[Discussion] An Open Letter to Our Beloved GM with a Blue Print for the Rebuild

[Byrix]

Dear Mr. Jim Benning,

 

I was just listening to radio and I've heard that you are in a bit of hot water recently. There are disagreements with your boss, headaches with your coach and disarray with your players.

Since it seems that the decisions on how the team should be run are made on a  day to day basis by reading this forum, I'm going to post a generic S.O.P. for rebuilding a team here(with yours as an example) and hope you read it when you have time.

 

1. Decide to rebuild and convince your boss to agree with you.

A compelling reason you can use is that if you start the rebuild and give the fans a sense of direction and hope, they might buy more tickets to watch an exciting young team working hard as opposed to this current team that needs to play dull and defensively to be competitive and still looses at the end of the day. 18 games into the season, it's pretty obvious this team needs change, this city needs hope, and this team needs to sell some more tickets(now and hopefully for the next 3 years).

 

2. Apologize to your veterans.

As you said on radio, there's no need to apologize to fans. You are right. You need to apologize to Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Just call up the twins and tell them that you are sorry about selling them on this re-tooling process and it is turning into what really is a rebuilding process. If they are on board with being the mentors on a rebuilding team, great. If they are not, please respect their wishes and trade them to a contending team at the deadline. Also call up the guys who are on long term bad contracts, apologize, tell them to enjoy the cash and the rest of the bumpy ride.

 

3. Identify Pieces

To do this, set a goal on when you want to be good. Let's say we want to be good when 2020 rolls around. What age do you want the oldest core piece on your roster to be at that given year? Take this birth year and count 6 years down inclusively. In my case, I picked 22 years old now and at 2020, that should be 26. Then, the range of the core players age should be between the birth year 1994~2000. Everyone on the roster that's outside of that range can be moved. Now, before you actually start making the trades, you can always come back here and adjust the blue print. However, once you start doing trades, stick with this. In negotiation, there's always a temptation of throw in a pick here and a pick there to get things done. Just say no. Trade goes both ways, there's a need on the other side, too. With all the things you've said on radio, I think you've set that age at 24, which is not wrong, but I drew that one out a couple days ago, and the player quality you have right now is just not good enough compared to other team's 24,25 year olds. Move that age bar down to 21,22, I think you'd have a case, but you still need to add and upgrade.

 

Let's put them into categories and pencil them into line-up projections at 2020:

Core Pieces

Brock Boeser - 1st Line RW

Bo Horvat - 2nd Line C

Jake Virtanen - 2nd Line RW

Olli Juolevi - Top4 LD

Nikita Tryamkin - Top4 LD

Troy Stecher - Top4 RD
Thacher Demko - Starting G

 

*Brandon Guance - 3rd Line C

*Guillaume Brisebois - Bottom Pairing LD

There's going to be prospects that belong to this age group, but are longer shots to become productive regular NHL players.
I put * beside them, they are movable, but should be held on to and see what they develop into.

There are more in the system, but I'm not going to list everyone because, at this point, we have to accept the fact that they are unknowns.

 

Then, we look at the pieces that are stuck here(untradable or unlikely) and has no trade value what so ever and where they'll be at 2020:

Stuck Pieces

Loui Eriksson - 3rd Line LW,RW

Henrik Sedin - Retired

Daniel Sedin - Retired

Brandon Sutter - 3rd Line C

These pieces are you mentors or teachers on this team and this current group needs to get more vocal. Not a big problem, but something to keep in mind later.

 

Since Everyone else could be moved as trade pieces, there are some that are more valuable than others. This following catagory can be moved if and only if the player coming back can be added to the core group. Otherwise, we are fine with them staying on the roster as well. When their contracts are up, please, please don't over pay and make them become stuck pieces.

Must Return Sell Pieces

Sven Baertschi - 3rd Line LW

Markus Grunland - 3rd Line C,LW

Anton Rodin - 3rd Line LW, RW

Chris Tanev - Top 2 RD

Erik Gudbranson - Top 4 RD

Ben Hutton - Top 4 LD

Jacob Markstrom - Starting G

 

Now the next group needs to go sooner. The return might be lower, but they need to go to open up roster spots and cap space to sign your core pieces. Some of them were core pieces from the last era and it'd be very emotional for them to go. However, this is the tough decision part of the job. Let them go at or even a bit lower than market price.

Sell Pieces

Jannik Hansen - 3rd Line RW on a good team. Find a team with a need to add play-off depth.

