Blömqvist
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Posts posted by Blömqvist
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Maybe they should've kept Dahlen with his team to play in the SHL; Maybe the SHL could've been Dahlen's next developmental league instead of the AHL.
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The only gripe I have with Gudbranson's time here was that he wasn't given an extended look with Alex Edler; Gudbranson's most common defense partners were Hutton (pre-2018.19 revival) and Pouliot.
He played with Edler for a short time last season and he looked great. He looked every bit as the physical top-4 shutdown defenseman that Benning advertised him as in that short stint with Edler. And even then, Edler played a "bigger" game too.
Unfortunate that he didn't get that extended look with Edler but all the best to him. Half the fan base ragged on him but he will be going to a cup contender in the Penguins without half the expectations that he had here.
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10 minutes ago, Chip Kelly said:
Said if before and I will say it again.
Curse of Pavel Bure. Never will the Canucks get another Russian player even half as good as he was.
They don't fit in and the organization's culture and style doesn't fit them.
Avoid Russians like Mike Gillis did even though it probably cost the Canucks a chance to draft Kucherov.
Still would he have fit in Vancouver the way has in Tampa?
Probably not.
I think things are changing, especially with Benning and Brackett in charge. Benning drafted a Russian in his first draft as a GM here (Tryamkin), then a few years later traded for another Russian (Goldobin), and then when he drafted Pettersson he said he reminded him of another elite Russian (Datsyuk). Russians are definitely not on the "Do Not Draft/Do Not Acquire" list.
But as you said, maybe we are cursed with Russian players since Bure left and how management treated him. And I also forgot Fedor Fedorov and the great Jan Bulis in that list of Shirokov and Goldobin.
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I would give $10/11M per season for Panarin. We would finally have our elite Russian star in
ShirokovGoldobinPanarin.-
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1 hour ago, Seannnp said:
Personally think with all the injuries, the Canucks fall to the bottom 5.
We likely end up picking between 5-8 with an outside chance of picking 1,2 or 3. I would hate to get the 1st overall and have to decide between Hughes and Kakko but perhaps we can trade down to the 2nd. Gut feeling says we are picking 3rd. With the 3rd I take Byram every single time, unless Kakko or Hughes fall. This kid is unreal and I could absolutely see him as a number 1 D with Huges. Our version of Seabrook and Keith.
If we pick outside the top 5, I would go with Dach or Turcotte with a close look at Cozens.
If only Benning could somehow land a mid to late first. Take a D if we take a forward with our own 1st, or a F if we take Byram.
Cannot wait for this draft. Super excited.
My draft list is
Kakko/Hughes
Hughes/Kakko
Byram
Dach
Turcotte
Cozens
Krebs
Boldy
Newhook
Kaliyev
Agreed on the top 3 part. Outside of Hughes and Kakko I want Byram. He is going to be an absolute stud in a few years time. I wouldn't know what we would do with Juolevi, however, unless he or Byram can play the right side.
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15 hours ago, canuckledraggin said:
Hughes + Pettersson + Boeser + Horvat etc...=
Newell Brown keeps his job as PP coach?
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On 1/29/2019 at 8:50 AM, aGENT said:
There is basically zero chance any of those guys will be sitting in the press box as 7-8 D. They need to keep developing. To do so, they need to play. They either make the starting 6 or they're back to their respective developmental leagues.
On 1/29/2019 at 10:01 AM, therodigy said:I'm definitely coming from a very conservative POV. However, with our lack of depth on the right side, it's a good possibility that Woo can surprise and go beyond 9 games next year as well. My concern is whether or not he's being rushed a la Virtanen and McCann in 2015. One way to find out though, right?
IF he shows that he is close to NHL-ready I wouldn't be opposed to Jett Woo having an extended training camp and even get a 9-game stint at the start of the season. Have him rotate in and out of the lineup so he can experience the pace of the NHL -- both on the ice and up high -- and so he can get quality practice time, instruction, and mentoring from the world's best coaches, training staff, and players.
Can you imagine Gudbranson giving Woo pointers on how to fight (no one in the WHL would dare touch him in that case)? Or seeing the professionalism of Edler and Tanev? Or trying his best to emulate some of Hughes' offensive game in practice? Or going stride-for-stride against Horvat and Pettersson?
