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DownUndaCanuck

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Everything posted by DownUndaCanuck

  1. The cheek of this guy to come out a few days ago, say Demko is unhappy (based on what, pure speculation?), then to come out and say he hasn't asked for a formal trade? In all honesty though this is what I've said in the Demko thread, if we want to full-rebuild then sure, go and trade Demko and we basically commit to losing for the next 3-5 years. If we want to even vaguely make a stab at the playoffs next year (or pretend to be doing so) then we've got to keep Demko. We have no other goalie in this organization who's even close (Silovos is not our saviour). Amazing how the poor guy gets treated after a handful of bad games between injuries after the years he bailed this bad club out of it's poor coaching and defending. Miller plays sloppy defence for 18 months, he gets an 8x8M deal. OEL starts to slow down, he gets a healthy scratch for one game. Myers plays dreadful defensively for 6 months and we keep playing him 20+ minutes. Demko has a few bad games despite not being fully healthy and here we are forcing him out of the city...
  2. I get that, but there's much more to the game than scoring points (and specifically for JT, racking up assists). Offensively it's clear Bo is the better goal scorer and he's really broken out now. Call it a career year or maybe he's just entering his prime and this is how he's going to be the next few years. We paid JT when he was around Bo's age coming into his prime. When it comes to pure center work, Bo is far better. JT doesn't take faceoffs anywhere near as often or as well as Bo. JT's been so bad that he's been converted to wing. It'll be juicy to see how he fares now his protector Bo is gone and Miller has to play center again. Dare I say we'll see Tocchet just give up and plop him on Petey's wing from time to time and the bottom-9 will struggle. Defensively is the big issue for me. Players don't get paid for their defensive play. Tanev is one of the best in the business and gets peanuts compared to offensive guys. Myers and OEL are dreadful defensively, yet because of a couple of 30-40 point seasons they're making 13M. Bo is not a super solid defensive center but he holds his own ground and can matchup against top players. He has done a great job against McDavid or Draisaitl even this season at times. Then you look at Miller. IMO one of the worst forwards defensively in the NHL and that's more than just the eye-test, look at his advanced stats and shredded +/-. He was solid defensively when he was traded from Tampa (who knows, must have been good solid coaching over there which lingered for a season) and then after playing under Green, you could see Green would just let Petey, Hughes and Miller free-style everywhere on the ice. You could see bad defensive plays creak into his game like stupid drop passes at the blueline or blind passes - high risk, low reward. He got a lot of nice assists this way, but more often than not it lead to breakaways against us. Of course when Demko was in his prime, these were covered up, but these last 24 months we've really seen them hurt the team. I don't make the rules, but sloppy defensive play like this should subtract a couple of millions worth off your salary or cap hit, but it doesn't, because if you play a risky defensive game you usually produce more offence, and that offence is what gets paid. Miller as a PPG player the last 3-4 years is great, but he doesn't bring anywhere near as much to the team as Bo did. Last year Miller was a super-star, no question about it, but his sloppy defence got covered up, and after a contract year he gets paid (unlike Bo) when he really didn't have to. 8M for a PPG scorer is pretty good, but when you consider he's been sheltered next to Petey (last year) or Bo (this year), doesn't take faceoffs and leaks goals all over the ice, it's fair.
  3. Hate to say it but this is what I worry about most. Great, we've got a couple of solid 1st round picks, but we don't have a great drafting history and if you look at Allvin, he's not the best either. Lekkerimaki is much of a muchness, too soon to see what he really is, but the players around him and after him are doing marginally better. Still, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and we should wait a couple of years. Allvin's drafting record in Pittsburgh wasn't great but he rarely had such high picks to work with. We have absolutely blown our 1st rounders in the past but also gotten a couple of gems, but then again the conversion rate for top-10 picks should be a bit higher than what we've had so far. Petey is an absolute star and JB pulled that one out of his back side. Hughes the same. In a re-draft of their drafts, they probably move up 2-3 spots which is a lot considering. Then there's Virtanen, Juolevi and now Podkolzin who's having a bumpy development, prior to that Gaunce and Jensen. I'll highlight Podkolzin - another one we get excited about a big, strong, physical winger and he's struggling now. Meanwhile Boldy is a beast in Minnesota and Cole Caufield is doing pretty well too and they were taken just a couple of picks after him. The common theme I saw with these guys, dating back to Nick Jensen, is that we kept drafting size and toughness over skill. The two times we draft smaller/skinnier skilled guys, it pays off (Petey and Hughes). I hope we don't obsess with physicality anymore with Allvin - so far we haven't, and we've targetted more skilled guys, but we can't be wasting top picks like this almost every single season. Our conversion rate of top-10 picks into full time NHLers let alone stars is bleak.
