Bissurnette

Yeah that's probably cuz they'd be ok with taking back another comparable bad contract. Maybe a change of scenery would do Loui and whomever he could/might get traded for will serve them well. I'd be ok with it as long as it's not longer term or more money on the contract. Ultimately even more money left on the contract would be ok if the other team retains or adds assets to offset the difference. I personally would not be ok with getting back a bad contract with longer term than Loui's.

I know he was brought up, drafted and developed as a 2way center in NCAA. I think his defensive game started to dip a little during his last year of college. I'll be honest I didn't follow his college career closely but everything I've heard about him during his NCAA career was pointing to a 2way center with 2nd line upside. He's moved away from the 2way game in recent years but I still see the appetite there, he just needs to work on it more and the coaching staff might need to dedicate some time with him to work on that side of the game. If Virtanen gets traded maybe they'll have more time to work with Gaudette.

I'm in the keep Gaudette over Virtanen for sure. I saw a guy who's all hussle and effort as opposed to what Virtanen was doing. Like I said both his offensive and defensive game could improve but I think you'll see that improvement when he bulks up. The appetite and hustle is there to be a good 2way player, he just needs to figure it out and he's a smart player so I'm not willing to give up on him. Exactly, G. Like I said above, the appetite and hustle is there, and I believe you'll see significant improvement in his game as he bulks up. People say Horvat is not great defensively either. See comments above regarding how I feel about Gaudette.

Not at all recency bias @Monty but keep stat watching. I'm not going to argue with all of you. I like Lehner because of his story but to me he's an average goalie playing on an excellent teams recently, and he doesn't go anywhere his team doesn't take him. He always leaves big juicy rebounds, and gets fatigued easily because he's so big. Mobility, athleticism, fitness level all come in question for me. All I'll say on this is that the minute you see Vegas's product on the ice drop off you'll see Lehner's numbers take a pretty good dip so you can quote me on that and I'll gladly admit I was wrong about him.

YES. That's a relief for me. He'd pay dividends if we sign him.

Also Markstrom is a much better goalie. My guess for Marky is between 6.5-7 which would be a pretty good contract for what he's giving us.

Why not give Gaudette more time to grow into the role. He'd make a pretty good 3C if we give we allow him some time. He's 23, and he plays a 2way game. Is there room for improvement offensively and defensively - sure. But we have a pretty good player here, and as he bulks up and gets experience he'll get even better. No need to give up on him just yet. Defense is higher priority imo.

That was my initial thought as well. But then I thought maybe trades don't work out or fall through or for whatever reason Jake ends up back here next year. Maybe it'll light a fire under his ass. I'm not making an excuse I still think it's not the best thing to say in a market like this one but just offering one possible explanation. Honestly I think JB is still a little raw from the loss because there were a couple of answers in the interview and the media availability that I wasn't sure where he's going with them.

I'm not saying it isn't logical. I was just hoping they went the other way. But that's just me. It's not a bad decision either way. Also: That was my reasoning to another poster.

All Hughes needs is someone reliable defensively which Tanev definitely is. But they could have upgraded there in the physicality department too. Harmonic seems like he'd be a very good fit on paper (granted) and he'll likely be just as affordable as Tanev. Good leader too. Edler would be great as well since Hughes is comfortable on the right side. Plenty of other options. Toffoli is a 2-time Cup winner and played an important role in those runs. JB also mentions in his interview that he was great with Petey and helped him along a lot. I don't know why you're coming in with the "of course they're going to choose Tanev".

In the interview I mentioned above it also sounded like they're going to prioritize Markstrom and Tanev, and they hope to have enough space to keep Toffoli. I was hoping they'd choose Toffoli over Tanev. I did want them to keep Tanev earlier in the season, but I started leaning more towards letting him walk as the season went along. I missed on this one.

Really good (full) interview here https://www.sportsnet.ca/650/reach-deep/jim-benning-going-know-expect-now-experience-year/ Reading between the lines I think they're going to package him to move out money. Something a few of us might have mentioned once or twice But they've been patient with him for 6 years and his professionalism still comes into question sometimes. I'd definitely be good with this move.

I forgot about the week break. Yeah that definitely could have been a huge advantage because it was a short series for is against the sharks. If we had started 2 days after their game 7 vs Tampa it would have played even more in our favour. That said, we did win the first 2 games and as you/doc said, they were done until the Nathan Horton hit so who knows if the end result would have changed. Idk, it's all hypothetical and personally I've moved on to the point where it's just lessons learned for me at this point.

