ilduce39

Now that the team has turned the corner JB needs to start pinching pennies... but the flip side is guys are willing to take a little less to be a part of it. Adios Marky.. thanks for the good times! (In all seriousness!) this was the right call and looking forward to the Holtby/Demko era!

As a pro-JB guy, given the circumstances, I’d be pretty bummed if we gave up Boeser to nab OEL. I’m still fine moving on from Brock for a young, quality top-2 (or even 3) RHD... but this isn’t the case.. and I doubt Arizona is looking to take his contract on either. Likely the big sticking point is that the shine is well off Juolevi and both he and Rathbone are still significant gambles to pan out as top 4. Then we don’t have a 1st in the upcoming draft and you can see why the Coyotes are running around trying to expand their options. Sounds like the Bruins just aren’t interested in playing ball. Not going to count my chickens before they hatch but it’s hard not to see this turning out well for us.

I read the impetuous for moving him was the long term commitment, which could still make a OEL/Eriksson move make sense. Some internal spending certainly considering OEL being due 10.5 mil next year. They also seem to shed a lot of older players after next year (Stepan, Hjalmarsson, Goligoski, Demers) so they could go from capped out to cap floor in a hurry.

You’d have to think there’s some kind of deal around OEL coming here and Loui going back as a high cap hit that saves real money. Considering Loui likely costs a 1st to move out I can see why JB is playing ball here. If he can reshuffle his cap space, find an Edler replacement and take a step towards maximizing the roster during Petey/Hughes ELC’s he has to take it even if LD isn’t really an immediate concern. Really, if Arizona can’t even pay their bills this could just be a matter of JB staring them down.

You’d have to think spending assets to clear space for a run at Pietrangelo would be a lot “cheaper” than trading for Ekblad if JB is that desperate for a #1 RD. Of course, that would depend on Pietrangelo. Aren’t OEL and Dumba also rumoured to be on the market? It might actually be time for JB to make a splash on the right side and see how cheap he can bring back Taney or Stech in a 3rd pair role. Tanev with Juolevi or Rathbone behind a locked a loaded top 4 would have us looking rather studly. It’s fun to dream anyways.

Yeah, for sure. I haven’t seen our team lay out to block shots and limit rebounds like that in recent memory. The defensive effort was great. The problem was in transition and controlling possession.

100% - especially if we want to build off of this season. I understand a lot of it is venting but it’s not the time to wantonly “get rid of” guys you didn’t like the look of vs Vegas. We could really use a young guy or two to step up in a PK role. Podkozlin can’t get here fast enough and hopefully a guy like Jake can try to take that on.

For sure.. poor guy. Certainly could have used him. Hopefully MacEwen can step up next season.

Regarding the bottom 6 guys who actually played, I think their contributions are fairly consistent with the rest of the remaining teams. 5 of them chipped in 10 goals and 20 points (Sutter, Motte, Beagle, Jake, Roussel).. looking at other teams I don’t see a whole lot more coming from down the lineups. I think the bottom 6 isn’t as dire as some are making it out to be. With some tweaking we could be in decent shape. (Cap-wise it does stink to have 12+ mil locked up with Loui, Ferland and the recapture.)

One guy I really hope we keep is Stecher. I can’t see him being greedy. Really hope we make it happen.

Haha yeah.. that’s actually true too. But if he’s getting that PP1 spot he might be closer to a 50 point guy with 20 ish goals. A ton of risk/reward for any of Toffoli/Tanev/Marky

JB said he’s not looking to UFA (I mean we don’t really have the room anyways) but it’s all good. Let Petey and Hughes try to build off this run and keep working on team chemistry - we’ve had a ton of turnover these past 2 years. Guys like Gaudette and Jake are also coming off career years. Lots to build on. Internally, lots of options / help incoming too. Rathbone and Juolevi on the back end and Podkolzin, Hoglander, Lind, Lockwood, MacEwen for forwards. Lots of reasons to be excited for next year. Let Jim keep what vets he thinks can help and let the young guys battle for the rest of the spots.

