Toews

As a top 4 RHD that isn't a bad price to pay. I see Garrison the same way as I see Schmidt. Both were decent defenseman but they weren't a good fit here and we were able to trade them and recoup assets because other teams saw value in them. The others that you mentioned were expected to be top 4 defenseman but performed at the level of bottom pairing defenseman.

I don't think Garrison belongs with the others. The Canucks were able to recoup a 2nd round pick for that contract and that was with Garrison essentially only wanting to go to Florida.

Professional athletes not just in hockey but in other sports have often done some insane things to get on the playing field when their teams needed them to. Just because a guy is "cleared" to play doesn't mean he is "healthy" in any shape or form. Just look at Kesler who now has to deal with Chron's disease for the rest of his life because of abusing painkillers during his career. Athletes are just a different breed of humans, the average human being just cannot relate.

Where are you seeing this? The short bridge deals used to be quite popular but in recent times it has become rarer and rarer. Can you name all the players that recently signed for that term coming off of their ELC? The only reason to sign your star player to a short term bridge is if you are not quite sold on their production or you happen to be in Cup contention and need to keep the cap hit down to round out the rest of the roster. If you have a bonafide star on your hands and you aren't a legit contender its absolutely stupid to sign that player to a 3 year bridge. You have far more leverage with a player coming off an ELC, why would you not want to go for something in the 6-8 year range. The Canucks could have had Pettersson for around 9-9.5M on a 8 year contract and we are now looking at close to 11M or so. Of course two of the most moronic GMs in recent years in Jim Benning and Brad Treliving thought it was a fantastic idea to give their superstars 3 year bridge contracts. Mackinnon-7 years Makar- 6 years Rantanen- 6 years McDavid- 8 years Draisaitl- 8 years Barkov- 8 years Matthews- 5 years Pastrnak- 6 years Marner- 6 years Eichel- 8 years

Big fan of Dunn, always felt like the Blues made a big mistake by not protecting him. I don't see how anyone who watched him play last year could call him a liability. Excellent 5v5 production as well. Even if he settles into a 45-50 point defenseman with minimal PP time, this will not be a bad contract.

I concur with the folks that say that they are tired of this thread, normally I would be telling those same people that no is forcing them to click on this thread but yet here I am doing the same thing. I wish we could erase OEL's existence from our collective psyche, maybe do the same for Benning as well.

Looks like Maclean is returning, I honestly think they just have no idea who to find as a replacement. Feeling pretty good about Bieksa returning, Berger hasn't been relevant in decades.

Drawing a blank on what Cull accomplished in his time here. Who did he develop in all his time with the Comets? Zach MacEwen?

I have a hard time believing people actually like Wahlstrom. Everytime I have watched him play he has just come across as underwhelming. He's got a decent shot but he isn't fast enough nor does he have the IQ to find the soft spots on the ice to get it off. He is big but not consistently physical enough to play the role of a power forward. I will bet he will be on waivers some time this season, as dear ol' Alf would say, a bustaroo bonsai.

Courts don't determine what's true, they act based on evidence. It works the other way around as well, there have been plenty of people convicted of crimes they never committed. I have no idea whether Virtanen is guilty or not, and neither does the judge that oversaw his case. Based on the law and precedence there wasn't enough evidence supporting a guilty verdict. That's all the courts determined. The majority of rapists don't get convicted in court, most don't even see a court room. I am a fan of Kobe Bryant, yet I am not going to proclaim his innocence based on a 'not guilty' verdict. You are free to believe whatever you choose to about Virtanen's innocence. I would caution basing your belief off of a court's verdict.

The league didn't collectively drop Virtanen, the Oilers invited him to camp and he was extremely underwhelming. Also Cole never went to court with his accuser, it was an online post made anonymously and no one could make contact with the accuser. The Virtanen accusation has far more credibility if you are comparing the two. The case not standing up in court means very little, generally speaking sexual assault allegations have extremely low conviction rates. Do you have sympathy for OJ Simpson? How about Bill Cosby whose conviction was overturned?

As far as I know no one has managed to make contact with the victim that made those allegations. So unless there more reporting around these allegations, that's all they are, allegations. There is nothing credible to support that Cole was even around any "highschool girls" other than an anonymous online post. I am not someone who subscribes to a blanket application of innocent until proven guilty as by that standard even OJ Simpson is innocent, but I need more than whatever is out there currently to cast suspicion over Cole being some sort of unsavoury character.

It always amazes me when people say they don't enjoy the media coverage but then plug their links/videos and essentially drive traffic to their websites or Youtube channels. In this day and age the best thing you can do about irresponsible journalism is to ignore it completely. If you post about these people, you discuss their opinions, you are essentially driving engagement and these folks live of this stuff. In the age we live now, the best way to drive traffic is by being as controversial and provocative as possible. Sekeres and Drance probably smile at the number of posts on here complaining about their conduct. If you pop their names into search on CDC you would probably get far more hits than someone who is trying to make a living by the more traditional route like Imac and Sat.

That does make sense. Its almost like the previous management let Myers' agent draft the contract and their only role was to sign on the dotted line.

