Next 5 years and prospects....

[PuckYa]

On 4/5/2019 at 10:27 AM, smokes said:

Demko isn't lights out right now.

Neither was Pettersson or Boeser before they got there chance.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canucks-goalie-prospect-thatcher-demko-2018

 

It’s been nearly four years since the Vancouver Canucks selected Thatcher Demko at the 2014 NHL Draft.

Having moved on from both Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider in less than a one-year span, Demko would represent the goaltender of the future for the organization.

So far, the San Diego native has been everything the team could ask for.

 

After three stellar seasons at Boston College, Demko has found his groove in the AHL. In just his second pro season, the 22-year-old has a 19-10-4 record with a .919 save percentage, as the Utica Comets’ undisputed No. 1 goaltender.

It has some people wondering if he could make the jump to the NHL as early as next season, one year before he was expected to.

 

A calculated risk

Fresh off a stellar rookie season at Boston College, the only thing holding Demko back in the draft rankings were his wonky hips, which would eventually require surgery.

While that was enough to scare off a few teams, the Canucks decided he was worth the risk, selecting him with the 36th pick in the second round.

After one more season of NCAA hockey, Demko had his hips surgically repaired, allowing more flexibility, making him an even better goaltender.

Four years later, it’s easy to see that the Canucks made the right choice with Demko.

While the other top goaltending prospects from his draft class (Mason McDonald, Alex Nedeljkovic, and Vitek Vanecek) have struggled to adjust to the pro game, Demko has flourished.

 

In a time when most goalies don’t break into the NHL until 24-25, Demko looks to be ahead of the curve. Even after a recent stretch has brought the season numbers down a bit, his save percentage is in the top-10 in the AHL. Every goalie ranking above him is older, most of them by many years.

After a slow start to his AHL career, Demko has posted a .919 save percentage since January 2017, a sample size of 62 games.

 

How long until Demko is a Canuck?

Demko is coming along quicker than most people expected.

Most goalies don’t break into the NHL until their mid-twenties; Demko could potentially do it before his 23rd birthday.

While Jacob Markstrom and Anders Nilsson are both under contract next season for the Canucks, neither are good enough to stop Demko from taking one of their spots if he proves he’s ready. For that reason, the path to the starting role could be a quick one.

Heck, he might not even have to wait until next season. With Vancouver out of playoff contention, nothing is stopping the Canucks from giving their young goaltender a taste of NHL action right now.

 

Mature for his age, Demko has shown himself to be level-headed in a position that requires it. It’s something that can be explained in part by his love for philosophy.

“I think at the end of the day [philosophy helps]. When you’re playing hockey you can see the bigger picture and keep an eye on what you’re working towards and not get caught up so much in a few bad games. Overall it just helps me stay relaxed in the net, make sure I’m having fun and enjoying being on the ice.”

[Hairy Kneel]

We should have sold the twins for a high 1st round pick

Higgins too (for a 2nd round pick) before he ended up being demoted to Utica

 

So much retooling though.

[Angry Goose]

I need to start watching Utica more, really.

 

My gut tells me tho that Gadjovich and Lind are just raw prospects.  Theyve got potential if they stick with it and make strides each off season.  Both could easily be cases of just needing a lot of development time.  

 

 

[Angry Goose]

1 hour ago, The 5th Line said:

  Goldobin likely is what he is, you can only improve so much, you can only get so much better. 

 

 

Odds are this is correct, but god damn wouldnt it be nice to see him take a big step.  I think giving him a chance at least is the smart thing to do.  

[PuckYa]

On 4/5/2019 at 10:27 AM, smokes said:

Demko isn't lights out right now. Gaudette Spent more time on the Canucks than in Utica. Sutner and Brescois are not even as good as Biega yet. And why is it that our European players don't seem to make it there? Every name that has been brought up are North American prospects, any Europeans we had, ended up getting shipped out or are playing in another league. Coincidence?

So you are saying JB doesn't like Europeans...?...OhhhKayyyy... 

Did he not (Retire), Sign, or Extend or TRADE for DRAFT any of these Euro's ???  

 

Markstrom (extend)

Edler (extend?)

Sedins (retired with utmost respect from JB) 

Nilsson (sign)

Juolevi (draft)

Baertschi (trade)

Granlund (trade)

Vrbata (sign)

Vanek (sign)

Eriksson (sign)

Dahlen (trade)

Goldoblin (trade)

Palmu (draft)

Utonen (draft)

Manukyan (draft)

Tryamkin (draft) 

Jasek (draft)

Pettersson (draft)

etc. etc....

 

If you see that he has a problem with giving Europeans a chance than one of us is blind or not telling the truth... 