Derek Dorsett - 4th Line RW on a good team. Find a team with a need to add play-off depth.

Alex Burrows - 2 options here. 1.Let his contract expire and use that cap space in the off season. 2.Trade him to take on a bad contract and get a young core player in a salary dump deal.

Alexander Edler - Top 4 D on a good team. Find a team with an injury problem at the deadline or a team that needs a veteran presence on their top4 and bring back a young prospect and a place holder player on expiring contract.

Luca Sbisa - Bottom pairing D. He actually has an ok contract and at 26. There's probably a taker if you are not asking for too much. Wonder if you can get a 3rd rounder for him and a place holder guy back?

Alex Biega - If you can't move Sbisa, move Biega to a team that needs someone to expose to the expansion draft. 

 

Fire Sell Pieces

Philip Larsen - Bottom pairing D. Recover anything, just anything would be good.

Ryan Miller - Trading deadline. Again, 2 options. 1. Find a team with cap space, trade him for a pick. 2. Find a play-off team buying goaltender, take a bad contract back and a young prospect.

 

4. Identify the targets

You need to add a lot to your core group. Since we have narrowed down what we are looking for in our core group, it's not hard to target players.

 

a. 1st Line C - These guys are hard to come by. Most likely you'd need to draft one. If you trade for one, probably need to send out one of those MUST RETURN pieces.

My suggestion is pencil in your 2017 first round pick to do this with Patrick, Vilardi, Mittelstadt, Rasmussen? one of those. Do what you do best, scout and find the one that will pan out.

Make sure this guy is a good passer AND a scoring threat. You not only need a guy that can feed Boeser, you also create space for Boeser because you don't know if Boeser's skating at this point can create enough separation to get his shot off in the NHL. If you want to go the EXPENSIVE trade route, here are some targets(I just don't know if you have enough sell pieces to get any of these):

Reinhart(BUF)

Draisaitl(EDM)

Barzal(NYI)

Brown(OTT)

McLeod(NJ)

DuBois(CBJ)

 

b. 1st Line LW - Ok. You can go power or you can go skill with this one. Again, needs to be a scoring threat. Scoring threat+passing skill? or Scoring threat+physicality. Again make sure he can skate and has speed. Some names out there that can be asked about:

Nichushkin(DAL) - currently in KHL. He's not playing with the Stars, should be cheaper than other prospects?

Drouin(TBL) - showed well in the playoffs last year but not doing much now.

Dal Colle(NYI) - stuck in the AHL?

Ehlers(WPG)

Conner(WPG)

Perlini(ARZ)

Crouse(ARZ)

Svechnikov(DET)

Nylander(BUF) - Yes, don't go after Kane. Ask about Nylander.

The list goes on and on, do your scouting homework. You should know these players better than I do.

(jumping topics a little here) Recently, there has been news AGAIN about Evander Kane. Kane is not a character you want in your locker room. If you are looking to take both Kane and Nylander back on the deal with Kane as the place holder player and Nylander as the main piece to bolster your core group, then that's a long and hard MAYBE? Then Kane should be flipped at the draft after a miraculous character transformation with some home cooking. (ok, back to 1st Line LW)There are some more names in the 2017 draft as well like Vesalainen, Pettersson, Strome, etc. which you need to get a mid-1st round pick to take. Keep that in mind too. It's a good idea to get 2 of these guys if you can, you also need a 2nd Line LW. Which ever one trickles down there will be fine.

 

c. Top pairing RD - Probably need to draft one. Just as if not more rare than a 1st line C. In 2017, probably only Liljegren fits the bill, but that'll mean that using your 1st round pick on him. Meaning you probably have to trade for another high pick in 2017 draft to address the 1st line C issue or wait til 2018 to do that. You could try trading Hutton for Trouba, but unless you feel like dealing with his power ball agent, it's probably not worth the trouble.

 

The big idea is to ADD to your core group so you get to 6 top 6 quality Forwards, 4 top 4 Defences and 1 starting Goaltender. Right now it looks like you do have some pieces to play with. Keep your draft picks and keep on upgrading your core. You are right about addressing the LW issue first, because it looks like the easiest to do. The other 2 positions you need are extremely difficult to fill. However, you are looking at 23~26 year olds, I'm suggesting you look at 20~22 year olds. Another thing that you'll notice is that there are several teams that keeps on popping up with a plethora of players in that age group, Arizona, Buffalo, Winnipeg, New York Islanders...? Compare prices, see if you can make them bid up a bit. Call and bluff. Don't be too honest on the trade front.

