Broad General Strokes Lineup Talk: Discussion limit of broad strokes on lineup no nitty gritty detail rants please, but do rant on topic

[Primal Optimist]

Without being too specific or hating on a particular player or pumping one guys tires too much: What do you like and hate about the club as it stands in Early August, as we prepare to come to camp and preseason hockey en route to the regular season puck drop. DO you like it, love it, hate it, wait and see, split decision or are they knocking it out of the park?

 

If you vote, please rant, in broad general strokes. 

 

Here is mine to get us started:

 

Sitting about 76.5 million in used cap right now, and really just Brock Boeser left to sign up, and Goldobin perhaps for a margin starter, we are looking okay within the cap and all the positions filled. That would be your C- expectation level and I think they hit it with plenty of room to spare. 

 

Markstrom, Demco and DiPietro in the paint along with Kielly, McIntyre and Backman leave me thinking we aren't elite in net, and we don't need to be, I think we have some time before we see MDP come up and test his metal in the paint..and we have what I can say is adequate netminding right now. No big deal but we 'could' look to put more cap room in the crease in future years, right? right. C+ for netminding with better upside in the future without a single acquisition. 

 

BlueLiners: I have not been in love with a Canucks Blueliner since Jovocop left and Sami Salo finished his career in Tampa Bay. Maybe it is that I am old, but I never got into Edler so much. He is serviceable but like a GoBot defender instead of an Autobot defender. He does it all well, but its just not the same without the heat activated shield symbol. lol

I do like three of our younger depth Dee and they will fold in nicely over the coming years, I am a fan of Myers and Benn, Quin Hughes, Fantenberg, Tanev and Stetcher, but was never sold on Edler or Biega really. I like Biega's cap hit though. If the worst D contract on the club is Alex Edler though, I think we will be good back there until we can pick up a rock solid blue line anchor with Edlers cap hit in two years. Not terrible though, 'welll rounded' is a term i would use. C+ here too. Nothing special, nothing horrid. 

 

UP front, I am going to be very broad in my statements: I like Horvat, Miller, Ferland, Baertschi, Roussel, Virtanen, Pettersson, and Boeser very much for their individual roles and that is 8 dudes. I am okay with Leivo, Schaller, Beagle Goldy, Motte, Pearson, and I generally HOPE that Sutter has a good year ahead of him. Dunno if  that will be the case though.

Like most of you I wish Eriksson was not here anymore. I am a bit mercurial and so i would even waive him if there is no trade partner out there, but if you can retain 2 or 3m a year for three...maybe do it? lol okay that was too specific. I dare say we are looking at a solid B up front with the Rookie of the year, the youth around him and some decent vets with specific roles to play. 

 

Over all: I think without a single change we are an 88 Point team and we will miss the playoffs by 3 points. I can't say why, but unless we make one or two little upgrades I just don't see us sucking hard this year OR hitting it out of the park. 

 

Still I believe we will have our best result for points in a season since 14-15 when we hit 101 pts.

My Overall Grade: C+ to a  Borderline B. Unless we improve before deadline we may just miss playoffs. 

 

Your turn, vote and post a rant!  

Edited August 4, 2019 by Primal Optimist

[NewbieCanuckFan]

 

I'm curious about your 'banner'.  Are you from Finland?  I'm actually am familiar with the term "Sisu"!  Believe it or not, I came across it via an old board wargame 'Squad Leader'.  Specifically, the expansion set "Cross of Iron".  The Finnish units were kickass in that game lol.  

[xereau]

We have several young burgeoning stars that are on very serious upward trends.

We had historically bad man game loss to injuries last season. Very hard to see it happening again.

 

Some guys that looked good at the end of the season, were mid season additions.

 

The new offseason additions are both point getters that can stir the point when they have to.

 

I think we might push for a wildcard and fade late.

 

The biggest unknown at this point is: was Markstrom's outstanding second half a fluke or not?

Edited August 4, 2019 by xereau

[Dazzle]

21 minutes ago, Primal Optimist said:

Without being too specific or hating on a particular player or pumping one guys tires too much: What do you like and hate about the club as it stands in Early August, as we prepare to come to camp and preseason hockey en route to the regular season puck drop. DO you like it, love it, hate it, wait and see, split decision or are they knocking it out of the park?

