CanucksJay

Lol what does that even mean? I still remember the midget doing a reverse hit to zadinas head that really pissed him off. To trade these guys without even seeing what they can do in the playoffs doesn't seem right. I have a feeling they are the rise to the occasion types. They are not perimeter players who shy away.

Yeah in hindsight, I wonder what would have been better... The strategy TG deployed had us over matched. Basically it was collapse and block shots and let Demko stand on his head while we fluke a couple goals to win. We took it to game 7 with that method. Maybe TG did the best with the talent we had and thought that was our best way to win. I always wonder though about how it would be if our guys were allowed to play their game and skate. Maybe we might have been blown out faster... Who knows but I still think about that sometimes. I guess we'll never know.

I agree with you except I dunno if we are being overly pessimistic about size. AB was one of the top players for the islanders during their playoffs. Garland plays with an edge and battles hard and comes out with the puck often. Yes shedding both AB and Garland along with Myers frees up like 15m to spend on an RD, 3C and 4W but I'm not convinced they would get slaughtered in a playoff game. There's still a place for smaller players in the playoffs if they play with a certain jam to their game a la Marchand. Both Garland and AB are great with their skates, edges, cuts etc. When used properly with linemates that cover their size deficiencies, i think they can still perform well. Their issue isn't the o zone. Much like Hughes, the issue isn't even on transition defence. It's when the opposition has the puck deep and is cycling along the boards in a heavy possession game, they get a bit exposed. I still think they are a net positive than negative when factoring that in.

Im not knowledgeable enough to look at that list and wonder who would be a good fit Dumba (I dunno if he can play a solid systems game that RT preaches) Severson maybe? Gudas? Or, maybe PA surprises again by doing something like trading Myers along with Hogz and a 2nd and gets a good young RD like a Hronek while he keeps Garland AB and Boeser.

Yeah you're prob right. We definitely need to target an RD. Who is available that would be an upgrade on Myers?

I feel like it's imperative for us to get another top 4 D if we truly want to make the playoffs next year short of Demko bailing us out or hoping everything falls our way. Gavrikov would be a great fit. Easiest target despite the 10 team ntc is Myers. Despite what some say, 1m cash for a low end 4D and higher end 5D is a great deal for a team that has cap space. They would probably go as far to say they "fleeced" us for taking Myers. Very reminiscent of how we took Ehrhoff from SJ in 2009. The brass has talked about how they want Bear re-signed and if that's the case, in short of running back the exact same D core as we have now (with Myers in the top 4) , I don't know how you'd sign / keep both. This is a playoff team if Demko is healthy and our top 4 D is Hughes Gavrikov OEL Hronek We simply can't afford Myers @6m on the 3rd pairing. If he's not good enough for top 4, he needs to go. When we also look at organization / prospect readiness, we know Podz, Hogz are both ready for prime time. We will see how ready guys like Johansson are when we watch the AHL Playoffs. Which vets will they squeeze out / make expendable? How much cap savings will they bring? I like the fact that the guys on the trade block are Myers, Boeser, AB and Garland. I feel like they all have some value around the league and a home can be found if we absolutely needed to trade them. Personally, Myers going is the easiest solution as we can basically take his salary / cap and plug in a better 6m defensemen and be cap compliant. I also like the fact we have guys like Podz, Hogz, Kravy waiting for a permanent role. Yes there will be a dip in production if 1-2 of the above names are traded, but that also means our D would be that much better I think PA and the brass actually have a lot to work with. They have many different ways to skin this cat (Myers, AB, Garland, Boeser) to shed cap space while using the savings to improve the D while filling the forward holes internally. It's not as dire as some ppl say. The only bad contract we can't get out of is OEL and I think he will bounce back next season when paired with Hronek.

I was initially hard on management but I have looked back on their 1.5 years of work so far and realized that they know much better than me. They signed Mik They signed Kuz They picked the right guy in Miller over Horvat (Not only paying less but got the better player) As much as I love Bruce Boudreau as a person, management was correct in that there was no structure and the team freewheeeled wayyyy too much. Loose hockey was losing hockey unless Demko stood on his head. Bad habits permeated through the lineup. Miller was capable of playing like current Miller but he played risky selfish hockey. Bo then started to do that too. They turned Horvat and a 2nd into Hronek, AB and Raty As for the Dickinson trade, it was more like Dickinson, Dipietro, Myrenberg, a 2024 2nd and a 2023 5th for Bear, Pederson, Studnicka and Josh Bloom. Not great but not horrible. We shed cap and got a decent player where we were in a position of need. Lekkermaki was a question mark after his poor d+1 year but he's looked to have regained form. Only miss would have been to give Boeser a 1 year QO but Boeser has also picked up his play. I'm not holding my breath but if he has a rebound year, I believe the contract won't be as bad as it looks right now. I think Boeser has it in him to put up 25g 65 pts next year. Is that worth 6.7? Probably not but it's worth at least 5.75m. So far, I would have to say our staff has done quite well with where we started. None of the trades have been bad. There's only a question of, should we have gone after Mik rather than someone like Marino (which costs Ty Smith and a 3rd). One could argue that maybe we wouldn't have gotten Kuz if we didn't get Mik. Did we end up with a better overall situation in Hronek and Bear while also signing guys like Mik, Kuz? Anyway, my knee-jerk reaction was to hate on management but in hindsight, the work they have done so far has been pretty impressive in a short amount of time. I wonder what they'll do this off season in prep for next year.

