TimberWolf Posted September 20, 2018 Share Posted September 20, 2018 Gaunce is playing to get picked up when he gets sent down. He's not stupid and knows there is no beating out the new vets with the fancy contracts no matter what kind of preseason he has. To avoid AHL purgatory is to catch the eye of other teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nucker 67 Posted September 20, 2018 Share Posted September 20, 2018 Gaunce does not have the killer instinct/drive of a power forward. He plays a safe, non-physical game, from what I've seen. This is unfortunate for a player of his size. He is pretty good defensively, but I don't think that's enough to keep him on the Canucks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil_314 Posted September 20, 2018 Share Posted September 20, 2018 Looks like he was the 3rd center last night (Gaudette with 22 minutes, Sutter with around 18, Gaunce had around 16), and he actually got in some PP time (around 2 minutes), but seemed like his contributions remain most evident while short-handed (he did force the turnover that sprung Sutter on the breakaway which led to the penalty shot if I recall correctly). Hope they continue to give him some offensive minutes this pre-season and see what he can do, otherwise I think out East or on some of the restructuring teams he can still have a shot (e.g. Chicago to replace Kruger, Ottawa's a tire fire, just to name a few). (Or send him to Montreal? They often look for guys with size, seem to be lacking up the middle and are stocking up with 1st round pedigree players) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phat Fingers Posted September 20, 2018 Share Posted September 20, 2018 4 hours ago, mll said: Interview by Daniel Wagner in the Vancouver Courier with also quotes by Green: https://www.vancourier.com/pass-it-to-bulis/brendan-gaunce-this-could-be-a-career-changing-year-1.23436318 Gaunce knows what he has to do. He has prepped and seems focused, let’s see if he does enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phat Fingers Posted September 20, 2018 Share Posted September 20, 2018 3 hours ago, TimberWolf said: Gaunce is playing to get picked up when he gets sent down. He's not stupid and knows there is no beating out the new vets with the fancy contracts no matter what kind of preseason he has. To avoid AHL purgatory is to catch the eye of other teams. Who picks up Gaunce with the Canucks waiving him? We are not a good team, how many teams want our castoffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captainhorvat Posted September 20, 2018 Share Posted September 20, 2018 1 hour ago, Phat Fingers said: Who picks up Gaunce with the Canucks waiving him? We are not a good team, how many teams want our castoffs. I dont think he gets claimed either....straight to utica. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Lock Posted September 20, 2018 Share Posted September 20, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, Phat Fingers said: Who picks up Gaunce with the Canucks waiving him? We are not a good team, how many teams want our castoffs. I would argue that many good teams have equal castoffs to us. The difference is in the better players, of which ours are developing or not there at the moment. We also have too many forwards to the point that the castoffs are not necessarily bad players. Many players can be fringe NHL'ers. Fewer players become good NHL'ers. Edited September 20, 2018 by The Lock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phat Fingers Posted September 20, 2018 Share Posted September 20, 2018 Well, we have quantity, not sure about the quality. If waived I would give Gaunce great odds of making it to Utica. Teams wait until a whole whack of players are waived to sneak guys thru. No one is waiting for Gaunce to become available that I can see. Still, adversity builds character. Time for Gaunce to show something more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elvis15 Posted September 21, 2018 Share Posted September 21, 2018 (edited) 15 hours ago, Phat Fingers said: I don’t think it’s an abilities thing with Gaunce. He has them. He is a defensive forward and has only been deployed as that so far in the NHL. Can he ever play angry? Aggressive? For a player with his size, he plays a passive game. He may not have that extra gear/punch to give. But if he could find that edgy game I would see him as becoming successful. It's not by adding an edgy game that he'll find success, it hasn't ever really been his M.O. He's like Linden in that regard, where he'll use the body only so much as it'll help him and he won't stand down if a teammate needs help, but he isn't going to ever be an agitator or really physical player. Where he could find that extra success though is in transition. I've said before he has that straight ahead speed. If he can either create the turnover, or assist in the breakout, or both, after all his solid defensive zone work, then he could find those stat sheet add ons that would help people see his value. 6 hours ago, The 5th Line said: People aren't stat watching they are expressing how they truly feel, instead of having to defend everything canuck related like an immature fanboy. So if Gaunce get's waived, clears and joins Utica, does that mean you hold all NHL GM's opinions on hockey with low regard? As usual with you someone has to be a fanboy if they can see the positive and you have to be a pure hater when you get any criticism over your opinion. It's not false that people can't see his contributions unless he finishes on more chances, and none of us who are smart at watching players are saying he's doesn't have to worry about adding offence to his defensive game. Gaunce is good at the areas he excels at, and he doesn't get a lot of opportunity to prove he can be good at the other areas too. He still definitely shows some value, and if he had offence to add to that he'd be a guy people would pay some money for in free agency. For now, he's cheap for us and for a reason. Edited September 21, 2018 by elvis15 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aGENT Posted September 21, 2018 Share Posted September 21, 2018 (edited) 6 hours ago, elvis15 said: As usual with you someone has to be a fanboy if they can see the positive and you have to be a pure hater when you get any criticism over your opinion. It's not false that people can't see his contributions unless he finishes on more chances, and none of us who are smart at watching players are saying he's doesn't have to worry about adding offence to his defensive game. Gaunce is good at the areas he excels at, and he doesn't get a lot of opportunity to prove he can be good at the other areas too. He still definitely shows some value, and if he had offence to add to that he'd be a guy people would pay some money for in free