That said, management should definitely send him down afterwards so he can develop in a 25+min/game #1D role with the Warriors. Nothing like marinating a prospect, but giving that prospect a short opportunity to experience and learn from the NHL will do him wonders for his development.
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I'm liking the Edler-Tanev top pairing with Hutton-Stecher as the mobile, puck moving second pairing. It helps to keep Gudbranson away from the more speedy opposition forwards and allows him to put time in on our excellent PK units. I can't wait until Hughes replaces Pouliot's spot in the lineup towards the end of the season. He'll help Gudbranson immensely and Gudbranson the same with Hughes. If that pair hits, we could possibly have a #2D-#2D / #4D-#4D / #4D-#4D defense core in Edler-Tanev / Hutton-Stecher / Hughes-Gudbranson.
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4 hours ago, Canucks Curse said:In s re draft Madden goes 1st round for sure, probably top 10
one of USAs top players at WJC
leads college team in points, youngest player on team, over ppg in college
good two way game and leadership
amazing pick
I doubt Top 10, but yes I agree Madden would be a first rounder for sure. Great pick by Benning-Bracket and Co.
By comparison to other prominent American forwards drafted in the first two rounds in the 2018 draft and playing in the NCAA this season:
Oliver Wahlstrom, 11th overall; NCAA: 15GP - 4G - 1A - 5P // WJC: 7GP - 2G - 2A - 4P
Joel Farabee, 14th overall; NCAA: 18GP - 6G - 9A - 15P // WJC: 7GP - 3G - 2A - 5P
Jay O'Brien, 19th overall; NCAA: 11GP - 2G - 1A - 3P // WJC: 7GP - 0G - 0A - 0P
Jack Drury, 42nd overall; NCAA: 13GP - 4G - 10A - 14P // WJC: 7GP - 0G - 0A - 0P
Tyler Madden, 68th overall; NCAA: 16GP - 6G - 12A - 18P // WJC: 7GP - 3G - 1A - 4P
Jake Wise, 69th overall; NCAA: 12GP - 0G - 2A - 2P // Invited to World Junior Summer Showcase, did not make team
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49 minutes ago, JamesBlondage said:
Who knew all this team was missing was Tom Pyatt?
That's a good pickup if he helps the team win and helps guys like Dahlen, Lind, Gaudette, McEwen find their offensive games.
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21 minutes ago, Stierlitz said:
All in the first game back since going down from the big club?
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On January 4, 2019 at 11:33 AM, aGENT said:
A 2 year deal would be ideal with the ED coming. Saves us a protection slot. Happy to give him full NTC first year, partial the 2nd and $6m+ for the courtesy. We have zero cap concerns those 2 years anyway.
After that we can certainly look at additional 1-2 year contracts as he trends down the depth chart.
On January 4, 2019 at 11:52 AM, D-Money said:Thing is, Edler has all the leverage. With the year he had this year and last, he could easily command 4+ years on the open market.
If he's willing to consider a 2-year deal, I'd flirt with giving him big bucks ($7.5M?) and a full NTC both years. Then he knows he gets to stay for the 2 years, and get more than he'd get on a longer term deal, then re-evaluate after the expansion draft. It's a lot of money, but that's the sort of money it will probably take for him to accept such a short term.
Best case scenario:
1. Edler signs a 2 year, $7.5M per season deal, with a full NTC, $1M in salary and $6.5M in signing bonuses in case of a lockout
2. Expansion draft, no need to protect Edler as he is not under contract
3. Post-expansion draft, Edler signs a 2 year, $5M per season deal, full NTC in the first year and partial NTC in the second year
Over the four years:
1. Edler makes $25M, so an average cap hit of $6.25M/season over the two contracts
2. Edler is guaranteed $6.5M even in a lockout year
3. Edler is guaranteed to stay in Vancouver for at least 3 of those years
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8 minutes ago, TGokou said:
Is it Un-Canadian of me to say that I chuckled when I saw that Utunen had scored? Him of all people...
I had the same thing too when I realized in the replay it was Utunen
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DiPietro is amazing. The Finnish shooters couldn't beat him clean. He battles for every save. Definitely Canada's best player for the tournament.
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Clutch.
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Do I dare look over at HFBoards for their reaction? I mean, with how negative they are on this regime they must be roasting Benning for not getting at least a 2nd round pick for Nilsson.
