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DownUndaCanuck

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Everything posted by DownUndaCanuck

  1. Wow, been a poster for like 16 years so sad to see CDC finally shut down. Living in Australia it's always been my main source for hockey news so thank-you to everyone who kept the boards alive and entertaining. No doubt lots of users will jump ship to Canucks Corner or HF Boards but CDC will always be the best.
  2. McWard looks like an NHLer, Johansson made some sloppy defensive plays, Hirose really not that noticeable, expected more from Raty.
  3. McD and McWard been really impressive so far. Expected more from Hirose to be honest so doubt he starts in our top 6 based on tonight. Klim been great too. Abby's top guys should be strong next year, Calgary is just getting destroyed.
  4. Without Pesce (or a similar top 4 defenceman) we've really just got Hughes (a top 5 guy IMO), Hronek (a solid 20+ minute top 4 all around guy), Cole (a bit older but a fringe top-4 guy), Soucy (Seattle's 3rd pairing guy last year), Myers (arguably bottom pairing on any team, no better) and then a spot for Hirose, Irwin, Wolanin or Rathbone (none of them crack a playoff team defence). We're so close to a decent defence, acquiring someone like Pesce or Hanifin would take us over the top. Without someone like that, we're alright but a real wild card spot calibre defence. I wouldn't wait until the offseason, we could crash by then and it matters a lot to what we do with Petey and Hronek's deals. I'd go all in now if we can. Flip that first and a roster player, that should do the job for potentially a rental/someone who won't resign in their current team anyway. 1st + Beauvillier/Garland and throw a defensive prospect if they want for either of Pesce or Hanifin. I'd honestly even bite if they wanted Boeser.
  5. I get the notion of wanting someone big and scary and loud as captain but we've never had one. Henrik, Trevor, Naslund, even Bo was relatively quiet and now Hughes. I think people feared the Sedins a different way when they were on the ice, they respected Trevor and maybe to an extent feared big Bo, but never too much. No one will fear Quinn but I tell you what when we're down a goal, pull the goalie and have Hughes start skating down the ice I think there'll be a different kind of fear. Captains don't have to be physical or loud but I think they have to be clutch and Hughes has shown that. I'd say Petey is a lot more clutch but having the two on the ice late in the game - that's our leadership squad right there. We lived and died by them last year and Petey scored a lot of late minutes goals fed by Hughes so I'd expect the same.
  6. Always was the right choice going into next year. If you asked us 3 years ago the answer would be Bo, 2 years ago, maybe Miller, then right after that maybe even Petey but the last maybe 6 months, it's been Hughes by a landslide and deservedly. We've got a great leadership group going forward and it revolves around Petey, Demko, Miller and Quinn. No more old useless veterans carrying an "A".
  7. Would be nice to hurry it up, training camp is around the corner. The cap situation is tricky but Mikheyev could be thrown on LTIR to free up space for Pearson so you never know. We look really set though, don't think we need anymore forwards, with Suter and Blueger as well as hopefully Podz and Hogs we're really full up, unless we somehow move Beau or Garland, and of course a Myers trade would be nice but these are all big contracts to move and I fear we'll end up paying for it somehow.
  8. Yeah I also think the types of people that they are, Petey needs/likes to fly under the radar. He wants to be the best, but he doesn't have to be the best speaker, just focus on points. Skating and passing seems to come so naturally to Hughes that I don't think a little extra scrutiny or interviews will affect his on ice performance and he looks like he wants it - becoming more of a leader at the right time, when we need one. Miller is another obvious choice but is obviously a bit older already whereas Quinn could be cap for a decade.
  9. Lead the league in tip ins last year, he's got immense hockey IQ and we've got fantastic passers on our PP. Time to see more variety of goals - wrist shots, dekes, one timers etc. With Mikheyev now a big question mark, Kuzmenko is primed for a bigger year. 50G isn't out if the question if we're doing well as a team and Petey is on point again.
  10. Every year there's some surprise break outs. Podkolzin and Hoglander really should be those guys but I could see Brock drop 35G easily. He'll play on our top PP (IMO he was a great playmaker there at the end of last season), and on our 2nd line wing with Miller to start so he'll get lots of opportunities. If Mikheyev isn't ready to go who knows, maybe he even plays on our top line. Would be nice to see a Nylander-like season from him one day but baby steps. He has to put up 30G.