Haha wow interesting. I definitely didn't think it was boring, but to each their own. Ditto for the second part of your comment I suppose

I can't see it CK, I can't see them fail again in the playoffs by getting bullied. I want us to be the hammer, not the nail. It's a tough, TOUGH sight to see when you're team gets beaten down into the ice to the point that they have less than nothing left in the tank for game 7, and I NEVER want to see that again. It's happened one too many times for my liking and more speed and skill isn't going to help us. Canucks style is whatever style the team is playing and it changes from one core/regime to another. We can play the style which can make us effective in the playoffs. And I hope we do, because like I said I'm sick and tired of getting bullied out of the playoffs. I prefer that style of play anyways, 2way solid physical hockey. I hope they look at this year, and the past like 10 times we've been bounced from the playoffs and finally figure it out and do something to address toughness, size and intimidation. As for the bolded part, I disagree. Bruins played a better team game than us and beat us, pretty handily for a 7 game series. All their wins were blowout wins, and ours we were squeaking by. It's 10 years ago so I've moved past the point of "we should have won it". We didn't because they played a style that fits the playoffs better. I hope it doesn't come off terribly, but saying we deserved to win is a little entitled imo. If we deserved to win we would have won. Just like if we deserved to win the Vegas series we would have won. Crying to the refs doesn't solve anything, they're just not going to give us 15 powerplays in a playoff game. It's just not going to happen. I believe we actually had the advantage on powerplays in most series that we were bounced out of in the past 10 years except for the SJS series in 2013 - abysmal reffing, not going to deny that. I'm not sure if you watched the VGK vs Dallas game 1, but Dallas played a solid 2way team game and Vegas did not look remotely as dominant as they looked against us. That's how playoffs hockey is meant to be played.

If Toronto have talks with Markstrom and they see a deal being done, I could see something along those lines happening. Anderson is a capable starting goalie who has just been ridden into the ground in Toronto from what I can tell. A change of scenery might allow him a bounce back year, and it gives Toronto what they're looking for - an upgrade in in net and a work horse. I don't know if those are the exact pieces going back and forth but I can see there being a fit for both teams.

Agree with your post except the bolded part. I'd say that's a good description of the series. But I do want a 'cement' head team. And I most definitely do care what wins in the playoffs. The playoffs are what matter. I couldn't care less how we get there or what our regular season looks like, what we're playing for is the cup and you get there by winning 4 rounds in the playoffs. Every year we lose we failed to reach our goal and I can't stand losing/failing. Especially failing the same way every time.

Alright fair enough. You disagree with the gameplan. I believe we had the right mindset just ran out of gas to do anything. Physicality taking its toll... Have a good night.

They were conserving their energy to play defense. That was their gameplan. Defending is the most basic part of hockey, if you're not playing defense you're not going to win the game. That's why you could see them defending but there wasn't anything left for any other part of the game. I do agree with you that we had a pretty good advantage with the 5 mins and it was much deserved that was a dirty hit no question. Would have bee great to score on that if not for anything else, just to repay the inbred goon. But unfortunately they just didn't have anything in the tank to execute. I do think Green should have called a time out and regrouped the guys at some point in the third, but honestly I don't think it would have made much of a difference.

True, they needed to score but they literally had nothing left in the tank, PP or otherwise. That's why we didn't see any kind of push from them aside from the last like 3 or 4 mins in the game. Vegas's physicality took its toll in a 7 game series.

Toffoli over Tanev all day. I was in the keep Tanev camp until Playoffs, but he just doesn't offer anything in terms of offense, or physicality. He kills the play every time the puck touched his stick and he's actually been struggling to break the puck out in recent years. I agree with everything you said except the bolded part Debs. That's what we said against Chicago in 2010, Bruins in 2011, LAK in 2012, Flames in 2015 and now the Knights in 2020. How many more times does it have to happen? It's the same story every year that's what happens in the playoffs, the refs put their whistles away. We need more size and grit mixed in with speed next year and we can hang with them. We can return the favour when they decide to run our guys. Why weren't we plastering Theodore, Karlsson and Marchessault all series? They were more than willing to give our skill players (our entire team for that matter) a hard time but we never returned the favour against their top players. And as we just saw yet again, it made the difference in the playoffs. Boys gave it their all on the ice, and anybody who thinks otherwise frankly just doesn't know hockey. Couldn't be more proud. I'm excited to see what moves they make this offseason to help us against the heavy teams which we will inevitably face in the playoffs.

Well yeah they've been banging and crashing all series long and they're a pretty heavy team. There's a couple of games where we tried to match their physicality but for the rest of the series we were getting outright bullied. Again. That catches up with you in a 7 game series. I have 0 doubts that the players left everything out on the ice. Hope JB and management make some moves this offseason to acquire some heavier bodies to provide grit and intimidation so that we can hang with the heavy teams in the west.

This is why size, grit, intimidation and physicality works. You can have all the skill and speed in the world but if you're getting physically dominated in a 7 game series it will catch up to you. Boys had nothing left to give this entire game despite Demko being a Demigod. I'm proud of the boys and the way they battled. Nobody can say they didn't battle and leave it ALL out on the ice. It's been a helluva run, and could not be more proud of the team. A ton of credit to Green and management for building this team and giving us a product on the ice that's all effort. Add more size, and grit mixed in with speed next year and that's how we'll be able to hang with the heavy teams in the west. Super excited to see what JB does this offseason. Let's get'em next year boys

Nvm