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DownUndaCanuck

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Everything posted by DownUndaCanuck

  1. Tricky thing is, if we were in a playoff spot and winning, this would have been a brilliant trade. I was honestly a bit of a fan when it happened - desperate, obviously, but kept us relevant and competitive when we otherwise would have folded and likely tanked (I know that would have been ideal but management would never allow it). OEL was a great shutdown guy last year, Garland was an almost 20 goal scorer. Arguably the reason we missed the playoffs wasn't because of these guys. Now of course it hurts in the future but still, we have a veteran top-4 defenceman still around his prime and a top-9 winger.
  2. Watch this thread catch up to the Bo and Boeser threads lol
  3. Not even close. I think Petey and maybe Bo at a stretch are Cup-worthy core members. Hughes would be good as a complementary defenceman to a true Norris guy but he is sadly not that guy, no matter how good his defensive play is. Bo is a bit of a question mark, he's not the Selke-type 2C people think of like Kesler but he does add a lot of value to the squad. Petey is the only guy you'd really see on a Cup winning core as a top two way center who can drop 100pts. We need a lot of retooling before we get that top core. Cores come in 3, 5 and 7. In a core of 3 you have a top two way center, Norris worthy defenceman and star goalie (or one who can get hot and play like one). We maybe have Demko to add there. In a core of 5 you have two great centers, a top D and either another D or winger and goalie. Petey, Bo, Hughes, Miller and Demko. Miller is way off (think Marian Hossa, Kucherov in their primes) what you need from a core winger. Hughes is no Hedman or Makar sadly. Core of 7 is a bit more versatile. We still need that star defenceman before we can ever talk about contending for a cup, sorry Hughes. We need someone big, strong, who is able to play 25-27 minutes in the playoffs and physically shut down a star like McDavid for 7 games straight, all while putting up 40-80 points. Hughes would be a brilliant 2nd best defenceman but we need a guy like we've seen at the world juniors in the organization and that we don't have (Nemec, Luke Hughes even, Jiricek).
  4. I get that, but a younger UFA (eg. Severson) will probably be better during the 2025-2026 season than a much older and slower OEL. Plus, we mainly do it for cap flexibility next season so take the hit on those two years. The 2.1M cap penalty over 5 years is pretty average for most teams.
  5. Miller for Mantha straight up would be lovely. They can give us a pick if they want ideally but I'd be happy with a straight swap.
  6. Completely agree. My ideal situation would be Miller for any of those combos including a 1st, then Boeser for Dumba.
  7. Insane isn't it. Allvin and co should treat Miller as a cap dump if it means we can re-sign Bo and Kuz and get this done. Obviously we'd have to take cap back in any deal 1) Pittsburgh - not sure who they'd give up. They need to hold on to their D with Letang injured. Straight swap for Zucker could work, maybe they throw in a pick (1st probably too much but I'd take a 2nd or honestly...nothing). They have a few contracts ending this off-season so have a tiny bit of scope to sign him. 2) Rangers - can't see how they can acquire Miller and get better, unless they trade us Goodrow (3.6M cap). They have 1.5M in cap space right now so could just about squeeze Miller in, then would have to do a fair bit of wheeling around to make his 8M fit in the off-season. Obviously if we're taking a 3.6M cap dump back they have to give us something tasty like a good prospect/young player (which I doubt they'll part with), or more likely a 1st round pick. Goodrow + 1st for Miller would do just fine and he could just about slot in for us at 3rd line center. Most importantly we free up a tonne of cap space. 3) Devils - this is where things get interesting, lots of options here. They have a lot of contracts expiring, lots of decisions to make on defence and up front. They'll have to pay Bratt big time, likely let veterans like Tatar and Haula walk, spend money on their kids and probably end up letting guys like Severson +/- Graves walk. I wonder...I'd happily do Miller for Severson straight up (maybe a pick coming back, or Haula as a 3C if they want more cap space?) if they can juggle their lineup to make Miler fit for this year. A lot depends as well on when Marino's injury is up and he comes back, but there's surely a trade here. At the very least we could do Miller for Tatar and a pick (1st or 2nd?) but I like the idea of Severson coming back as a sort of rental/possible Weegar-like instant extension. 4) Detroit - they've got 4M in cap space, have to re-sign Larkin in the off-season but not many other difficult decisions, they can send whatever they want over for Miller. A straight 1st round pick? Sure. They don't really have a "cap dump" they can send our way, even Perron is still producing loads of offence for his age and cap hit. They're probably best suited to sending us a pick or prospect over straight up, and can surely jiggle their lineup to get Miller's 5M to fit this year, and his extension next year. I would take literally any one of these deals, ideally the NJD one, which means we can fit Bo in and avoid having to pay this guy 8M for the next almost-decade.