 

5. Get 1 or 2 More Vocal Mentor on the roster

It's hard to get everything in place in one swoop. In trades, you might need to take back a bad contract, but make sure we don't end up with a cancer in the locker room as well. Identify good character guys on bad contracts. Also, look for vets in the FA pool when summer comes. Sign mentors, teachers, character guidance during the summer. Don't run out and sign a 30 goal scorer over 30years old just for the goals. Ops, you just did last year. Never mind. Learn the lesson there and live with the fact that he is stuck for now. Keep the term short and keep the cap hit low. Along with the players who are STUCK here, you need to create a positive environment in these couple year. Guys like... hum... Hamhuis? Ops... sorry, you lost him last summer, too. This is not too big an issue while the Sedins are still here compared to other problems you are having, but still one or two more vocal veteran presence would be needed to back up the twins.

 

6. Hire a sensible coach

Since you are in rebuild, take winning is a bonus. So, get a coach that really knows the players and is willing to spend the time developing them. A coach that can identify the players' strengths and design a winning system according to that. Now, you should know you are in trouble when your coach tells one of your core young power forward,"Just play your game, be physical" and "Stay on the right side of the puck, stay in position, don't hit a guy because they'll get 2 on 1" at THE SAME TIME. That's a coach so desperate that he's trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Simply put, your coach is turning your 1st round pick into a 3rd round pick while wasting a year of development time. When that happens, it's only the beginning. He will destroy more young player's confidence, next thing you know, you'll have to send your young 2nd pairing D to the AHL to develop. Huge waste of time. Just answer this one. We all know that this team has trouble scoring. But, where are you in the Goals Against rankings compared to the league this season with this coach's defensive "structure"? Your current coach is employing a system that can't defend, can't score and doesn't fit your group of players. Waste of time. If a coach is wasting my time, my players time and at the same time is deteriorating my assets? As a GM, this coach should be gone in 5 minutes, not in 20 games.

 

7. Hire some experience help

One thing I like to do in a GM position is to bring in my teachers and mentors as an senior assistant GM or an senior operation advisor. It makes the decision making process much much faster and things go much smoother. These are guys that has been at the GM position at a long time and are now half-retired. These are guys that can just listen to your idea and tell you what will likely happen 10 steps later. These are the guys usually misses their job as GM but can't take the rigorous day to day workload health-wise. They are about 10~20 years older than you. Look for one and listen to what they have to say. You'll be surprised to find out how much knowledge they can offer you. I know we already have Smyl and Weisbrod, and all the respect to them, but they have 2 years of hands on GM experience between the 2 of them and those were in the NBA. I just looked up Scotty Bowman and he is still a senior advisor for Chicago at the age of 83. Look for some help.

 

8. Know when to quit

If you are still reading this, I'd like you to know that I thank you very much for having an open mind. So, if all this blue print mumble jumbo doesn't make sense you and still believe trying to make the play-off with empty seats is a long term goal, please sign that piece of paper called the resignation letter. Because the bottom line is that winning mentality goes from top down. And if you want to make the play-offs, aim for the Stanley Cup. That's what winners do, they aim at the grand prize, so even if they fall short, they still land respectably. This team is a joke. This re-tooling on the fly is a joke. At some point, you got to tell your boss "Today is the day I stop embarrassing myself, and stop putting my reputation on the line for an illusion."

 

At the end of this long long rant, I leave you with my favorite quote in sports business.

 

"You are either a championship team or you are rebuilding to be one."

sorry, I forgot who said that.

 

 

Finally, thank you for your time.

 

 

 

from someone who spent 3 hours on a break from running his own company to write this...?

 

 

 

 

...

...

...

OH SHOOT! and of course I forgot....

*Sign Your Core Pieces Fast*

Don't wait til off season, don't use that whole season to evaluate. If the piece is eligible for RFA by July 1st, you should have signed him by March. Dragging everything into the summer is going to create a lot more uncertainty and you will pile yourself with too much work at that time. Lock them down early. They will thank you for doing it early. They will hate you if you drag it long and make them feel unwanted.

[Alflives]

12 minutes ago, Byrix said:

Dear Mr. Jim Benning,

 

I was just listening to radio and I've heard that you are in a bit of hot water recently. There are disagreements with your boss, headaches with your coach and disarray with your players.

