-
Posts
10,799 -
Joined
-
Days Won
8
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Gallery
Everything posted by SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME
-
Giving term to players is this age group is always questionable, however, I don’t hate this deal as much as many of the others like it. The cap hit is pretty good. It’s actually under where I’d rate Ekholm’s current value. The term is a concern. It’s a fair bet he’ll remain effective over the next five years (ie: the one year remaining plus the four year extension), but there almost certainly will be some decline. However, the starting point is a 23 minutes per game, minute munching two-way D with size, and a team leader and alternate captain. And also a longterm, homegrown player in that organization, who has been significantly underpaid at $3.75M. (To-date, at least by the stats, Ekholm has provided nearly $40M in surplus value to the Predators, over and above his career earnings.) A shorter extension at a higher AAV would probably be a smarter move IMO, but it’s hard to know what the player was looking for. Maybe Ekholm’s side was starting out asking for eight years, and they came down to four, which is certainly a much more palatable number from the team side. If they still can get 20+ minutes per game, and close to full seasons played, from Ekholm over the next half decade, they’ll probably have done quite well on this contract. And at least the deal isn’t starting out as a massive overpayment, which is more often the case for UFA aged players.
-
https://www.nhl.com/news/commissioner-gary-bettman-says-4-nhl-players-unvaccinated/c-326772676 Bettman announced yesterday that only 4 players in the entire NHL are not vaccinated. All NHL officials and team staff that contact the players are fully vaccinated. EDIT: Of the four, three are known: Blackwood, Bertuzzi, and Ylonen. The fourth player we can probably guess.
-
Good drafting and amateur scouting, questionable development, and also questionable pro scouting and prospect/player evaluation (post-draft). I wouldn’t be surprised if the Canucks end up having drafted 20+ NHLers in the drafts under the Benning regime to-date, but quite possibly more of those players will end up playing for other teams, rather than contributing to a winning roster in Vancouver. In some ways, this is okay, or even a good result. So long as the asset value of those picks is still reflected in the Canucks’ success. Unfortunately, that aspect is also questionable, as I’m not convinced Vancouver has maximized value on the picks who’ve left the organization (through trades, waivers, expansion, etc). Overall, probably rate the Canucks pretty middling, when it comes to converting picks to roster players. And definitely some lost value and missed opportunities/mistakes in evaluation. There’s also a fair amount TBD, when it comes to current draft properties. Hopefully most of those players end up landing in the “win” column and improving the overall results.
-
I wish I could post in these threads, but I’m the type that overthinks each question and changes my mind on my answers by the second. Nailing down a prediction on this many variables would probably take me all day, and I’d be back editing it repeatedly over the next week.
-
At least Sutter had a positive test with his initial Covid infection. There are Covid long haulers who’ve never tested positive. They got sick early in the pandemic and just quarantined, never took the test (in many cases were even advised by health authorities not to get tested and just home quarantine), and now they are facing a longterm medical issue that’s not exactly easy for them to prove, or even get diagnosed. Just a nightmare scenario, especially if you know what it’s already like for people with chronic illnesses trying to navigate the health system (and even worse in the US, where treatments and benefits might get denied without a positive test).
-
Long-Covid isn’t a long, active Covid infection. Most “long haulers” are past the acute phase and will test negative. There’s no longer live virus running amok in their bodies. It’s a post-viral syndrome, which is much more difficult to identify with lab tests. I believe researchers are working right now on some autoantibodies tests, but I don’t think there’s an actual test available currently for long-Covid. Certainly it’s not something that would pop up or get flagged on a standard blood count and chem panel, or whatever additional lab tests are generally ordered as part of a normal physical. I think what’s being reported sounds very plausible. Sutter would have tested negative for Covid and likely felt pretty normal for most of the summer. He would have been considered medically cleared when he signed his extension in July. And then these current health issues only started to emerge sometime around mid-August.
-
Oops, it really looked like the reverse on the source with the Abby schedule I looked at, but you’re 100% correct. Anyway, I’m sure Hamonic could stay back and practice in Abby while the team went on that road trip, then maybe even play the two Abbotsford home games (Oct 22&24) as a tune up, before joining the NHL Canucks when they are back from their road trip, and play the Vancouver home opener Oct 26th. That’s all assuming things work out with the “personal matter” and he reports, of course.
-
If you add “hard working” to that title, you can easily see why the Canucks felt this player was a good addition to their group. Hopefully Juho can come in and replace a lot of what’s been lost with Sutter out (and for what’s now looking like a longterm/indeterminate period, due to the recent confirmation of long-Covid). And if he can perform at a decent enough level, he might just be a cheap, young, longterm fit for our fourth line and penalty kill.
-
Definitely there’s no timeline, now that it’s confirmed Sutter’s health issues are related to long-Covid. As I understand it, rest and pacing are the most effective treatments, and the duration needed varies from individual to individual. Certainly Sutter has a lot going for him, as he was previously very healthy, as an elite athlete, so hopefully his recovery is quicker and more compete than many others in the same situation, but it’s really impossible to predict. And it’s likely going to take him a while to train and get back up to speed, and in game shape, even after he (hopefully) recovers fully from these symptoms.
-
That’s certainly the impression Benning gave, as to what the expectations are from the clubs’s side, at least officially. We’ll see if it comes to pass. But the Canucks starting out the season on a 6 game road trip, and Abbotsford starting with a 3 game home stand, does offer a decent window to work things out, and hopefully for Hamonic to arrive in Abbotsford, get some work in on the ice, and be ready to play before the Canucks return home for October 26th. That’s assuming it all gets straightened out. As you said, Benning initially expected Hamonic here for Day 2 of training camp, so we’ll just have to wait and see if this new timeline actually pans out.