 

 

 

 

[smokes]

3 hours ago, CoolCanucklehead said:

So you are saying JB doesn't like Europeans...?...OhhhKayyyy... 

Did he not (Retire), Sign, or Extend or TRADE for DRAFT any of these Euro's ???  

 

 

If you see that he has a problem with giving Europeans a chance than one of us is blind or not telling the truth... 

How many left Vancouver on good terms?

[iceman64]

On 4/5/2019 at 9:23 AM, Ghostsof1915 said:

Picking up free pieces from the NCAA is like supplementing your drafting. I'm glad we have a GM who seems to want to build the best team he can. 

He's addressing needs like our defensive core and trying to give us more options on goaltending. Benning might make mistakes. But he's pretty good at correcting and learning from his own mistakes. 

The team is going to have to trade, or move on from some of the sub-par pieces. That's going to be the real trick. 

Well with the ncaa kicking out some nhl ready players it sure will help when we get slaughtered with injuries but would finally be nice to have enough depth not to miss the playoff's or not to advance far when we do get there when guys go down hurt. Even our 2012 run didn't have enough but if we had of had then we'd have won it but rather not see it happen again...

[CanadianRugby]

17 hours ago, The 5th Line said:

Gudbranson for Pearson?  Like. Why?

I agree with everything else you said.  Though the only way someone would take on Gudbranson is if they got to offload an equally bad contract and underachieving player back.  

 

Luckily, Pearson has found his game in Vancouver.  Is he young enough to still help if this team eventually ever becomes a contender?  Who knows.  But in the short term, if he helps the team make the playoffs then it will save some people's jobs.  So is it a win for the Canucks?  Maybe.  But it for sure is a win for Benning and Green. 

[J.I.A.H.N]

It is not like I agree with everything Benning has done on this rebuild, as I would have liked him to sign more UFA's on short term contracts and moved them for picks, but the truth is, that we were stuck with a lot of NTC's, and a bad team, so we could not over bid, as we were hard to the cap, we could not trade the NTC's, because they were fan Favs or just did not want to wave, and the simple fact was that many UFA's did not want to come here when they could see we were dropping in the Standings and about to start our rebuild. (Not to many UFA's want to loose in their last few years). So I think Benning was somewhat handcuffed. 

 

Benning had to fill the coffers, and that meant using some picks to do that with. Now that is not what I wanted, but that is what Aqualini and the Sedin's wanted in the first couple of years. Personally, and no new news to all of you, I wanted to move the Sedin's and Tank, but I can assure you that my suggestions were met with a rope and a tree, most times on CDC, so I do not see how Benning could win, in the first few years.

 

But much to my surprise, and anyone that can count, we have 11 draft picks on the Canucks parent team, 2 of which are elite, and 2 which are 1st liners, and a potential starting goalie now on the parent club, we have another 15 or 16 prospects either in Europe, NCAA, Junior or on the Comets, with many of them looking at being brought up over the next few years.

 

In addition to all of the above, Benning has traded for additional surplus players now on the Canucks that could/should and will be traded, as he goes into the latter part of this spring and summer, as he adds additional picks (or so I hope!) The fact again, is that Benning had a lot of work to do, once he arrived.

 

Now, with Hughes, Demko, and possibly Juolevi all graduating, the Canucks will no doubt have to refill their prospect cupboard, as the majority of his stronger and higher picks graduate, but again, if Benning does his home work right, and has a solid draft, we should again be ranked in the higher end of the Prospect Rankings. IMO, the likes of Woo, DiPietro, Madden, Lockwood, Lind, McEwen,Karlsson and Jasek, together with our new NCAA UFA signings should give us sufficient hope for the future, but it is important to remember from where our prospect cupboard was when Benning arrived, and where the team was also.

[Cup2022]

On 4/23/2019 at 2:22 PM, The 5th Line said:

I'll say again, since Benning took over we have drafted 34 players, during this time the league wide average has been 35. 5x7 As a rebuilding team, we have used less than the average amount of picks used.  When the hell has a rebuilding/retooling team ever done that, let alone gone on to be successful? 

 

Did anybody here actually think that this was going to be the case?  "Oh hey we just signed a gm who is good at drafting, hopefully we draft less than average"  

When half your team has no trade clouses it hard to trade them example Kes

[J.I.A.H.N]

Just as a secondary point, I think we are now at a point where, we can sign a couple of UFA top end players, which will in turn slow down our drawing down of talent from Utica, and allow our farm team to accumulate players for a longer period of time. (which should aid in their long term development)

 

People expected all our prospects to turn out, and that we could fill the important parent team voids all in a short time...…..I think that showed great impatience, by CDC and the Media alike. IMHO

 

Not all, but certainly some!

