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Based on this, I'd think Hughes plays his first game Vs. Ottawa on March 20th.

Dear N. Tryamkin, I hope your English is getting better or that your agent can read this to you. I respect how you like to honour your contracts with your respective clubs, but please realize we would very much like you to break your existing KHL contract and return to the Canucks, pronto. You see, we just traded our toughest defenseman and now we have likely the smallest defense in the league. Please return. Benning has money. Green has ice time, we'll make this work.

Guddy made bonehead plays for sure, but boy... who is our toughest defender now? We need to get Tryamkin back.

Agree with this. If Bo could add a bit of piss and vinegar hitting into his game, he’d probably already be captain.

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Right before / after the all star break he seemed to be slowing down a bit. But he seems to have turned it up a notch in recent games. Horvat looks like he's giving a good effort in recent games too, just having terrible pick luck.

I would agree with this. He hasn't taken a game off in terms of effort.

Interesting.. I don't think the lock-out factored in, but you're right, I think they celebrated the 40th in 2010/11 season, which would be right, since they were brought into the league in 1970/71. I have a "Canucks at Forty' book published in 2010. So yeah, that's puzzling, because shouldn't the 50th be in 2020/21, like you say?

This remains a real question with multiple threads emerging. Question: for people saying they’d prefer Horvat because he hits and fights, does he actually do that? Honestly, I think I’ve seen EP throw more hits than him of late.

How would that even work? We'd give it to Bo for like 3 years, then take it away from him and give it to EP? They're both young players. This isn't a Brown or Thornton situation. I imagine all that would do is damage relations between the Canucks organization and Horvat for years to come.

This is my biggest regret about Horvat too. He has more potential to push back, but he hasn't so much. I saw stats from someone on here recently that show how rarely he is hitting these days too. So if he's not hitting much or helping protect his teammates much, there aren't as many differences between him and EP, except that Horvat can win a lot of faceoffs. Meanwhile, EP is way more talented offensively. They both back check hard and are good two way players. You could argue Horvat is more vocal with leadership, but I'm not convinced, as EP already seems to be coming into his own with that. My concern is that they're both still relatively young, and even if Horvat might be beating out EP today with captaincy qualities, Pettersson's ceiling isn't yet known, and he may become one of the league's best players and leaders. It would be pretty awkward and demoralizing to have to strip Horvat of the captaincy in two seasons if the organization realizes it made a mistake on it. I still think they could both be made captain pretty easily. But given how much potential I see with EP, if I was management, I'd be nervous to not give it to him.

So fun to watch. We need this guy back in 2020-21.

Woo is listed at 6 feet, but after seeing him, I think that’s at least two inches too generous. Can anyone confirm? I love his physical play. He would be very unpleasant to play against.

Tryamkin and parents buying houses in Van?? He'll have to sign with us soon to afford Vancouver real estate.

If we brought him back this moment, he would be at least our third best defenseman, hands down. The guy can skate, destroy people with his hits and size, and has a fantastic reach. As much as Hutton has improved, and as steady as Stetcher is this season, they still aren't on the same page as him. And Guddy is great as bringing some toughness, but defensively isn't as strong,

The closer the Canucks get to the possibility of playoffs this season, the more I wish it was possible for Tryamkin to somehow join them. Is it at all possible for him to sign with them this spring? (i.e. if he's bought out of his remaining KHL contract, and assuming he'd actually go for it?) He would be such an incredible addition for any kind of post-season run.

I saw the game too. Very impressive game by Woo. He's quite a bit shorter than I thought... kind of reminds of Tootoo out there with the physical play. He looked good on the power play. He took every opportunity he could to finish checks.

Q Hughes reminds me of Drew Doughty. I think he’ll be very exciting, and probably give TG fits with some of the gambles. But he is what we need.

Willie was horrible with rookies and ice time. Tryamkin was one our best defenseman that year and was often getting 3rd pair minutes. Had it been TG coaching that year, Tryamkin would have got a lot more ice time. It's no coincidence Willie isn't with us anymore.

Thanks a bunch for posting. I like this response by Tryamkin. To me, if he planned to continue to stay in Russia after his 3 year contract, he would probably state that as a preference. Unless he's keeping his cards close to gain leverage. But to me, it feels like he may have a return to the NHL in mind. It's too bad the reporter didn't ask if he was learning English at all in his spare time.

While there will never be another Gretzky, it is interesting that Pettersson is so often being compared to the Great One. Of all the current NHL players, he does seem to perhaps resemble and play the most similar to #99. Some may say McDavid is the closest thing, but I'd disagree. That's not to say McDavid is not perhaps the best player in the NHL today, but quite frankly, he reminds me more of a player like Gilbert Perreault (although better). He's fast (unlike Gretzky) and plays that kind of intense game. Gretzky played at his pace and was just thinking the game so much further ahead of everyone else with each play, similar to Pettersson. And look how they carry themselves so similarly.... Each passing day, I'm thinking more about how great the C would look on #40.

So many good points on all sides of this equation. It's great to have options.

It's not popular among other Canucks fans, but I'd put Baertschi on the list. He may have some value, and he seems more of a regular season guy than a playoff guy to me.

I would just think you'd never get anything close to a justifiable return for a guy like Tanev. He's currently our best defender, and can be a top four for another six years. A second round pick could very well turn into nothing. I think we're turning the corner now, where our main priority is having solid defenders and guys with good cap hits. Since Tanev does have some recent injuries and he doesn't produce a lot of offense, his cap hit will stay at a good level, and when our new studs sign their new contracts in the next couple of years, Tanev will look like the best deal on the team.

Why do people always talk about Tanev's age.. 29 is not old, even for a team that is rebuilding. Besides, you need a couple of 'vets' on the back-end or you'll end up like the Oilers. Even Markstrom is 29. We better ship him out too!