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Maniwaki Canuck

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Everything posted by Maniwaki Canuck

  1. It's not an easy question. I'd rather overpay a bit or go a year too long than gut the team again by walking away from a heart and soul player. The guy is Mr. Everything on this team. If the choice is living with a bad final year or two of, say, a 6 yr. deal or trying to replace him (which we won't) in a year and a half, I'm going with the former. But of course he will have some say in the matter, which might make this discussion irrelevant.
  2. Those are all fair points, especially about the balance between F/D. My point was just that it's possible to re-up those 3 when many people assume that it isn't. Even subtracting 1M for a Hamonic replacement it works out with a little to spare. What is best for the team is a separate and more complicated matter that Rutherford will be assessing. In a cap world, you have to bet on some strengths and try to get by on some weaknesses. I see this year as a bet on our forwards: Boudreau is the right coach to get the most out of them and hopefully our D can continue to hold up under his style of play. Going this route makes some sense when you have the kind of goaltending we do but it may not be sustainable in the long run. At that point, look at rebalancing by all means. But for now it's great to be playing to our strengths instead of our weaknesses, which is how Green killed this team. However it works out, we're lucky to have the forwards in our system you mention as well as the bargain basement D I did to piece together the cheap part of the equation. It means we can respond to whatever deficiencies we've got once the team is evaluated under new management.
  3. I think the only question is whether JT wants to stay here. The more we rebound as a team, the more likely he will want to. If he does, there shouldn't be any huge obstacle to re-signing him. A common claim is that we can only re-sign two of JT, Brock and Bo. I'm not at all convinced. Next year, the cap goes up 1M and we gain 3M from Luongo. Even if half of that goes to Brock, we have an extra 2M, a bit of which might go to a raise for Motte. Let's say we still have 1M after re-upping those two. The following year Bo and JT are due. The Holtby and Virtanen buyouts end, which gives us 2.4M. Hamonic comes off the books which gives us 3M. That's more than enough to sign those two in the 7M range with whatever amount of term it takes to get a deal. It would possibly mean going cheap on our bottom pair RD, but Burroughs and Juulsen give us good options there and maybe Woo is ready by then. So it can definitely be done.
  4. Rutherford comes off really well on the importance of listening to players' covid concerns: https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/nightmare-covid-19-front-mind-canucks-head-san-jose/ I think he's aware that players lost trust in management over this issue last spring and is going to have their backs. We are on the right path and really lucky to have this guy.
  5. Would prefer this guy: cheaper to acquire and would give us the crease-clearing, cycle-breaking nastiness we currently lack. We're not lacking skill on D, rather muscle that can play. Chiarot is that.
  6. Totally agree. The received wisdom that we need an upgrade on RD is particularly questionable. Myers has been great both with and without OEL: I'm not saying he's a top pairing guy but you could mistake him for that recently and he's definitely shown that he can carry a pairing under Boudreau's system. Hamonic was fine as a middle pairing guy before he went down and Poolman has been trending up and can play in that spot also when needed. Then there's Schenn who's fine as a bottom pair guy but can play with Hughes also. After that, Burroughs and Juulsen are good in a bottom pairing role, with Juulsen having some upside beyond that. Plenty of depth on RD and no desperate need for an upgrade, especially given the cost of good RD. What we could use is a physical, cycle-crushing, enforcer-capable LD for the third pairing. That's a lot more available at a much lower price than a top-4 RD. And there's still Rathbone waiting in the wings, who's got plenty of tools and is not your average 3rd pairing material but only needs to learn how to play in a pro system to make an impact. So no need to do anything crazy or expensive on D. If we have to move a forward for cap reasons and get a D back in the process, fine, but I could actually see us selling RD if we're out of it at the deadline (which isn't looking likely).
  7. Liked Juulsen too. But we aren't badly off for righties and actually have way more depth there than on the left: Myers, Hamonic, Poolman, Schenn, Burroughs, Juulsen. It's pretty sound when 3 of those guys go down and the 6th one on the depth chart plays as well as Juulsen did.
  8. Helluva game. This is the kind of character this group showed during the bubble. Some bad personnel decisions and communication issues from management wrecked the vibe for a while there, but we're getting back to where we were. This group believes and is going to keep on pushing. Good time to be a fan of this team.
  9. That's exactly the kind of crap we get fed daily by our media. After 1991, Russia was looted by western-backed oligarchs and the IMF. I'm glad they're getting back on thir feet and are an independent country again, unlike us. Whatever Putin's faults may be, he got that job done and deserves some respect for it. Our media's unhinged push for war with Russia and China is not a reliable guide to anything.
  10. It matters. Burkie publicly defended Benning's hayseed persona on several occasions, but I could never be sure whether it was sincere or part of his ongoing vendetta against all things Canuck. But when the chips are down or times are difficult, you need someone who can communicate and isn't small minded. Rutherford is another huge gust of fresh air.
  11. Glad to see these talks happening. For those of us who love the sport, there's a common good to be found across the geopolitical divide that separates us. I think back to the 1972 series and how much our exposure to Russian hockey changed the game over here for the better in the years that followed. Or to what Bure did for our club. There needs to be more cooperation, more respect and more appreciation, not less.
  12. Yeah, I think Miller would be hugely difficult to replace. Bo also, and Boesser a bit less. With Miller, they're going to have to assess the pro's and con's of his effect on other players, how willing he is to re-sign, as well as what they could get in return. If they retain salary, it should be a haul. It doesn't bother me that he's older than the rest of the core, though. Contending teams have older players in the mix. And there's no doubt that he's the team's emotional leader, even if you get the bad with the good in that.
  13. One of the things I liked most about Rutherford's presser was the statement that we might be only a couple of trades away from being a contender, or a couple of trades away from disaster. Coming from a gunslinger like him, that's very level-headed and suggests he won't do anything rash just to do something. It's pretty clear that he knows he's working under a different mandate here than in Pittsburgh. This should alleviate some of the concerns that people have been kicking around here.
  14. Wow, wasn't expecting that! The whole D corps was good, even Hunt. Poolman looking a whole lot more than replacement level. Our personnel looks entirely different with different systems and coaching. This is fun!
  15. We're in a period of assessment that will go into the new year and then we'll see what management decides about our lineup. So many players are looking so much better under BB that we may have to rethink previous conclusions. We may be only a good move or two away from being a competitive playoff team capable of winning a round or two. Or a couple of bad moves from returning to the basement. I wouldn't be surprised to see Boesser traded for a top 4 D to balance out cap allocation across the lineup, but we'll see. Miller would obviously fetch more in a trade, but he's too big a part of the team just to peddle, unless they know he won't re-sign. And with the cap situation starting to look up, it may not be so hard to re-sign everyone when the time comes.
  16. Finally! That stupid backpass/blown coverage play last night has to have consequences. Must have been Boudreau's call. Wonder who's replacing him?
  17. We'll take it: a result plus an opportunity for new management to assess our D-zone coverage and breakout issues first hand. Best of all possible worlds.
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