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3 hours ago, naslundfan921 said:
The assumption is that this move is to allow Demko to come up but I don't see why the rush? Right now Marky is playing some of the best hockey of his career and it does not seem like Demko is in position to usurp him at least not RIGHT NOW. I'd leave him with the Comets for the rest of the year, let him get in more games and have this McKenna guy take the spot starts. I anticipated Demko splitting the net next year but I guess they have accelerated the plan with him.
I think the idea is that Demko can come up and get NHL-level goalie coaching from Ian Clark, who worked with elite goaltenders in Roberto Luongo and Sergei Bobrovsky when he had his two Vezina-winning seasons.
One thing that Anders Nilsson provided the team and Markstrom was that in his backup role he could start every now and then and give Markstrom a rest, which reflected in Markstrom's great month of December as the league's best goalie. Demko in his backup role can do the same. Start once in every 3 or 4 games to get exposure and experience at the NHL level and give Markstrom a break.
Demko certainly won't replace Markstrom now, but Demko will certainly get the coaching and games needed to start his NHL career.
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On 12/25/2018 at 9:55 PM, MoneypuckOverlord said:
Yes let’s also throw in ehlers while we are at it ?
weve said this too many times already. We cannot have tkatchuk and pettersson on the same roster due to the butterfly effect of having tkachuk on our team in 2017 would have made us a stronger team and ultimately not being able to pick pettersson.
The Rangers traded up in that draft too, selecting with the 7th overall pick Lias Andersson, who was playing in Sweden at the time too. I strongly believe that Pettersson would not get past the Rangers. In the scenario where we would have Tkachuk in all likelihood we would have picked after the NYR at 7th overall pick in the 2017 draft, meaning no Pettersson but yes to anyone after (Villardi, Liljegren, Brannstrom, etc).
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I'm watching the replay. DiPietro was really good considering the Canadian defense hung him out to dry on both goals. He saved the partial breakaway but the Canadian defense couldn't clear the rebound in time, and on the second goal they left the Finnish player wide open -- it's like giving Russell Wilson 5 seconds without pressure of course he would find his spot!
That said, does a bigger goalie cover up more net and not allow that second goal?
As an aside, Finland dominated that first half of the second period. At 3:45 left in the second period Ray Ferraro says, "Since Canada has changed goaltenders, they have played almost exclusively in the Finnish end of the ice."
Further, during the second intermission Bob McKenzie breaks down that second goal:
"Marcus Phillips, number 18, he's got his man number 29 in front of net. The problem you run into here though, is Jarret Anderson-Dolan number 11 a forward, doesn't come over and seal off the man with the puck, and as a result, the man with the puck had way too much time. You could make an argument that Mikey DiPietro didn't make himself big in that situation, but that Finnish shooter could have ordered out for food at that point he had the puck for so long in a prime scoring area before Anderson-Dolan got over too little too late."
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2 minutes ago, SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME said:
Honestly, don’t understand the anxiety around Woo doing an age 19-20/year four season in juniors. It’s fairly typical for all but the most elite draft picks, especially when it comes to Dmen. Same path as Thomas Chabot, and it didn’t seem to hurt him any.
Agreed. Thomas Chabot had to spend his D+1 and D+2 years in the OHL, both Shea Theodore and Josh Morrissey spent their D+1 and D+2 years in the WHL. Defensemen need time to bake in the oven, and if anything, with Josh Brook ahead of Jett Woo in the depth chart and him playing his final Junior season, Woo will be the top dog next year and have top pairing, PK1, and PP1 duties.
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41 minutes ago, Ray_Cathode said:
He is not fully baked yet, we wouldn't want to call up a guy who is only half-baked.
I'm pretty sure he'll be "baked" once he comes to Vancouver... just ask Tryamkin
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54 minutes ago, MrCanuck94 said:
Is Juolevi injured?
6 minutes ago, 73 Percent said:Maybe he's sick @Rob_Zepp ?
Or momentarily boarding a plane to Toronto in exchange for Nylander...
(Jk if I had to guess he's prolly sick)
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On 2018-11-17 at 9:26 AM, RetroCanuck said:I think a lot of it has to do with Juolevi being injured in the offseasons the last couple years. Last offseason he had back surgery so thats really going to cut down on your leg strength coming into the season and it may cause you to question how physical you can be as well.
