khay

Who was that dumbas$ anyways? That scale of stupidity has not been seen in a while. That guy sounded like a redneck, probably some b*tch from Calgary.

Yep. 2nd line with EP back? Virtanen-EP-Eriksson?

Should be at least 3 games but given the history of DOPS, it will be 0 or 1 game. Anything higher than 1 game will shock me.

Player complained that he is not ready to fly. Medical clearance means jack $hit if the player (patient) says he doesn't feel well. When you feel sick, you go see the family doctor. The family doctor says nothing looks wrong. Does that make your sickness go away?

Kesler on defensive side of the puck but with better team play on the offensive side of things.

Sigh... I would resign from the job if my employer treated me this way... If true, this is f*cking $hitty. What was Jim thinking?

That's how I feel too. NHL has proven to be incapable in making the right decision time and time again. But if his condition is unknown, the league has to think long and there is small chance that they make the right decision. If he is fine, we know for sure there won't be any suspension.

I'm actually hoping that he is just fine but that the Canucks are not revealing the extent of his conditions to force the league to make a decision on Matheson. Knowing the bs people that are in the DOPS, if the team comes out and says that he is fine, then Matheson will get no games.

Considering the hype that he came in with, I think anything below 95% is a bust.

Yeah that dude had a bit of know-it-all attitude. Saying things like a hamster would do better than JB. Well, now it's been proven that JB >>>> a hamster >>>> blue t-shirt

"We could have drafted Gabriel Vilardi, future Jonathan Toews and we draft this guy!!??!!???!" lol this is so funny.

I thought you meant bigger so I changed it. Jake has higher offensive ceiling but I think Hansen was one of the best defensive forwards in the league in his prime. I doubt Jake will ever be better than Hansen in that regards. Honey badger was his nickname for his ability to forecheck and hound the puck. I haven't seen Jake do anything close to that yet.

In other words, Gretzky's playing weight.

I agree. I didn't realize that before but Crosby and Forsberg share quite a bit of similarities. Forsberg put up 1.26PPG, Crosby currently at 1.29PPG. I actually feel that Zetterberg can play a bit of power game like Forsberg. And I think Datsyuk was much more magical with stick than EP and he was just plain out quick whereas EP is more of an elusive type. EP doesn't look quick and the defenders may feel like they can lay a body on him, but then he evades them somehow and makes passes that don't seem very possible. Among the NHL greats, the one player that I can think of whose style matches EP is Gretzky. Not saying he will be as great as the great one but the way Gretzky evades defenders, circling around them with fine stickhandling, making unexpected passes, and putting the puck into empty spaces so that he can go and retrieve it. Like that moment when EP passed to himself during one of the preseason games, that was really Gretzky like. McDavid is more like Bure. I think if McDavid wants to focus more on goal scoring, then I think he will be able to win the Rocket Richard every year. Probably can hit 60 goals. Right now, McDavid looks like he wants to make plays than to score on his own.

Yes, it's kind of funny the way it works. It took some guts from Columbus to select PLD over Puljujarvi, who everyone thought was crazy not to pick Puljujarvi. And it took a lot of gut from Montreal this year to select Kotkaniemi. We know how PLD was the right pick at #3 and we will have to see how Kotkaniemi turns out but I think they will be very happy with Kotkaniemi. And I hope you are right about Hughes.

I agree. To assess the prospects accusatory, we need compilation of their "lowlights".

I think Bo and Baer have shown pretty good chemistry and should stay together as you say. Boeser with EP also also looks good. Bo-Baer, EP-Boeser allows us to spread out scoring a bit. But I actually would like to see Virtanen with EP rather than Bo-Bear. With EP's accurate passing and Jake's skating, Jake may get a lot of breakaways. Virtanen-EP-Boeser Baer-Horvat-Goldobin Motte-Sutter-Eriksson Granlund-Beagle-Schaller Gagner

Sure but it stands that the Canucks and many Canadian franchises have trouble signing a marquee UFA unless it's a player deciding to give up money to come home.

As I said Hamhuis is an exception since he gave us a hometown discount and declined some really great offers from teams that offered great chance at winning. Sundin had the name value but was out of his prime. He wasn't even in shape and came in the middle of season, not even close to being in game shape. He was instrumental in developing Kesler's game and even the Sedins but he wasn't a marquee UFA that could push the team over the hump. Gillis pitched the idea of 1 year 13-14 mil deal to Weber and Weber did want to come but at the same time, Weber didn't want to sign any one year deal due to possibility of an injury. That's why it didn't happen. So that was the case of a player caring more about money than coming home. Hamhuis on the other hand? He gave up money and opportunities to come home. The home team offered some good opportunities too but I think Hamhuis would have signed with us even if we were a middle of the pack team.