  8. Washington have Backstrom and Wilson finally back in the lineup and they've got some big time winning to do. They have SO much cap coming off the books next season, they can fit in a big contract to help Ovi keep his dream alive. 26M cap coming off the books next year. Sure, they have an entire defence to sign (lol), but Mantha is a guy who has struggled and still signed for another year after this season. Miller for Mantha straight up please. They can give us a pick or prospect if they want but I wouldn't mind. We get a big, strong winger back who needs a change of scenery. Certainly not as good as Miller but at a 5.7M cap hit, we can give the 2.5-3M raise to Bo.
  9. I do agree that the best thing for this franchise would be to sit pat with these big contracts, trade the good players in their prime for picks/cap space and prospects and hope to rebuild, but I just can't see it happening. I'd quite like us to take on bad contracts actually in exchange for 1sts as many tanking teams do but again don't see that happening realistically. The ideal thing would be to tank fast and hard the next 3-4 years, so any of those dead contracts could come right along and play for us the way Arizona have done. Now's the time to stock up on those picks.
  10. I'm all for a bit of OEL, I think he's a great top-4 defenceman still, has been a solid replacement for Edler and is worth his 7M in a crazy way - he logs 20 minutes, scoring at a 30-40 point pace and is fairly steady defensively. However, we're in cap hell this coming off-season. We've only got 2.4M of dead cap coming off the books, have to pave the way for Miller's stupid 3+M raise, Bo needs a similar 2.5-3M raise, Kuzmenko is likely going to cost someone 6M, Bear needs to be raised a couple of mil as well not to mention Dermott, Schenn and Burroughs. It's not looking pretty. Having a look at the buyout calculator on Cap Friendly, we could get a bit crazy by buying out OEL. Doing this would hurt, no doubt about it, but it might buy us some breathing space to keep the guys we want. If we bought out OEL, it would cost us the following: - 146K cap hit next year - 2.3M cap hit the following year - 4.7M cap hit for 2 years (ouch) - 2.1M cap hit for 4 years then it's over I know dead cap isn't nice but most teams have it and use it wisely. Why would we do this? It gives us a good 7M in cap space to play with this off-season to get to work. Also that ugly 4.7M cap penalty will come after Boeser and Myers' deals are well and truly up. Of course losing OEL means we need a top-4 LD and there are plenty coming up in UFA who I think might be had cheaply. Gavrikov and Graves are two solid guys who are on quite cheap deals and don't produce much offence so hopefully won't get overpaid. I think they could easily be signed for a 4-5M deal, especially Graves if Luke Hughes is coming through next year. I know that's only 2-3M in saving but that could be the difference between giving Bo the raise he wants or not. Would it be my preferred move? Absolutely not (I'd rather trade these useless overpaid wingers for defencemen), but it might be a fun crazy option to get us fans sweating. No one likes dead-cap but it might be a sneaky way to keep Bo and gives us more time to try and shed some of our other cap hits.
  11. Yes correct, just saw this. In an absolute crazy way though....OEL would only cost us 146K next year, then the penalties hit... I wonder if it's still worth it, we re-sign Bo to his 8M deal and sign a UFA to fill OEL's minutes to a 5M deal (there's a few guys out there, Gavrikov? Graves?). OEL's buy out costs us 2M the next year, 4M for a couple of years (ouch), then 2.1M for 4 years. That isn't half bad if it means we get a good 7M of flexibility this off-season when we really need it, and if we can sign a replacement in that budget then we're winning? Would be a real ballsy move this management don't have the guts for anyway.