I still think we have a really solid defensemen on our hands, maybe not top pairing but easily a #3 guy. Besides you can teach defence to almost anyone but you cant learn offence.
Hughes-_____
Juolevi-Woo
Hutton-Stecher
I agree, Juolevi will be a solid defenseman for us.
The way the game is trending it will be interesting how far up the depth chart Juolevi goes. Before in the 80s and 90s defensemen needed to be 6'4" 220lbs and hit like a freight train. Fast forward to the mid 2000s and coaches started to defend as 5 man units. Today the game is faster than ever before and defensemen need to be able to skate to retrieve the puck on dump-ins and make a play to move the puck. With the recent rule changes in stick violations there is much more offense and this will likely remain the trend. Coaches have adapted and it isn't so much of a "make a mistake and you're benched" type of game anymore. It's about creating more scoring chances than your opponent. Mistakes happen all the time in the game. No player is immune to them. If a player can generate offense in today's NHL as long as they aren't tire fires in their own end (IE, they have adequate strength to get the puck out and adequate understanding/defensive positioning to defend in the 5 man unit) they will get ice time.
Skill players -- especially those on defense -- are at a premium because of this. The last draft had Hughes and Boqvist drafted as the first two defensemen, the year before it was Makar and Heiskanen. Whereas these type of defensemen would traditionally be viewed "undersized" and "powerplay specialists" the game is trending to have them as important players. As important as the #1 Goaltender and the #1 Centreman. Juolevi may not be this exact defenseman (see, Quinn Hughes) he does possess the type of skillset needed to generate a large amount of scoring chances.
An analogy to this exists in basketball. The Golden State Warriors revolutionized the way the game is played. Teams were stuck on holding possession of the ball, running down the shot clock, and getting the two point bucket (or in Lebron James' case, the "and 1"). The Warriors revolutionized the way the game was played because they focused on fast break offense and shooting beyond the arc whenever they had a good look. To them, it was much more advantageous to get more looks at the bucket and to go for the higher scoring play. The Warriors simply outscored their opponents game after game, season after season. Now all teams are doing the same and that is the new norm.
For the NHL, the trend is higher scoring throughout he league, an abundance of highly skilled young players, defensemen that can generate chances in the offensive zone, and of course speed. The Canucks have players that fit the trend and Juolevi is certainly one of them. Juolevi doesn't need to be epic defensively to make it in the NHL. Similarly, he doesn't need to be epic offensively to make it too. The way the game is trending, he has the skill set to play a big role for the Canucks, it's just the process of becoming strong enough, quick enough, and understanding how to defend at the NHL level.
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New article on Sportsnet about Jake Virtanen's skills training with Pavel Barber during the offseason and how that has contributed to Shotgun's early season success:
How stickhandling sensation Pavel Barber spurred Jake Virtanen’s rise - Sportsnet.ca
TORONTO — If you’ve ever opened up YouTube and typed in something to the effect of “dangles” or “silky mitts,” you already know who Pavel Barber is.
The stickhandling specialist has made an indelible mark on the online hockey community over the past six years, amassing a hefty following with a slew of viral videos showcasing his elite abilities with the puck. That pack of admirers has only continued to grow over the years, with Barber’s YouTube channel climbing to over 160,000 subscribers — and netting 43.9 million views thus far — while he’s reined in 445,000 followers on Instagram.
Buoyed by those totals, the Toronto native has been able to run a string of hockey camps throughout Canada and the U.S., stretching from Auston Matthews’ hometown of Scottsdale, Ari., all the way to chillier locales like Winnipeg and Calgary. His Pavel Barber Hockey School touched down in nine different North American locations last year, and Barber just finished up a three-week tour through Asia running sessions in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila and Shenzhen.
But this past off-season saw a significant shift in Barber’s coaching career, as the impact of his training prowess transitioned from the youth level to the pros.
Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews, he of three Cups and two Olympic golds, reached out to Barber in the summer for an off-ice stickhandling program to help him diversify his handles. Canucks winger Jake Virtanen, meanwhile, became the first NHLer to get personal one-on-one training from the stickhandling dynamo, the pair teaming up in Vancouver prior to the 2018-19 campaign.
