 2025 and a LHD prospect, I'd absolutely pull the trigger. The fact that he's also a smooth skater is promising, at the very worst he'd be waiver exempt RHD depth for the next 3 years who can play a good stay at home and physical game, and hopefully his transition game adapts to the higher level.

I agree with aGENT's assessment We should be mindful too that although there is a glaring hole in the top-4, the team's overall defensive side of the game has been improved in some ways since the start of last year: - Jack Rathbone looked almost NHL ready last off-season, but one of the strongest parts of his game, zone exits, was not quite polished enough and led to his demotion. After the first 0 points in his first 3 AHL games he then put up 40 points in the next 36 games down there. By RJ's assessment his game has been polished quite a bit. Allvin and JR harped on zone exits quite a bit when they first took over, and Rathbone will be superior to anyone who started from 5-8 on the depth chart last year. He's shown previous chemistry with Myers and it wouldn't shock me if they're tried as a 2nd pairing at some point. - Nolan Baumgartner is long gone. Whatever system the players were following under him to start last year was .... very pathetic, if they were following anything at all. We don't know a lot about Cull other than he was a defenseman himself and has coached pretty good regular seasons considering the team lacked high level depth in Utica and Abby. We know Yeo is a NHL-level assistant with lots of experience and should have a lot of tools to rebuild the PK. - The PK. The Canucks landed one of the best PKing forwards in the NHL this off-season in Ilya Mikheyev (not exaggerating), and added a RH center who is also good on the PK in Curtis Lazar - they don't really have that in the toolbox last year. - Hamonic out, Dermott in. I don't know what happened to Travis Hamonic, but it was not good for his hockey. Dermott put up shockingly good numbers in his short Canucks stint (not with extremely difficult deployment, but still). He can also play both sides. If he's put in 3rd pairing role, he'll succeed but his ceiling is still a bit higher. His transition game was an improvement of Hamonic, Poolman, Hunt, Schenn (ily Schenn but you're lucky you play with Hughes in this regard), and all of the injury fill-ins, although Burroughs showed some flashes, it wasn't really what the coach asked of him. - No Halak. Although Halak didn't have a major role on the team, this was a team a FEW GAMES out of a playoff spot, and he was the only goalie with a losing record, going 4-7-2. A 6-4-3 record would've meant a playoff spot last year, and Spencer Martin looks poised to hit #s in that range. - If de Haan fills out the remaining cap space, that's another depth improvement. The Canucks badly need another top-4 defenseman to be considered a solid cup contender, and they could also use a one more bluechip waiver exempt player so they can have more tools to find solid pairings. But to be a playoff contender? It's pretty close at this point IMO.

POD IS A GOD

I didn't say I wanted to trade Hoggie and/or Boner for them - but adding two young players with big upside from a team that's very deep would be good for this org. Kravtsov can play C and Lundkvist is a RHD, whereas Hoggie can only play W and Rathone is a LHD. Both Krav and Lund are waiver exempt next year so they would be playing to earn a spot, plus be depth for injuries. They'd be adding important competition to the roster spots. If Bruce wants to load up the top-6 with Miller, Petey and Horvat, then Krav can also be tried as a third line center, potentially between Kuzie and Pods. The Lundkvist can't play defense statement is pretty unfounded, he played well defensively in Lulea winning the Salming award and in his short NHL stints. It's hard to gauge the value of unhappy players on their first ELC who have requested trade, there hasn't been a ton moved in their situation in the past year from what I can remember. Senyshyn was moved for scraps but he was already waiver eligible and ... is not that good, Dahlen was traded for a younger prospect worth slightly less than himself (at the time). Canucks have developed a strong relationship with Milstein this summer. Lundkvist comes from a team Allvin has scouted intensely for the Pens, drafting Hallander and Gustavsson from the same team; plus the Canucks have a long history of Swedish talent obviously. If the Canucks can somehow buy low on these two players, I would be pretty stoked. Joni Jurmo, Mike Dipietro, NYR's 4th round pick 2023 & Canucks' 2nd in 2025 for Kravtsov & Lundkvist? I'd be all over something like that.

I want a Kravtsov and Lundkvist package somehow

give him the Tage Thompson contract and further bold the font on the C on his jersey. Bo embodies this team, sign him through his prime 7.14 x 8. Let's goooo

I meant more like he can fill in as needed and do a fine job anywhere in the line-up - that's why I said he's not good enough to be a top-6 fixture. When Schifele and Wheeler were injured and he got top-6 time 5on5 he had 8 points in 22 games, without PP time and playing well below 15 mins a game. When they came back he was a 4th line player and had to adapt - finishing the year with 104 hits in 72 games with decent possession stats. Lots of players getting priced out - like Dalton Heinen who took a huge discount, and Zack Aston-Reese, Tyler Motte who remain unsigned. I don't think it's a 'major' signing but I think he's very good depth. With the Canucks having three Russians and Klimo who seem to really enjoy having each other in the locker room, another mid-20s, big-framed body who can fill-in for injury much better than someone like Petan or Bailey last year, I would've been happy to see him here on a 1-year league min contract for sure.

Geno is a great depth signing at that price. Wish the Canucks offered the same. Guy can play anywhere in the lineup and contribute in many diff roles. Physical with some offensive abilities but not enough to be a permanent top-6 player. Proved last year he can adapt to being a physical 4th liner if needed.

Zack Aston-Reese. Very solid defensively, physical, decent sized 4th line winger who has contributed to some good PKs, with some untouched offensive abilities (has paced for 10-15 goals a couple times).

Don't forget ZAR waive Dickinson if necessary and sign both de Haan and ZAR for 1-1.3 million each. Trade a 2025 pick for Lundkvist. Call it a day

Will be a decent depth signing who plays mostly in the AHL for someone. Would be cool to have him in Abbotsford after icing a pretty undersized top-6 last year, but JR traded this dude away right away in Pitts even as a PPGer so I doubt he's a target.