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Everything posted by canucklehead44
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The Canucks won back to back Presidents Trophies followed by a division title. They then got smacked with a salary cap reduction. Gillis managed to keep that core together while making several small moves that were phenomenal in hindsight. At the time I was frustrated when he moved Corey Schneider, despite us having Luongo, a good young back-up and Lack, plus adding a blue chip prospect. I was hoping he would get at least a fringe 2nd line player or solid bottom pairing defenseman in addition to that pick. Mike Santorelli and Ryan Stanton. Incredible pick-ups! More or less discarded players that provided insane value for their contracts. Richardson was also a strong free agent signing. Re-upping Sestito for two years was a smart move as well (at the time it was terrible). Again Mike Gillis added a good free prospect in Kellan Lain. Considering he had very little to work with Gillis made excellent, shrewd moves in the offseason both brining in guys who contributed for cheap while also building for the future. I put the blame of this season mostly on the players, perhaps on the coaching, but not on MG.
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It would be cool to get Bertuzzi back as a throw-in to provide mentorship to Kassian, scoring depth, and the possibility of having him retire as a Canuck. Franzen doesn't have a whole lot of value. He would be a nice player to have but given his age, contract, injuries, and declining production he is a bit of a risk. Brendan Smith is a solid piece as we need a defenseman who can skate. I think the big piece for Vancouver would be a young forward prospect who can fill in the lineup right away or play top minutes in Utica. I think Tomas Jurco could be that piece. Edler, Sauve, Friesen for Franzen, Smith, Jurco, Bertuzzi.
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2013-14 Prospect Points Tracker
canucklehead44 replied to stonecoldstevebernier's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
Wow Jensen was sitting at a pathetic 1 goal in 26 games and is now at respectable 12 goals in 43 games. 11 in his last 17 and now he is on pace for a 20 goal season. Eriksson has also climbed up to solid numbers after a weak start. I think he will be a starting goalie in the NHL one day. -
In normal circumstances when the team is playing well it makes sense to bring in a guy like Archibald when there are injuries to have him get some NHL experience. Pelletier is the best and most consistent player on Utica. The Canucks are losing and need all the talent they can get, regardless of whether that player is a prospect
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[Trade] VAN Dale Weise to MTL
canucklehead44 replied to Strombone1's topic in Trades, Rumours, Signings
Fantastic move by MG. With Markov and Subban a guy like Diaz wasn't really needed and wasn't given a whole lot of opportunity. Great skater, great passer, sound defensively (positional). Huge weaknesses are his physical play and shooting. Sounds like the ideal partner for Garrison. We severely lack a player who can skate the puck up the ice and make breakout passes. Diaz led all Montreal D in primary assists 5 on 5 /60 minutes (3rd overall in assists) and was on the ice for the least amount of goals /60 minutes. -
Gillis silent while Canucks need him most (Bold moves my ass)
canucklehead44 replied to Jamaicanice's topic in Canucks Talk
Gillis has done a great job as GM. Two Presidents Trophies, a cup run, and a playoff appearance every single year. Nonis had 1 playoff team in 3 years. Burke had an incredible team but was a terrible manager when it came to finding the missing pieces. Imagine if Gillis had the team Burke had? All Burke needed to do was get a good goaltender and another second liner, we would have dominated. Yet year after year our goaltending was crap. Gillis has done a fantastic job filling holes and managing the team. The Ballard trade sucked but again at least he was addressing a need (who thought we would actually get Hamhuis?). Edler, Burrows, and Daniel Sedin are killing this team. Proven performers who earned their big salaries. They suck this year, especially Edler and Burrows. If Edler was playing like a top 2 dman and Burrows & Sedin both on pace for 30-40 goals this team would be in a healthy position. Santorelli, Richardson, Garrison, Stanton, Sestito, Kassian, Weise, Dalpe are mostly complimentary players post cup run, and they are all meeting or exceeding expectations. Can't really argue any of those players being "bad moves" save MAYBE Garrison and Kassian but they are really the least of our worries this season. Booth is crappy but we gave up even crappier players to acquire him and at least he isn't sucking on the first line. -
I was thrilled with his 15 points in 34 games last season, his numbers this year are insane. I would probably rate him as our second best prospect behind Horvat. Makes up for the crappy Mallet pick in that year. Would have been cool if we took Shore (picked a few spots after Mallet). We would have had the top two scorers from Maine.
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Schroeder has "looked good" but hasn't put up the numbers at either level of solidfy himself as an NHL player. That coupled with injuries, his small stature, and age (23) he is unfortunately facing a make it or break it point in a very tough position. I personally am rooting for him. I really like the way he plays and was noticeable on the ice in a good way.
