tas

for the sedins? abso-freaking-lutely. for the others? considerably less so.

preaching to the choir, guy. you won't find a stauncher critic of this team's drafting and development than me.

its not that bad. its cyclical. right now the forest is dried up and dead, but all it needs is a fire to burn it down and nourish the new growth that will follow.

yes, and you can thank your gm for not making the improvements necessary in the summer after the cup loss, a time when a couple of smart and "bold" moves could have legitimately been enough to get this core back to the dance. but instead he stuck with the horses that had failed, let key complementary pieces walk, and either replaced them with big time downgrades or not at all.

yeah, and that's not the stage of the development cycle the canucks currently find themselves in. chicago's core is in their prime. with hossa the oldest at 35 and toews and kane the youngest at 25, with sharp. keith, and seabrook all in between, the hawks should be competitive for another 4-5 years with their current core. because they managed to draft two elite forwards with high draft picks, find two excellent complimentary forwards via trade/free agency, and develop two excellent defenceman the long way, their core will have a long reign at the top. the canucks current core was always pretty average. they started rising when vigneault got here, they all peaked in 10/11, and the decline since has been rapid. the core just isn't as good as chicago's, and as such, their window of opportunity was much smaller. it's gone. at this point nobody should be expecting the sedins to lead the canucks to a cup, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be leading the team into the future as they continue to build a new core from within and hopefully make some prudent acquisitions through trades and free agency. these are two guys who willingly sacrificed their last few shots at the cup to stay with this franchise and thanklessly carry the load for what will be an average-at-best team while the new generation is being brought along to eventually take their place. how that kind of selflessness and loyalty isn't universally admired and respected by every canucks fan is boggling and disgusting to me. and like i said before, who else available are you going to spend that $14 mil on? callahan and vanek? neither would come here, and they'll both be far more overpaid than the sedins anyway. they also wouldn't lead this team to a cup. what needs to happen is for the fans to look towards 3 or 4 years from now when a new core has been solidified. that core should be built around henrik, daniel, kassian, horvat, shinkaruk, gaunce, hopefully jensen, tanev, stanton, bieksa, hamhuis, lack, and whatever good young players they bring in through the draft, college free agency, and in trades for assets like kesler, burrows, hansen, edler, garrison, luongo, etc.

its been said so many times already: who else are you going to spend that $14 mil on? keep in mind there isnt going to be a single top line forward available via trade or free agency. you need some players around to carry the weight and lead during a rebuild/retool and gillis chose the sedins. its why they're untouchable. it was also absolutely the right choice. not only are they consummate professionals, incredible leaders on the ice and in the community, and supremely loyal to the organization, but there isn't a single other player already in the organization or available on the market who could be the kind of mentors and role models that the sedins are. not everything is about scoring points.

stop spamming your vote nonsense and let the 10 most deserving players get their shot at the hobey baker. how would you feel if you had a great season in the ncaa, worthy of a baker nomination, but you missed out because a bunch of 15 year olds from canada that haven't watched a single shift of ncaa hockey voted in some other guy instead? i'm not saying hutton doesn't deserve a nomination, but let nature take its course.

welcome to 6 months ago.

this guy has me seriously licking my chops right now. http://predators.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=36986

does kesler not lead nhl forwards in ice time? i'd call that first line minutes, regardless of who his linemates are.

yeah, let's stifle honesty and diversity of opinions. get out of here if you don't like it. that's the easy way to avoid the negativity.

teams only trade top line players if they ask for a trade. most top line players are on long term deals, and the ones that aren't either won't make it to free agency, or will get grossly overpaid and not choose a market like vancouver.

how do you build a killer top line when top line players basically never become available?

add kesler to your second list.

complacency sets in very easily when your work environment stagnates and there's nothing to provide you with a spark.

uhhh

. no gm accepts the job without being allowed to choose their own coach. and the thing is, if tortorella finds another nhl job, the canucks are off the hook for his remaining years, and i think he'd find other work fairly quickly.

this is a group that was never going to respond to tortorella's brand of tough love and brutal honesty. vigneault got the most out of them by constantly pumping their tires and keeping them upbeat and positive. it was obvious to anyone that understands this game and this team right from the get-go that tortorella was the wrong choice. the core is so stale that its covered in mold, and gillis needs to either cut off all the moldy bits and salvage what's left or throw the whole damn thing in the trash.

while not technically a gm anymore, kevin lowe said he'd never deal with gillis. but think about it: gillis spent years making his living by screwing over gms and squeezing every last penny he could get out of them for his clients, by any means necessary. i guarantee he didn't make many friends along the way.

acknowledging a job well done and disliking/disrespecting a person are not mutually exclusive.

peter chiarelli - assistant gm in ottawa ray shero - assistant gm in ottawa and nashville ken holland - assistant gm in detroit stan bowman - assistant gm in chicago notice the trend?

leafs end the streak, canucks officially hit the lowest point since keenan.

the same people defending gillis are the ones who tear gary bettman to shreds, yet gary has more character in his pinky fingernail than greasy gillis could ever hope to possess. i would love to be a season ticket holder if only to go to the summer summit and get my own opportunity to grill that scumbag myself.

you know its 2014 now right? you sound like an alberta fan, living in the past.

somebody said hamhuis mentioned it on after hours. try looking for that maybe.