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SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME

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Everything posted by SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME

  1. Yeah, basically whenever he signs an NHL ELC, the SIHA (Swedish Ice Hockey Association) receives a transfer fee (which will be split between the teams that developed him in the Swedish system), and Höglander is released from his current Swedish contract and allowed to join the Canucks.
  2. Gardiner came back early and played through his back injury, and this affected his mobility down the stretch and through the playoffs. After the playoffs, Gardiner had another MRI done that came back clean, and fortunately would not require surgery. He is expected to be 100% for next season. Since the lockout, he’s played 80, 79, 79, 82, and 82 game seasons, and then the 62 last year, with the injury. I believe he’s only had two serious injuries: a concussion in 2012-13 (with the Marlies during the lockout) and the back injury last season. Assuming reports are correct and he’s had clear scans and been given a clean bill of health, I wouldn’t worry about him being damaged goods. He’s been pretty injury free for his career. He also plays a low contact style, and is pretty evasive, so he’s not likely to get banged up too often or accumulate all that much wear and tear. I expect he’s been holding out for a higher salary than teams have been offering so far. Doesn’t make sense otherwise that he’s even on the market. He’s too good a player to not be getting interest. Question is, how much money would it take to sign him? If Gardiner starts to get impatient, and possibly would accept something with reasonable term and AAV, I hope we’re in the mix. If this situation drags on, I’d absolutely love to see the Canucks circle back, and see if they can nab Gardiner on the (relative) cheap. In my mind, he’s more valuable than either Edler or Myers. Anything (with reasonable term) under the $6 million AAV we’re currently paying those two would be a serious bargain IMO. Gardiner is just a beast statistically. Since 2016, he’s 9th among all NHL Dmen in WAR (wins above replacement) and GAR (goals above replacement), and he’s done even better at evens, ranking 5th in the league in even strength GAR. He may have had some bad “eye test” moments, some on the biggest stage possible (a playoffs game 7 in a Leafs jersey is about as high profile as it gets in hockey), but as far as overall results go, there’s not a player on the Canucks D with stats that comes anywhere close to the level of quality you see reflected in Gardiner’s visualizations: You simply won’t ever see a “bad” defenseman consistently putting up numbers like those. Nearly every other Dman with a similar statistical profile is considered a top pairing Dman, and even some of the consensus #1D’s don’t put up numbers as good as Gardiner’s. Swapping Tanev for Gardiner upgrades the team. I like Tanev, but you could even dump him for no return (not that I’m suggesting this), and then sign Gardiner, and you’re still coming out ahead. Actually getting a trade return on Tanev, and then adding Gardiner as a “free” asset, is like Vancouver getting paid to make the team better.
  3. Here are the fewest hits/season, filtered for 81 games or more, since the NHL started keeping real time stats (hits, etc): Loui’s definitely up there, but he’s also in some pretty decent company (Gretzky, Jagr, Francis, Naslund, etc).
  4. I always kinda laugh when I see one year contracts reported with an AAV. Then again, I’m sure if Cap Friendly reported it as a one year $1.6M deal, they’d end up having to answer a bunch of “but what’s the AAV” tweets.
  5. I’m not worried about the roster spots. This team probably only needs a few days of training camp to solve any issues regarding us having too many healthy Dmen.
  6. Looks like he still gets his haircuts done at Sharkey’s. Wonder if he sits in the fire truck or the spaceship?
  7. Or he may have already agreed to waive his clause for expansion draft purposes. Debatable whether or not Seattle would choose to take him, unless offered a significant package to do so, but he might have at least agreed to being exposed. Apparently there were extensive negotiations between the parties involved in putting this deal together. Calgary has reportedly chosen to honour Lucic’s clause, but that doesn’t mean they don’t also have some sort of side agreement in place, specifically as pertains to the expansion draft. I’d actually be very surprised if they didn’t secure Lucic’s agreement to waive the clause for the expansion draft, as a condition to the trade. Lucic wanted out of Edmonton, and I doubt he’d hold firm and let this stand in the way of getting a trade done. Plus it would just be ridiculously bad management for Calgary to agree to this trade, without securing expansion draft considerations, since they’d be stuck using a protection slot on Lucic. I can’t see the values working unless they have some agreement from Lucic regarding the expansion draft. I expect they’ve made some arrangement and just haven’t released the details publicly. It’s probably all spelled out in an addendum, but we aren’t privy to that information.
