wallstreetamigo

I never said any of that though other than him leaving wouldn’t be catastrophic or kill our team. Look at his actual defensive numbers. He is not actually the Bergeron many on here make him out to be and never has been. And he is also not particularly good at utilizing his linemates offensively. He is more of an opportunistic goal scorer than playmaker. I love Horvat and he is certainly valuable to any team including ours. But having 3 offensive centers making 7 mil plus long term is not a good recipe for success in building cup winning depth.

Ronning, Courtnall, Momesso, Dirk and a pick for Dan Quinn and Garth Butcher ranks right up there for me. The Craig Janney trade back to STL for Jeff Brown, Bret Hedican, Nathan Lafayette wasn’t a bad deal either.

I don’t think Horvat is as essential as people think outside of the emotional attachment. He is overrated significantly defensively other than his ability to win faceoffs and has been miscast by the Canucks his entire career. He is actually more of an offensive type guy. And with Miller and EP as offensive type options too (as long as EP improves his faceoffs) Horvat is a great luxury to have down the middle. Would him leaving kill the team? I don’t think so.

It’s the term that was the biggest problem. A death by 1000 cuts situation with Benning was providing 3-4 year deals at full market value or above for 3rd/4th liners and 3rd pairing/depth dmen.

If Hoglander wants to stay in the lineup he has to learn to play effectively without the puck too, at least according to Boudreau. Boudreau didn’t seem to care that he was fast last year. Pearson will either be traded (highly unlikely) or he will be in the top 9. Won’t actually be surprised to see him in the top 6 again tbh. Hoglander will need to clearly beat out Pearson in camp to move up. And since that is unlikely, he will need to be responsible defensively to play on the 4th line. If not, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in Abbotsford.

Pearson is slow but zero chance he gets put on the 4th line. Hoglander could very well end up in Abby.

Charging 67 bucks is priceless lol

I agree. And it was clear that’s what Linden wanted to do. Unfortunately Benning cut him off at the knees with ownership by supporting a retool strategy. Then we got Benning and Weisbrod controlling everything themselves while pushing out good hockey people.

Totally agree. A few years of tanking would have been ok compared to pretending to be competitive with terrible moves.

There aren’t many GM’s as consistently moronic as Benning though.

Here’s hoping he gets off to a super slow start, re-signs for 3 years on a relatively cheap deal, then lights it up the rest of the way.

Glad Colorado did the classy thing and added his name. Figured they would.

This is actually spot on. How he played was the problem for me too.

Ya I wish we had the space to poach him

Haha still not 100% but at least home and living the dream lol

Lukewarm on the Dekeyser pto. Used to be a pretty mobile guy that could play a bit of a physical, defensive game but injuries have severely impacted all of those areas for him.

Exactly right.

I am praying for this. Try some different forward line combos and OEL, Hughes, Dermott on the right side (hell maybe even try Rathbone there for fun lol). Don’t get stuck in insignificant details like the last few roster spots. Pre season needs to be about hitting the regular season with your best foot forward off the hop.

OEL has played some on the right before and from what I remember he actually adjusted defensively very well to it. Can’t remember what it did to his offensive game specifically but it’s worth a shot imo. Dermott-Myers and Rathbone-Schenn would be ok to try imo.

Of course. Just thinking that based on their strengths OEL might be the more natural fit. Might actually boost his offensive production and would certainly provide an opportunity with the forward group to play that puck possession style this team needs to play to be successful. Hughes relies very heavily on walking the line from the left side boards and making cross ice feeds. That will be a huge adjustment for him on his off side imo.

Been saying for awhile that the best short term solution might be a Hughes-OEL workhorse pairing. I think OEL might be the better fit on the right though. Hughes may struggle a bit more as the main puck distributor whereas OEL has a good accurate shot and could take advantage of one timers on his off side.

I know right. It’s ridiculous.

I thought that was Adam Gaudette now that the leafs signed him?

I think the Miller signing shifts things for the Canucks in that I bet despite what they previously said, their picks will at least be considered for mid late 20s guys that fill holes if the cap can be worked out. Edit: I would probably be fine with it as they may as well try to contend now.

But older age risk is not the only risk in the mix. Every dollar spent has to be judged not only on its face value but also the opportunity cost of improvements that could be made to the roster. The cap might go way up but contracts are far outgrowing available cap every year. I really don’t see how the cap increases can keep up with the cost of core players short or long term at this pace, which squeezes out depth even more over time.