 

If you vote, please rant, in broad general strokes. 

 

Here is mine to get us started:

 

Sitting about 76.5 million in used cap right now, and really just Brock Boeser left to sign up, and Goldobin perhaps for a margin starter, we are looking okay within the cap and all the positions filled. That would be your C- expectation level and I think they hit it with plenty of room to spare. 

 

Markstrom, Demco and DiPietro in the paint along with Kielly, McIntyre and Backman leave me thinking we aren't elite in net, and we don't need to be, I think we have some time before we see MDP come up and test his metal in the paint..and we have what I can say is adequate netminding right now. No big deal but we 'could' look to put more cap room in the crease in future years, right? right. C+ for netminding with better upside in the future without a single acquisition. 

 

BlueLiners: I have not been in love with a Canucks Blueliner since Jovocop left and Sami Salo finished his career in Tampa Bay. Maybe it is that I am old, but I never got into Edler so much. He is serviceable but like a GoBot defender instead of an Autobot defender. He does it all well, but its just not the same without the heat activated shield symbol. lol

I do like three of our younger depth Dee and they will fold in nicely over the coming years, I am a fan of Myers and Benn, Quin Hughes, Fantenberg, Tanev and Stetcher, but was never sold on Edler or Biega really. I like Biega's cap hit though. If the worst D contract on the club is Alex Edler though, I think we will be good back there until we can pick up a rock solid blue line anchor with Edlers cap hit in two years. Not terrible though, 'welll rounded' is a term i would use. C+ here too. Nothing special, nothing horrid. 

 

UP front, I am going to be very broad in my statements: I like Horvat, Miller, Ferland, Baertschi, Roussel, Virtanen, Pettersson, and Boeser very much for their individual roles and that is 8 dudes. I am okay with Leivo, Schaller, Beagle Goldy, Motte, Pearson, and I generally HOPE that Sutter has a good year ahead of him. Dunno if  that will be the case though.

Like most of you I wish Eriksson was not here anymore. I am a bit mercurial and so i would even waive him if there is no trade partner out there, but if you can retain 2 or 3m a year for three...maybe do it? lol okay that was too specific. I dare say we are looking at a solid B up front with the Rookie of the year, the youth around him and some decent vets with specific roles to play. 

 

Over all: I think without a single change we are an 88 Point team and we will miss the playoffs by 3 points. I can't say why, but unless we make one or two little upgrades I just don't see us sucking hard this year OR hitting it out of the park. 

 

Still I believe we will have our best result for points in a season since 14-15 when we hit 101 pts.

My Overall Grade: C+ to a  Borderline B. Unless we improve before deadline we may just miss playoffs. 

 

Your turn, vote and post a rant!  

If this off-season activity only nets Benning a C+/B, I guess all the other GMs minus COL gets F's, particularly CAL and EDM.

 

I think your grading system is far too harsh, to the point that it is non-sensical.

[48MPHSlapShot]

31 minutes ago, Dazzle said:

If this off-season activity only nets Benning a C+/B

I think that's meant as a general grade of the team, rather than a grade of what Benning did in the offseason.

[Googlie]

Having followed the Canucks since I moved here in 82, I have long embraced the underdogs. .....

So I am looking for Stecher to have a 30 -35 point season. Overall a B+ for defense

Eriksson will start the season on Petey's line like he did last season (maybe even with Goldy again,  but more likely with BB06) but after 10 games he will be moved to Sutter's 3rd line 

Sutter/Eriksson and Beagle / Motte will kill our first 10 penalties (didn't LE go 31 straight kills last season without being scored on during his shift? I seem to remember TSN making a comment about that late in the season )  an A+ for the PK units

Gaudette will start in Utica. We will lose Leivo trying to waive him through

Baer and Schaller will be traded before season's start

CDC will riot when Pettersson and Hughes are papered down to Utica to reduce the roster size

Petey has been working on his shot, and on faceoffs.  He will have a 40% shooting percentage first month, and be 52% in the face off circle.

Oh, and Bo will get the "C"

 

 

Edited August 4, 2019 by Googlie

[nux_win]

I think that Benning has drafted well and added quite a bit of backbone to the team through free agency signings.  Bravo!  We needed that.  Can hardly wait 'till the season starts.  I think that we will be competing for a playoff spot and from there anything can happen.  At least it looks like we aren't going to be pushed around anymore.  I think a lot of us are tired of that.  Go Canucks Go!