[CanadianRugby]

8 minutes ago, janisahockeynut said:

So I think Benning was somewhat handcuffed. 

He was handcuffed by wanting to compete, instead of rebuilding.  You don't sign Miller & Vrbata if you're looking to rebuild.  You don't let an old team keep aging instead of trading them for picks, if you're looking to rebuild.  Every player that was asked to waive their NTC (other than Edler), did so. 

 

8 minutes ago, janisahockeynut said:

it is important to remember from where our prospect cupboard was when Benning arrived, and where the team was also.

This is very true.  However, Vancouver has also been the worst team in the league under Benning.  If you go from the best team in the league to the worst team in the league, you prospect pool should improve even if it was you or me drafting.  

[CanadianRugby]

5 minutes ago, The 5th Line said:

Fair enough.  It was a big win no doubt

 

Still does nothing for the future of the team though, and that's what bugs me the most.  We are making trades like we are on the brink of a championship 

You're preaching to the choir.  He's been aiming for the middle since the start. 

[J.I.A.H.N]

1 minute ago, CanadianRugby said:

He was handcuffed by wanting to compete, instead of rebuilding.  You don't sign Miller & Vrbata if you're looking to rebuild.  You don't let an old team keep aging instead of trading them for picks, if you're looking to rebuild.  Every player that was asked to waive their NTC (other than Edler), did so. 

 

This is very true.  However, Vancouver has also been the worst team in the league under Benning.  If you go from the best team in the league to the worst team in the league, you prospect pool should improve even if it was you or me drafting.  

Ok Doorknob

 

Don't quote half my comment to make your point...…...I said Aqualini and fans...………..and that was a very common theme when he arrived, about not trading anyone.....as well as the NTC, you conveniently don't talk about...….

 

Again, he had Gaunce and Horvat when Benning came....nothing else...….I do not disagree that a team sliding in the standings will get better picks, but every GM has misses, Benning has missed less than a lot...…..look to the north east, if you want to see bad...….or Arizona, or Detroit, or Toronto for the past 40 years.....etc

 

I mean come on...…...if you are going to make comments like that, you are not being objective, and just look like a Benning hater.....but you are more than welcome to go back to HF boards

[Tomatoes11]

On 4/23/2019 at 2:58 PM, Viper007 said:

Why are you comparing his whole tenure?  Isn't it only been 3 years since they basically went full rebuild?  The first couple years the nucks were retooling, therefore not really acquiring picks.  Whether that was the right decision, that's up for debate, but you can't start from the beginning, counting all the draft picks, when they're not rebuilding from the start of Benning's tenure.

And that’s totally his fault for using only 3 years to full rebuild when he had 5...

[Phat Fingers]

8 hours ago, CanadianRugby said:

He was handcuffed by wanting to compete, instead of rebuilding.  You don't sign Miller & Vrbata if you're looking to rebuild.  You don't let an old team keep aging instead of trading them for picks, if you're looking to rebuild.  Every player that was asked to waive their NTC (other than Edler), did so. 

 

This is very true.  However, Vancouver has also been the worst team in the league under Benning.  If you go from the best team in the league to the worst team in the league, you prospect pool should improve even if it was you or me drafting.  

CR...

 

 

I don't believe you are giving the positives of JB and co any credit.  If it was you or me drafting, do we take the skinny swedish kid over the big young Canadian?  Honestly do we take Brock at 23, Trymakin in the 3rd, EP40?  Sure we would have taken Tkachuk, but does that make up for missing those other picks.  Gaudette was a steal, Madden was a steal, Brock was a steal, EP40 was a steal and Trymakin was a steal.  

 

There are holes in JB's resume you could drive a truck thru, but drafting and scouting is not one of them.  Sure Guddy did not work out and neither has Sutter.  Eriksson is a bomb. 

 

But the return on Guddy was decent, alot of JB's minor moves have turned out nicely, Lievo and Motte for example.

 

Vrbata was a good signing until the playoffs.... 

 

The revisionist history always loses one key point, the Sedins.  As long as they were on the roster, what could anyone do?  Couldn't trade them or win with them.  JB took a gamble that they just needed a winger to raise their game and we have Eriksson for 3 more years.  

 

Did anyone see Eriksson going on to absolutely flop with his dream assignment?  No one did.  It could have been worse, Lucic is worse.  

 

There has been a lot of bad over the past 4 years, but the areas that JB needs to.be really good at, well he has been really good at.  That's scouting and drafting.  

 

Take away all the rest for a moment and look at the key to this teams future success and things are going better than at any time in club history.  No top 3 picks, no lotto luck, but somehow we have added no just good prospects but some of the best guys out of each class.  