Thanks @JamesB I find the pessimists pretty funny here. We have one of the largest executive teams and these arm chair GMs are checking their math work which is like grade 2 level math. The way I see it, I don't see a world where we would be the first team to not be cap compliant and forfeit games. I do agree that Pearson and Poolman will probably not start the year. Even if one of them did play, we'd move down every waiver eligible guy for now to save cap space I do wonder though where hogz and Kravy will play as they should be in the nhl. Those saying we will be over the cap clearly hasn't seen how the league has been operating since the cap era. All it takes is 1 "injury" during training camp

How are we cap situation wise if we keep him? How much cap do we have to dump to be compliant next season with Kuz and Miller contracts kicking in? Also keep in mind adding Hronek and AB in exchange for Bo's cap hit this year is another big increase. Thats 4 players that take up more cap space than this past season and we were a cap team to the dollar. Keeping Myers sounds like defense will stay status quo and we won't be able to add another top 4 D But does that mean we need to get rid of some forwards? If so, who? Are we banking on Pearson, Poolman on LTIR? Their salaries don't cover the increases

Looks like Lekkermaki was the better player up to the draft but as lekkermaki slumped ohgren played well. Lekkermaki then got injured and has now come back playing at a high level. MeanWhile ohgren has kept up his good play. Are they on the same line? My hope is that both players continue to play well and support each other and help their team win. That in itself will be best for both of their development

Not to take away from the Raty Beau trade thread but Podz is doing just fine. He could for sure have played in the NHL but I like what we are doing. Hogz and Podz were in the NHL even 2 years ago but what we are seeing now shows true commitment to development. Wayyyy too early to say anything negative about Podz. Every time I watch him play, I marvel at how he plays the right way. Always on the right side of the puck, takes good angles, dependable, makes the right pass. For those that watched Top Gun (OG), the guy is like Iceman. He makes the right play all game until the opposition gets bored or does something stupid and then he has you. Podz never risks or trades chances to create opportunities. He grinds you down and then creates opportunities when it's safe to do so. I would take him over most players on our team in a playoff game. If we ever play Mtl in a playoff game, i would have no worries putting Podz out against Caulfield.

Yup, there are guys like Bieksa that love Vancouver and the hockey market here. The Sedins are still a part of the organization. When you play well in Vancouver, like you said, they are the toast of the town. If you sign a big contract and don't produce though, you'll hear about it. If you want to be that guy who signs a big contract but don't want the accountability, you're in the wrong city.

Have you watched a game @ UBS Arena recently @stawns Like what the heck are you even talking about? https://theathletic.com/3973879/2022/12/07/nhl-attendance-stadium-tickets/ Vancouver was ranked 4th in the league in attendance by Dec 2022 while playing god awful hockey, the Isles playing in a new state of the art arena was 8th worst in the league. That's 20 spots down.... That being said, the gap isn't as big as it seems due to arena capacity factor. UBS is still running at 90 percent cap Rogers Arena is at 99.8 percent cap Vancouver has a passionate fan base. We have horvat defenders here and ppl that criticize him. The treatment Horvat got here isn't even close to what Miller gets yet even with Miller, we have passionate fans like Deb who support him through thick and thin. We are a franchise that's never won a cup, never had a dynasty like Bossy and his era yet we bleed canucks and continue to fill the arena and post on this board even after we miss the playoffs. For a former captain to say what he said was indeed stupid. It is also probably a good decision to let him go because it further shows that horvat prefers to play in anonymity in a city where they probably wouldn't even recognize him and couldn't handle the pressure of being the captain for a hockey pressure market like Vancouver. I don't think the fans will change. We aren't going to dilute ourselves and be mediocre level passion. We want players that want to be in a hockey market that feed off the energy. Again, I'm glad Horvat got paid but even happier that it's not from us and we have a nice return for trading him. I hope he has a good playoff run because signing that big contract is going to add pressure on him once this honeymoon is over and clearly, he doesn't like pressure.

Lol we dropped to 3 percent? That's ridiculous. Did we have to play quinn 30 min a night?

