iceman64

Are you serious? Let's get started, first your 50k pages like you say are proof there are a LOT of stupid people... Thankfully some very smart people too, that would say, if JB did such and awful job and the result would be thus, we'd be dead last for the next 5 years with zero star players. Yet, JR and AL seem to think otherwise and I'd take their word over a lot of people who think they have a clue about hockey. All they do is parrot the bush league media here in Vancouver, which is nothing new btw. I bet you were one of the people who slammed the JTM deal right? We got sooooo slaughtered on that!!! We're screwed for years because of it and won't get a plugged nickel in return when he's traded right? And if we're that close to a playoff team and then in the same breath, you say we suck.. which is it? Playoff teams don't suck, they're in the bottom 10 with no hope anytime soon. That's not us, unless management starts to listen to the advice of fans, then we're F'd totally. Sorry but with the players on the team last year, we were playoff bound, Green screwed the pooch but BB in his place earlier, we were in the playoffs. Care to go back and actually count every one of the long terms that were on the books in 2012 with no trade clause, make a list and actually list it for everyone to see. And then point out where you would have circumvented contract law and changed us into a Stanley cup contender just like that... In case you didn't notice even Luongo was still on the books until last season, and the fan base screamed when a cpl of broken older Dmen went and signed term with other teams instead of being happy about it... And those same people would slam JB for it and did, how's that for stupid? Since when do you sign guys on the wrong side of 30 for long term? Even JB didn't do that bad... But if we went along with popular opinion here, we'd have 2 often injured Dmen on the team for the next 3 years at least. Blah...

Bennings mistakes? Get rid of Demko, Hughes, Alien, Bo, OEL, and Brock?! Tell me where all the mistakes are? The only mistake I can see that our new management could have done was to sell off players to pick higher or more picks in a weak draft like Canucks nation wanted... Yeah that's a really smart move right?

Where did we get fleeced exactly? JT Miller like the idiot bush league media first said?

Well we have the rest of the off-season to do something and that's easily enough time for JR to pull off something other than JT out which could take awhile but we could offload Pearson and Garland or both and pick up a D and D depth. Bottom six are a dime a dozen in comparison so I don't see it as a big issue. I just hope by some miracle we put Van De Beast into a blue uniform if he shows well enough, might need a year in Abby but that would be worth waiting for imo. At the end of the day we have a pretty good roster and can hardly wait until puck drop. Otherwise in this situation on topic, I'm hardly worried about it. It's not like we don't have options...

Actually I see things improving going forward and it got a bit better at seasons end but the more we get better positioning by Bruce keeping it simple and not take so many penalties that for sure killed us in games we could have won otherwise but some nights we handed games over on a silver platter and expected that Demko would be there every last time was/is unacceptable but Bruce needs to continue "simple high percentage passing plays" which we struggled to do last season but caught our footing but too late. Keep it simple Bruce, keep it simple...

Done, we all know with BB and not Green we would have done it last season. However we have a better team now.

True but back then at the time he said that, JT hadn't scored 100 points nor did he have Kuzmenko signed either.. things have changed just a tad .

I don't think they do BUT it's a building thing as well, doubt we're going to see any new long term deals given to new D signings in the next 1-3 years until we see how our current D prospects show one way or another

Sort of, obviously it works both ways as in a great D and a great F and goalie has a good chance of winning but the best team who has the best by playing TEAM defense usually trump's that.

Well starting goalie out, we have the Demko advantage on other and he's still honing his game and doesn't stop working with Coaches, having players like him make the difference on any roster. That had alot to do with GAA BUT as the season went along with BB it started to get better. It's obvious that JT will be traded for high prospect D's that they like in exchange that are are a gamble but trending in the make it category and a few of them so helping the odds of them working into the roster on ELC'S so you can use the cap elsewhere. Pretty sure it will be something like that, I hope, no all of the cap raises didn't happen for any other team but it hit us at the worst time and the 75% percent done range we were at got nothing. (Ouch!) Oh well, we didn't have to trade anything for a JT Miller this year and instead had picks, for "building" for the.. omg.. yeah I'm going to say it.. "future" (GASP!) Laughing here, and thinking out loud the way we're going is going to shock a lot of people (in a good way) The only thing that kept me interested that JR mentioned he was looking to address the size issue so we have a balance of skill but tough as other teams in the west caught me by surprise and having depth a priority? Whoa! Best news I got from the Canucks in 40 years.. Is the curse over??