 

For everyone he misses, he has found two that are ahead of the curve.  That's what this team needs atm.  After next season, if the on ice product hasn't improved, I believe JB will be axed.  That said, the most important thing JB can do in the next 365 is draft.  

 

If they keep the pick or move up/down, I want the guys who picked Brock at 23, EP40 at 5th, Hughes at 7th,  Madden in the 3rd at the table.  

 

 

 

[IBatch]

9 hours ago, Tomatoes11 said:

And that’s totally his fault for using only 3 years to full rebuild when he had 5...

Haven’t you heard, it was Lindens fault and he took the fall for it.  That’s why he was hired wasn’t it?  That’s a joke (kind of).  Don’t see the point on arguing and pointing fingers on whose blame, but I can say I’m more optimistic than I thought I’d be after the fall-out of the MG/Burke/Nonis team took hold.  Yes the re-tool failed.  

[IBatch]

41 minutes ago, Phat Fingers said:

CR...

 

 

I don't believe you are giving the positives of JB and co any credit.  If it was you or me drafting, do we take the skinny swedish kid over the big young Canadian?  Honestly do we take Brock at 23, Trymakin in the 3rd, EP40?  Sure we would have taken Tkachuk, but does that make up for missing those other picks.  Gaudette was a steal, Madden was a steal, Brock was a steal, EP40 was a steal and Trymakin was a steal.  

 

There are holes in JB's resume you could drive a truck thru, but drafting and scouting is not one of them.  Sure Guddy did not work out and neither has Sutter.  Eriksson is a bomb. 

 

But the return on Guddy was decent, alot of JB's minor moves have turned out nicely, Lievo and Motte for example.

 

Vrbata was a good signing until the playoffs.... 

 

The revisionist history always loses one key point, the Sedins.  As long as they were on the roster, what could anyone do?  Couldn't trade them or win with them.  JB took a gamble that they just needed a winger to raise their game and we have Eriksson for 3 more years.  

 

Did anyone see Eriksson going on to absolutely flop with his dream assignment?  No one did.  It could have been worse, Lucic is worse.  

 

There has been a lot of bad over the past 4 years, but the areas that JB needs to.be really good at, well he has been really good at.  That's scouting and drafting.  

 

Take away all the rest for a moment and look at the key to this teams future success and things are going better than at any time in club history.  No top 3 picks, no lotto luck, but somehow we have added no just good prospects but some of the best guys out of each class.  

 

For everyone he misses, he has found two that are ahead of the curve.  That's what this team needs atm.  After next season, if the on ice product hasn't improved, I believe JB will be axed.  That said, the most important thing JB can do in the next 365 is draft.  

 

If they keep the pick or move up/down, I want the guys who picked Brock at 23, EP40 at 5th, Hughes at 7th,  Madden in the 3rd at the table.  

 

 

 

Thanks for posting, this is about as a logical summation as I’ve seen on the CDC.  

 

On the drafring i would have taken MT, Glass/Valardi, Bouchard the past three picks.  Would those three be better than what we took?  Doubt it.  The last two in particular solidified my support to keep Benning for as long as he keeps it up.  EP is turning out into the best of his class and Hughes ended the season as the second best prospect in the planet.  While Glass has moved down, so has Valardi (way down) and Bouchard has stayed about the same (juries still out with him but Hughes ATM moved past a whole bunch of people including ones drafted a year before him).  If OJ makes a solid second pairing guy that would sweeten the pot even more.

 

Bennings average draft slot the past four years is 7 but he’s drafting like we average 3....that’s what we need and want right now as drafting is the key component in getting us out of the rebuild.  And he’s signing guys to reasonable RFA contracts so far too...and Pearson is looking like a great signing so far too (trade for Guddy).  

 

Agree that despite this patience will run out and he will get axed if the team doesn’t make steps.  Hope they do and that the next two drafts follow the same storyline as the last two ones, because if they do we will have our core.  

[189lb enforcers?]

1 hour ago, IBatch said:

Haven’t you heard, it was Lindens fault and he took the fall for it.  That’s why he was hired wasn’t it?  That’s a joke (kind of).  Don’t see the point on arguing and pointing fingers on whose blame, but I can say I’m more optimistic than I thought I’d be after the fall-out of the MG/Burke/Nonis team took hold.  Yes the re-tool failed.  

Aqual-tool?

[aGENT]

4 hours ago, Phat Fingers said:

Sure Guddy did not work out and neither has Sutter.  Eriksson is a bomb. 

Sutter's certainly had some awful injury luck but he's been a key player when he's been in the lineup. Not sure you call that 'not working out' and more just 'unfortunate'. And who the hell's crystal ball would have predicted the guy who had only missed 3 games the previous 5 years combined, prior to coming here, would miss so many here?!