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Kassian making a case for himself
canucklehead44 replied to TheRussianRocket.'s topic in Canucks Talk
Pre WCE Bertuzzi? I can see that. 25 goals, 20 assists is what I could expect from Kassian as early as next season if he is moved into a permanent 2nd line role. He has taken a huge jump in development this season and has been a very efficient goal scorer. Whether or not he maintains anything close to that efficiency with increased minutes is yet to be seen. I like this year how he has been fairly consistent with his points. Only one multi-point game, and has no more than a two game point streak yet. His totals don't look a whole lot better but he scored 5 goals in his first 8 games or something last season and had a really bad stretch of games. -
[RUMOURS] Daily TSN Trade Rumours.
canucklehead44 replied to Warhippy's topic in Trades, Rumours, Signings
It will be interesting to see what the Blue Jackets do with Gaborik. They are sitting in a wild car spot but could easily move into 6th, as they are within 3 points of NYR and TOR with 2 games in hand. Gaborik is the missing piece for that team. The Blue Jackets are actually pretty solid. They have a great mix of size, speed, grit and skill but don't really have anyone else with elite goal scoring ability. -
What's going on with David Booth?
canucklehead44 replied to Everybody Hates Raymond's topic in Canucks Talk
zero shots on goal two games in a row is pretty terrible (playing 15 minutes each game too). -
At the draft I thought he would be an RJ Umberger type player in the nhl but now I think he will be more like a Paul Gaustad, Manny Malhotra, or Brian Boyle which is fine for a late first round pick. While Gaustad isn't the most exciting of players he did fetch a first round pick at the deadline. 15 goals, 30 points, good defensively and at faceoffs would be solid production for Gaunce in the NHL and well worth the selection. My biggest concern is the fact he hasn't really progressed offensively since his draft year. Henrik Samuelsson, the player we would have likely picked if Gaunce wasn't available, has seen larger increases in offensive production. Samuelsson Gaunce PPG 0.82...............1.0 (draft year) 1.16...............1.0 1.36...............1.16 And for comparison sake, Cody Hodgson 1.25 1.74 1.54 (13 games played).
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Utica will be much more exciting to follow once Horvat, Shinkaruk, Cassels, Gaunce, Labate, Hutton, Subban and Cederholm all go pro in a couple of years. Right now there isn't too much outside of Jensen, Corrado, Grenier, Mallet, and Tommernes to get too excited about. It is amazing how our last draft we added two stud prospects in Horvat and Shinkaruk plus three intriguing prospects in Cassels, Subban and Cederholm. It would have been nice to have Connauton and a guy like Tyler Bertuzzi added in our prospect mix.
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I guess really there are two camps: one who believes this is just a stretch of good games for Booth before he sucks or gets injured again and the other who believes he is finding his game and is on the uptrend. Extrapolate his last 13 games and you have 25 goals, 44 points in 82 games. Given his minutes it is worth paying him 4.25 million on the third line to balance out scoring. I guess my criteria for keep vs buy-out would be "30" points. If he can hit 30 points this year it is worth keeping him (or if he scores at a pace better than .46 ppg). If he gets injured for 10+ games, but still puts up around 26 points he would still be worth keeping. Any more than 10 games missed I would say buy him out unless he scores at some sort of rapid pace (like 17 points in 20 games or something).
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Booth is 3rd on the team in even strength goals per 60 minutes and 6th in points. While he isn't putting up huge numbers, he is contributing in the limited ice time he has. Considering he was abysmal in his first 14 games this number is solid. He has 7 points in his last 13 averaging around 13 minutes per night with limited PP. If the Kassian/Booth/Richardson line keeps playing like they have I can see their ice time increase and potentially get more powerplay time. The cost to buy out booth would be (please correct me if I am wrong) 1.42 million in cap space over the next 4 years. So, that means we could replace him for a free agent signing between 2.75-3 million over 4 years. What would that have gotten us? Damien Brunner - 13 points 32 games Mikhail Grabovski - 29 points 35 games Boyd Gordon - 11 points 33 games Tyler Kennedy - 12 points 36 games Victor Stalberg - 11 points 31 games Cal Clutterbuck - 6 points 32 games Outside of Grabovski I would rather take my chance on Booth over any of those players. I would like to revisit this thread at the end of the year, as I predict a healthy Booth will put up around 40 points vs 25-30 for most of these guys. I know it is a different offseason but this just illustrates how buying out Booth isn't the obvious decision. I think we have suffered through more of his downside than his upside. I know he is a gamble, but I would take it on the off chance he becomes the player he once was. Five seasons ago he was a player Canucks fans were drooling over to get.
