DownUndaCanuck

People really ripped on Pearson a lot before his injury, I think mainly because he didn't score much, had a heft JB cap hit and somehow got top-6 minutes. He may have slowed down but he was still one of our best forecheckers. You just know Tocchet loves Pearson's style of play and will throw him in our top-6 if he does the same as what he did before his injury. He'd always find himself next to Bo, sure he'd suck some offence off the line but boy did he skate hard, check well and defend well. I think Pearson will pair nicely with Boeser and cover up his mistakes, but that is quite a slow line to be fair. He'd really be suited best on our 3rd line with Suter/Blueger and then maybe (hopefully) someone like Hoglander. Regardless, there is always a spot for a veteran cup-winning forechecking, PKing, defensive-first gritty winger who can throw their body.

JT has always been a family man which is nice to see, so different from our other stars I suppose. I do worry and wonder when his age and this hectic lifestyle is going to start taking a toll on his body. So far so good, it'd be nice to get another couple of PPG seasons out of him but even if he can maintain around a 60pt clip for a few seasons, that's still good enough for a solid 2C.

They seem like they'll be fine to me. Lots of young talent, great high pick, and a bunch of stars in their prime, not to mention a completely re-vamped defence and Werenski coming back and they've got 4M in cap space. Sure they've got lots of young RFAs to sign next off-season but I'd rather be in their situation than most other teams. I think they'll end up 2 places out of a wild card spot next season and the year after that they'll be well and truly in the playoffs. That D has the potential to be one of the best in the league, certainly top-10 depending on whether Werenski can come back and bring it the way he can. They've got a pretty decent goalie in Elvis. Up front they have an All-star in Gaudreau, a few fleshy decent top-6 guys (Laine, Jenner) and then two of the best young forwards in the league in Johnson and now Fantilli. I see what they mean about next year, re-signing everyone when they'll be against the cap, but who knows how these kids are going to perform. They may well all just end up getting short low-cap bridge deals, maybe buy them time until they can get out of the Laine 8M. Regardless, that is a surprisingly well put together team.

Obviously this is why we haven't made a similar trade already, but keep in mind Beau is 26 years old and Dillon is in a contract year as a 32 year old. He might have a couple of good years left whereas Beauvillier could be an NHLer and maybe 10-20 goal scorer for what, 5 more years?

I was never a fan of Tocchet before, thought he never had a good record, the bad media stuff didn't help, and he seemed too hard-nosed to be a coach of young kids but got to say he's said all the right things so far and had this team playing well last year. Of course, so did BB before he started to stink as well so everything right now is just talk. He's said all the right things, got all the right personnel in, but I don't think we can really judge Tocchet, Foote and Gonchar until after they've had a full off-season and full season behind their belts. Really hope all their history and off-ice chat pays off because it easily could, but just as easily it may not as well (none of them have much coaching experience or a long good track record). At least he's making moves in the right direction but at the end of the day, our end-of-season record is going to matter most. I do think he's got us playing the right way though, this is much better than last year and much more sustainable, almost playoff-like hockey with fast forechecking.

Quite like the idea of Dillon as well, he's older at 32 but just 1 year left at under 4M. Makes our defence older but also a lot bigger and tougher and he can easily play 20+ minutes. Again, depends on what Winnipeg want to do. Logan Stanley is 25, didn't play much last year but surely he's really close to top-4 minutes and they probably expect Dillon to leave once his contract is done, so might as well get something for him? Beauvillier for Dillon would be a nice lateral swap in terms of cap and value - they get a younger guy they can plug in and maybe re-sign cheaply. He's a pretty decent PKer too which always helps.

You could argue McAvoy is a top-5 defenceman right now and Petey is a top-5 center in the league. What's more important? Hard to say. I know it makes Boston worse but they have other decent defencemen (Lindholm, Carlo) but really no top line center. I think Boston would have to surely add a 1st and a decent prospect (doubt we get or want 2 firsts, they don't have one next year anyway). So McAvoy + Zacha + Lysell + 1st for Petey + some fodder for numbers (3-5th round pick or someone like Woo etc.) We line up with Miller as a 70-80pt first line center, Zacha as a decent-ish 2C and hope Raty can play 3C next year along with our many bottom guys. Obviously we go from a top-heavy offensive-based team to a solid two-way defensive team. Hughes, McAvoy and Hronek on the same defence instantly makes us arguably the best defence in the league - that's two top-5 guys on the same team. Cole and Soucy really round it out nicely as depth guys. Then you've got a top-5 goalie in Demko. We won't score many goals but we won't give up many either. You see a lot of teams win in the playoffs this way - no 100-150pt star center, but a solid two-way guy (eg. ROR, Kopitar, Toews etc.) and a defence built like a brick wall. I'd consider it.