agency. For now, he's cheap for us and for a reason. I have trouble seeing how Gaunce fits on this team given our present depth/ # crunch (though I sure wouldn't hate a Gagner trade and Gaunce as a 13th/14th F) but I still see how he has value as a player. He's REALLY good at what he does but without adding more to his game, he's going to struggle to stay on this team. Edited September 21, 2018 by aGENT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boudrias Posted September 21, 2018 Share Posted September 21, 2018 1 hour ago, aGENT said: I have trouble seeing how Gaunce fits on this team given our present depth/ # crunch (though I sure wouldn't hate a Gagner trade and Gaunce as a 13th/14th F) but I still see how he has value as a player. He's REALLY good at what he does but without adding more to his game, he's going to struggle to stay on this team. Totally agree. Someone said he does not play a physical game which I don't agree with. His board work is very physical and he usually prevails. He is hard on the puck. As you said he has to provide more. Equal up I take Archy right now. The depth on this team is passing Gaunce by, especially at C. His upside is 3C but the odds are against him. While hard on the puck he has to add more physicality. He has to score 20 points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aGENT Posted September 21, 2018 Share Posted September 21, 2018 46 minutes ago, Boudrias said: Totally agree. Someone said he does not play a physical game which I don't agree with. His board work is very physical and he usually prevails. He is hard on the puck. As you said he has to provide more. Equal up I take Archy right now. The depth on this team is passing Gaunce by, especially at C. His upside is 3C but the odds are against him. While hard on the puck he has to add more physicality. He has to score 20 points. Yup, and again, it's not that I don't like him or don't think he's good at what he does or that he doesn't bring value as a player but the Canucks have a LOT of options right now and depth squeezing him from both above and below him on the roster. And agreed on his physicality. He uses his size 'cerebrally', not for outright 'big hits'. Which is certainly less impressive for fans and probably less punishing (though likely more frustrating) on the opposition but also means he's not out of position as much and is CONSTANTLY pushing the puck back in to the neutral/offensive zones. Ideally I'd see us trade/waive Gagner and keep one of Gaunce/Archie as a spare forward but even then I could see why Archie might be a better fit for that (spare) role of playing 20-30 games in spurts. It will be interesting to see where everyone lands.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stormriders Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 Gaunce is light years better than Archie. Archie 'at times' can be tougher but overall not even close. Gaunce is fast, better defensively, better offensive upside [it he ever gets a chance], better hockey IQ and the ideal teammate team player. He is a mini me Bo with less talent. I like Archie as a depth player but he is also well past his best due date. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-AJ- Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 20 minutes ago, Stormriders said: Gaunce is light years better than Archie. Archie 'at times' can be tougher but overall not even close. Gaunce is fast, better defensively, better offensive upside [it he ever gets a chance], better hockey IQ and the ideal teammate team player. He is a mini me Bo with less talent. I like Archie as a depth player but he is also well past his best due date. I really think it depends on what you're looking for. Need some toughness and heavy hitting for a game against a big team? Swap Archie in. For everything else, Gaunce is probably better or equal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aGENT Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 12 hours ago, -AJ- said: I really think it depends on what you're looking for. Need some toughness and heavy hitting for a game against a big team? Swap Archie in. For everything else, Gaunce is probably better or equal. That's the thing. Gaunce is likely the better overall player (though without looking at the actual numbers I'm going to guess Archie actually has more scoring). And Gaunce has youth and upside in his favour. But is that what you want from your 13th/14th F...? It's definitely arguable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeneedLumme Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 58 minutes ago, aGENT said: That's the thing. Gaunce is likely the better overall player (though without looking at the actual numbers I'm going to guess Archie actually has more scoring). And Gaunce has youth and upside in his favour. But is that what you want from your 13th/14th F...? It's definitely arguable. If we were contending right now, I would agree that it is arguable that Archie might be more immediately useful. But considering that we are not, rather we are still in rebuilding/ripening mode, I would have to go with Gaunce's youth and upside. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bree2 Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 what upside? Gaunce is just not nhl ready. too many other kids who can fill his spot, although we are rebuilding , we do want to get better , not stay the same! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aGENT Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 50 minutes ago, WeneedLumme said: If we were contending right now, I would agree that it is arguable that Archie might be more immediately useful. But considering that we are not, rather we are still in rebuilding/ripening mode, I would have to go with Gaunce's youth and upside. It's a fair argument. I think it's more applicable if he was in the starting 12 but as a spare guy I'm less sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeneedLumme Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 1 hour ago, bree2 said: what upside? Gaunce is just not nhl ready. too many other kids who can fill his spot, although we are rebuilding , we do want to get better , not stay the same! The upside that he has shown at every previous level he has played at, where he first learns to play defence, then later improves his offence. "Not NHL ready" because he is not racking up tons of points while playing in a totally defensive role (in the NHL, against other teams' top players) with totally defensive players? I guess Malhotra was never "NHL ready" either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bree2 Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 Malhotra was one of the best in face offs!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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