  11. We need a player like him, good defensively and can throw a hit, but makes our cap situation tricky. Someone's going to have to be waived or moved. Probably didn't need to sign Blueger as well as Suter if we knew Pearson would be ready, now we've got to shift around that - 2M. Flipping Beauvillier would be the easy option compared to waiving and losing someone or moving Myers. Tocchet will throw Pearson straight into our top 6.
  12. Voiced this in the other thread but another mess up by our medical team. There was absolutely no reason for him playing extra games last season, the medical staff had timed it so that he would be able to start the next season but of course now he's going to miss some pre-season and not be up to speed for game 1 (if he even makes that). Stupid timing on our behalf when we really didn't need to.
  13. How has Poolman not retired yet? Also thought Mikheyev would be much further along, not just close to starting the season. Why didn't we do the surgery sooner to give him a proper training camp? We knew last season was lost, he was playing for no real reason and opted for surgery the day they said they'd get him back for opening night? Would have rather we done surgery a couple of weeks earlier to get him fully up to speed in training camp.
  14. I'd flip him as long as we don't give up anything more than a 2nd to do so. Otherwise ride it out and use that money to resign Petey and Hronek.
  15. Petey drops to 85 points but Demko wins the Vezina and we play solid defensively and on the PK as a whole squad. I'd take that trade-off any day.
  16. Acquire a tough defence-first LD to take minutes off Hughes. We've got good centers. We've got plenty of wingers. Sure, size up front would be nice but it'd be impossible to find a big winger who brings enough offence or defence to replace a Garland or Beauvillier or Boeser. We don't have many glaring weaknesses, but LD is thin. Hughes, Soucy and Hirose it seems (assuming Cole plays RD with Hughes). I just worry Quinn's going to log 25-30 minutes a night, Soucy might get trusted with 18 minutes and Hirose/Irwin/Rathbone...who knows, I think around 15-16. A backup goalie would be nice but I trust a rested Martin and more importantly, a developing Silovs. I'd go hard after a decent veteran, big strong LD. Flip the 1st if we have to. Then move Myers even at the cost of an asset. That is ballsy movement but that's what going all in would look like for me. Maybe a bit much but if that's the difference between playoffs (and therefore, resigning Petey), then you do it.
  17. Based on our current assets, you have to be thinking prime players. Miller + 1st + Hronek for Petey? Same could be said for Hughes.
  18. I think we're looking more in the future with Petey because of his age, and his next contract with whichever team. If that's the case, I'd take Crosby out - sure he's still good now but in a couple of years he'll be gone. McDavid and Draisaitl will still be 1 and 3 in a few years time. MacKinnon is interesting, I think he'll still be top-3 for a long time and was a warrior in the playoffs unlike McDavid. That top-3 is probably set for the next what...3-5 years? For the next two spots I think it's going to be Petey and Jack Hughes. The Devils got a lot better in the off-season up front, I think Jack's numbers will go up a tonne, but I think Point will naturally regress as Tampa and their offence does. Tage and Matthews are interesting - they're both primarily goal scorers so hard to compare to big point men. You could argue Petey's game is much more well-rounded than those two - he gets more assists, can still score but plays defence a lot better than those two. I think that's a key contributer to why he should be considered top-5. Not purely going off point totals (otherwise RNH would be considered a top center) but Petey does a lot of things the other top guys can't. Right now I'd say Petey is maybe the 6th or 7th best center in the league but next year he'll probably be top-5. A lot of speculation saying he'll finish 3rd in scoring next year which is nuts but I can see that. Next year's a big one for him, he could easily stay the same or regress as well but there's been no real signs of that so far in his career.
  19. This is where I'd prefer a smaller guy who can play decent defence and forecheck well (Suter, Blueger) than a big body who can throw hits but can't score or defend well (Virtanen, Ritchie). The risk of getting seduced by size...