Since it seems that the decisions on how the team should be run are made on a  day to day basis by reading this forum, I'm going to post a generic S.O.P. for rebuilding a team here(with yours as an example) and hope you read it when you have time.

 

1. Decide to rebuild and convince your boss to agree with you.

A compelling reason you can use is that if you start the rebuild and give the fans a sense of direction and hope, they might buy more tickets to watch an exciting young team working hard as opposed to this current team that needs to play dull and defensively to be competitive and still looses at the end of the day. 18 games into the season, it's pretty obvious this team needs change, this city needs hope, and this team needs to sell some more tickets(now and hopefully for the next 3 years).

 

2. Apologize to your veterans.

As you said on radio, there's no need to apologize to fans. You are right. You need to apologize to Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Just call up the twins and tell them that you are sorry about selling them on this re-tooling process and it is turning into what really is a rebuilding process. If they are on board with being the mentors on a rebuilding team, great. If they are not, please respect their wishes and trade them to a contending team at the deadline. Also call up the guys who are on long term bad contracts, apologize, tell them to enjoy the cash and the rest of the bumpy ride.

 

3. Identify Pieces

To do this, set a goal on when you want to be good. Let's say we want to be good when 2020 rolls around. What age do you want the oldest core piece on your roster to be at that given year? Take this birth year and count 6 years down inclusively. In my case, I picked 22 years old now and at 2020, that should be 26. Then, the range of the core players age should be between the birth year 1994~2000. Everyone on the roster that's outside of that range can be moved. Now, before you actually start making the trades, you can always come back here and adjust the blue print. However, once you start doing trades, stick with this. In negotiation, there's always a temptation of throw in a pick here and a pick there to get things done. Just say no. Trade goes both ways, there's a need on the other side, too. With all the things you've said on radio, I think you've set that age at 24, which is not wrong, but I drew that one out a couple days ago, and the player quality you have right now is just not good enough compared to other team's 24,25 year olds. Move that age bar down to 21,22, I think you'd have a case, but you still need to add and upgrade.

 

Let's put them into categories and pencil them into line-up projections at 2020:

Core Pieces

Brock Boeser - 1st Line RW

Bo Horvat - 2nd Line C

Jake Virtanen - 2nd Line RW

Olli Juolevi - Top4 LD

Nikita Tryamkin - Top4 LD

Troy Stecher - Top4 RD
Thacher Demko - Starting G

 

*Brandon Guance - 3rd Line C

*Guillaume Brisebois - Bottom Pairing LD

There's going to be prospects that belong to this age group, but are longer shots to become productive regular NHL players.
I put * beside them, they are movable, but should be held on to and see what they develop into.

There are more in the system, but I'm not going to list everyone because, at this point, we have to accept the fact that they are unknowns.

 

Then, we look at the pieces that are stuck here(untradable or unlikely) and has no trade value what so ever and where they'll be at 2020:

Stuck Pieces

Loui Eriksson - 3rd Line LW,RW

Henrik Sedin - Retired

Daniel Sedin - Retired

Brandon Sutter - 3rd Line C

These pieces are you mentors or teachers on this team and this current group needs to get more vocal. Not a big problem, but something to keep in mind later.

 

Since Everyone else could be moved as trade pieces, there are some that are more valuable than others. This following catagory can be moved if and only if the player coming back can be added to the core group. Otherwise, we are fine with them staying on the roster as well. When their contracts are up, please, please don't over pay and make them become stuck pieces.

Must Return Sell Pieces

Sven Baertschi - 3rd Line LW

Markus Grunland - 3rd Line C,LW

Anton Rodin - 3rd Line LW, RW

Chris Tanev - Top 2 RD

Erik Gudbranson - Top 4 RD

Ben Hutton - Top 4 LD

Jacob Markstrom - Starting G

 

Now the next group needs to go sooner. The return might be lower, but they need to go to open up roster spots and cap space to sign your core pieces. Some of them were core pieces from the last era and it'd be very emotional for them to go. However, this is the tough decision part of the job. Let them go at or even a bit lower than market price.

Sell Pieces

Jannik Hansen - 3rd Line RW on a good team. Find a team with a need to add play-off depth.

Derek Dorsett - 4th Line RW on a good team. Find a team with a need to add play-off depth.

Alex Burrows - 2 options here. 1.Let his contract expire and use that cap space in the off season. 2.Trade him to take on a bad contract and get a young core player in a salary dump deal.

