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DownUndaCanuck

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Everything posted by DownUndaCanuck

  1. Peeke's hard to read, good young player on a bad team, even Gavrikov's stats looked bad with CBJ, but then he is to blame for a lot of the problems. On a solid defensive structure with a good goalie and solid partner like Hughes, I think he'd really turn things around. Makes me wonder if we can't buy low? 11OA + Garland for Peeke + 1st should do, no need to add Hoglander If they want Beauvillier instead give them whoever they want. We draft a defenceman like Strbak or Willander or Lindstein and are laughing.
  2. OEL is really the only bad contract we have and even then, let's see how he plays next year. 2 years ago he was playing like a 5M defenceman, last year like a 900k one so it'll be interesting how he does next year but if he's even as good as a 3-4M 5th guy, that's not too bad by any means considering how much dead cap a lot of teams have. Say what you want about Myers but he's probably a 3-4M player, so again, not a horrible deal. Our problem is that we have so many expensive wingers though and not many cheap ones. We added Mikheyev when we didn't really need to, overpaid Boeser but had to because of his QO, get freebie Kuzmenko on the cheap but now have to pay the price (but have done so very cheaply), then acquire another winger in Beauvillier too, and already had a slightly overpaid Garland. These contracts add up. Simple solution - trade one or two wingers, +/- Myers if we can, but then we need to add a defenceman. Hoglander can play Beauvillier's role easily for a quarter of the cost. The same could be said for Podkolzin and Garland almost. That's 8M in cap savings right there. We are really not that far off, just have to flip one or two guys. The OEL - Myers duo will get talked about to death but we should focus on how/why our 3rd line costs us over 10M and we don't even have a proper 3C.
  3. Wow, I think there's going to be a lot of knee jerk reactions whereas maybe if they keep everyone together, ship out 1 big contract, get a bit of depth and just keep that unit together, they could grow and build together. Dubas wasn't enough of the problem that he deserved firing, I would have thought the players and coach didn't get it done over the GM who made some great acquisitions. If JB comes in look out.
  4. Think we'd have to give a lot more, probably our 1st + one of our previous first rounders + a good young player. So 11th overall + Podkolzin/Lekkerimaki + Beauvillier/Garland You know what, if it means we get Leo Carlsson I'd do it. Sure, we might be talking Reinbacher (future top-4 defenceman) + Podz/Lek (future top-6 winger) + Beauvillier/Garland (useless 3rd liners...), but Carlsson and Petey down the middle with Miller mopping up minutes is pretty tough to beat. Nuts that Carlsson might be better than Petey at some point in his career. I'd take a gamble on that. Worst case scenario, Carlsson probably ends up a solid big physical PPG center to play 2C under Petey forever. Best case scenario, we end up with two young solid defensive 100pt centers.
  5. I am all for fixing our defence, but I think this trade just reeked of desperation. A mid round 1st and high 2nd is basically a top-10 pick and 1st in any other draft. That is a lot. Hronek is pretty proven and pretty consistent though, a good young two-way RD. Problem is that we could have drafted Strbak and Willander with those picks who may well both end up the same if not better than Hronek in a few years time. I get why Allvin did it though and it's a good sign of willingness to fix our shoddy defence, but you know it's a big price to pay, maybe even an over-payment, when Yzerman wasn't offering Hronek and PA had to make him a deal he couldn't refuse - that basically tells you we overpaid for him, otherwise Stevie Y wouldn't have even bothered. We have to follow up it though. Hughes and Hronek are two pieces of a good defence. The rest on our team don't crack a playoff lineup. OEL, Myers, Bear, Burroughs - they'll log big minutes with us but I don't see any of them cracking any playoff team's roster. We'll probably be stuck with OEL and Myers but if we can get just one more top-4 defenceman we'll finally have a decent D. Lucky for us there's a bunch in free agency, I just hope Allvin doesn't sit on his hands now that he's acquired Hronek and expect him to save the day alone.
  6. We have many priorities this off-season but to be honest, I wonder if Hughes' partner has slipped down the list. Hronek may play with him at times during the year, but our D would be a lot better if we focussed on getting a shutdown LD to play with Hronek. Then Hughes can run wild, play a bit looser and move up the ice a bit more and play less, heavy minutes. If that's the case, he could pair with anyone and do a good job. If we can't shift Myers, he could even play with TM or Bear again, on almost a 2nd pairing LD - Hronek Hughes - Myers OEL - Burroughs I wouldn't be overly mad with that, but that LD needs to be a solid defensive unit who can eat a good 20-22 minutes a night, mostly on the PK. Graves or Gavrikov, take your pick Allvin. It'd be much harder to go out and find a decent young shutdown RD.