It’s so hard for me to decide. Tanev has been more healthy this past year than I can remember.. but what are the odds he can average more than 60 games a season / be ready to go for playoffs over a 3 or 4 year extension? Toffoli was obviously still hurt... and really helps out the top 6 when he’s on. Ironically, he was the one hurt but I’d be way more confident in his health than Tanev’s over a multi year stretch. I’ve said I’m confident but JB sure has his work cut out for him - this offseason is by far his most important to date.

JB has been constantly trying to inject that grit into the lineup so I’m sure he’ll keep trying. I thought we held up pretty well but yeah it finally caught up to us. We could really use a guy like Podkolzin over here sooner than later.

Vegas was clearly the stronger team and Demko stole game 5 and almost game 7... but I also thought we played well enough to “earn” the wins in games 2 and 6. I know we have some work to do to match a team like Vegas but with internal improvement from our young studs we could be closer than you’d think watching tonight.

Jesus. The team makes the playoffs for the first time in 4 years (with the oft repeated “second worst record”) they win 2 series including one against the defending champs and take the odds on favourite to win it all to 7 games... but yeah let’s focus on the negatives.

Man, what a meat grinder of a playoffs for the Canucks. Wild, Blues and Vegas all big, veteran physical clubs... factor in the schedule and not a surprise we ran out of gas there. Overall what a showing and experience for our group, though. I’m not as worried about the off-season / cap as the nerds on twitter and HF are. This is the first offseason where management has that as a focus - JB has shown he can get things done. I’m confident we’ll be stronger going in to next season however the chips fall. Can’t wait!

Rooster. Gaudette. Sutter. I know they aren’t the A team but they must have fresh legs with how little they’ve played. One of them.

Time to pull off grand larceny this period. Steal the whole damn series. One for the ages!

What a goon. Hopefully this just lost them the series.

We’re starting to wake up.

Was just coming in to post this quote. A big part of my belief in Benning has been that he’s been working at this his entire tenure with the Canucks. Before JT Miller we had Ryan Miller. A warrior like Dorsett. A super fun season of Thomas Vanek. A constant stream of vets to maintain some level of internal competition every camp. Detractors focused on the contracts and “asset management” but ignored the heart of the team:did the group and young developing players play hard / the right way? Was there a divide between a few “stars” who just wanted to put up points and the rest of the team? Aside from the Jake/McCann rookie blips, I haven’t heard of any drama with the club. And those two were promptly checked by vets like the Twins and Burrows IIRC. It’s not just a matter of having one or two vets as “mentors” - you need to keep enough hard working players around to really shape a team’s identity. I have no doubt guys like Brock, Petey and Hughes would have been committed regardless, but what a blessing that they didn’t have to come in and change a toxic culture - they could just focus on playing (and maybe adding a bit of swagger, if anything). It was hard to measure “winning environment” as the team still had a poor record.. but in retrospect that was due to a sheer lack of talent and injures (seriously, check some late season rosters during the down years). When healthy they always competed even with playoff teams but would run out of steam down the stretch. It’s no surprise to me that now that we have depth/talent to compete and survive a few injuries we’re playing with the best teams in the league. As a final thought, sometimes I see fans wistfully pining for the days of Gilman/Gillis and their cap management... but they benefitted from a team who were willing to take a little less to remain competitive. I think it was Burr or Kes who got their hands slapped by the PA for saying so in an interview. I could see something similar happening again - maybe not Burrows-level-bargain but some deals that are fair to the team and the player rather than record-setting mega deals. Could be a positive side effect of this little run!

Other than (obviously) Demko only Edler (~23) and Myers (~21) played more than 20 minutes tonight. To be fair, LV didn’t burn anyone out either but we didn’t shoot our whole wad winning game 6 by any stretch.

100% ... FWIW really feels like the pressure is all on them in game 7. They’re a strong, effective team but a lot of questions in net and regarding last season. Meanwhile, our crew continues to defy all odds and play their hearts out. We have a young core and a speedy team full of snipers who weren’t supposed to be here. Have to like our chances.

Myers has been great in these playoffs... not sure how he played in post season Winnipeg but I’ve been impressed overall but also his general battle level / grittiness