Vegas have absolutely no need for Petey, but for fun's sake... Karlsson + Theodore for Petey? Obviously Miller becomes 1C, Theodore slots in on our top pairing (he can play R or L) and points-wise and cap-wise it's pretty much a wash but we get a lot older so hopefully get a pick back.

What if Boston come knocking... McAvoy + Zacha for Petey

Got to commend Allvin for acquiring a couple of decent, gritty, PK-worthy defencemen in Cole, Soucy and even Irwin, but I can't help but think it's a bit risky throwing Soucy into a top-4 role when he's only played 16 minutes last year on Seattle's bottom pairing, and we're putting a lot of trust in an older, slower Cole. I think they'll do great, but I worry about our left side. Hughes is going to log big minutes for sure sadly. Last year he at least had OEL eating around 20-21 minutes of poorly-played time to take some heat off Hughes, but now he's just got a former 3rd pairing guy in Soucy, and then who...Rathbone, Irwin or Hirose playing around what, 13-15 minutes? Hughes is going to be up at 25+ minutes easily and we really don't want him to break down later on in the season. We need a solid, ideally defensive-first, shutdown LD who can play 20 minutes comfortably, eat some big shutdown minutes off Hughes, kill penalties while he's at it but mostly be a good backup for us. Looking around the league, there have been obvious proposals for Hanifin and Pesce, but obviously these deals are hard to make. Acquiring Pesce would mean Cole could play 19-20 minutes as the 2LD and Soucy bumped down to his natural, more comfortable spot as 3LD (and could pair nicely with Myers actually). Hanifin would be the absolute perfect 2LD - plays well in a shutdown role, could play with Hronek and make a very solid pairing, but you know Calgary wouldn't trade to a divisional rival and there's rumours that he doesn't want to play in Canada anyway. That doesn't leave many other options out there - we don't need anyone elite, but just someone who can play 20+ minutes on the left side. Two names which come to mind are Nick Leddy and Samuel Girard, and maybe Sanheim. St Louis are a mess right now, their cap structure is dreadful, they have a lot of long-term 6M deals, no vision of retooling or rebuilding really, I think they'll be stuck in mediocre no-man's land for a while. Not sure what they're trying to do really but we could surely help them out. They have enough defencemen over there. What they lack is any scorers really. I know Leddy is 32, bit older and he's not massive but he plays a tough, gritty game and can comfortably play 20+ minutes. He's on a 4M deal for around 3 more years. I wonder what it'd take to acquire him - if it'd be as simple as a Beauvillier/Garland (with retention) + prospect (Woo, Rathbone?) swap, or if they'd want a pick out of it? Beauvillier straight-up (plus maybe a defensive prospect) gives them some real cap flexibility next off-season, they can re-sign him if they like or let him walk and take the 4M cap space. Colorado are also interesting, with Byram about to burst onto the scene, Girard has always been maybe the odd man out over there on defence. Nice, compact 5M long-term deal for a younger guy, he's not that physical but can skate and pass well obviously. He'd surely cost a bit more and they want some help scoring. With Landeskog done for the year, I wonder if there's a straight-up Boeser-for-Girard deal out there? We've gotten a lot more balanced this off-season but personally I'd rather we go heavy on defence and thin out our forwards (especially with guys like Podkolzin and Hoglander waiting in the wings) so I'd jump all over one of these deals. They're pretty similar cap-wise and are almost a lateral winger-for-defenceman move which makes both teams better. Both St. Louis and Colorado have good replacements for Leddy or Girard anyway and need scorers up front to replace those they've lost.

For 8M a year I think they'll manage.

Shows the value of patience. We've got a similar situation on our hands now - Rathbone and Hoglander. I know a lot of people want them traded/lost on waivers but we could easily end up with another Forsling/McCann mistake.

