Tom Sestito

Totally agree with the criticisms of Hughes. The reason why EP is so brilliant is that he's also a fantastic defensive player. His stature doesn't limit his overall impact. I just think people overvalue points but you see with guys like Danault - Gallagher that you don't need to be big point producers to be top level players - you just have to outplay the competition you matchup against. I just don't know how these guys can go into another season where you have both Myers and Hughes - especially when they both make a fortune. Hamonic and Edler are the only defense first guys we have and they're both in their 30's and UFAs. Probably both best as your 4-6th best D. Schmidt is good at defending as well but is at his best roving further up with someone to cover. They need to add a legitimate young top level defender who can play a stupid amount of ES minutes against other teams best players.

Don’t think it’s arguable. It was much worse.

I still think the 2013 sharks series had worse officiating than the 2011 finals

I had a look at that Vegas finals roster again and I still don’t think they were gifted some insanely favorable situation. Gms were more so just stupid lol. Even that first season finals team - it was more cinderella rather than deserving imo. They really improved after that first season.

Part of me wonders why there wasn’t this league/canada wide criticism when we got jobbed in the 2011 finals and 2013 1st round (24 penalties in four games lol).

Yeah it’s totally understandable man Maybe I just don’t hate Vegas more than the idea of another Canadian team winning before us

I’ll never judge people’s way of supporting hockey but I can’t cheer for other teams other than ours Chris Lee incompetent

Holtby played pretty well around the covid break but was bad again at the end of the season which made me think his good run was more luck rather than improvement

"X fanbase is the WORST fanbase" "Canucks fans are the worst" It's so cringe lmao

Agree on defense. I don’t see a strong correlation between size with forwards in your top nine and winning like with defense. Like I’m looking at all of the top scorers and there isn’t many big guys left nor were there many left in the previous round either.

Up front, not at all. On defense? Yes. Hughes is tiny, Rathbone is tiny, Myers plays tiny and bleeds goals, Edler isn’t overly physical at his age.

risto sucks too at least reinhart is a good player. just don’t think he’s a good target

i have a lot more faith and time for schmidt. hansen thinks he’s a #4 but i think he’s probably a #2 if paired with the right guy. i’d bet it was a down year. myers tho - yup.

that should be hamonic with rathbone. 3rd pairing defense focused d-man who can fill temporarily in the top four.

schmidt is good on both ends but he still needs a better defense focused presence next to him so he can be at his best pushing pace up the ice myers is only good on one end seems obvious to me

that defense won’t be playing any defense

shoulda grabbed weegar last off season when he was rumoured to be available as well. but yeah - im more open to moving that pick if you’re getting a hamhuis level defenseman.

Hoffman is garbage unless he makes 4th line money he is a black hole on defense. would be a good pp guy or late game offense guy to move up the lineup if you need goals like how they play myers with hughes when we are losing in the 3rd

If you A. Agreed with Benning when he said we are two years away and that he deserves patience B. Justified losing Toffoli for free because we were 2nd in the conference in scoring without him (Benning did this) C. Said that Hoglander wouldn’t have had similar opportunity if Toffoli was here What has changed in the last 7-8 months from that logic to now be ok with trading a 9th overall pick for a winger when we have a bunch of good ones? I’m not saying we don’t need another top nine winger, but we have bigger needs and this is an extremely expensive asset to spend on one player. Bigger needs are two top four D who can play defense at a high level.

A lot of those guys you mentioned literally don’t put up points. I don’t care about size when it comes to ability to defend. Fox plays against other teams best players and doesn’t get scored on. Same with Toews, same with McAvoy. Being small doesn’t negate your ability to defend lol.

Hedman didn't have a good year defensively while playing through injuries but you can include him here. Fox plays against the other teams best players and has stellar results. Devon Toews, Mackenzie Weegar, Charlie McAvoy are all excellent defensive players who produce offensively.

Which is objectively great news. If true *

Sure, I totally agree it’s subjective. I don’t think that changes the necessity of being aggressive. We have a two year window here before JT/Bo are UFA’s. Both will require significant pay raises. Either you are aggressive to improve into a top team (not just one that squeaks in because of a bad division with no real chance of winning multiple rounds) or you take a step back here and don’t sacrifice the future to make win now moves. I don’t like what the team is were we to maintain status quo or close to it.

Because Benning said they're going to be aggressive this summer? Because Miller/Bo only have one year until they hit UFA? Because you risk an Eichel type situation with star unhappiness with EP if you're bad again this year?

Not that I disagree with you, but how do you propose we get those players and the subsequent capspace needed without overpaying the available assets we have to dump salary? We need a 1st pairing defender, 2nd line winger, 3rd line center, and second pairing defender at the minimum (~20MM) We need to move on from 75% of Myers, Eriksson, Beagle, Roussel, Holtby, Jake to get there. This is why I don't understand how we can be aggressive this summer?