This is the CDC.... I'll leave it at that...

Man people need to relax, JR knows what he's doing and remember we have a small market team that's 2nd tier in destination wise and tax wise. Despite that, JR has improved us and it didn't take much and we still have no return on the JT investment. Every year this team has improved, yeah at a slow pace since our worst meltdown in franchise history 2012, so it took all this time before the last players were gone and off the books, Eddie Tan and Loungo. Where we are now, even before we get whatever we get whatever we get for him we're a better team than last year. And last year - Green + BB would have had us watching playoff hockey though probably not far but now we have better again this year and depth for our young guys too. Again... For the millionth time, if you look up the sky isn't falling, instead turning into a pretty nice day for a Canucks fan even though we hate building but the hard part was already done. JR is actually sticking to his word and doing what he said he was going to do. FINALLY, only the 2nd GM in history to do it so knowing that, take a deep breath and enjoy it for a change.

Man who writes this stuff? I actually laughed pretty hard at the Miller write up.. I can't believe the stupidity of some of the stuff people come up with. JT's strong personality "overshadowing everyone in the locker room and on the ice" is leadership! How dumb can you possibly be? And to "assume" his game will drop off that much within 5 years, when a top line sniper with leadership abilities that push other players to be their best by EXAMPLE will be north of 10 mil easily in even the next 2-3 at the rate salaries increase. People put way too much creedance into they read without checking. Especially since the majority of writing is coming from opinions that are hardly correct half the time. Hence the saying, there's a sucker born every minute certainly applies. Those same people thought trading for JT was a bad idea at 5.5 and we got ripped, yeah well 99 points and went toe to toe with OV all season long the season before that. Players like him don't just fall apart in 5 years and they suck. He could lose 50% and still be in the top tier of NHL players. Skill like that doesn't just stop, even in decline, all of a sudden he's not going to just become like LE. Way too much competitive nature and passion as a person. I'm going to miss him and management better get a king's ransom for him and make it worth it because he is and will be for a long time to come, worth every penny. Yawn...... Nothing new though, this is Vancouver after all, where the sky is falling everyday...

I meant what was he being paid last year, yeah usually a raise is in order if a player's stock hasn't taken a nose dive for whatever reason but will have a look... "Usually" medium/bottom tiered players get smaller raises than the big names but would love to pick him up at a decent cap. I like it that we're giving Van de Beast a shot though, 6'7 and 240. Smart, tough, and HUGE! Hope we at least get him to Abby worst case scenario, then to the big show. Edit: $&!#E, Canes just signed M.M. Oh well...

What's his cap hit? Geez if he's talented enough to score and probably could move to second or first in a pinch. Like Carter with the twins. Our twins being Petey and Brock, and whoever else you put on that list, pure goal scorers who would be targets in the playoffs next year. We could use 2 of them on 3'rd line if them at all possible and a another 1-2 on 4th and even depth D. I think I'd have a heart attack if that came to be...

That's why I'm thinking JT will be traded for more than picks. I'm pretty sure JR will be after developed well performing younger guys but like you said and I've said a zillion times, we need to get bigger! How? I really don't care as long as it happens...

This is the CDC remember? Negativity is the flavour of the day... Pick a whipping boy(s) and let it rip! It's dirty laundry day! everyday...

In other circumstances I'd agree with you but in our case when we just need one to make it quickly. However from what I saw, they were quality picks who definitely have a chance with the right development. It would be weird as hell seeing this team get to keep all our picks for the next cpl of drafts and actually have a lot of competing for roster spots due to a lot of depth. That would be something wouldn't it? I think it would take quite awhile for the shock to wear off and not ask myself am I dreaming? Could this actually be true? Am I holding my breath for that? F no!!! If only...

Well my night was a bit uplifting, mood wise that is, was hoping for Bischel BUT we also have a guy invited to try out. Van Der Leest (I think) Guy is 6'7 and 240 pounds, hope by some miracle he works out!