He'll ask for (and probably deserve) 11-12M then. Could see it happen if we're successful but to be honest I'm guessing Petey hits just over 100pts again (maybe say 102pts). Think he'll drop 35-40G though. Having a healthy Mikheyev and Kuzmenko all season will cause trouble - I think Mik is the perfect big, gritty but fast winger for Petey. Could easily see both wingers scoring 30+ goals if not more with Petey. You're talking about a 100G line easily. Not many teams have one of those. Big man Matthews doesn't even top the top-10 after that ridiculous deal?

Bit of patience would have been needed but you've got a pretty decent squad there around McCann and Guenther, Mukh and Forsling and Andersson. Pretty much pissed away a better top-4 defence than we've had for years.

Allvin has done well with personnel this off-season but now we need to coach and implement them in the right way. The big thing for me will be how we use Soucy and Cole to support Hughes and Hronek. We could have a great combination of defencemen there and Myers could even thrive on a bottom pairing role. We also could have a disaster, as neither Cole or Soucy have played bigger responsibilities like this (especially Soucy). When you look at the division, we're not cracking the top 3 of Vegas, Edmonton and LA, or heck even Seattle to be fair (although they may not be as great a regular season team as a playoff deep team). So then we're looking at contending for those wild card spots against Calgary, Nashille, Winnipeg, Minnesota and maybe St. Louis. I think we can be better than all of those teams for sure. No secret that our season really rests of our stars Petey, Miller, Hughes (I'd throw Hronek in there too) and most importantly - Demko. If he's healthy and plays the way he can, we're easily in the playoffs. He's a top-5 NHL goalie. If we get a major injury to one or two of our stars I think we're finished - we don't have the elite depth to back it up really. Special teams is obviously huge, we'll have a decent top-10 if not top-5 powerplay with those stars, but our PK has ruined our seasons for the last few years. Don't want to say single-handedly, but it's been close, and really a combination of poor coaching and bad defensive personnel. Now we've hopefully fixed them, let's see what they can do. Just don't be bottom-10 on the PK and we've got a chance I'd say. For me I give us a...60% chance of making the playoffs next year, but under the condition that our stars are mostly healthy for most of the year.

I don't mean play-wise, I mean leadership-wise and vocally (or whatever we hear anyway). You don't see Petey that vocal anymore on the bench, his interviews aren't that elaborate and even Miller seems to have quietened down a bit compared to a year or two ago (especially when we were in it rough with Bo, he seemed like quite a vocal leader). I know there's lots of different ways to lead and we obviously don't see all of it, but now look at all this publicity Quinn is getting. He used to be the quiet, shy one and now he's out there getting filmed in his holiday home with his brothers and comes off as the big bro and leader even of his own family.

Pretty rubbish but why doesn't the whole team just relocate for a month or so to somewhere that has a free rink? Stay in a hotel, mini pre-training camp? There's always a way around these things. I can understand why building an entire rink in a city doesn't happen over night and this is a new management squad coming in, but in the meanwhile the current players have to find a way around it. Otherwise it sounds like they're all just training and skating in isolation.

I think he'll be more of a comparable to Crosby - solid, a bit stockier and not as fast but very strong. Probably won't drop 150pts like McDavid but I can see him develop his two-way game a lot better and at the end of the day...who has more cups? I wouldn't focus on McDavid if I were Bedard, I'd focus on Crosby. That is an elite, generational center you want to emulate. As great as McDavid is, he's just not strong enough defensively or even on the puck and in the playoffs that's where it counts. I could see Bedard leaning more that way which will be better for him in the long run. Score 80-100pts and be a solid physical two-way center instead of 150pts and floppy defensively.

If we're really tanking hard around the TDL time, nowhere close to a playoff spot, I wonder if we cut our losses and try and trade Petey? Surely he'll be on pace for 100pts by then easily. Obviously he's an RFA and could just walk but...wonder if we get some value out of him? If we're losing him I wonder if we blow it up completely or just revolve around Miller, Hughes and Demko? Surely Demmer is going to want out but Hughes is on a pretty long-term neat deal and Miller obviously just signed. I'd be happy to blow it up but it'd start with Petey and the deadline to a very desperate team in need of a top line center. Bit gross to think about but Boston would be itching for him. Wonder what we'd get for a pending RFA in the prime of his career? Couple of firsts and a prospect?