Agreed Trading Myers is the perfect example of addition by subtraction. What's frustrating is he has all the tools to be much better. But if playoffs are a real aspiration for this team next year, Myers can't be playing a top 4 D role. He should be 3rd pairing but as you said, you can't have your 5-6D making 6m

Yes but as I said before, you can try to nullify the ntc by threatening to waive him. Then literally any bottom feeding team can take him. If he clears, you pay out the bonus Sept 15 and waive him again. If I was a family man with school aged children, I would rather know where I am moving to sooner than later. No sense not approving a trade in June when the kids are out of school only to hold out and then get waived mid Sept and then end up uprooting your family and moving them to a new school and try buying / renting a house in a new city. School starts mid Aug in the States and early Sept in Canada. I would rather do this all in the offseason then scramble in Sept and have absolutely zero say in which team decides to claim me off waivers. For example, if Arizona was on my 10 team list, but then I find out I might get waived and Columbus might take me, I would definitely choose Arizona over Colombus. Your still somewhat in control but you have to expand your list. At the end of the day, why would I kick and scream to stay in a city playing for a team that no longer wants me, when I will most likely get waived and end up leaving anyway with a high risk that it'll be a place I might not like.

I don't know.... I think Myers is as good as gone. 1m cash for a vet 5D while hitting cap floor on a cash strapped team? Yes please.

I think Kuz is here? They wouldn't have signed him to trade him. He's part of the supporting cast for the core (Demko, Petey Hughes). Supporting cast being guys like Miller, Kuz, Hronek

Seeing us blow all these leads makes me think we have a lot of work to do as well. Hiroshi had a tough game. So did Myers. Didn't matter who he was paired with, (-1 with Hughes or - 2 with Hiroshi). Guy was on the ice for 3 goals against vs a very crappy team and only grabbed a +1 when he jumped on for 2 seconds for Peteys goal. I dunno if it's bad luck or just poor play. On his first goal against, he made the right play initially when Hiroshi turned the puck over and aggressively challenged the forward on the shot. Delia let out a poor rebound and Myers missed it as he swept at the puck as he skated right by it beside/behind the net. That's 3 different players with errors there. (Hiroshi, Delia and Myers) On his other goal against, he followed his guy (O'Brien) behind the net,made a hit but then o'Brien slipped into the high slot and tipped the puck in while Myers stayed deep and was standing beside Hiroshi who was already engaged in a battle with Mcbain in front of the net. Tough call here also because many of Myers problems we see is him running around chasing guys and losing his position on the ice whereas this time, he didn't chase the guy into the high slot but he was also the only guy not taken as every other player was engaged with an Arizona player. 3rd goal against was on Miller and Myers was just a casualty along with the rest of the players. Miller was standing around not knowing who to take when he should have taken Schmaltz. Myers was already engaged in a battle in front of the net. Basically what this boils down to is our players needing better coaching on who to take and what is their responsibility in their own zone. Much like the stop start whistle drill that RT did. Looks like they need more of that. How much would Hronek have improved the situation? Maybe cleared the puck instead of missing it on the first goal? Maybe making the right read and taking obrien on that other goal? If Hronek played, that might have saved 2 goals. I really do think we need 1 more solid top 4D on top of Hughes and Hronek. OEL due to his immoveability will probably be hroneks partner. Myers is as good as gone. He needs to be if the goal is to make the playoffs next season. He's making too much to be on the 3rd pairing. Its clear The Canucks are not a playoff team if Myers is in the top 4. We can't replace him in the top 4 if he isn't traded. So knowing the brass wants to make the playoffs, I can't see how he would still be here next season.

Wow so savage lol. Horvat was fine when he was here. We're not the dummies holding the 8.5m bag. We got good value out of him and he was worth his contact and perhaps even underpaid. Luckily, we didn't give him a "we owe you contract". Rather we let Lou do that. We then took the good value we had all these years and then got a great return out of it. It has to be upsetting for Horvat to see guys like Boeser get paid more than him through all these years. And then he sees guys like Myers and OEL overpaid too. Why does he have to be the only guy on a value contract? Because he's captain? Personally I'm glad Bo finally got paid but even happier it's not us and we got a great return

yeah I would have been choked if they got a 12th overall or something.

Well lucky for us, his upswing started after the coaching staff changed and he's looked great since. Kudos to JTM for seeking help and asking RT to help him improve. Good news is coaching staff is not changing and Miller has set a new standard on how he should be playing on both ends of the ice.

Still, I feel like NY got what they wanted which was to make the playoffs. Lou really needed that. So glad PA didn't allow teams to negotiate contract before trade or the whole thing probably would have blown up. Despite not putting up points, at one point, islanders fans still seemed happy with Bo's play and being dependable in crucial situations. Has that sentiment changed?

I agree with your assessment. I do think the canucks need to move some forward salary so that we can sign another bonadife top 4 d this summer that pushes OEL to 4D paired with Hronek

That statement is so funny... According to who? You? Just because you say it like fact doesn't make it so. He's had spurts of good games and even within the game there are hairy moments but to say he's playing well seems far fetched. Sorry but I don't agree. I am/was a pretty big Myers fan. I was so pumped watching him against st Louis in the bubble playoffs. He's one of the few guys that plays well when it gets physical and there's snarl in the game. Unfortunately, when the game is a reg season game and the game is soft, Myers is unfortunately a disaster. Time after time I see him get confused on assignments and cross over into his defensive partners side of the ice while leaving his side wide open when his partner didn't even need the help and had his guy on the perimeter. I honestly want Foote to just tell him to take it easy and worry only about staying home and making the safe plays for 1 game.