  7. Starting to reek of an old boy's club but to be honest if they can build a winner I don't care, if they can't then it's just sad.
  8. We have so many 3rd and 4th round picks, I wouldn't mind using a few of them as a sweetener to get rid of some of the big contracts. I also wouldn't mind retaining. At the end of the day for me, Garland, Beauvillier and Myers are the guys we should try and move. No point trying to move OEL, he's not going anywhere unless we buy him out or spend a 1st and both are bad ideas. Boeser is probably more valuable to the club if he stays now, I doubt we'd get anything good back for him at this rate when he's at his lowest value and he may really explode this year. Surely 25 year old Beauvillier on a 4M deal is tempting for teams lacking depth offence. Garland is a tricky one but again, hopefully teams would be enticed by his gritty style and if we have to retain 1M, so be it. Surely there's a vague sort of market for Myers if we retained 1 or 2M as well. In my books we need 2 of these contracts gone to pay the extensions, get a 3C and a solid top-4 defenceman, maybe even all 3. Graves, Mayfield or Gavrikov would be so ideal, but would set us back anywhere from 4-6M. A 3C can be found pretty cheaply, somewhere around the 2-4M range. There's 7M in extensions but a lot of cap off the books which equates to around 3-4M. So essentially we need around 10-12M in cap space. Even if it costs us a 3rd and 4th or couple of thirds to move Myers and Garland, you do it because we add by subtraction and then go ahead and acquire a solid top-4 UFA defenceman and a 3C. The more complex route would be to trade one of our guys for a relatively over-paid guy of a positional need, like a top-4 D-man (which is surely impossible or it would have happened by now) or a center.
  9. Even then, their defences fit the bill so no. All of the final 4 teams are constructed quite similarly and the Canucks are far off that mould.
  10. I would be all for this, I think fans are probably split between leaving Silovs in Abby another year or two, but I think he's ready to go, he showed us how good he is. I think he can easily play 15 games next year, maybe 5 or so for Delia/Martin but don't want Demko over 60 games for sure.
  11. Jokes aside, all these teams are so far away. When you look at the final 4, they're build on a solid defensive, strong top-4, a great goalie, depth scoring, and least importantly, top-end offensive talent. All of their top scoring stars are barely carrying the teams, it's their top-4 defence which is. The goalies are barely standing on their heads either apart from maybe in Dallas. Defence wins championships, it does so in every sports league, and it's proving it again this year. Look at the Canucks now and in the future. Our defence is probably 50% there. Hughes is fantastic, Hronek is (hopefully) a great pick-up. That's 2 out of the top-4 who are decent. My main problem is that our defence is not big and strong defensively enough. When we compare this D to the final 4, we're missing so many pieces. We don't have a top, elite two-way defenceman who can play 25-30 minutes a night (Peitrangelo, Heiskanen, Burns, Ekblad). You could argue it's Hughes, but he isn't as big or strong as these guys to check a big, strong forward physically, so we'll have to over-compensate and support him. We don't have a big, defensive shutdown guy in our top-6 at all (eg. Gudas, Pesce, McNabb/Whitecloud, heck even Ryan Suter). These 4 teams have something in common with their defence, they have one two-way stud, 3 solid defensive defencemen who are big, strong and physical, and some average bottom pairing guys (but usually these are big guys too). We'll have to live and die by Hughes, big or not, but just complement him with strong defensive guys. I liked what I saw from Hronek but he's alone right now. OEL and Myers are our 2nd pairing right now and they don't cut any playoff team. The guys in our pipeline are alright but none of them are quite 6'3", 220lbs +. We have a chance to change that this draft but we'll see... In net, we're as good as any other team in the league now and going forward. Demko is a top-5 goalie IMO, especially when he's on his game, and Silovs is a top-5 goalie prospect for sure. No question about it. Up front, right now ironically we have quite a bit of winger depth which is nice to see, and you need in the playoffs, but we need to shed some of that wasted cap. Down the middle we are thin in the bottom-6. Aman and Dries have looked alright but I don't know how many playoff teams they'd start for. That 3C is a big hole, but we have Raty down the pipeline. Problem yet again is size and defensive ability - we don't have many big, strong bottom-6 guys on the team or in the wings waiting to come in. Until we fix our major issues, we're not coming close to a cup. We may well make the playoffs next year and grind and grind away, but we're not beating any of these real contenders. I don't see the Canucks getting out of the first round for a while let alone winning 4 series. Look at the teams right now - I doubt we'd win one game against any of them, and for me it comes down to defence first and foremost. If we magically find a way to get two solid, defensive defencemen in our top-4, it's a new game, but that's got to be the hardest job in the business. The easier way out is trying to change OEL and turn him into one of those guys but I'm not sure really what's easier - trading OEL and his cap plus a first, or turning him into a Ryan Suter-type player...