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Edler and Hansen for Del Zotto and Callahan? I could see is happen, pretty fair in terms of value and cap hits. Point totals: Del Zotto Edler 41...............49 21...............22 7..................9 Interesting how their point totals almost mirror each other in terms of decline. Callahan Hansen 31............27 13............10 That said Edler is a far superior all around defenseman. Callahan is a step up from Hansen but probably not as much. I think I would make this deal if we were losing games but right now we are on the right track. The players are very similar (offensive dmen, gritty top 6 forwards) but I think the swap may work better for both teams. The Canucks have Hamhuis, Tanev, Bieksa, Garrison as a solid two-way top 4 but we lack a good puck mover on the powerplay. This is one area Del Zotto thrives in, and as long as he plays simple defensively, skates well and makes smart passes he would probably be fine playing 16-17 minutes per night on the bottom pair and move up to the top 4 with injuries.
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Higgins is our second most productive goal scorer 5 on 5. Surprisingly, Kassian is 1st (12 in the league) and Booth is 3rd. We are getting solid contribution from our top 3 lines! I also don't mind how our fourth is playing. Weise is pretty good defensively (plus he is physical with good speed), Sestito is the best enforcer we've had since Brashear (not as tough, but in terms of sticking up for teammates) and Dalpe/Welsh mix in some youth and skill.
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Too Early to call Kassian a dissapointment?
canucklehead44 replied to Go Go Canucks Go's topic in Canucks Talk
I am really liking the Booth, Kassian, Richardson line. Booth and Kass looked pretty good with Lapierre but Richardson is a much more skilled, shifty player that fits better between them. -
Don't need a checking C: No to Goc, Matthias, etc
canucklehead44 replied to WiseCanucksFan's topic in Canucks Talk
Stereotypical. That said, I think line chemistry is more complex than typecasting players and moving them around like game pieces. I really like Richardson with Kassian and Booth. Despite one really bad shift from Kassian that was our most dangerous, generating 2 goals and multiple scoring chances. -
Even if he turns into a Brian Boyle type, I think he will be an NHL regular at some capacity but we'll see. It is not uncommon at all for late first round picks to never play in the NHL, and I still think Gaunce's chances are very high but I am not expecting him to be in the top 6.
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Well if each team has 3 first liners, that would make the top 90 in scoring first liners. Looking at injuries etc, lets make the cut off 75 for first liners and 150 for second liners. I'll have to go back a couple years to get a full season: 2011-2012 75. Dustin Brown 82 games 54 points (Kris Versteeg, Ryan Callahan, David Backes) 150. Dave Bolland 76 games 37 points (David Jones, Todd Bertuzzi) Hansen was ranked 141, Higgins 129 So Hansen and Higgins would be considered low end second line players. 40-55 points over a full healthy season seems to be the number.
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If he can sign before free agency for 2 years, 1.2 AAV sure. If he hits free agency and some team is desperate enough to gamble 2.5 - 3 million we shouldn't match. Reminds me a bit of an Anson Carter situation, except Carter was older and a consistent second line player until the year before the lock out. Santorelli is much more unproven.
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[Report] Canucks interested in Martin Erat
canucklehead44 replied to -Vintage Canuck-'s topic in Trades, Rumours, Signings
That was confusing. Martin Erat scored 4 goals in 36 games played first line minutes in Nashville. In Booth's first season in Vancouver he scored 16 in 56. I'll break it down. PROS FOR GETTING ERAT - Better playmaker - Healthier - "Change of scenery" trade - Could look good with Kesler CONS FOR GETTING ERAT - Booth is a better goal scorer - Booth is more physical - Booth's style works better with Santorelli - Erat's cap hit is higher - Erat is older Erat is almost a sure bet to be an overpriced, mediocre 2nd liner whereas Booth is either an epic fail on IR or a physical secondary goal scorer. I don't know if I make this deal or not. I like Booth's upside but hate that he is completely un-reliable. At least we didn't trade our top prospect for Booth and instead got him for deadweight. Washington must be kicking themselves!!1 goal in 35 games, ouch. Makes Booth's 3 goals in 27 games look not bad! Even dating back to Nashville, 5 goals in 71 games. -
2013-14 Prospect Points Tracker
canucklehead44 replied to stonecoldstevebernier's topic in Prospects / Farm Team
Wow Ben Hutton is quietly having the best season out of our prospects. In 11 games he has already scored 6 goals (4 in 34 last year) and holds the team lead. He has a 6'3 200lb frame to boot. He is outscoring Devin Shore, a late 2nd round pick from the same draft (6'1 185lbs).