-
It’s a grey area. Faceoff “wins” are determined by the off-ice officials. If memory serves, that’s usually an official scorer and a staff of around 5 assistants, who are tracking all the data you see on NHL.com. I think they usually award the win to the team that makes the “first playable play” following a faceoff. Or basically the team that gains possession, although clearly that’s going to be highly subjective, and what one observer calls “possession,” another observer may disagree with. So basically it’s a judgment call, and I’m sure if you had two crews scoring the same game, they’d end up submitting noticeably different stats at the end of the contest.
-
Players do specialize their technique, depending on their roles, which adds a whole other set of variables to the mix. There are definitely players who’ve made a living on winning D-zone draws, and actually have flipped the script to become more successful on faceoffs where they have the “disadvantage.” Also, faceoff “aces” are often deployed for key defensive draws, whereas the attacking team may choose their most talented players, instead of simply their best faceoff guy. On aggregate though, faceoffs will favour the attacking team, and you do see this reflected in the overall percentages, albeit with lots of variations at the individual player level.
-
Big time. And by far, the highest percentage of “clean wins” are won by attacking teams in the offensive zone. The best defensive centres manage to limit this, and create a much higher percentage of scrambled DZ draws, whether they’re won or lost.
-
You also can’t really compare raw faceoff percentage apples to apples, because this is one area of the game where “zonestarts” can have a significant impact. Defensive zone faceoff percentage tends to be lower by something like 3-5 percentage points because of the attacking team advantage. A FO% in the mid 40’s isn’t “bad” for a majority defensive player, but that same FO% is pretty weak for a guy who mostly takes offensive zone draws. Quality of teammates can also have an effect, when it comes to getting “winger wins.” I haven’t dug into Juho’s usage too deep, but I suspect he’d be closer to 50%, or better, if he was taking the same draws as say a Pettersson or Gaudette. This also speaks to just how dominant some of the best “defensive centres” in the league are on draws, if they can post 55%+ while deployed mainly on DZ 5v5 faceoffs and PK.
-
Yeah, looks like he’s starting out as their fourth line LW.
-
I know most CDCers don’t like reading/listening to Drance, but apparently they know each other from Florida, and I definitely appreciated what Tommy Boy had to say about Juho: We have quite a few guys who are the opposite of a “bit limited with the puck,” but can definitely can use a 6’2”, 200 lb two-way C/W who “will work his absolute bag off every shift.”
-
I’ve mentioned the same in previous posts, and honestly, if (and it remains an if) Hamonic isn’t vaccinated, I’d put my money on it being because he’s become convinced that he’s doing the right thing, especially for his daughter. Unfortunately, a lot of people have been duped by some really troubling misinformation, and they believe all kinds of crazy theories. Including ones that blame the vaccines for the current spread of the virus, and actually claim it’s less safe to be around vaccinated people than the unvaccinated. It’s bizarre stuff and very dangerous. But there are many out there that believe it. It doesn’t make them bad people. Or stupid people. I’ve had family members who’ve just gotten on the wrong side of social media, and the algorithms kept spoon feeding them “articles” that pushed them further and further into these fringe views and positions. These were smart, savvy, successful people. And they didn’t start out anywhere near those extremes, but just slipped gradually, and by the time anyone really noticed what was happening to them, they were too far down the rabbit hole to bring them back (and we’ve tried). It’s really frustrating. And heartbreaking. I’m not saying this is what happened to Hamonic. I really hope it’s not. Just that if we eventually learn he’s against the vaccines, I suspect this sort of thing will be the reason.
-
[Waivers] 43 players - Oct. 10, 2021
SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME replied to -Vintage Canuck-'s topic in Trades, Rumours, Signings
They shouldn’t need to, but yeah, they could. It’s not ideal though, because of their ELC bonuses, and how that works with LTIR (the cap hits would be higher on recall). -
25/29 of the other first rounders in OJ’s draft year have played more NHL games. Plus another 15 players drafted in the 2nd round. And a further 15 players drafted in rounds 3-7 of the 2016 Draft. If OJ was another team’s top-5 draft pick, and we weren’t at all invested in him, wouldn’t most of us have already labeled him a bust? That’s all I’m really saying.
-
Maybe that’s all we gave up too? I dunno. I like Juolevi. Wasn’t a fan of the pick, but still thought he’d be a solid prospect for us. And even until quite recently, I thought he’d eventually turn it all around and become an NHL regular, at least fitting somewhere in the bottom-4 of the Canucks D order. But it just didn’t happen. And it really needed to this year, if it ever was going to work out in Vancouver. Maybe it still will for him in Florida. I hope so, because OJ has definitely had a rough time, especially with the injuries, and I’d like him to stay healthy, pick up the pieces, and hopefully find success and have a nice pro career. But when I take off my homer cap, I’m not sure how much of my optimism for this player was just my Canucks bias. Certainly if he was another team’s pick, I’d have already labeled him a bust.
-
[Waivers] 43 players - Oct. 10, 2021
SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME replied to -Vintage Canuck-'s topic in Trades, Rumours, Signings
So who thinks Gadjovich would’ve actually made it through this waiver group? -
Abbotsford also doesn’t play any road games in Canada until after the vaccination mandate is scheduled to come into effect on domestic air travel. So if Hamonic isn’t vaxxed, he’d be unable to play in any Abby road games this season.
-
[Waivers] 43 players - Oct. 10, 2021
SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME replied to -Vintage Canuck-'s topic in Trades, Rumours, Signings
Shouldn’t make much difference to their LTIR planning, unless Hamonic gets claimed (which seems pretty unlikely). EDIT: I just mean for cap purposes/LTIR planning, they can keep the Hamonic contract up or down, depending on what suits their needs. You don’t have to demote a waived player, and you can always paper them up as well.