  20. I don't think playing experience necessarily translates to on-ice success now. Gonchar was one of the best PP QBs of his time but that was a long time ago. The same could be said for the Sedins. The game is very different now, but I suppose PP tactics change a lot and these guys have been following the game ever since their retirement, but still, it's naïve to just expect them to replicate their success now. More importantly I hope we have a dynamic PP that changes a lot with the opposition and over the course of the season. Where we've struggled, we've just kept doing the same thing over and over again and never gotten anywhere. I wouldn't mind seeing a big personnel change-up if we're struggling - we've got so many different weapons we could use (Kuzmenko as a tap-in guy, Mikheyev as a big grinding body, Hughes passing on the point, Hronek's big slap shot I bet will be under-utilised). I just hope they're flexible. I know a lot of PPs and offences just say - play their way and the results will come, but if we're struggling it'd be nice to see some change and adaptation to the opponent's PK. For example, if we're playing someone who collapses down a lot, throw Hughes and Hronek on the point and let them feed each other one timers. If we're playing a more aggressive, pinching PK, play it low-down and let Boeser, Petey and Miller form a little triangle deep down. That's what I hope to see more of.
  21. Petey is a top-5 center in the league right now, young and in his prime. Hughes is arguably a top-5 defenceman IMO (but most would say top-10) on a very decent cap hit for a long time. I think both are worth the equivalent of 3 solid firsts + a 2nd or 3rd. Not just late 1sts either. The classic way of thinking for a star is a young solid roster player, a 1st and a prospect but I'd argue that Petey and Hughes are honestly so good they deserve another pick, whether it be a late 1st/high 2nd or B+ grade prospect. Not many teams can offer us this amount of value. Problem is, teams who want them are contenders who don't have good picks or prospects. NJD for Hughes - maybe something like Nemec + 1st + Siegenthaler and even then, boy, it doesn't seem like enough. Problem is if you add another 1st or 2nd to that, no team is going to blow themselves up like that for one player. BOS for Petey - starts with Carlo + Lysell + 1st but that again is nowhere near enough, they'd need to add the equivalent of another 1st which they just don't have. I prefer the idea of superstar-for-superstar. McAvoy for Petey. Hischier for Hughes. If we want to get really nuts, why not flip both Calgary-style and try and stay competitive that way? TO BOS: Pettersson TO VAN: McAvoy + Zacha TO NJD: Hughes TO VAN: Hischier Mikheyev - Hischier - Kuzmenko Beauvillier - Miller - Boeser Pearson - Zacha - Garland Joshua - Blueger - Suter Cole - McAvoy Soucy - Hronek Hirose - Myers
  22. I agree, Crosby doesn't get enough recognition for what he's done, now it's all McDavid. Mind you when Crosby was 19 the league was very different, offence was really down. A lot of Crosby's prime was spent during a scoring recession, a bit like the Sedins, so it's hard to compare these scoring stats and numbers. Going forward I think we're going to see nuts offensive numbers put up by guys like McDavid and maybe Bedard, we keep trending towards more offence, I just wonder when it'll stop. If McDavid even gets close to the 200pt mark, things will get interesting. A few years ago when I think there was occasionally one 90-100pt scorer, no one would have ever guessed we'd see someone drop 150pts, but the league is changing and these generational talents have come along at the right time. I wonder if Crosby in his prime right now would hit 150pts? He just put up 93pts as a 36 year old so I wouldn't be surprised.
  23. There are a lot of random guys out there who could be signed on the cheap...Klefblom, Gardiner, Nemeth are probably the big free agents left, Bear is obviously still out there but then there's also guys like Koekkoek, Pysyk and Michael Stone. We're probably talking only a couple of mil here and there if that. To be honest though I wouldn't be against seeing what Myers can do with a full off-season under new tutelage. I really wanted to see what OEL could have done and if we could have re-started his career, but never got a chance. To be honest I doubt Myers will come back reformed like a new Karlsson. I think the main thing will be sheltered minutes - if we get him down to 17-18 minutes a night (if that) then he may play really well for us. Obviously 6M for that is ridiculous but it happens a lot around the league and you wouldn't want to give up too much to get rid of just 1 year's worth of that, IMO it's not that bad. Of course if Pearson is healthy we have to do something to get the cap down...
  24. It's not as much of a rivalry as it should be, no one seems to really hate Seattle the way they do Vegas. I still think of Calgary as our biggest rivals but that goes back over the last 20 years really. Edmonton and Vegas have just blown past us and are too good to be considered rivals, whereas Calgary is still in our weird bubble. Seattle is close but a smidge ahead of us. We had a decent rivalry with the Kings a while back in the playoffs too but again, they've blown past us again so probably don't consider us much of a threat.
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