Alexander Edler - Top 4 D on a good team. Find a team with an injury problem at the deadline or a team that needs a veteran presence on their top4 and bring back a young prospect and a place holder player on expiring contract.

Luca Sbisa - Bottom pairing D. He actually has an ok contract and at 26. There's probably a taker if you are not asking for too much. Wonder if you can get a 3rd rounder for him and a place holder guy back?

Alex Biega - If you can't move Sbisa, move Biega to a team that needs someone to expose to the expansion draft. 

 

Fire Sell Pieces

Philip Larsen - Bottom pairing D. Recover anything, just anything would be good.

Ryan Miller - Trading deadline. Again, 2 options. 1. Find a team with cap space, trade him for a pick. 2. Find a play-off team buying goaltender, take a bad contract back and a young prospect.

 

4. Identify the targets

You need to add a lot to your core group. Since we have narrowed down what we are looking for in our core group, it's not hard to target players.

 

a. 1st Line C - These guys are hard to come by. Most likely you'd need to draft one. If you trade for one, probably need to send out one of those MUST RETURN pieces.

My suggestion is pencil in your 2017 first round pick to do this with Patrick, Vilardi, Mittelstadt, Rasmussen? one of those. Do what you do best, scout and find the one that will pan out.

Make sure this guy is a good passer AND a scoring threat. You not only need a guy that can feed Boeser, you also create space for Boeser because you don't know if Boeser's skating at this point can create enough separation to get his shot off in the NHL. If you want to go the EXPENSIVE trade route, here are some targets(I just don't know if you have enough sell pieces to get any of these):

Reinhart(BUF)

Draisaitl(EDM)

Barzal(NYI)

Brown(OTT)

McLeod(NJ)

DuBois(CBJ)

 

b. 1st Line LW - Ok. You can go power or you can go skill with this one. Again, needs to be a scoring threat. Scoring threat+passing skill? or Scoring threat+physicality. Again make sure he can skate and has speed. Some names out there that can be asked about:

Nichushkin(DAL) - currently in KHL. He's not playing with the Stars, should be cheaper than other prospects?

Drouin(TBL) - showed well in the playoffs last year but not doing much now.

Dal Colle(NYI) - stuck in the AHL?

Ehlers(WPG)

Conner(WPG)

Perlini(ARZ)

Crouse(ARZ)

Svechnikov(DET)

Nylander(BUF) - Yes, don't go after Kane. Ask about Nylander.

The list goes on and on, do your scouting homework. You should know these players better than I do.

(jumping topics a little here) Recently, there has been news AGAIN about Evander Kane. Kane is not a character you want in your locker room. If you are looking to take both Kane and Nylander back on the deal with Kane as the place holder player and Nylander as the main piece to bolster your core group, then that's a long and hard MAYBE? Then Kane should be flipped at the draft after a miraculous character transformation with some home cooking. (ok, back to 1st Line LW)There are some more names in the 2017 draft as well like Vesalainen, Pettersson, Strome, etc. which you need to get a mid-1st round pick to take. Keep that in mind too. It's a good idea to get 2 of these guys if you can, you also need a 2nd Line LW. Which ever one trickles down there will be fine.

 

c. Top pairing RD - Probably need to draft one. Just as if not more rare than a 1st line C. In 2017, probably only Liljegren fits the bill, but that'll mean that using your 1st round pick on him. Meaning you probably have to trade for another high pick in 2017 draft to address the 1st line C issue or wait til 2018 to do that. You could try trading Hutton for Trouba, but unless you feel like dealing with his power ball agent, it's probably not worth the trouble.

 

The big idea is to ADD to your core group so you get to 6 top 6 quality Forwards, 4 top 4 Defences and 1 starting Goaltender. Right now it looks like you do have some pieces to play with. Keep your draft picks and keep on upgrading your core. You are right about addressing the LW issue first, because it looks like the easiest to do. The other 2 positions you need are extremely difficult to fill. However, you are looking at 23~26 year olds, I'm suggesting you look at 20~22 year olds. Another thing that you'll notice is that there are several teams that keeps on popping up with a plethora of players in that age group, Arizona, Buffalo, Winnipeg, New York Islanders...? Compare prices, see if you can make them bid up a bit. Call and bluff. Don't be too honest on the trade front.