  4. I think it really depends on our direction. If we're trading everyone (Miller, Boeser, Myers) and aiming to tank for a couple of years then we just need one center for a couple of seasons. A UFA like Strome, Compher or Puis Suter might work well for a couple of seasons. I would like a guy like Sundqvist in Detroit if they can't afford to keep all their young centers, maybe on a sort of bridge contract. However, if our target is to make the playoffs next season, then we've got to keep Miller at 2C and get a 3rd line center who's relatively cheap. Again, the 3 guys above would be nice but they're going to cost around 4M or more. A big weak spot of this team this season has been it's 3rd line center. I said in the off-season that we just needed a solid defensive 3C and a top-4 defenceman and we'd probably have been a playoff team. We had the 5M in cash, and there were so many cheap options like Tierney, Janmark and Jarnkrok (Rodriguez a bit more expensive). There were also some veteran 20+ minute D-men out there. Instead we drop it on a winger...
  5. Watch him sign with Calgary and crush our baby forwards 6 times a year
  6. Bo better take at least a 1M pay rise on that, otherwise he clearly hasn't cared about the hometown discount. The hypocrisy of not wanting to pay Bo based on a career year but paying Miller after a career year (when they didn't have to) hurts too much.
  7. If that's the case this trade chatter should be shut down. No way our team should be looking to move him.
  8. Boy I would love that but I doubt they do it, might ruin their chances at Bedard. Speaking of, if they continue this free-fall, snag Bedard (or even Fant/Carlsson) they have their top line center right there. Miller would look good alongside Gaudreau though. I think there are plenty of hungry, desperate teams who are clinging on to the hopes of a final playoff push, and we have to take advantage of them. Pittsburgh and Washington clearly want to keep their Crosby/Ovi windows open for as long as possible so we should pounce. They don't have the best prospect pools by any means, but they're hovering around Wild card spots and that means quite a tasty 1st round pick in the 15-20th overall position. We've already pounced on one desperate Lou, time to find partners for Miller and Boeser... Problem with CBJ is cap, they have some extensions kicking in next year and not much cap off the books and a lot of ELCs who are going to need extending in a couple of years time, so Miller is a bit too pricey for them.
  9. I have a feeling we're just going to trade Demko for a 2nd round pick. They never get the value they deserve or are worth to a team. Look at last year - Demko was a big (if not the main, alongside Miller) we went on any sort of run. He patched up this team's defensive holes so well. To me, an MVP goalie is well worth over what Bo got. It just fixes so many things on a bad team. After his bad spell to start the season his value must be so low, I doubt we'd get much for him. If Demmer really wants out, I think you trade him in the off-season, maybe around the draft, but this 12 months is not the time to get rid of him unless we're full-on tanking for the next 3-5 years in which case we're going to have to sign a UFA goalie to save some face. There's a fair few goalies out there, mostly older guys, who could play a few games and make us pretend to look competitive but actually tank away next year too.
  10. Sounds like he was offered around 7-7.5M in some reports, I doubt they'd offer him 6M or anything less than Boeser... At the end of the day it'll be interesting to see what Bo signs for, I know he wanted to stay in Vancouver and certainly didn't want to be traded but if he or his agent was getting greedy and wanted over 8-8.5M then that's on them, not our management. We've ripped management a lot for making bad moves and making good people look bad, but if Bo was getting greedy and signs for 8.5M at the end of the day, that's a 1M difference... You hear a lot about hometown discounts, surely 1M would have cut that. That being said if Allvin offered him under 7M that's a dog move by them.
