[Article] Ed Willes: Alex Burrows built his career on proving people wrong

[Johnny Torts]

Burr should retire here. take him year by year. can be used up and down the line up. cheers.

[xRussianrocket]

Lol i never get the attitude of fans here. We have a bright spot on our team so trade him!  And he will thankfully re-sign with us again next year at a loyalty discount because we dumped him for a draft pick who might never play in the the nhl.... 

 

 

[Qwags]

Burr will probably retire alongside the Sedins.

[6string]

On ‎2016‎-‎12‎-‎18 at 9:35 PM, Vanisleryan said:

This exactly...Burr is helping us on the ice this year....but he could also help us by accepting a trade a the deadline to give us another pick...Id happily welcome management signing him back in July for another year. 

Agreed, Burrows is a great mentor leading by example that you can play in the bigs even if you have to start deep in the minors.

[Baggins]

6 hours ago, xRussianrocket said:

Lol i never get the attitude of fans here. We have a bright spot on our team so trade him!  And he will thankfully re-sign with us again next year at a loyalty discount because we dumped him for a draft pick who might never play in the the nhl....

 

Our fans turn on their own faster than Alf can swallow a cat. They expect loyalty and big discounts from players when signing deals but have no loyalty themselves. Loyalty, like respect, is a two way street.

[Fakename70]

23 hours ago, EmilyM said:

All depends on your definition of a rebuild. I don't see a rebuild as "trade everything older than 26 away, start from scratch". There will never be a time when we ice a roster with 20 bluechip prospects. We will always need warm bodies. It's not like moving Burrows will make way for a rightfully deserving prospect to take his place. More likely we will get a 3rd round pick which may or may not become an NHL player, meanwhile, we will replace him with another Archibald or Zalewski in the interim. Me, I'd rather have some experience while rebuilding (yes, you can have both) to at least show our youth coming up what it takes to play in the NHL over young fringe-NHLers.
Now, if a team wants to come in and overpay for Burrows or if Burrows requests a move, I'd be very interested. But I am not a fan of dumping Burrows to another team just because he is not a prospect. We still need to play 82 games a year.

I didn't say nor advocate "trade everything older than 26 away, start from scratch", did I? But, I'm also not doing cartwheels because a guy in his mid-30's has seemingly reversed a 4-year downward trend, either. Again, if re-signing this guy is what the base is looking forward to at the end of this season...

And, don't be so down on Archibald and Zalewski. As I've said elsewhere at this site for a year, I've yet to see anything from Gaunce that would lead me to believe he's more suited for the NHL than Darren Archibald is. 

 

Also, I believe the "show our youth coming up what it takes to play in the NHL" argument is overrated and most held by organisations that haven't got any true blue chip'rs on the roster, or maybe even in the pipeline. Other than Horvat, where are the youngsters that this organisation can point to and say that they had the talent enough when coming into the job that they didn't really need to be led around by the nose by a vet? It was trial-by-fire with him, as I recall. He'd never had an NHL call-up prior to his rookie season, right? So, there wasn't any "showing him what to do" going on. He just went in and DID it. THAT'S what I'd like to see more of. Either they can play at the NHL level or they can't. But, give them the chance NOW to find out, rather than falling back on the "veteran leadership" crutch. Especially when, if we're honest and not wearing homer glasses or in awe of how great the twins are in the community, this organisation has been lacking in REAL leadership since Linden retired. Sorry, but, it's true. 

 

And, to your point about just dumping Burrows because he's taking up space, he's already here, so, that point is moot. But, if this team is going to continue to stink and disappoint, AND if he can miraculously continue his performance injury-free, I absolutely hope to see him shipped off to a contender and NOT brought back here next season to do it all over again. Why put the team in the same "do we really need him" situation again? Like someone else said, time to cut the cord. And, if he's got another year of life left in him? Good on him, but, if this organisation and fan base are unable to stomach the act of parting with Alexandre Burrows after all these years of service...

To bring him back after this season for primarily sentimental reasons wouldn't exactly be the mark of a franchise that is to be taken seriously. Not during a rebuild, it wouldn't. 

[joe-max]

1 hour ago, Fakename70 said:

Also, I believe the "show our youth coming up what it takes to play in the NHL" argument is overrated and most held by organisations that haven't got any true blue chip'rs on the roster, or maybe even in the pipeline. Other than Horvat, where are the youngsters that this organisation can point to and say that they had the talent enough when coming into the job that they didn't really need to be led around by the nose by a vet? It was trial-by-fire with him, as I recall. He'd never had an NHL call-up prior to his rookie season, right? So, there wasn't any "showing him what to do" going on. He just went in and DID it. THAT'S what I'd like to see more of. Either they can play at the NHL level or they can't. But, give them the chance NOW to find out, rather than falling back on the "veteran leadership" crutch. Especially when, if we're honest and not wearing homer glasses or in awe of how great the twins are in the community, this organisation has been lacking in REAL leadership since Linden retired. Sorry, but, it's true.

You've got a point that the Canucks are not blessed with an abundance of blue-chip prospects, still, just throwing your young players into the water and hoping that they won't drown should not be the modus operandi. Player development is complicated and takes time. Horvat is a rare exception, often player do not benefit from given too much icetime and responsibility too early. It is up to the coaches to evaluate each player and determine when the right time has come. That's what they did with Bo and that's what obviously is holding them back from giving JV more time in the big league.

 

 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

12 hours ago, Baggins said:

 

Our fans turn on their own faster than Alf can swallow a cat. 

Patently false.

 

Alf doesn't swallow.

 

errr....oops, wrong forum.