Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Canucks Community

Provost

Members
  • Posts

    11,729
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    3

Everything posted by Provost

  1. I am clearly not saying that we need to find a big splash UFA at all. I explicitly said in the post you actually quoted "it isn’t just free agency, it is trades as well. What shakes loose before the expansion draft? What if we lose a player ourselves because we are suddenly protecting Pearson?" No one knows, and that signing Pearson was premature and unnecessary as we hold his rights until after expansion. ... and that leaving as many of those options for a new GM to explore would be smart. The idea that we don't make any moves to improve one of the worst rosters in the league because it may work out like Eriksson is ludicrous. How do we ever improve if not for trying to bring in better players? That sort of thinking made people not want to move Virtanen because he could become Cam Neely. The entire point of the thread you were responding to was that many folks just don't trust Benning to be the one making those choices as his track record isn't good.
  2. Exactly... or even rather having the 2nd round pick Pearson could have gotten at the deadline, plus Gadjovich, plus whatever UFA or trade target was worth that cap money.
  3. We don’t know who could or will be available. What if the only thing stopping a Reinhart trade is an extra $3 million in cap space that Buffalo won’t eat in terms of a bad contract going the other way? How many Schmidt type deals will be out there this offseason? It isn’t just a player for the exact same money... that is too simplistic a way to look at it. What could cap freed up by a Virtanen buyout plus the Pearson money get you? it isn’t just free agency, it is trades as well. What shakes loose before the expansion draft? What if we lose a player ourselves because we are suddenly protecting Pearson? The entire issue that folks have is that there was zero reason to sign Pearson when it happened. If the same deal gets signed the day after the draft, it isn’t a big issue.
  4. It isn’t about who is negotiating the details of the contracts, it is about leaving as many doors open for the new guy to make the deals he sees fit and start shaping the team. The Pearson deal stands out as the odd one if Benning was on thin ice. That cap space had a lot of ways to be allocated, and signing the deal removed a bunch of flexibility in the offseason for a new GM. Why increasingly handcuff a new GM with more signed players and fewer cap dollars to spend. Maybe a new GM doesn’t honour the handshake deal to not expose Pearson... that could be helpful.
  5. Looking at Buffalo bloggers and fans thinking up trade ideas is amusing. Since Reinhardt wants to be closer to home they theorize: Reinhart to Calgary for Matthew Tkachuk straight up. Reinhart to Vancouver for Hoglander and our 1st rounder next year.... plus they will take Pearson from us as a “cap dump” to make the money work. I counter with Myers, Virtanen, and Roussel for Reinhart and Ristolainen!
  6. He is also really involved in mental health initiatives, so it could be nothing more than having him onboard with the Canucks in that regard.
  7. No idea what capacity it could be. He has been out of the game in real estate for a long time as far as I know. Maybe they want to positive vibes by having some former players as spokespeople/advisors? Please don't go down the Edmonton route, just because someone was a player from a beloved era.. it doesn't make them good management material. I was pretty confident Benning would be back when he signed the Pearson and Demko deals... but I can really see the axe falling when the season is done. I think Green's future is tied up in the fact a new GM will want to pick their own coach.
  8. Well I would respectively submit that we do understand management’s “plan”... we just think it is a terrible one and badly executed as well. Anyone still thinking this was some grand scheme are delusional in my opinion. We have stumbled from reactionary misstep to reactionary misstep. There is no evidence to believe those mistakes will magically just stop happening. By Benning’s own admission we are two years before we start being competitive (he said that a couple of years ago... and also said it when he took over). The reason Schmidt and Miller are topics of conversation is their age and years of club control. We want guys just entering their prime when we are ready to compete... not guys on the back end of it. You need a bunch of swings at bat to make deep runs in the playoffs. That means we have to “hope” for a window from 2-6 years from now to be a contender. We are also sick of watching assets fly out the window for nothing. When has Benning traded a guy at near peak value? Heck he couldn’t even trade Pearson and that was apparently a slam dunk at the deadline with lots of interest... and lots of replacement options in the offseason.