  8. For Fehr’s sake, hopefully Genève-Servette is on solid financial footing now. The club has apparently been bought and sold a couple times for 1 Swiss Franc over the past decade or so, and has been close to bankruptcy in recent years. The former owner, Hugh Quennec, who also owned FC Genève-Servette, mismanaged both clubs (to the point of bankruptcy, in the case of FC, and near bankruptcy for HC). He brought in Mike Gillis a couple years back, and apparently MG was going to offer some stability by taking an ownership stake, but eventually he walked away because Quennec wouldn’t give up majority ownership, and MG felt he needed full control of the struggling club. MG left the team, and apparently Quennec is now also out as owner. Not sure if the new ownership has deep pockets, but Genève-Servette has been skating pretty close to bankruptcy for a while, so hopefully they’re now on stable financial footing. I believe bankruptcy means demotion to a lower tier, and who knows what consequences for the active roster players (like Fehr), so hopefully the can stay afloat. I think both HC and FC are now owned by the “1890 Foundation,” a group set-up by a local winemaker. And both clubs were apparently sold, once again for a symbolic fee of 1 Swiss Franc each. So, if you’ve ever dreamed of owning a Swiss pro hockey (or soccer) team, they are actually surprisingly affordable.
  9. Statistically, he’s an elite player on the power play, but maybe 3rd pair level at evens (arguably below replacement at even strength defensive play). Basically profiles as a player who provides massive value on the man advantage, but negative value at even strength, driven by poor defensive zone play, especially in terms of both defending against zone entries, creating zone exits, and bleeding shots in his own zone. Regular viewers of the Sabres can comment on how much this reflects in the eye test, but the numbers tell me that, at over 24 minutes a night, he’s getting too much usage at even strength, especially for a player who only really benefits his team on the man advantage. If the statistical profile continues, as far as a career defining trend, he’s most likely best utilized as a specialist, earning 1PP duties, and reduced, sheltered minutes at even strength. He’s young though, and has a big bag of tools, so he might settle down his even strength game, and become capable of bringing neutral to positive value at evens, plus some big time value on the man advantage. He just hadn’t done that yet (as far as the even strength side of his game). To date, his minuses look earned, on the back of some very poor even strength results that truly hurt his team, and playing too many minutes doing just that: hurting his team at even strength.
  10. Have to admit, I enjoy seeing Saskatchewan hockey programs teaching “the Elias Pettersson breakaway forehand backhand move”: Petey’s already such a legend.
  11. Yes and no. Gaborik still gets paid. And his cap hit still counts. But insurance covers up to 80% of the actual money paid to players with long term injuries. So depending on the owner (and Ottawa’s is known to be a bit of a cheapskate), it might be preferable to carry a player with an injury, even if the team is near the cap floor and can’t benefit from LTIR relief, rather than replace that player with a healthy one, and have to actually pay a full salary. Ottawa is currently just over the cap floor, with around $9 million in injured players. I their actual salary cost for this season is only around $53 million, when you factor in the insurance, and some of their players being on higher cap hits higher than their salaries.
  12. Coming soon to a Comets game near you: Comets sign Matt Petgrave.
  13. I know this post is tongue in cheek, but you definitely have a case, as far as last year goes. Markstrom led the Canucks in GAR (28.8) and WAR (5.1). Next closest was Petey with 15.7 GAR and 2.8 WAR. No other Canucks above 10 GAR and 2 WAR. (GAR=goals above replacement; WAR=wins above replacement; stats per Evolving Hockey) This is a big reason why we have to hope Markstrom’s 2018-19 season wasn’t just a fluke and a one off. His WAR stats were actually the 8th best in the entire NHL, among goalies.
  14. Pettersson. Not just because he’s our best player and plays a prime position. But because of his influence on the others. All last season, we’d read about Canucks watching Elias and feeing inspired to become better versions of themselves. I mean, just read these words from Horvat: “For sure I was inspired by him. I can say it first hand. He inspires me to be a better 200-foot player. “And he’s only played five games,” said Horvat. He can’t help but laugh at how that sounds out loud. But he’s so on point here. “I noticed he was special in preseason,” he continued. “It was right away. You could see it. It’s why everyone in this room has so much respect for him. “Why I have so much respect for him is because he plays so hard away from the puck. “It’s insane. The skill, you see it. That’s sick. But for him to be so good defensively and positionally and for him to be so relentless on the puck, it’s unbelievable to watch. “As an older guy like me, who has been in the league for five years, I watch him and I want to be like him. I want to be like that. “He pushes me to be a better player. “It’s awesome to have someone on your team who pushes you.” That’s what makes Petey our most important player. He pushes even a heart and soul guy like Horvat, a guy with unquestionable work ethic, to elevate his game.
  15. Goofing around with FaceApp: I guess just Eriksson’s decline through his 30’s got me wondering what “old Loui” might look like.