  11. Snagging Hague sure would be nice to fit around Hughes and Petey, is 24 too old? Boeser (1m retained) + Schenn for Hague straight up If Stone's going on LTIR they're about to open up a bucket of cap space, this trade only costs them - 4.5M in cap so enough room to make another move. I'd love to throw them Miller but there's no way Miller and Eichel could play on the same team, imagine...
  12. Probably don't need Demko with Campbell but his GAA is 3.3 and save % under 0.900 which is pretty crap. Their goalies are pretty much set with Skinner getting an extension, but they need bottom-6 playoff-type forwards and decent defencemen. Schenn would fit them perfectly (and honestly, Pearson too if he was healthy). If we're selling the team, Puljujarvi is the perfect 3M 1 season cap dump coming back but I wonder who else on our roster they could use to flesh out their bottom-6? Joshua? Lazar? Garland (1M retained) + Schenn for Poolparty + 1st, 2nd or Bouchard? I'm starting to think Garland has negative value when they're talking about buying him out. I'd like to think Schenn's value is a mid-round 2nd but that could just be us fans over-hyping him. Surely it would cost Edmonton to get rid of Puljujarvi (maybe to the sound of a 3rd value-wise?). Bouchard is probably pretty untouchable, he's racking up points despite playing on their 3rd pairing right now.
  13. I could really see Boeser for Mantha. Would love for it to be Miller for Mantha (they have cap to work with in the offseason) but Mantha is the type of project player Allvin seems to target and if it doesn't work out, his contract is up in a year.
  14. Carlsson and Reinbacher would be the ideal draft for us (Bedard aside of course). An elite center and decent future top-4 strong RD. Suddenly we have a dynamite core of Petey, Carlsson, Hughes and Reinbacher. That is an elite core. The wingers we have flesh them out nicely as does Ratu, but they're a top core. Yager/Smith/Dvorsky is a step down, middle 6 centers, unlikely to outshine Petey, and the rest of the defenders in that bracket are more offensive-minded.
  15. Wonder how much they'd give us, maybe KK plus a 2nd or 3rd (they have two 2nds next year)? Massive upgrade for them, a pretty useless 4M 3rd line center just wasting away under their better centers. Miller gives them an almost PPG scorer to replace Patches in the top 6. If we want to have our cake and eat it too, how about a swap of defenders too to snag Morrow? Miller + Schenn for KK + Morrow I'd be happy with that, I'm sure most of CDC would be.
  16. We obviously need D but with Bo gone will really need a 3rd line center who can defend well. Lazar is a lock on the 4th line, Raty or Karlsson/Klimovich could sneak in there but it'd be nice to have a proper bonified guy there and Raty get the call up only if needed, if injuries or on the wing to start. There's many out there, Haula, Sundqvist, Puis Suter, Byron etc.
  17. I'd be happy retaining up to 1.5-2M on Boeser or Myers if it gets them moved. You throw in Schenn to any deal with Boeser (with 1-2M retained) and that's a great package for any team. They'd still need to give us around 5M in cap coming back to make it work, but there's plenty of teams out there. I know NJD have talked about trading Severson/letting him go, so Boeser (2M retained) + Schenn for Severson + pick would work nicely. However Severson is still pretty good and logging big minutes so I think all we'd get is a 2nd round pick or maybe a prospect Bahl would be nice...). I think Minnesota makes sense. Boeser (2M retained) + Schenn for Dumba + 1st would be perfect. Minnesota go all in, they were going to let Dumba walk this off-season anyway, he's been a healthy scratch recently too. They get a solid playoff warrior in Schenn who plays D the right way and their man in Boeser to help Kaprizov run the offence a bit more balanced since Fiala left. Boeser at a 4.5M cap hit is delicious for them and worthy of their 19-20th overall pick. Myers will be a tough cookie to swallow but sounds like Toronto or Ottawa are keen. I wouldn't retain on multiple players but we do have 2.4M in dead cap opening up so could retain 1M of Myers' money comfortably if it means we don't have to shed a 2nd or 3rd round pick. Even so, with Minny's 1st I'd do it. All up: 1) Boeser (2m retained) + Schenn for Dumba + 1st 2) Myers (1m retained) + 3rd to Ottawa/Toronto for cap dump In the off-season we can decide on Dumba, if he plays Bear-like we can re-sign him, otherwise he walks. We free up 10M in cap space right there. If we want to rebuild, rebuild away with three first round picks. If we want to push for the playoffs next year, sign two solid top-4 defencemen. There's guys like Gavrikov, Graves and Mayfield out there. 