Edited August 4, 2019 by nux_win

[48MPHSlapShot]

Goaltending: B-

 

Markstrom proved this last season that he can be a very strong starting goaltender in the league, and Demko seemed to find his game at the NHL level. While there are question marks as to whether Markstrom can continue the level of play that he exhibited in the latter half of the season, and questions as to whether Demko can take the next step, I'm pretty comfortable with where our goaltending situation sits right now. 

 

Defence: C+

 

A pretty average defence if I'm being honest. That isn't to say that it won't be a massive upgrade on what we had for most of last season, but it's still pretty run of the mill when put up against the rest of the league. I do like our depth though. If your 3rd pairing is Troy Stetcher and Jordie Benn, you're certainly not in terrible shape. I don't see any real gamebreakers outside of Hughes, who's still a rookie and shouldn't have the weight of the world placed on his shoulders in his draft +2 season, but I do see a pretty solid top 6 with 4 or 5 guys that could be considered 2nd pairing defensemen. Add Fantenberg, Biega and Juolevi to the mix as our 7, 8 and 9, and I'm relatively content with what we have to slot in when the inevitable injury bug hits. If Edler can play like he did last season without taking any significant injuries, and Hughes can be good enough to contend for the Calder, my grade would probably be bumped up to a B-. However, those are big question marks, so as of right now, a respectable C+ is where it sits. 

 

Offense: B-

 

Much of our offense depends on whether Pettersson is the guy from the first half of last year, or the second half of last year. If He's the guy from the first half of last season, we're set. If he's the guy from the second half of last season, we're in a bit of trouble. As it sits right now, I don't really have reason to believe that Petey won't be able to match and even improve on his overall production from last season, so my grade is predicated on that. As far as the rest of the forwards are concerned, Brock is Brock. We know that he's a fantastic offensive player. Hopefully he'll be able to take another step forward with a full offseason to train this time around. Horvat is a rock. Guaranteed at least 60 points out of him, regardless of who his wingers are. The additions of Miller, Ferland, and a full season of Pearson should bolster our offense pretty significantly as well. Also, the extra offense that the blueline will provide via Hughes and Myers should be a significant help as well. 

 

Overall: B-

 

I like our team this year. I like our depth. I like our grit. I don't see any super significant weaknesses in our lineup. Our blueline still lacks a gamebreaker (particularly on the right side) , we could use another top tier forward (a left winger in particular), and Markstrom only having a small sample size of elite level play under his belt, but still, this is the most solid roster we've dressed in years. 

 

Prediction: We just squeeze into the playoffs with around 95 points. 

Edited August 4, 2019 by 48MPHSlapShot

[6string]

Nicely written article, I'm an optimist and I love our hometeam.

 

If Sutter, Edler and Tanev are healthy with our new core in good health we are a....legite playoff team!

 

Points from teams in decline in the conference are gonna be shared to our favour this time around, we are good to go!

 

Seven or eight seed is realistic!

[Drive-By Body Pierce]

Your title sounds like a rant. /rant

[Drive-By Body Pierce]

1 minute ago, Drive-By Body Pierce said:

Your title sounds like a rant. /rant

Nice post though!

[IBatch]

Broad strokes - as far as the voting none of them were quite right I’m in between love this team and cautiously optimistic. I do think we will end up with around 95 points and that will be enough to squeak into the playoffs because the central will beat the crap out of each other and split points and we won’t have as a hard time getting some points in our own division anymore.   It wouldn’t surprise me if we got over 100 points under the current 3x3  OT system either, good for around 85-90 under the old system.   I do love the additions to the team.   And our new depth.   Benning has done a lot this summer, this will be a new look team, once we get firing on all cylinders we won’t be an easy two points at all.   Grade B.

[BrockBoester]

Put Eriksson on the top line and put the C on Tryamkin and we got ourselves a Stanley Cup boys

[Primal Optimist]

It actually never occurred to me to grade Benning or the front office. This summer was head and shoulders better than a few summers ago. Hard to believe Benning has had the reigns since 2014. This is his make it or break it year and he did well, B to B+

 

Also, the very first score I gave wasn't a finished thought...the C- was meant as the floor of the score, they did the minimum amount to at least get a C- is what I meant but didn't come back to finish off the idea that This offseason they did much much better than any previous, IMO, and earned about a B to a B+. For the thread I will just post that here and not as an edit to the main article. 

