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Everything posted by kloubek
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I think we should all be careful to assume *either* Virtanen or Rodin will make an impact with the Canucks this season, or even crack the lineups. First, they need to have a good training camp to even be placed on the team. While they both certainly have talent, they have also both proven they were not ready for their desired roles when initially expected of them. Rodin was previously written off as a bust, and who knows how he will adapt to the NHL game. At least in Virtanen's case, I'll give him a bit of a pass as he was put with the big club too quickly. I'm not saying they won't play with the Canucks. Not at all. They may thrive this season, and I'm certainly hoping for that. But I think it is presumptuous to be pencilling either into a 2nd line role at this point.
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Good to hear. Very curious on the amount and term. On one hand, he's still a backup, but on the other, I'm fairly confident he will indeed be a #1 goalie in this league. If last year's stats have anything to say about it, he's almost at that level already.
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Agreed. This is his time to shine. That's the only thing that concerns me about this guy. Otherwise, he's a gem.
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That would be nice, but next to impossible to sign. We just don't have the wingers a guy at his level needs to play with.
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I really wanted Dubois, but that move by Columbus.... Just... Wow. I didn't expect this pick over MT, but I can only assume that Benning - who knows more about this business than any of us - sees something special here. Wouldnt have been my pick, but excited to bolster our d. I trust he is going to be a very good player. Not sure where we expect to get our high end scoring from now, mind you.
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Enjoyed the first one for it's dramatic production value alone. Some obvious talent there. Hope he can put it together at this level.
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Funny how the Sedin threads get so little attention, yet we all have such a deep respect and give props for these amazing players we have been blessed with for a long, long time. Mad props.
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Yeah, we really do. I don't Baertschi's as having a top end ceiling either, but I do think he could potentially be capable of being a reasonable 2nd line scorer. When we likely draft a player capable of LW in this draft, it will help a lot. That individual should just be hitting their stride at the end of the Sedins' contracts. And if we miss on that draft, we're pretty much hooped unless we snag good players via free agency.
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I hope so. He was expected to perform at a 2nd line level last season, but if you look at his stats for the whole year, he didn't exactly improve them from his time in Calgary. Career year - yes. But in 12-13, he scored every other game. (.50) In 13-14, he scored at pace of .42. His 14-15 year was forgettable at .27, and his last year with us: .40. Granted, I have little to no insight into his linemates or how he was used, and even though the stats are out there, I don't know about his ice time either. Point being that purely from a statistical standpoint he isn't exactly improved... even though he looked better at times than others this past season. Point being that I think there is little to back up that he will be a "gem", despite his 15 goals. This coming season will be very telling for what kind of progress he's actually making. I do hope he turns out to be our 2nd line winger; it is a position we badly need talent in.
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I think if nothing else, he proved that he can play minutes for (nearly) a full season. He had a career year, but that is to be expected given the amount of games he played. As far as his "worth".... I'm not sure it really has changed a whole lot. This coming season will be telling.
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I think you are making big assumptions on our players. Horvat, sure.... he's a minimum 2nd line center. Virtanen is so far unproven, and flashes of what we expect from him isn't enough to define his career. Boeser looks great, but he hasn't faced NHL competition. There are plenty of players who looked great at lower levels, and couldn't translate that success into the NHL. Baertschi has potential, but as of last season was not ready for a 2nd line role. I have no idea what he will turn into, but I'm expecting (hoping?) he's going to be good enough to warrant a full-time 2nd line position. Otherwise, we are even weaker than I thought on the left side. Unless we traded down for a great return, I don't see us getting anyone other than MT or Dubois in this draft. I see you are an advocate of Logan Brown, which is understandable given his size, but to me he is a noticeably bigger question mark to be a top 6 player than the LW I expect we are going to end up picking.
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He better not. Horvat is our only young player who is pretty much a lock for a top six role and might even progress to a top 3 role going forward. On our left wing we have Baertschi (likely a 2nd line LW), and will likely be drafting a top 6. On the right side we have possibilities with Virtanen and Boeser. Once Henrik is gone, we're badly going to need someone to replace him in a center position, and Sutter isn't a guy who will ever be able to do that. The ONLY way I'd accept Horvat getting traded is if we were to somehow manage to land Stamkos. I'd still prefer to have Horvat as the 2nd line center, but Sutter can man that position in a pinch.
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I suppose it depends on what you mean by a "proper rebuild". If you mean that we put players in roles above where they should be just to give them experience, then you're totally right.... getting UFAs would reduce this. I don't think that's the best way to develop a player though, or you destroy confidence if they don't produce under the pressure. If you mean that you're dropping a young guy to a lesser role than he can *properly* handle, then I would agree with you. But I don't think we really run a risk of this, since we're talking about UFAs who play in roles that our young guys just are not skilled enough to handle. Assuming we draft a prospect who legitimately has top line talent, and Boeser turns out to be a home run, THEN we have players who, after they are ready, would be deserving of a top six role. But that won't likely be for another year or two *minimum*, and by that point the Sedins will be at the end of their contract... either retiring, or taking on a lesser role for a short, final contract with us. I think the only current example on our team of a player who maybe should be playing a bigger role than he is (or likely will be) is, in fact, Horvat. I think he is ready for a second line center role, but I believe Benning did impede Horvat's ability to be properly placed with the addition of Sutter. (Which is why I was puzzled by that trade in the first place). With Sutter's contract being until 20/21, I really have no idea what the plan is there; boost Horvat all the way up to the first line, even if he doesn't turn out to be good enough to justify it? Was puzzled then and I'm still puzzled now. It is almost as if Sutter will *have* to be put on the wing to effectively place him into our lineup.