@mll Any idea why paying Myers' bonus early could be considered cap circumvention. From what I have gathered, you don't begin to accrue cap space until the season starts. So paying Myers now vs. in September shouldn't have any impact from a cap stand point. Of course there could be other rules outlined in the CBA that might prevent a team from making a payment earlier than usual but citing cap circumvention doesn't make a whole lot of sense imo.

That was a deserving two minute minor for interference that wasn't called. The referees sucked in that series but you'd have to be made of glass to get injured on that play. You just can't as a goalie generate enough force to injure someone by a shove to the chest in open ice. The Sedins were tough cookies, you could probably pull up any random shift of them cycling for pucks where they took more far more damage than on that clip that you posted. Over the years I have come around to some of your opinions that the NHL has a way of managing games to produce desired outcomes. I just think this one just ain't it man.

That the core was "stale" and that there needed to be serious changes in order to for us to get back to being a contending team. When he saw the disinterest from ownership towards making those changes he checked out, I can't say I blame him.

You are easily the most unintentionally hilarious posters on this forum. I would have genuinely believed you were playing a character if I hadn't been here long enough to know better. I can't say that I agree with a lot of the arguments that have been made in this thread, but at least I could see where they were coming from. Your argument on the other hand that one is not being inclusive for not including Nazis is easily the stupidest thing that I have read in a long time. The fact that you are doubling down on it and think its some gotcha moment is also quite amusing. Never change man, I look forward to your post in the Remembrance day thread arguing that our ancestors who fought against the Nazis were actually being fascist for not being more accepting of Nazism.

The NHL draft is the most boring of all drafts. There is literally zero movement at the top of the draft. I can't even remember the last time a team moved a top 5 pick at or right before the draft, you would probably have to back to the pre- salary cap era. You look at the NFL and NBA drafts and you have teams frequently moving top picks, but in the NHL GMs are just way too conservative with top picks. Of course I am excluding picks that were traded well in advance like Kessel for #2 overall (Seguin), Duchene for #4 overall (Byram) or Karlsson for #3 overall (Stutzle). Essentially unless you are trading for an unprotected pick in next year's draft you might have as well forget about trading for a top 5 pick. I can't help but roll my eyes anytime a GM says they want to move up, good luck finding a partner to do that.

Of course he can, he is still a very young 33 years old and is still getting his feet wet with a measly 900 games in the NHL. We just got to him some more time and he will eventually figure it out and become a good defensman.

I am not saying the Canucks lied either, I just think that expectations weren't set right from the gate and that was because the Canucks were taking shortcuts in terms of development of the young players. If Tryamkin was so out of shape then why did he get 13 games at the end of the previous season? Lets also not forget that Tryamkin was used to playing on a bigger ice surface so coming onto a smaller surface should have less taxing on his conditioning. I also think there is some truth to what Sam is arguing, I don't think Willie was particularly keen on playing a young defenseman who was just getting used to the pace of the NHL. It was easier to play guys who didn't have to many nearly as many adjustments to make as Tryamkin did and who the coach could actually communicate without needing the help of a translator. Willie was essentially gone a year later, so it is conceivable that he was already feeling some pressure at the time to win games.

Agreed but overpayment is what it will take. No incentive to part with young defenseman especially RHD for a fair price.

Pretty sure Joe is referring to Elias Lindholm and not Mikael Backlund, still not worth doing.

Hall has enough upside to him that he can still produce enough points to make up for that 6M in cap hit. That sort of upside Myers does not possess, he is at best a bottom pairing defenseman and a team that has the capability to spend to the cap like Chicago can use that 6M much better than that. I think our best bet is to wait till the bonus is paid off and get a budget team that doesn't plan on spending anywhere close to the cap to take him on.

Tryamkin and his agent disputed that he came into camp out of shape. If I remember correctly the quote from the agent stated 'That was the weight that he has always played at.' If that is true then I wonder how he was in shape for the 13 game stint that he had at the end of the season but of shape for camp. My best guess is that the Canucks enticed Tryamkin to come over by promising him a roster spot and playing time despite him not being in shape for the NHL. It was clear at the time that the team was taking shortcuts when it comes to development, they had already shoehorned Virtanen and McCann onto the roster when neither had any business being on the team to the point where veterans like the Sedins and Burrows publicly talked about the lack of professionalism in the work habits of the youngsters on the team. Tryamkin also said that the communication between him and the team was poor and he didn't know what I was expected of him. Now that is something that I do find believable, a frequent complaint from many players during the Benning regime was the lack of communication and that was with players who could actually speak more than a few words of English. My point is that Tryamkin being out of shape was a bit overblown, due to lack of communication and due to lack of firm expectations set forth the moment he arrived here. Funnily enough McCann ended up getting traded and used that summer to get in the best shape of his life and he is now a successful NHL player, meanwhile the other two are out of the league. Of course I would still take Tryamkin back in a heartbeat but honestly I don't see much upside there. Most teams now days scout the KHL and there is hardly any buzz that surrounds him, of course he has been a Canuck asset so teams can't actively recruit him but I have heard zero news about any interest in him. It makes me figure that scouts and teams don't see much upside there, his upside is a bottom pairing defenseman, hardly anything to get anyone really excited about.