  12. We simply have to find ways to deal with our cap without trading picks, that cycle has to stop, but then also - let's not give out silly massive contracts. We all blame JB for doing it but who has just signed JT Miller, a once-off 99pt player, to a massive 8M deal taking him into his late 30s? We though Loui at 6x6M was bad (and to be fair, he had proven he could score on different teams and was still in his prime then) - I think this Miller contract is going to age a lot worse. We've got some big dead-weight contracts to replace the Beagle/LE ones of the past. OEL and Miller are the big ones. They bring quality now, but in the future they're going to hurt this team and in Miller's case it could be as soon as in 1-2 years time (if not already). At his current regression pace he'll be a 3rd line, 40 point player costing us 8M in a couple of seasons time. Anyway, I doubt this management team will flip picks to get rid of cap. From the sounds of things they may be very buy-out heavy this off-season. Got a feeling Pearson will be prime for a buy out. If we bought him out, he'd still cost us 1.4M to the cap next year and 900K the following year. Holtby and Virtanen's 2.4M dead cap comes off the books next year as well... Myers is almost not worth it, he'd cost us 5.3M next year then 300K the following year.
  13. Sometimes firing the coach is the answer. Sometimes management, sometimes it's a player thing. I think what gets under-appreciated is the importance of assistant coaches. Last year, we had almost an identical team on paper minus two very solid top-6 wingers (Mikheyev and Kuzmenko), and in the 50+ games with BB we were a top-10 NHL team. What's the difference this year then? Assistant coaches. We lose some good ones, gain some terrible ones (Yeo), and that's the only real difference. Players aren't particularly under-performing - you could argue JT Miller is down (70pt pace compared to 99pts last year) but Petey and Horvat are way up. Everyone else is about the same. Fire the assistants before firing Bruce. I worry that management have their plan in place to put Yeo behind the bench as head coach and then it's all over red rover. Every single team that man has touched has turned to crap, he leaves a trail of dead teams in his wake. Meanwhile Bruce has had success everywhere he goes. Sadly when the two have collided this time, looks like Yeo's winning. For me though the main problem with the team is lack of personnel on defence. Great quality up front on wing, we've over-committed to wingers, great centers, then an absolute crap-shoot of other team's reject 7th defencemen filling our roster.
  14. Yeah recently saw this. Kuzmenko is a rare commodity with his cap hit and skill, I don't think any of the comparables really work. Essentially a PPG skilled winger on <1M. He is the perfect player for so many playoff-bound teams who are tight up for cap. I think cap flexibility is becoming more and more valuable, teams trade 1st round picks at a whim for cap more and more nowadays, and a ELC salary for a PPG star is a bargain, even if he is just a rental. Problem is any team who wants him is likely a contender or playoff bound, so that 1st is quite low down, plus it'd have to be a team who has lots of cap coming off the books next year to re-sign him (to say a 6-7M deal if that's what his agent is driving at?). In the current climate I cannot see us re-signing Kuzmenko but hope we move things around for him because him and Petey together is a bit like watching the Sedins (especially with that between the legs neutral zone tip pass to Petey). If there's a way we can trade someone like Boeser to somewhere like NJD/MIN for Severson/Dumba and then have some cap coming off the books to re-sign Kuz, that'd be a clever way to move Boeser's money around to Kuzmenko. No doubt we've got a lot of moves to make.
  15. Absolutely bang on. We have too many wingers, a few great centers, one good defenceman and a potentially good/bad goalie now. Sounds like an easy fix to me - trade forwards for defencemen. Easy fix - flip a couple of wingers (Miller, Boeser, Garland, Pearson) for a top-4 defenceman and depth guy. More complicated fix - trade Bo for a young 3C, top-4 RD and Boeser for a center. Eg. Bo for Carlo + Zacha, Boeser for Monahan. Miller for Severson or Dumba while we're at it. Mikheyev - Pettersson - Kuzmenko Hoglander - Monahan - Garland Pearson - Zacha - Aman Joshua - Lazar - Lockwood Hughes - Carlo OEL - Severson Schenn - Bear Look at that balance, lose a lot of scoring up front, gain so much solid depth on D and can flip Myers
  16. I think some desperate team will snag them. Not worth using a 2nd or higher on thesr guys.
  17. Insane to think where this team would be without this trade. We would have sucked a lot more last year with those plugs and no Garland/OEL and dare I say last year score a 10 overall pick. We'd have ended up with Guenther, Mintyukov and 12M in cap space. Obviously we'd have to fill a top-4 LD position which we could have done via free agency (eg Chariot), leaving us with 8M in space and two top prospects.