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We are going to either make the playoffs, or be close, regardless. If we're not going to get a high pick, then we might as well assemble the best team possible.
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Well, no.... it isn't specifically a particular line. My comments are based on the traditional setup whereby your first 2 lines are your best scorers, third line is energy with some scoring ability, 4th line are the grinders who can *hopefully* chip in. Most teams still use a setup at least somewhat similar to this for a multitude of reasons. Maybe a team could use their "2nd" line as the shutdown line and their third line provides the secondary scoring. In that instance, you'd be totally right. It just almost never works out that way. The fact is this: The league has limited room for a player who is just "good" offensively, and mediocre at everything else. If Nylander's talent doesn't translate to a top scoring level, then he had better ensure he has other elements to his game to keep himself in the league. Virtanen, on the other hand, will almost certainly be an NHL player. Whether he plays on a top line or lower line remains to be seen. And yes, if he doesn't develop into a scoring winger, then he will indeed end up on the 3rd or 4th line.... which, almost always, is a line that has players who were not good enough to be top scorers, but bring other elements to the game.
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I'm actually predicting more of a 60/40 split to start. Maybe even a a 50/50 split. Markstrom is going to be our goalie going forward until Demko is ready, so it would be wise to subject him to a larger workload than 3:1. In addition, Miller isn't getting any younger. I predict it will become apparent that Markstrom's is the better goalie less than 1/3 of the way through the season, at which time I expect you'll see him start to take the crease from Miller as the season goes on.
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To me, Granlund showed me exactly what I expected to see - which is to say, nothing much. I am with you - I'm far more interested to see what Gaunce might develop into than I am with Granlund in that role. But since he was just acquired, you know Gaunce will have to work his butt off to pass Granlund on the depth chart.
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Well, we will see. He was thrown in too early so the fact he didn't get his game together last year isn't a surprise. I agree that he does have that ceiling. I think by picking a guy like Virtanen in such a draft position is both a high and low risk proposition. High because he never quite showed quite the same offensive acumen as, say, Nylander. Yet, if Virtanen doesn't reach his potential he should still be able to play a bottom 6 role. If Nylander doesn't reach his potential, he has a high chance of not continuing his NHL career because he's certainly not the kind of guy you want on your 3rd or 4th line. Though we haven't likely seen what Virtanen is capable of, I'm also still happy with this pick.
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The "classy" move is to keep Burrows, and hope he can regain a bit of his original form. The "business" move is to buy him out. I think at the end of the day, the reason Benning hasn't indicated anything either way is because he wants to see what kind of splash he can make in the UFA market. Assuming we get nowhere near the cap for this coming season, I see no reason to buy him out. As mentioned, he's a great example and mentor to the young pups on the team.
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It is difficult to say precisely how good Markstrom is, but we have a pretty good indication how he fared against the competition last season. Even though I watched most of the games last season, I honestly cannot recall from what position he was typically scored on. I do remember, however, that on several occasions he was hung out to dry by our d not being able to effectively box out the opposition forwards. Hopefully with our blueline retool, that should be improved dramatically and it will allow him to shine. Even as it is, his save percentage was good for 46th in the league total... or 29th for any goalie playing 25 or more games. This basically puts him on the low end of starting goalie stats, and if you factor in the likelihood that our defense was responsible for more goals being scored against him than on the average team, he'd definitely improve on that number; I'd say anywhere from 20th to 25th... though that is hardly scientific. Of course, even adjusted, those are hardly elite numbers, but considering he still has more to learn I'm satisfied with that so early in his career. Assuming Demko turns out to be the elite goalie we are all hoping, that gives us an incredible tandem in net, and absolutely provides us with tradable assets between the pipes again. As long as Benning doesn't fudge the situation like Gillis did with Schneider and Luongo, we are in great shape with Markstrom. Markstrom should be able to build on his successful year and perform even better - especially given our new defense. The amount of games he played last season is a pretty small sample size and I predict he'll really show us what he is made of this coming season.
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It is really hard to say what Horvat will become. I've always felt he looked to have a solid 2nd line ceiling, but some of the moves he makes are so skilled it is hard not to think he *could* become a top line center. His progression last season was excellent, and if he can keep that going, only good things are in his future. While an entirely different kind of player, look what Kesler ended up being when he was initially given the 3rd line center role. While not as physical, I'd say the offensive talent displayed by Horvat surpasses that of Kesler, so I'm pretty excited to see where Horvat ends up in his prime for sure.
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I'm hoping that he was just thrown into the NHL too soon, and that it was the pressure of that, along with being crucified for his Team Canada play just got to him. I hope he arrives at camp confident, refreshed, and ready to show us what he is capable of. There is no reason that as long as he makes solid plays that he shouldn't be able to find a third line spot on this team. He has the toolbox.... just needs to stop slamming it shut on himself.
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I really hope Edler can return to previous form. I totally agree that he was expected to do too many things, and he just doesn't have the ability to multitask in that manner. Being paired with Tanev helped him be able to think more offensive-mindedly, but he was still expected to dish out the big hits and even those two things combined was a struggle. Now he can focus on just putting up points and trying to play a sound game.
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I think as long as he is conditioned enough to play consistent nhl games that Tryamkin is a lock on a 5/6 position. He proved that while he got far too winded, his game itself is just fine at the NHL level. We didn't sign him not to play him. He's not a defensive liability, and hits like an absolute truck.