“We started working off the ice, actually,” Barber says of his training sessions with Virtanen, which came together after the skills coach heard through a mutual friend of the winger’s agent that Virtanen was seeking his services. “Usually whenever I work with a client, we start off the ice and just look at the basic fundamentals of their stickhandling.
“We chat through all the philosophy of why I teach things the way I do and we can kind of highlight areas of weakness that he needs to focus on. That way, when we jump on the ice, we can hit it full swing and really attack those finer details.”
Virtanen had been instructed by the Canucks brass to work on his hands in the summer following a season of progress that suggested a higher ceiling was still there, waiting to be reached. Breaking down the winger’s game, Barber found a few key holes to shore up.
“Whenever you’re working with a player, you want to look at what made them successful in the past and what their strengths are,” Barber says. “When you look at a guy like Jake, he’s unbelievably fast, unbelievably strong, he’s got a great shot. So, you don’t want to change the player too much, but you want to give him more skills that are going to complement his already-existing abilities.
“When I was looking at him, he was very good at driving wide but maybe not as aggressive cutting into the middle — sometimes cutting in a little bit too late, not being as aggressive as he could be and should be. That was the first thing I wanted to work on with him, just finding those moves that are going to create a little bit of space for him, to get the speed advantage and then cut in and get a better shooting angle.”
Those one-on-one sessions had an immediate impact on Virtanen’s game, according to the winger.
“Honestly after the second or third time I skated with him, I felt a big difference,” Virtanen told Sportsnet 650 in late July. “He gives me a lot of off-ice drills — if I’m just sitting at home with a puck and a ball, I can do a couple drills that he gives me. He’s a really good stickhandling coach — he does a lot of in-game stuff, so that’s really nice. A lot of protecting-the-puck drills.”
The results are tough to deny. Through 20 games this season, Virtanen’s up to eight goals and 10 points — not earth-shattering numbers, but undoubtedly a sharp uptick in scoring pace from the 22-year-old’s previous NHL campaigns. He’s already just two goals off the career high he set last season, with three tallies in his last four games. He’s halfway to his career high in points, too, with 2018-19 shaping up to surely be his best in the big leagues.
It’s early, and the arrival of dynamic offensive catalyst Elias Pettersson has surely played a part as well, but it’s safe to say Barber’s tweaks have helped Virtanen capitalize on his current situation.
“Obviously, you look at the way he shoots the puck, he can score from pretty far out — it was all about just giving him a few more moves, a few more skills with the puck control to get to those high-quality scoring chances,” Barber says. “I think any time you get a lot of scoring chances, you’re going to put up better numbers.”
The Virtanen chapter is the culmination of a decades-long effort by Barber to build his understanding of the sport with hopes of impacting the game, one that started with him logging hour after hour at the Withrow Park outdoor rink in Toronto.“I started on my own, just kind of dissecting the game, practicing stuff myself and figuring stuff out through trial and error,” Barber says. He first delved into the YouTube world in 2012, noticing there wasn’t much of a focus on stickhandling online, or the means to improve in that area if one was so inclined.
“Stickhandling in general was pretty under-studied, under-developed in a lot of people. It was kind of told to people — to me, at least — ‘You either have it or you don’t.’ That’s what the mindset was. I never believed that as a kid. To get better at skating, you work on your skating. To get better at shooting, you work on your shooting. [I wondered] ‘Why isn’t there good information about stickhandling out there?'”
The NHL, meanwhile, was beginning to embrace offensive creativity more and more with each passing year. Barber, long obsessed with the whirling wizardry of the high-skill game, saw an opportunity to add to that movement, and the results that have followed speak for themselves.
“I think five years ago, I could kind of see the direction the game was going, too,” he says. “I noticed that all these elite stickhandlers and puck protectors were the guys who were kind of making it. And the rules were changing, there was less clutch-and-grab, which opened up room for these skill guys.
“I think that’s why I initially started to post that kind of content. It was just missing.”
[Trade] Canucks trade Jonathan Dahlen to Sharks for Linus Karlsson
in Trades, Rumours, Signings
Posted
You sir are correct. Palmu did go back to Liiga earlier this season. Also, last season Juolevi went from North America to Europe (CHL to Liiga). I'm purely speculating here, but with Benning historically giving prospects an opportunity to develop in other leagues, was the relationship between management and Dahlen's camp soured so much that his camp demanded a trade?