  9. How can you get better at being smart than hiring “The Professor” to be our new President? Hall of famer Larionov has won everything in hockey there is to win. Experience as a player, agent, GM, and coach. Instant respect from his peers, the guy is a legend... and former team mate of guys who run other teams now. I will keep beating this drum until it happens. He can then pick an experienced GM and Coach of his choosing. We have some good pieces to play his “possession” style of hockey idea.
  10. Why not? Who knows where he was on our list we could had picked him higher than he went. Brady Tkachuk, Svechnikov and Dahlin are no slouches either.
  11. Moving Schmidt out takes care of one of the salaries... ya we would have to move out Roussel and buy out Virtanen to get it down to about $84 million depending on what guys sign for (assuming both Edler and Hamonic are at least $2.5 million each)... and maybe even convince Seattle to take Holtby. If Eriksson would retire after getting his bonus it would solve a lot of problems... but we can't count on it, certainly not with timing that would work for us.
  12. Ya, that article from Toffoli is another bad look on Benning. To not even offer Toffoli a contract after giving up significant assets to get him... and when it turned out to be a great fit There is really no excuse for not at least putting an offer out there BEFORE deciding to qualify Virtanen. At Toffoli’ age, the right fit and some term likely makes up for extra dollars he could potentially get in free agency. Why not throw out a $4 million x 4 year offer out to him? You spend those dollars on bottom of the lineup veteran pro’s to help guide the kids... you can’t spend it on a top line winger who had a Stanley Cup ring?
  13. These sorts of things are why the Pearson signing didn't make much sense. Reinhart is better and younger... he would be more expensive, but add Virtanen and Pearson money and you have Reinhart who would be a really interesting piece on a Horvat line as he is a playmaker (which Horvat is not).. or maybe as a 3C but he probably doesn't fit the mold there and would be a better winger. We will have to see where Buffalo wants to go. They said they want players who want to be there (which is no one... but that is beside the point). That means Reinhart and Ristolainen are almost certainly going to be on the move. If we could do a trade that gets us Reinhart and Ristolainen... yikes that would be a tidy piece of work. Throwing in Schmidt, and lottery protected 2022 1st round pick, and whatever else maybe... I am just trying to imagine possible lineups with some deft manouvering and willingness to give up some futures to move out a little cash. Miller-Petterson-Boeser Hoglander-Horvat-Reinhart Pearson-Tierney-Podkolzin Motte-Beagle-MacEwan Hughes-Hamonic Edler-Ristolainen Juolevi/Rathbone-Myers Bowie You share that 3rd pairing LD between the two young guys to develop them and hopefully in a year they are ready to move on from Edler. That is basically an entire roster mostly set for a couple of years until you have to replace Beagle/Hamonic as the remaining older players.
  14. The only way I would be interested is if it was a cheap enough deal to be mostly buried in the minors. It does seem like there is a subset of Russian players who are great in the KHL, but would overvalue what they are worth in the NHL. They need to show they can play before getting awarded a decent contract... not demand a big contract before they have ever stepped foot in an NHL game. He will probably be looking for a $2-3 million dollar contract, and that is too much for a complete unknown quantity. That was one big failure of Tryamkin's camp. Sure, he would probably only make around the same as he made in the KHL (taxes, escrow, cost of living all factored in). The upside is that if you sign a 1 year contract for that amount and make the jump.... if you show yourself to be the player you think you are, the next contract could be $3-4 million which is several times more than what you would earn in the KHL. It is betting on yourself and investing in dramatically more long term earning potential.
  15. We will see what Gadjovich looks like. He brings an element we don’t have if he is really a player. It could be a toss up between him and Lind (it would be neither exposed if we hadn’t have signed Pearson for whatever reason). If Gadjovich shows well then maybe Lind is more replaceable by cheap veterans who are always available in late July. We might be a team that Seattle picks up an expiring contract from. They don’t need 30 players, and might also want to be a player in free agency so might only want to be tied to 15 actual roster players from expansion itself. I kind of expect them to take a bunch of D and goalies and then auction them off back to teams. I wouldn’t be opposed to us picking up a D before expansion even if it means Exposing Myers.