  16. That pic is just calling out for some photoshop action.
  17. Unfortunately, the Canucks didn’t help much in preventing those assumptions: And there was similar messaging from the front office around additions like Eriksson and Gudbranson. It’s not as simple as the Canucks were desperately chasing the playoffs, and this drove their acquisitions through much of Benning’s tenure. But it’s also not as simple as Benning was working the same exact plan from day one, and we’re now reaping the inevitable rewards of his sound management practices since 2014. Vancouver spent considerable cap space and assets on players they believed would help them “win now” while providing stability and leadership to allow the kids to grow and develop. How successful this was is certainly up for debate. The Benning years saw us have the worst record of any team in the NHL over several seasons, so the “winning atmosphere” angle was largely a fail. And he made some acquisitions that either resulted in net asset loss, or tied up considerable cap space in players that likely will not help this team when it reaches a competitive window (some may even need to be moved out in cap dump trades with “sweeteners”). Not sure if those moves really helped us get any better, either then, now, or into the future. I’m really not interested in going negative on Benning. I’m far from a hater. But I’m equally disinterested in fluffing up his management record. There’ve been mistakes. The rebuild has been far from optimal. We’ve finally reached a place now where one can see the potential for things coming together for this team, but before we actually reach “contender” status, Benning (or his replacement) may very well need to spend nearly as much time and energy cleaning up after some of his own mistakes, as was devoted to cleaning up “the mess” from the team he inherited in 2014. Many here will disagree with my assessment, of course. CDC remains the land of “in JB we trust.” Personally, I’ve never “trusted” JB completely as the guy to get this team where it needs to be. That level of faith just isn’t in my nature. But I’ve always wished him well. I think he’s made some very good moves in the last few years. I think we’re headed in a good direction now. But I also think he’s stumbled at many stages along the way. Just my $0.02, and I don’t expect everyone to agree.
  18. Yup, Nylander ended up getting $41,774,194 of actual money, spread out over 6 years. He will not receive the full $45 million “total salary” you’ll see listed on the cap websites. His average salary (actual) received is $6,962,366, which is identical to his listed cap hit in years 2-6 of his contract. And also identical to his accumulated cap hit in the first year of his deal (the prorated amount actually charged against Toronto’s cap in 2018-19). Nylander’s contract breaks down like this: Cap hit, years 2-6: ($10M x 126/186 +$2M + 33M) / 6 years = $6,962,366 Cap hit, year 1: $6,962,366 x 186/126 = $10,277,778 Accumulated cap hit, year 1: $10,277,778 x 126/186 = $6,962,366 Projected cap hit, years 2-6: $6,962,366 Salary received, year 1: $10 million x 126/186 + $2 million (signing bonus) = $8,774,194 Salary remaining, years 2-6: $33 million Total salary (actual): $8,774,194 + $33 million = $41,774,194
  19. I don’t think Jake has found his best linemates yet (although they may already be on the team and just haven’t clicked yet), as far as chemistry and complimentary skillsets, but when he does, I think he could be a really valuable player. You look at his tracking data and there’s some pretty special stuff in there. His ability to create possession entries and shots is quite remarkable (90th and 98th percentile, respectively, in the NHL). He just needs to play with linemates (and in a defined role) that can make the most of these contributions. If that ever clicks for Jake, look out. And I’m actually still quite optimistic it will come together one day. Virtanen has the potential to be a highly valuable component of a very high end forward line. He just needs the right linemates around him, so he can truly play to his strengths (some of which are actually elite).
  20. Could also trade Sutter, Baertschi, and Schaller. If we weren’t at all fussy about the returns, I think we could move all of those contacts without too much grief. That would easily clear enough space to sign Boeser (and also Goldobin), add Gusev, and keep Gaudette up as well. We’d even have enough cap space to carry Eriksson this season, if necessary, until the right deal could be made (maybe at the TDL) to dump his cap as well.
  21. Probably already posted, but I don’t exactly read this thread religiously, so figured I’d share. https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/micheal-ferland-career-canucks-help-gino-odjick Gino Odjick helped him quit alcohol Vancouver Canucks / Twitter It wasn’t until the end of 2013, after a season-ending knee injury coupled with a drinking binge, that Ferland finally reached out to the Calgary Flames for help to curb his alcoholism. Then-Flames head coach Bob Hartley put Ferland in touch with a player he used to coach in junior (in 1987-88 with the CJHL’s Hawkesbury Hawks), Canucks legend Gino Odjick. Odjick, who grew up in an Algonquin reservation in Quebec, also battled addiction during his career.
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