Although you have to wonder how Alf knows for sure they'll bust, maybe he bought a crystal ball from a flea market and it actually works? Hope he sends it to JR when he's done with it.. This is Vancouver, we need all the help we can get!

It's an easy one, count on Miller being traded for D but younger, can easily see JR doing a trade for 2 Dmen, one top 6, probably 2nd pairing for 3-4.5 mil cap and a 3rd pairing around 2.5 ish and a pick/prospect. Trade a roster for a pick and make up the 1-2 cap difference. Something like that, don't think it would take that much to make that happen. It would help for sure, however we need to improve on D with forwards being good at it and a fast back check to match a fast forecheck that still needs work with consistency. Is it a tough balance to find players ready willing and able to do that night in and night out? You bet BUT if any could pull it off I think JR can, I just hope Mgmt remembers what division we're in and make those cpl of D of the bigger type that can skate and has great vision for the first break out pass. However, lots of times the D looked confused trying to make a long stretch pass rather than a short high percentage and would result in a scoring chance against us. If we're going to be elite, that's the area BB needs to focus on. We got better at as the season was went on but we were still making the same mistakes in that BUT just not as many as BB simplified it like Green should have done in the first place knowing so many new players were and are going to be filtered in which could rank among the top brain farts among past coaches. Anyway I hope we get in that.. This is still old hat here, something has to give. Soft quick teams don't cut it in the playoffs so let's cross our fingers something is going to change! 1982 94 2012 with depth please?!

With the shot lekki has, just that alone is something a lot of other picks don't have and only needs fine tuning by the looks of it but pretty sure he was picked to develop and trade, but not many have a shot like he does, probably better than 1/4 of the players in the NHL. That kid can pick a corner no problem and with gusto and not just his wrister either, saw him let loose a cpl of laser beam slappers too and he dangles like he was born doing it, you can tell he's having a lot of fun out there. I'm happy with this pick, he can skate well too. Can see him cracking a NHL roster in the future and doing it well. Definitely trade bait in the making.. nice to see, we need every angle covered and that seemed to me a step in the right direction but still kinda sad we didn't get Bischel though. Would have been happier with that but whatever works right?

Hmmm have to agree with most of that, unless he is willing to do the work to become really good at D and be a 3rd line scoring threat too but if I'm Hogs at this point I'm nervous.

The very last part is what I think most people forget, the upside of BPA is once they get developed but un-needed as their redundancy makes them expendable into a trade asset at the real position of need. Do we need another top 6forward? Not really, D is a bigger need before if your going goalie out building wise. We're in that exact position at forward with a log jam at top 6 forward that it's a better gamble going the long way around like that then settling for lower tier D if the best ones were taken and they were (sort of)!by the time we hit 15.. I say sort of because I probably would have selected Bischel instead but maybe like the Canucks, I thought he'd be drafted around 25-30th position and we would have had to trade our 1st down or our 3rd up which would have added a headache so they just went ahead and picked Mak, who was a pretty good pick at 15th but like you pointed out, develop and trade could be the order of the day in his case especially. He could turn into a sweetner July 13th for all we know right? Thankfully we're not limited. At the end of the day, I hope JR picks up a cpl of nhl'ers on D to upgrade and then pick more D depth next year and then I'd say we're done and see how it works out from there and react accordingly.

I wanted bischel too, but would have had to trade to move up our third to get him in that iassumed he went but haven't checked where he went but I didn't see him and saw we still had our 3rd but whatever, kinda bummed about it but at least we have 2 Alien's now but our 1st pick was a steal at 15th after being ranked as high as 6th because of a top level NHL ready shot like Kuz and Klim.. Anyway from what I saw of Mak, on high light reel goals I while heartedly agree. Pure goal scorer that just needs some touch ups in his game and honing by experience. I classify that as a total steal, like getting him 9 spots down? Sweeeeet! Holding my breath that Kuz can come and fill JT's skates and we get upgrades and see how it goes. We've in a decent position for a change and maybe JR will keep it up and not blow it. Like it that he went for 2 Dmen and one of the bigger size was a small step in the right direction for the future.