  12. Crazy how he's come up huge in big games over and over again. I remember when Demko was doing this in the AHL, a bit like Wolf, everyone got so excited and he transitioned into the NHL so seamlessly. Now we have Silovs doing the same. From what was once a goalie graveyard to IMO the most consistent goalie producer of the league, Clarke has churned out gems time and time again. We may not have to draft many high-end goalies for a long time with Silovs doing so well now, there's a perfect transition from Demko to Silovs in the future. Crazy to see, he's just 22 years old and a former 6th rounder. Obviously the kid has a long way to go but if he continues at this rate, we may have a bit of a nice tandem in 3 years time. Hard to even say if Demko has reached his prime yet or if he'll bloom a bit later (probably coincide with our defence getting better), but when Demko's 30, Silovs will be 25 and surely hungry to eat some big games in the NHL.
  13. 100% agreed, but luckily I don't think Allvin as so easily seduced. There are guys like Wood, Barlow, maybe Sale to an extent, whose size are really going to tempt managers. Wood looked amazing in the under 18s tournament as did Barlow, and you can see why size is so great, but they were playing against children much smaller than them so size always looks good there. I worry about that Virtanen factor but he's just one of many flops who were drafted based on size over pure skill. I think we need to go hunting for hockey IQ. This is why I think a guy like Benson, who will likely fall for a bunch of reasons, will be the big surprise of the draft. He oozes hockey IQ and offensive talent. It's a risk taking a big guy with such a high pick. I'd leave those picks for the late first/2nd round and onwards, a bit like defencemen, whereas with a top-10ish pick we should be going hard for pure skill. Obviously there might not be too much left at 11OA but there'll be someone with top-end talent, and if it's not one of the many American college kids I wouldn't be mad if Allvin goes a bit off-board and takes a Swedish guy.
  14. If you can demolish the Bruins you must think that you can beat anyone. Toronto really were pretenders and Florida made them look easy. Carolina has surprised a lot of people this playoffs, mainly with their defence and depth scoring. Lose two of your top scorers - you should be finished, but they're just proving that top-end offence means almost nothing in the playoffs, it's all about defence, goaltending and depth scoring, and they've got loads of that. Offence, I'd give the edge to Florida Defence, I'd give the edge to Carolina but it's pretty close. Florida have a solid D but Carolina's is much more boring, strong and physical defensively, which is what you want in the playoffs. Obviously Florida have two great puck movers in Montour and even Forsling, but Carolina's just play a heavy, tight defensive game which will be really hard to break down. In net, Freddy and Bob are both pretty similar, I think Bobrovsky's looked lights-out in some games but Anderson really hasn't had to do too much, his D just make it so easy for him in front of the crease. Going to be a proper, hard fought series. Florida are flying high right now but I worry Carolina's structure is just so stingy they could shut down any team. Hopefully Panthers in 7 but it could be a short Carolina shutdown in 5 or 6 if Tkachuk and co. can't get scoring through the defence.
  15. This should be a good, proper playoff series. Notice how all the silly high-flying offensive teams are knocked out, the real boys can play now. Solid defence and goaltending with deep forward structure - that sums up the final 4 teams. Heiskanen vs Pietrangelo Hintz vs Eichel Ott vs Hill Two very similar teams. Could really go either way but I see it going to 7 games. I think because these teams are so close, goaltending takes the cake and Oettinger is just going to stand on his head.