Good analysis of all the teams. I quite liked Peeke but again, he's a bit of a risk - he was one of the worst defencemen in the league last year (whether it be because of him or his team) and he's been pushed out of the depth chart. Right now I don't see him playing on that lineup, and they preferred Boqvist later in the year over him on the right side. Could be a nice gamble, I'd happily give up Garland or Beauvillier + maybe Rathbone for him or retain cap to make it work. But again, he's no top solid top-4 guy. Thing is we need guys who can play 20 minutes. As bad as OEL was, he did take a lot of minutes off Hughes. Right now we basically have Hughes as a what...25 minute guy, Hronek who is a solid 20-22 minute man, then Cole who averaged 19 minutes last year, Soucy who averaged 16 minutes as our 2nd pairing LD, and then Myers who can play big minutes but not well. IMO we need a solid 2nd fiddle LD to play behind Hughes. OEL was a very bad one. Cole and Soucy will probably fill this role but Hughes knows he's going to be playing stupid minutes next year. Ideally I'd say we go after a defensive-first shutdown-type LD to take big minutes off Hughes - especially on the PK and defensively. Cole and Soucy are quite flexible luckily. You can see Allvin is building around Hughes and Hronek and supporting them well but realistically, with 2nd or 3rd tier guys. When you look at top teams like Carolina or Vegas, they just have such solid 4 x top-4 20+ minute defencemen. We have....two. It must just be impossible to trade for these guys listed above which is why we're going this route. Our best offers include Boeser, 1st, Lekker and maybe Rathbone.

Wonder if we give him a silly long bridge like Matthews, 4 years. Would have to pay higher and could get burned so badly when his contract is done. I think his contract is going to depend more on where the Canucks finish the year than how Petey does to be honest.

Quinn is oozing personality and maturity right now whereas Miller and Petey have really taken a step back. Good to see Quinn take the leadership naturally. From a quiet little guy to a leader amongst his family of super stars and now IMO leader of this team, he's got to be the captain, whether it's this year or the next. 3 years ago we'd say it'd be Bo forever. Then Miller. Then Petey. Now it's unanimously Hughes.

I doubt Quinn particularly wants to play with his brothers, they have a pretty decent competitive rivalry going on, but he may want to play for a contender one day and if we keep stinking it up and missing the playoffs, what better a team to go to than NJD. They just lost a bunch of veteran defencemen to make way for their kids but Quinn would slot in so well on their defence. He'd probably play on the top pairing with Hamilton for a bit, or maybe with Marino for the next 5 years. Obviously a trade for him would decimate their team and most likely lose them an LD, but they would slot Quinn in at 1LD and Luke and Bahl sharing 2LD and 3LD until Luke is ready to play consistent 20+ minutes. Then after a few seasons who knows, Luke could easily end up being better than Quinn at some point and you end up with two top-5 LDs on the same team. Not sure what Nemec's time-line is but you know he's going to gradually take over top minutes from Hamilton and Marino will easily chill as a 20+ minute guy for a long time there. Would be fun but probably wouldn't be worth destroying their team for Quinn.

Right now they're 2.9M over the cap with LTIR being used so something has to give. Don't see anyone they can move to make this work. They're already such a top-heavy team and go out and acquire a bunch of solid secondary and tertiary players (Bertuzzi, Domi, Klingberg, Reeves) but they've gotten too greedy and now someone has to go. Surely there's a Nylander trade in the works for a decent player going back in the 3-4M range. The following year though, 41M will be tied up between Matthews, Tavares, Marner and Reilly. That's just about half the cap. Insane when you compare it to teams like Seattle.

Would be interesting if we're well out of the playoffs again, would he even sign? 24 year old two way 100pt center, arguably top-5 in the league, why waste his prime? If he sees some progress he might be tempted into a bridge deal, say 2 or 3 years to give him a chance to explode, but anything's on the table. If I was Petey I'd leave if we missed the playoffs yet again, staying longer than even 1 more year shows some loyalty. This team has been such a mess since he was drafted and the guy who drafted isn't even here anymore. I doubt he asks for an RFA trade at the end of the year, probably just goes for a short-ish deal which maybe ends around the same time as Hughes'.