  18. If we had the 1st overall pick, what would we trade it for? I think 4 firsts would be worth it. Considering Bedard will likely be the next McDavid 100pt player consistently, and our drafting history, say we get one star, two decent top-6 forwards/top-4 defencemen and one bust, that equates to something like Pettersson, William Nylander and say Hanifin. Think I'd take the latter.
  19. The Avs are a mess, wonder if we can pressure them into a deal for Miller instead of Bo... Miller for Erik Johnson + 1st EJ 6M cap dump for the Avs, he's playing around 18 minutes on their bottom pairing. We could use him for a year for funsies, offload Miller and score a 15-20th overall pick, then have money to resign Bo.
  20. All I'll say is, see what happens to this team if/when Bo goes. Petey and Bo fill different needs and do different things for this team, they're both extremely valuable obviously but Bo does more - the stats tell the tale. He takes more faceoffs (and is far better at them), faces more top opposition, scores more goals, is better on special teams and plays more minutes than Petey. I agree that Petey is more important to this franchise going forward, but as we speak, this season, Bo does more. Also, no brainer but he's our captain. I do also agree that 64M is a lot and Bo will likely have a Miller-like dip, but mark my words when we lose Bo, this team is going to fall apart. The biggest thing will be the knock on affect to Petey - suddenly he'll have to face top opposition, play more minutes and take more faceoffs, there'll be a much bigger burden on him and Miller. We can assume Miller won't be up for the task and I worry all that added pressure will be too much for Petey. Miller is basically a LW now so if Bo goes our 2C will be...Lazar. That's why it's important we get a decent center back in any Bo/Boeser deal we make as well. Much of a muchness at the end of the day, Petey and Bo are obviously our two best players but the hole Bo will leave will destroy this team (in the current season, that is).
  21. In the natural sense, Bo is a solid 2nd line center, but statistically he is much more important than that. Plays the most ice time, takes the most draws, plays against top opposition, leads the team (and almost league) in goals. These aren't stats of your 2nd best center. We're lucky we have a future 100pt center in Petey but in terms of who's more important to the team, all around I think it's Bo, so in terms of importance and value to a club, he's our most valuable center. Sure Petey puts up more points, drives the offence more, but Bo plays more and harder minutes. It is close though, a real 1A 1B situation. Bo on other teams would be interesting, he'd be most team's top centers but a lot of team's 2Cs, but yet again he will likely play the most minutes, take the most draws, kill the most faceoffs, score the most goals and play against top opponents wherever he goes.
  22. Is there a way we keep rolling, flip him for a top-10 pick? Is it worth it? Bo for Leo Carlsson?
  23. Yes but crazily, 7 points out of the playoffs with 2 games in hand. Win them and it's just 3 points out against our divisional rivals. Win those intra divisional games and we're in. I don't see us changing from our 0.47 to 0.53 hockey though. We need a trade and desperately to shake things up if we want to try and wake the team up and go on a run, but I think it can be done. Not necessarily a Bo trade but a winger (Miller, Boeser, Garland) for any defenceman who can play 20 minutes would do it. Change the makeup of this team, wake them up and make them feel less comfortable with their losing mentality and I bet we can go on a run and bust in. This team can very easily play 7-2-1 hockey the rest of the way with a top 4 defenceman and minus a winger.
  24. Him and Luke Hughes should be untouchables, they could be what Burns and Karlsson never were - two prime defencemen at once. Most smart teams would split puck moving defencemen and probably play them alongside a veteran though. They could easily be in the Norris voting for a solid decade or two, scary. NJD are spoilt, they have plenty of middle tier RDs as well. Hamilton, Severson and Marino are in their prime right now. Surely Severson gets traded or walks this offseason but he has played big minutes lately. They probably should trade one D for a big strong physical forward for the playoffs though. If they want one of Miller, Boeser or Horvat for a D package, go for it. They probably don't need Horvat but I could see Miller or Boeser as a nice fit there. Miller/Boeser for Severson straight up would do nicely.
  25. Crazy good game, bit disappointed Bedard doesn't factor into the scoring but he scored plenty of clutch goals during the tournament. Big players come up big in the finals and say what you want about Wright, he'll always be a polarising player but that was a heck of a game and goal by him. Roy was great but Guenther pretty much single handedly wins them the game. Hurts as a Canuck fan but we probably wouldn't have picked him anyway and wasted the pick... I thought Clarke was all over the place, some nice offensive plays but he's a real Myers out there in his own zone, has to polish that up if he's ever going to be considered elite.
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