  16. Yup, Bedard scoring OT winners on an old Demko in round 1 and dropping the heart-breaker celly on us to Chelsea Dagger is going to suck
  17. Surprised to see Edmonton fade away in such a key game but Vegas plays hard, proper deep 4 line playoff hockey and it was just too much. No surprise that goaltending gives up the game - Skinner cracks under pressure with 4 goals against in what, 2 periods? I guess they'll just hope he can become the starter they need but that's one hole they've neglected for years and years. Not to say it was the only thing that cost them but they almost out-shot Vegas 2 to 1 and get creamed. On the flip-side, Draisaitl and Nurse are a combined -7 while Eichel and Pietrangelo are a +8 (although IMO they didn't look that great or different). This is just the problem with top heavy teams - they look great in the regular season, they're great on the PP because of such high end skill, but the playoffs are a different game - your top forwards and lines are often checked to death by top defencemen and there's less room on the ice because everyone's playing much safer defensively. There's not as many risks or gambles so not as many openings or odd-man rushes against and certainly (should be) less penalties (which there finally were in this game, sealing Edmonton's fate really). You need your 3rd and 4th lines to win games. I think you have to give credit especially to Vegas, Marchessault just came alive - 3 goals tonight, 3 assists last night and he had a couple of goals previously too - 8 points in his last 4 games. I don't see Dallas or Seattle causing them too much of a problem but Carolina or Florida may well do.
  18. They're probably not ready to start acquiring decent players, I think they want to tank and tank hard. They'll probably just look to fill out their roster with other team's cap dumps and take on good picks as a result. Their team will literally be UFAs + waiver wire pick ups + cap dumps + Bedard next year. Good for another bottom 3 finish next year. Then they swoop in, take Eiserman or Celebrini and suddenly they've got a new dynasty on their hands. Not to mention all those late firsts and 2nds they'll be acquiring - you know that's where they'll find their next stud defencemen and goalies. I don't see them taking on a young player like Boeser/Garland/Beauvillier just yet, they'll probably leave those acquisitions until later in the tank, say in 3-4 years time. For this and next year it's full steam ahead. I could see them add a tonne more first and second round picks for cap dumps over the next 3 years.
  19. Interesting idea, he produces a lot less offence than Boeser but obviously bigger and tougher, but is over 2M cheaper as well. Personally if we're trading such a top chip like Brock I'd rather it be for a center or defenceman but I see what you mean - we need grit and size, we're way off in those departments. I just wonder if we can acquire them cheaply via UFA and not have to give up much. I'd give up Beauvillier 1-for-1 for Crouse for sure but not sure if Arizona would.
  20. They need a top line center desperately. Talented wingers, such a solid defence and great goalie tandem, but what was once their strength is now their weakness at center. Obviously Bergeron and Krejci did a good job last year and Zacha has looked good for them, but none of these guys are even PPG scorers. I know there's different ways to build a team and if you've got Pastrnak and Marchand scoring at rediculous rates, you could argue that their centers could just be defensively sound 60 point scorers, but it really showed in the playoffs when they didn't have a healthy top center to play the matchup game. Marchand is only getting older as well and will surely slow down sooner rather than later, Hall may be on his way out, if not he's up there too. They need a solid top young center who can drop 80+ points. If Matthews is out of the question I wonder if they'd be happy with Tavares?
  21. There's talk of Hanifin maybe being traded, not sure if that'll still be the case now, he played some of the highest minutes of the team. 26 year old, big strong LD and still finding a way to put up 30-50ish points per season consistently. He'd be such a great partner for Hronek. Boeser + Rathbone or Burroughs good enough to get Hanifin?
  22. Both the Leafs players are miles better than the Canucks players. If we want Nylander we're going to have to add something solid to Boeser to get him, and there's no way they give us Liljegren. If we want to focus on Liljegren there might be a way...he is young though and on a cheap deal so perfect for Toronto. Made a fair few mistakes in the Florida series though. I wonder if they might want a guy like Myers to help with their D. It's hard to guess what Toronto are going to do this off-season, obviously they'll want to make some cap space but it's not going to happen without moving one of their big forwards.
  23. There's a couple of teams who desperately need a top line center. I wonder if Boston make an offer, could you imagine... Matthews for Zacha + DeBrusk + Carlo + 1st (2025) or a prospect Toronto essentially trade one star for 3 solid secondary guys to add some depth to their top-heavy team. Boston get their star center to play with Pastrnak and Marchand to keep them relevant.
  24. There's some crazy stat about game 5 winners in a tied series often losing the series in 7. McDavid has come alive but really, another 3/4 on the PP. Special teams is just killing this series and it's all the penalties been given out. If you're Vegas you just have to stay out of the box, how many even strength goals has Edmonton even scored all series, I think 7 amd one SHG?
  25. Rod has Carolina playing solid stingy defence, should be interesting against a strong forechecking but slightly looser Florida team. Everyone counted out Carolina after their injuries but their defence is still solid. As much as I'd want Florida to win I think Carolina plays their game better and wins in 7.
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