kanucks25

This doesn't make any sense. We're in trouble with him already. A bad team losing a player that isn't a core/frontline piece is going to matter even less when we're good because theoretically his role will be even more diminished at that time (because when we're good, we'll probably have another D-man or two playing ahead of him). Losing Myers will be addition by subtraction in the big picture because although he's not a net negative player, his AAV tanks his value. Ideally, you have a player like Myers on your 3rd pair but no team can afford to pay 6M to a 5th D-man.

The Athletic (from a non-Canucks NHL writer): 16. Remember when Oliver Ekman-Larsson was almost somehow traded this offseason for real assets and not a cap-dump as one of the league’s most toxic contracts? By GSVA, he’s now considered to be only barely above replacement level at 0.2 wins of value and that has a lot to do with his most recent stretch of games where he’s essentially had a stay-at-home order in his own end. Prior to Wednesday night’s game against the Avalanche where he shockingly broke the streak, the Coyotes were out-chanced in seven straight games with Ekman-Larsson on the ice. Badly too. In that time he has a 29 percent expected goals rate and no, he’s not being tasked with tough minutes either. Among Coyotes defensemen he’s actually last in forward competition quality faced. Ekman-Larsson hasn’t been the player his reputation has suggested he’s been for a while now, but this is a new low for him. For the year he’s cost the Coyotes 0.32 wins – sandwiched between Jack Johnson and Marc Staal, just shy of the league’s bottom 30. That’s not good company.

Doesn't make any sense. If we're getting rid of salary we'd be doing it to compete, but to compete we'd need a player like Schmidt. Unless we pull off some voodoo magic this upcoming off-season, next year is pretty much lost. We shouldn't be giving up key assets to salvage it. Regroup for 2022.

This Motte conversation has completely spun out of control. A 1st round pick for a player who hasn't even put together a full season of being a quality NHLer at 26 years-old? LOL? He had a nice week-long stretch vs the Blues last year and a nice month-long stretch to start this season. It is possible that this is his "new normal" going forward? Sure it's possible; perhaps he's a late bloomer due to how little pro hockey he's played since turning pro (less than 300 games over about 6 years). But he's going to have to prove that before any team gives up anything significant for him. Right now he's more valuable to us than on the trade market.

Close the thread already, this man wins.

If he showed that much fire but kept the bad turnovers, bad body language and lazy backchecks to a minimum I would agree with you. I appreciate that he cares and is frustrated that things aren't going well, just don't know if he's expressing it the right way.

He seems to be acting more like a petulant child than a fierce competitor who is unhappy with losing.

That's not too much different than what we were doing before EP went down. Really the thing is, we need better #5/6/7/8/9 forwards so that we can can actually form an effective 3rd line instead of the mishmash of spare parts we ice every game that we claim to be a "bottom-6".

I haven't seen enough from MacEwan to suggest he's an everyday player let alone be on the wing with a player we're expecting/hoping to produce PPG type numbers. Pettersson needs help. It'll help Horvat, too. Pettersson makes those around him better but he's not a miracle worker, either.

If Green actually decides to keep the Miller line the same, I'd want Pettersson to play on Bo's wing. Putting EP on a separate line definitely gives us some amazing depth down the middle but the wingers are stretched way too thin.

Probably has been the Ducks' best forward this year but hasn't performed as well the past couple seasons, at least eye test wise. Hard to say how much that had to do with being on a bad team, as OP says. Has 1 more year on his contract at a price he will almost surely outperform. Turns 28 in May. Tricky player, at least in our case. I'd say the price starts with a 1st. EDIT: Like the player in a vacuum, he'd look good on Bo's wing.

I know Schmidt isn't "young" but it's going to be tough to replace him down the line, especially if Benning is still the GM given his track record when it comes to D-man acquisitions. The only way I trade him is if we're getting a stud D prospect back. Motte I don't see moving as the Canucks likely value him higher than what other teams are willing to pay.

Just looked it up and Thorne will no longer be the Orioles' announcer, so he seems to be a free agent. He is 72 years-old but you never know.

Join the Leafs in their quest to create some sort of Franken-Team Canada of days gone by.

Yeah, bringing a respected, experienced vet into a young, inexperienced team is a pretty standard concept which I have no problem with. IMO Benning just needs to do a much better job of allocating his cap dollars effectively. This regime has spent a lot of resources on sheltering the lineup with bodies so as to not "expose the kids to a losing environment" but they may have been better served to focus on players that are actually good at hockey and win you games, which is another way to avoid losing.

Horvat added on our side and the 9th added on theirs seems to ring a bell. I can't see it being Horvat + 5th for Subban only. Even I don't think Benning is that bad at trading.

Just doesn't make sense to pay someone who plays a relatively limited role that much money. Especially when you have a Brandon Sutter on your roster doing similar things and for even more money, and other bad contracts. If Jay Beagle was the only "less than desirable" contract on the books you could obviously live with that. The problem is the overall construction of the bottom-6 both when it comes to the on-ice product and how it works out on the books. Similar reasoning on the Myers contract.

The thing is every game is in-division, so even if the teams ahead of us start playing worse, they're all still going to get points because they're playing each other and someone's gotta win. Our best bet is for a couple teams to run away with the #1 and #2 spots, beating our competitors for the #3 and #4 spot. Ottawa beating those teams from time to time will help, as well, but they can't win too often otherwise they'll be in contention with us lol.

Wow, I never heard that. I thought it was just the 5OA straight up. Do you have a source?

Wonder what the org. would look like right now if this went down as the Canucks had hoped: “Vancouver has confirmed this to me. There was a chance the Canucks were going to get PK Subban that night. The problem was that Pierre-Luc Dubois was not going to fall to Vancouver’s pick, because Montreal knew Columbus was taking him. If Montreal believed that Dubois was going to be available at five, PK Subban could have been a Vancouver Canuck.

If Sekeres was still around he'd be right on the Pettersson "controversy" tomorrow afternoon.

Myers is not a "top-half of the lineup" player (top-6 F / top-3 D / starting) and therefore a long-term, big-money contract for a player such as him is kind of intrinsically bad. It just doesn't make sense to clog up your cap with a player who's playing a role that you'd ideally want a cheap, drafted player to fill (bottom-pairing and PK minutes). Or perhaps an acquired player but their AAV would look more like Benn's, not Myers. Now Myers is a better player and worth more, but Benning needs to do a better job of allocating his dollars; the amount of money Benning has spent on "bottom-half of the lineup" players has frankly been atrocious. And I never really got the argument that claims it's okay we overpaid for UFA's because UFA's weren't going to come here unless we overpaid for them. "If we didn't give Myers that contract someone else would have." Yeah, so? Then let them eat the grenade. Someone probably would have given Eriksson the same deal we did if we didn't, would that have been such a bad thing? Not saying Myers worked out as bad as Eriksson but just because someone else is willing to do something stupid, doesn't mean you should, too. If we're ready to push and a player like Marian Hossa in his prime is out there, you give him a monster deal. You don't lock up 6M of your cap for 6 years in a player you ideally will be using as a depth piece when you're good enough to truly contend.

2 games without Petey out against a top team and we play solid and win both... sounds like the Canucks lol Demko probably wants that Tavares one back but overall he kept us in the game. Top forwards really came to play.

Yeah, as long as we score 6. I have him in my pool