 

5. Get 1 or 2 More Vocal Mentor on the roster

It's hard to get everything in place in one swoop. In trades, you might need to take back a bad contract, but make sure we don't end up with a cancer in the locker room as well. Identify good character guys on bad contracts. Also, look for vets in the FA pool when summer comes. Sign mentors, teachers, character guidance during the summer. Don't run out and sign a 30 goal scorer over 30years old just for the goals. Ops, you just did last year. Never mind. Learn the lesson there and live with the fact that he is stuck for now. Keep the term short and keep the cap hit low. Along with the players who are STUCK here, you need to create a positive environment in these couple year. Guys like... hum... Hamhuis? Ops... sorry, you lost him last summer, too. This is not too big an issue while the Sedins are still here compared to other problems you are having, but still one or two more vocal veteran presence would be needed to back up the twins.

 

6. Hire a sensible coach

Since you are in rebuild, take winning is a bonus. So, get a coach that really knows the players and is willing to spend the time developing them. A coach that can identify the players' strengths and design a winning system according to that. Now, you should know you are in trouble when your coach tells one of your core young power forward,"Just play your game, be physical" and "Stay on the right side of the puck, stay in position, don't hit a guy because they'll get 2 on 1" at THE SAME TIME. That's a coach so desperate that he's trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Simply put, your coach is turning your 1st round pick into a 3rd round pick while wasting a year of development time. When at happens, it's only the beginning. He will destroy more young player's confidence, next thing you know, you'll have to send your young 2nd pairing D to the AHL to develop. Huge waste of time. Just answer this one. We all know that this team has trouble scoring. But, where are you in the Goals Against rankings compared to the league this season with this coach's defensive "structure"? Your current coach is employing a system that can't defend, can't score and doesn't fit your group of players. Waste of time. If a coach is wasting my time, my players time and at the same time is deteriorating my assets? As a GM, this coach should be gone in 5 minutes, not in 20 games.

 

7. Hire some experience help

One thing I like to do in a GM position is to bring in my teachers and mentors as an senior assistant GM or an senior operation advisor. It makes the decision making process much much faster and things go much smoother. These are guys that has been at the GM position at a long time and are now half-retired. These are guys that can just listen to your idea and tell you what will likely happen 10 steps later. These are the guys usually misses their job as GM but can't take the rigorous day to day workload health-wise. They are about 10~20 years older than you. Look for one and listen to what they have to say. You'll be surprised to find out how much knowledge they can offer you. I know we already have Smyl and Weisbrod, and all the respect to them, but they have 2 years of hands on GM experience between the 2 of them and those were in the NBA. I just looked up Scotty Bowman and he is still a senior advisor for Chicago at the age of 83. Look for some help.

 

8. Know when to quit

If you are still reading this, I'd like you to know that I thank you very much for having an open mind. So, if all this blue print mumble jumbo doesn't make sense you and still believe trying to make the play-off with empty seats is a long term goal, please sign that piece of paper called the resignation letter. Because the bottom line is that winning mentality goes from top down. And if you want to make the play-offs, aim for the Stanley Cup. That's what winners do, they aim at the grand prize, so even if they fall short, they still land respectably. This team is a joke. This re-tooling on the fly is a joke. At some point, you got to tell your boss "Today is the day I stop embarrassing myself, and stop putting my reputation on the line for an illusion."

 

At the end of this long long rant, I leave you with my favorite quote in sports business.

 

"You are either a championship team or you are rebuilding to be one."

sorry, I forgot who said that.

 

 

Finally, thank you for your time.

 

 

 

from someone who spent 3 hours on a break from running his own company to write this...?

 

Wow!  Impressive.  You do realize JB will never read this, right?  You do accept it's only us CDC basement dwelling, underwear wearing LOSER types that are going to see this, right?  And none of us will read it all, right?  

You get a plus for effort though.  And who knows, the way some US teams are hiring GM's you just might be the next one in Carolina?  

[Odd.]

 life as a Canuck fan.

[ThaManbeast]

8 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Wow!  Impressive.  You do realize JB will never read this, right?  You do accept it's only us CDC basement dwelling, underwear wearing LOSER types that are going to see this, right?  And none of us will read it all, right?  

You get a plus for effort though.  And who knows, the way some US teams are hiring GM's you just might be the next one in Carolina?  

 

 

So unnecessary to quote that whole thing when you're the first reply.

[Alflives]

Just now, ThaManbeast said:

 

 

So unnecessary to quote that whole thing when you're the first reply.