[higgyfan]

Can't wait to see me some high energy, fast paced, rough and tumble hockey!  Go Canucks Go!

[Crabcakes]

Although it's debatable whether Benning should have pulled the trigger on adding the free agents that he did this summer, I am ok with it.

 

What I like about the team is that there is now a bona fide top 6 which pushes all the pretenders down to the bottom 6 and some right off the team.  Same with the top 4 D.  And goal is pretty good too.  In short, we've got a real team again for the first time since 2014-15.

 

I think they push for a play off spot this year so am pegging them at 95 points.

 

Are they better than the 2014-15 team that finished with 101 points?  On paper they could be because that team didn't have a 2C and this team may be grittier.  I think that 100 points is possible if everything goes well but honestly 90 points is possible too.  

[mikeyman109]

12 hours ago, Googlie said:

Having followed the Canucks since I moved here in 82, I have long embraced the underdogs. .....

So I am looking for Stecher to have a 30 -35 point season. Overall a B+ for defense

Eriksson will start the season on Petey's line like he did last season (maybe even with Goldy again,  but more likely with BB06) but after 10 games he will be moved to Sutter's 3rd line 

Sutter/Eriksson and Beagle / Motte will kill our first 10 penalties (didn't LE go 31 straight kills last season without being scored on during his shift? I seem to remember TSN making a comment about that late in the season )  an A+ for the PK units

Gaudette will start in Utica. We will lose Leivo trying to waive him through

Baer and Schaller will be traded before season's start

CDC will riot when Pettersson and Hughes are papered down to Utica to reduce the roster size

Petey has been working on his shot, and on faceoffs.  He will have a 40% shooting percentage first month, and be 52% in the face off circle.

Oh, and Bo will get the "C"

 

 

I dont think Stecher gets the minutes to put up those numbers this season He hasnt shown he can do that when playing number one/two minutes in the past.

I see no way Eriksson starts the year on Peteys line if the Canucks have Boeser signed.  There wont be room for him and the team will need his cap room. There are also way better options now, there were not before.

Goldobin if he is resigned and thats a big If will start the year in AHL. He has had his chance. i think its over with the others passing him.

Sutter, Beagle will assume their third and fourth line center roles. as long as they are healthy i agree Gaudette will be in the AHL

Baer will be given the chance to ply as long as he is healthy

Schaller is gone or to the A

Petterson and Hughes will stay right where they are unless they need to "paper" them down to save cap space. it doesnt mean they leave the team just that for moneys sake they will have to play and play well with the big club for the team to make the playoffs.

[coastal.view]

nice thread

 

 

14 hours ago, xereau said:

We had historically bad man game loss to injuries last season. Very hard to see it happening again.

 

 

no not really at all

this was at least the 3rd consecutive season for somewhat profound injury stats

i post annually on this issue

which appears to have become chronic since the team moved on from the previous training staff

[189lb enforcers?]

Since the ship has sailed, I might as well post my thoughts on what I was kind of hoping for while the team was still rebuilding at a pace resembling, well, rebuilding.

 

I was hoping for a few more seasons of drafting high and building a young, super-core built out of young players. 

 

I know it’s not likely a ‘popular’ idea, but I did have deals like these in mind. They oughta draw out a few rants, and “glad you’re not the GM” posts. Save your fingerprints or lay down a brilliant rant, meh, whatever. 

 

Horvat for Brady Tkachuk.

Demko and Goldy + for Bouchard and Lucic. 

[smokes]

I like that we now have more added ability for secondary scoring. Last year where teams knew that if they shut down Pettersson, Canucks scoring would dry up. With Miller and hopefully a Calder worthy playmaker in Hughes, the top line will have a lot of help. I didn't like how Petey would get pushed around and was worried about Quinn who is even smaller. The addition of Myers, Ferland and Benn is going to make other teams think twice about running our guys. A little pushback would be great. I'm interested to see a Brock-Petey-Ferland line. Maybe he can do for Petey what Bert did for Nazzy.

Edited August 4, 2019 by smokes