10M can secure two of them easily and away we go. Mikheyev - Pettersson - Kuzmenko Beauvillier - Miller - Garland Hoglander - Raty? - Podkolzin Joshua - Lazar - Aman? Hughes - Mayfield Gavrikov - Bear OEL - Burroughs
  18. So the 3rd party basically get a 4th round pick for 2.5M dead cap? We just paid a 2nd rounder to get rid of Dickinson which was about the same. It's hard to tell how much cap is worth but I think it's roughly around that so we'd have to cough up a 2nd. If the first is coming from a contender, there's not much difference between a late 1st and our 2nd anyway. I'd rather just trade Brock to one of the teams who seem interested (New Jersey, Avs, Minnesota, basically anyone who wants scoring) and take a cap dump back. More than happy to retain 2M (we've got 2.4M dead cap off the books this off-season anyway) in which case they'd have to give us a nice pick but it'd most likely be a 2nd. Maybe we can squeeze a late first out of a team if we throw them Schenn. For example: TO MIN: Boeser (2m retained) + Schenn TO VAN: Dumba + 1st They get an RD replacement and a top-6 scorer and get rid of Dumba who they were going to let walk anyway (so really is a cap dump), we get a guy who can play RD for a bit, Allvin loves a project so if he does well we may re-sign him even with the money freed up by Boeser or let him walk, but most importantly get a shiny 1st round pick in the 20th overall spot.
  19. Yep, if we really wanted we could have used Miller's 3M pay rise and Mikheyev's 5M (8M all up) to pay for Bo's extension (likely 3M), Miller's at the end of this year (probably 2M seeing that he's a 70pt player now) and the remaining 3M on a 3rd line center or a cheap defender.
  20. Yeh I think that'll happen too, massive drop off. We go from having a 70pt Miller, 50-60 goal pace Bo and 60pt Boeser at the start of this year to... 10-15 goal Beauvillier, 15 goal scorer Garland and Miller next year. 2nd line practically halves it's production.
  21. Yep, I think a lot of our young good players are going to want out. Not sure how long Petey and Hughes put up with this. I think if they're still on a losing team when they're 25 their patience will run thin too.
  22. Makes sense, very similar to what happened when JB let Edler and Tanev and Toffoli walk, a lot of sour taste in mouths so many people wanted out. Getting rid of Bruce and Bo may have had to happen but people around the team aren't going to be happy. I think this is the beginning of levelling this team and sadly all that will be left are the heavy contracts we couldn't shed.
  23. Random reports from Farhan saying Demko doesn't want to be in Vancouver. Goodbye, this franchise is toast then. Petey and Hughes will be quick to follow. Losing Bo will really start a wide sweep of all the players who grew up with him. This may be a full on rebuild before we know it.
  24. After acquiring and targeting Raty so hard, looks like we want to get a lot younger. Management's idea of a retool may be our idea of a rebuild in essence. Miller is pretty much 30 now and his contract really doesn't fit the bill. It would have if we were winning but we're not. Not sure who can afford him though, maybe teams who lost out on Bo? Detroit/Boston/NJD? Doubt any of these teams qre stupid enough though the way Lou was. Throw in Schenn and that's a great package, wonder if we can get a cap dump back and a 1st or 2nd? I think Colorado is going to be the most desperate for a 2C.
  25. Sounds like they're talking about a contract extension which would be well over 8M, maybe in the 8.5M range, and we offered him 7.5M. Would be a shame if he wouldn't take a 1M hometown discount to stay a Canuck. I doubt any team would be stupid enough now to offer him 9M but Lou would be the best guy to do it so we'll see...
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