FlyLow_

Loving Jake's game lately, he's finally got some confidence that he can play physical in this league. I think people lose sight of how hard it is for young power forwards to establish themselves against men in this league. For my money he's been one of the better Canucks for several games now.

Brock is my favourite Canuck already and I'm excited too, but it's important to keep context. Brock is almost 21, not 18 like most of the other guys.

McEneny has been very good in the preseason. He's not flashy so you don't notice him, but he makes extremely smart plays while playing big minutes and being paired with pylons every game. His defensive game is sound and the deft little plays he makes to escape pressure and turn the puck the other way are sorely what the Canucks have been missing. I probably have him ahead of MDZ and Weircoch, but I'm not really fans of either of those players. IMO stetcher should be playing in the spot MDZ is on the PP and with the 4 forward set Green likes I just don't see the point of MDZ.

Even if he doesn't make the team, hats off to the kid. He's put in the work and looks great. A far cry from the lost sheep that was gifted a spot in a league he had no business in.

I'm more angry than a dragon trying to blow out candles...

Quite happy with Jake's development down in utica. He has all the tools already, his development is all between the ears and he's come a long way this season.

So typical, can't like a player that wears a different sweater. But no, Nylander is widely regarded as one of the best players not in the NHL right now, and no he won't need to be sheltered because he's being developed properly.

I'm not going to say I wouldn't still rather have Nylander all day every day, but been pretty happy with Jake since he came back from the WJC's. He's still got a long ways to go, but it's nice to see him start to get it and not have to be absolutely babied out there in deployment.

Sedins and Salo seemed to do just fine.

Not that I'm crazy about the trade, but never been a fan of Hunter and think he's being pretty heavily overvalued here. Put him 10 feet or closer to the net with the puck on his stick on a PP and he's a decent threat, in all other situations...absolutely useless. That said, another small center that doesn't really do anything well?? I guess we really know what JB thought of Hunter, apparently the rest of the GM's feel the same way.

Agree about Virtanen in Utica. Bo just needs to play a lesser role, he doesn't need the AHL. He's playing some really tough minutes, it's a big step from mostly being a 4th liner last season.

I think this move should have happened before burning a year, but it's definitely better than him barely playing, barely touching the puck and barely feeling involved. He's been shown what he needs to do by NHL coaches, now he can go to an environment where he should be able to apply those things in a game environment.

He gives the puck away every time he touches, not sure how that is playing responsible. Hutton makes mistakes, McCann make mistakes, but there has been positive progress with them. Jake has made absolutely zero progress since the start of camp. He was given a spot despite being outperformed. He is not ready, and there is nothing wrong with that except that he's been chained to Bo and is dragging him to the bottom of the ocean. Send him to the WJC's, then back to Junior where he will actually touch a puck and be able to take what he's learned and try to apply it. We don't need him now, Gaunce can easily contribute more, it's best for everyone.

No need to send him down either.

Usually I would agree, especially with Defensemen, but Hutton needs to be given a long look here. As you say, the business is winning, and he's been much better than anyone not named Edler/Tanev. if he can continue to hold his own in his own we're really not in a position to turn away an offensive defenseman with his skillset. Not to mention he is immediately our best power play option on defense. I'm also very intrigued to see a Hammer/Hutton pairing, to get Hutton some time with a guy like Hammer would be invaluable. Add a little offense to this defense and it will be good. Edler/Tanev Hammer/Hutton Bart/Webs

I'm not going to get into picking Virtanen over others, but I can't really say I want to see him on the team this year. From watching him last season in both Calgary and Utica, to the summer camp and now young stars his game with the puck leaves a lot to be desired and has not progressed one bit.

So impressed with this kid, best Canuck at Young Stars by a mile for me. Carrying his line, driving play, tenacious forecheck, excellent 2 way game. He just needs to eat a lot of spinach.

For someone that is supposed to be a terrific skater he sure doesn't use ithat speed enough.

Cap doesn't matter until the fall, so I call bullsh*t on that. I'm not worried about it, it's just surprising to me that he will be the last guy re-signed after JB's been pumping his tires all year.

This is taking an unusual amount of time. Who thought Sven would be the last guy re-signed?

Benning on Brisebois- "we see him as a top 4 d-man for us" Benning on Sbisa- "we see him as a top 4 d-man for us" That kind of scares the sh*t out of me. JB's got a good track record of identifying forward talent, but he's not been very good at drafting D.

I was expecting him not to bail out every time a hit was coming and not act like the puck was a live grenade if it went near the boards. Lost a lot of respect for the guy.

That is a very interesting board, even from the little we can see.

Yep, now we just need a 1st line and some more D and we're set.

Great start, lets hope we can get a few seconds and build on this.