The oP's post was worthy. 

[Chris]

This is what a great post looks like.

 

Realistic, and well thought-out with thoughts to support it; posts like this remind me why I sift through the 1 liners and unrealistic dreamers;

 

Thank you for the effort.

 

I personally don't agree with moving Burrows or Hansen, although I do think if the price is right...Hansen should be given the chance to fight for a cup.

 

Burr should be allowed to finish things out here/fight on a PTO in my eyes, he's earned that much from Vancouver.

 

Other than that I agree with your points, we need to stick out a rebuild no matter how bad the fan support gets; and personally I see it getting pretty bad; I'm scared that Management and Ownership are already not on the same page and I am terrified that the Vancouver Canucks will try to save this team/make it competitive through trades and free agency instead of strong drafting.

 

 

 

[Alflives]

1 minute ago, Chris said:

This is what a great post looks like.

 

Realistic, and well thought-out with thoughts to support it; posts like this remind me why I sift through the 1 liners and unrealistic dreamers;

 

Thank you for the effort.

 

I personally don't agree with moving Burrows or Hansen, although I do think if the price is right...Hansen should be given the chance to fight for a cup.

 

Burr should be allowed to finish things out here/fight on a PTO in my eyes, he's earned that much from Vancouver.

 

Other than that I agree with your points, we need to stick out a rebuild no matter how bad the fan support gets; and personally I see it getting pretty bad; I'm scared that Management and Ownership are already not on the same page and I am terrified that the Vancouver Canucks will try to save this team/make it competitive through trades and free agency instead of strong drafting.

 

 

 

So a repeat of last our first 40 seasons?  

[DownUndaCanuck]

That's a pretty big overhaul, I'd be more willing to keep a few pieces than you've got there. Of course the Las Vegas shakeup will change things but I think we should consider our core to be something as follows.

 

All good teams have a decent core of 7 players - usually 2 centers, 2 wingers, 2 defencemen, 1 goalie (or 2 centers, 1 winger, 3 defencemen, 1 goalie). Complement that decent core with secondary and tertiary-tier players and you've got a team. That's how the Blackhawks, Penguins etc. are constantly Cup contenders - their core remains the same year-in-year out and it's one of the best, whereas everyone else doesn't really matter.

 

That's what we have to strive to do more than anything else - get that brilliant core, not just a core that's good enough. The forwards need to be elite and play good defece, the defencemen need to be essentially top-5 NHL caliber and the goalie needs to be of Vezina-quality.

 

2011 Core - Henrik, Kesler, Daniel, Burrows, Ehrhoff, Edler, Luongo

Bloody good core, one of the best in the NHL, but at the end of the day not good enough. We had 2 Art-Ross winners and a Selke winner, can't ask for more than our 3 top forwards. Defence was good but questionable (Ehrhoff was 9th in Norris voting that year) and Luongo had his moments but was just a smidge off. We got unlucky in the Finals but that's as good a core as we'll ever have.

 

Current Core - Henrik, Sutter, Daniel, Horvat, Edler, Tanev, Miller

The Sedins are nowhere near elite, Sutter's good but a 3rd liner on most teams as is Horvat, and Edler and Tanev are a good 2nd pairing on most teams whilst Miller is far from Vezina quality. No wonder our team sucks. Bad secondary and tertiary players don't help.

 

Future Core at the moment - Horvat, Sutter, Boeser, Hutton, Juolevi, Stecher, Markstro/Demko (depending on age and prime)

I think this is the best way to go about things - Virtanen was pencilled in for our core but has really struggled so lets go the route of 2 centers, 1 key winger, 3 defencemen (because suddenly we have good young D-men) and a goalie.

 

The big question remains - who will be our first line center? Sutter will still be around because of his age but not a great 2nd line center at 30. Horvat isn't going to be a premier first line center. That hole in our team remains. If we get a top line center we suddenly bump Horvat down to 2C and leave the 3 great defencemen there to build a core on defence. Demko is struggling in the AHL right now behind a shoddy team but is still considered a premier future goalie in the NHL. 

 

What to do?

 

I say we gun hard for a top line center, whether he be a 20-something year old now (Bennett, Reinhart etc. who's struggled a bit), either via trade with one of our young D-men or with our future likely top-10 pick.

 

After that the rest is easy. We've got great tertiary players up front and on defence. It's all about building and nurturing that future core. Having the Sedins, Edler and Gudbranson etc. around to help grow the kids is great but we still really need that top center to take pressure off Horvat.