  16. Hughes... different but better. No one trades Hughes for Ristolainen. Kind of a tie with Schmidt to me but on the right side which is better for us. Better than Myers for sure. I think folks will be surprised by how well the Buffalo players do after leaving that team. O"Reilly went from a -23 to a +22 when he got traded and added about .25 ppg to his average.
  17. Well using that logic, your thread is 100% useless. Any player has fairly limitless potential... Hoglander isn’t likely to become a perennial 80 point guy. Not many players do that. Hoglander is a nice find, but he probably isn’t even going to be a Calder finalist... he isn’t an elite guy and has a low likelihood of ever being that. Folks get themselves all worked up overhyping our players and then get disappointed when those players fail to lift up to those unrealistic expectations. If we get a decent complementary top 6 winger who provides some secondary scoring... then we can do cartwheels.
  18. Ya, I do that deal. It sounds like it is too far gone to keep those guys but if they want to add players we could do that. The truth is we could probably also replace Miller Tampa Bay needs to shed cap. We could take on a guy like Palat/Killorn for basically nothing. Other teams will also want to shed cap if we have created the space. There will be more “Schmidt” type opportunities if we have the cap space. Hughes-Hamonic Edler-Ristolainen Rathbone-Myers Juolevi-Bowie Platoon Rathbone and Juolevi in for 45-60 games each depending on injuries and needing to spell off Edler to keep him healthy and more rested/effective.
  19. Boy, it seems like wholesale changes in Buffalo are in the cards. Reinhardt also said he wants nothing to do with a rebuild. That is Eichel, Ristolainen, and Reinhardt who basically said in their exit interviews that they don’t want to be there next year. Honestly, any of them are going to be REALLY motivated next year if they are on new teams. I would keep our 1st this year, but trade a couple of firsts and some good prospects for Eichel... but I don’t think we could win a bidding war. Other teams need centres more than we do. but... how far do you go? To me, make any package that doesn’t include: Petterson, Hughes, Demko, Horvat, Hoglander, Podkolzin, Rathbone, this year’s 1st. That is too long of a list of untouchables to make Buffalo interested, but no point if we are moving sideways or if we give up our cheap ELC contracts which are the only way we can afford Eichel going forward. Not everyone is as high on Ristolainen, but to me he would be a great add. Put him on a decent team and don’t ride him 26 minutes a game and he is probably our 2nd or 3rd best D.
  20. He is getting a lot of premium minutes during to injuries... he is making the most of it, but he will likely get pushed down the depth chart. That will especially be the case if they actually move to a PP with both Hughes and Rathbone, so there may be fewer minutes for forwards. History shows that about 25-33% of 2nd/3rd rounders become NHL regulars... so Hoglander is beating expectations already. If we can get a 40-60 point winger out of that pick we are doing well.
  21. I am not sure how stating the truth is negative. We just aren’t guaranteed to get an impact player. The only reason a person could consider that “negative” is if they have an entirely unrealistic expectation. I posted a deep dive into our drafting a while back. Benning came out above average in his 1st round drafting compared with various scouting lists. Not genius level, but above average (worse than guys like Button and Pronman). I think pretty much everyone agrees drafting is Benning’s strong suit. In my opinion it doesn’t make up for his other shortcomings. If the team is as bad today as it was 7 years ago when he took over the job... despite being allowed to spend to the cap each year.... the buck has to stop at the guy in charge of building the team.
  22. Yep, so far 50% of our top 10 picks have worked out! Will it be heads or tails this year? I guess we will know in a few years.
  23. ...because our roster isn't very good and adding one of the top young players in the game would make it better. Maybe one day being good enough to be a contending team that can have a guy like Horvat centering an extremely productive 3rd line that can feast on lesser opposition. In the meantime, Petterson played predominantly LW when he was tearing up Sweden and still gets a lot of help on face offs with Miller taking on some of the centre duties. Having deep centre strength is how you build a team
  24. I fixed it for you Hughes-Ristolainen Edler-Schmidt Rathbone-Hamonic Trade away Myers after expansion.
×
×
  • Create New...