Because he is way past his prime. Some players don't (Shea Weber) but then there are those that come back home to play in front of their family and friends. Hamhuis is one of them. We have never signed a top UFA in a long time... If ever.

Hamhuis and Tavares are the only counterexample you can provide... Hamhuis came home. So did Tavares. Sure, it helped that we had a contender but we don't know if he would have come regardless. Come on, he turned down playing with Crosby and Malkin only to sign at discounted value. You seriously believe that he chose us over Pittsburgh because we had better chance to win? Hamhuis came home. Pavol was past his prime and his agent was Gillis. Sundin was basically 40 when he joined. Doesn't count as marquee UFA.

If that's Jack Hughes, 6yrs is not going to matter One lesson learned is that this team, no matter how high we think of our own province and the city, has not been able to attract top UFAs (not counting the signing of the past the prime players like Sundin and Messier). We seem to have no problem keeping guys once they come but getting them to come in the first place has been difficult. We have to rely on drafting and trading to acquire top level players whereas a team like Chicago can draft the core but can always seem to be able to fill any gaps via UFA (e.g., Hossa). In fact, you can say that is the case for all Canadian teams including the Maple Leafs (before Tavares decided to come home, which marquee NHL player signed as a UFA with them and how long ago was it?). Perhaps that is the reason why it has been so long since a Canadian team has won a cup since you have to manage the team to perfection to win as a Canadian franchise whereas US teams can do a quick fix. I agree that we have some nice pieces. EP-Boeser are first line players I think they should play together starting this season. But we definitely need a player or two to help Bo on the second line. Baer has never had a full season and I don't see him as a long term solution. I don't like Nylander option because he is not a complete player but will cost as one and we have to give up quite a bit to get him. Goldobin is not a complete player yet and I don't see him as becoming one (I hope I'm wrong and I do think that he has improved quite a bit since his arrival but somehow I don't see him getting there). The only way I see it is if one of the young players emerges as a top 6 player (we have few candidates in Dahlen, Lind, Gaudette, Virtanen, Palmu, Gadjovich with Dahlen having the best chance to get there) and we draft one more top 6 player next season, which will probably be a top 10 pick again. If it happens to be a top 3 pick then our rebuild will be completed sooner. Defence has some nice pieces with 1 potential top 2D (Hughes), 1 top 3D (Juolevi), a couple of potential top 4/5 D (Woo, Briesbois), and various top 5/6/7 D players (e.g., Chatfield, Sautner, McEneny). There is also wildcards in Tryamkin (a top 3/4D) and Rathbone (anywhere from top2D to top 6D???) it will take at least 2 seasons for some of these guys to round into form. So, in a nutshell, we are still about 2-3 years out from making the playoffs. We've had a long period of sustained success from Nazzy era and Sedin era (2000/2001 to 2014/2015) where we missed playoffs like 3 times in 14 seasons? During this period we've only had 3 top 10 draft picks: Virtanen, Horvat, and Hodgson (not counting Bourdon). Horvat was drafted with an acquired pick so really, just Hodgson and Virtanen. I guess a long period of success has to be followed by a long rebuild. The only regret is that we failed to win the cup in this 15 years; I think we should have had one in 2011 or 2012 and Nazzy team should have bad a better chance in 2004 with healthy Nazzy and Bert in the lineup and a more generous owner spending money on a more consistent goaltender.

Knowing the NHL, they will probably suspend him one game for too much fancy stick work resulting in broken ankle.

EP is pretty agile, he will see them and slip right by them.

I think holding out is more common among lower draft picks, but for first round picks that have the chance to crack the roster before draft + 2 years, they would be foregoing a lot of salary just for the chance to play with someone they like. If Quinn Hughes holds out, then he has to stay unsigned for 4 years (if I'm not mistaken). So he would have to stay in college until the end of draft + 4 seasons and only gets a chance to make the NHL starting draft + 5 season. At which point, I think he can only sign an ELC deal (850K + bonus for 3 years). So that's 7 seasons before he even becomes an RFA and a chance to make millions. In the meantime, his younger brother Jack makes the NHL right out of the gate and Quinn is just sitting in his college dorm room, watching his brother live out his dream of playing in the NHL. On the contrary, if Quinn signs with us at the end of Michigan's season (as Boeser and Gaud did), he burns one year of his ELC. By the end of draft + 3 seasons he would hit RFA status and a chance to make whatever he is worth. So starting from draft + 4 season, he is set to make millions vs 850K. Just look at Boeser, he will sign for at least 6 mil as long as this season is a repeat of what he did last season. If he somehow puts up 40+ goals, then we are looking at 7+mil. If Quinn is as advertised, he will commend at least 5-6 mil as an RFA. If he comes in and scores 50+ points during his ELC years, he is gonna get paid. So no. I don't worry about holding out. There's just too much to lose for the player. If they really want to play together, they can sign as UFA when they are 28 years and have already made enough money to be content with.