[Chris]

Just now, Alflives said:

So a repeat of last our first 40 seasons?  

Yeeeeeeess.

[oldnews]

Sutter is a "stuck piece" with no trade value whatsover?

 

That's not a blueprint bro, that's a misprint.  Correction; that is not fit to print.

 

Markstrom, Gudbranson, Tanev, Granlund = must sell pieces?

 

That's crae crae.

 

Some interesting stuff, but too much fantasy.

 

And no apologies, period.

 

 

[canucklehead80]

I'll read chapter 2 tomorrow, lol. But in all seriousness, "A" for effort, but it resembled the Energizer Bunny. It keeps going and going and going....Definitley was an interesting read. Look forward to continuing the read tomorrow

 

[Byrix]

10 minutes ago, oldnews said:

Markstrom, Gudbranson, Tanev, Granlund = must sell pieces?

 

Check your reading glasses, please.

[Byrix]

18 minutes ago, Alflives said:

The oP's post was worthy. 

 

Thank you~

[oldnews]

4 minutes ago, Byrix said:

 

Check your reading glasses, please.

I see.

But Sutter - really?  A "stuck" piece? 

Why you gotta say that?

[Byrix]

3 minutes ago, oldnews said:

I see.

But Sutter - really?  A "stuck" piece? 

Why you gotta say that?

 

Someone overpaid a 3rd Line C with a 2nd Line C contract with term.

With that said Sutter is probably the best 3rd Line C in the NHL, but with that contract, I don't see any takers.

Thus, STUCK.

[oldnews]

Just now, Byrix said:

 

Someone overpaid a 3rd Line C with a 2nd Line C contract with term.

With that said Sutter is probably the best 3rd Line C in the NHL, but with that contract, I don't see any takers.

Thus, STUCK.

What's STUCK is that cookie cutter - in your hand.

[Byrix]

28 minutes ago, DownUndaCanuck said:

The big question remains - who will be our first line center? Sutter will still be around because of his age but not a great 2nd line center at 30. Horvat isn't going to be a premier first line center. That hole in our team remains. If we get a top line center we suddenly bump Horvat down to 2C and leave the 3 great defencemen there to build a core on defence. Demko is struggling in the AHL right now behind a shoddy team but is still considered a premier future goalie in the NHL. 

 

What to do?

 

I say we gun hard for a top line center, whether he be a 20-something year old now (Bennett, Reinhart etc. who's struggled a bit), either via trade with one of our young D-men or with our future likely top-10 pick.

 

Drafting one is cheaper. There are some mid 1st round options in 2017.
Trading for a mid 1st round pick in 2017 sounds reasonable. Detroit found Larkin in 2014, why can't JB find someone?

[Byrix]

4 minutes ago, oldnews said:

What's STUCK is that cookie cutter - in your hand.

I'm open to suggestions.

On an average day, my co-workers and employees prove me wrong about twice a day.

 

[DownUndaCanuck]

Just now, Byrix said:

 

Drafting one is cheaper. There are some mid 1st round options in 2017.
Trading for a mid 1st round pick in 2017 sounds reasonable. Detroit found Larkin in 2014, why can't JB find someone?

Exactly, drafting and developing your own is far cheaper and better value.

 

Should have used our Virtanen pick on one. Nylander would have been nice, Larkin would have been nice, instead we filled a very fill-able role with the Virtanen pick.

 

2013 we draft a 2C defensive specialist with the Horvat pick. Certainly not the wrong pick, there was skill on the board but Horvat was definitely the right pick there. Replacement for Kesler is done and I like it because two-way centers take far longer to develop. 

 

2014 we draft Virtanen. Great, another potential top-6 scoring winger with size and physicality. We also take McCann who had the potential to become a first line center but then we destroy both their development with one very bad season and trade him away anyway.

 

2015 we go back to the same well and draft Boeser. Arguments are out that he could have gone top-10 and it looks like he was by far the right pick (not many centers on the board that late anyway).

 

 

I have to say I love what Benning did with the defence on this team, he's made it well rounded and respectable again. You build a team from the defence and goaltender out but now we've got a glaring hole at that top line center spot and have probably paid too much attention to wingers and physicality lately.

 

We all know the team's next biggest need. It's not just scoring wingers. It's playmaking offensive talented centers.

[PhillipBlunt]

Benning...won't...read....this.