[Friedman] Canucks looking to “overhaul blue line” ...Ekblad & Cernak could be available

[MeanSeanBean]

49 minutes ago, internationalhippy said:

Whys everybody trying to trade Boeser.   if anybody getting traded its  going to be Virtanen/Gaudette/Hoglander/Lind/Picks.   They finally have offence and goaltending, I doubt they make any big changes for a couple years at least. This teams to young to be making these kinds of trades just yet. 2 seasons from now is when they're going start looking outwards for help after the cap clears up.  

 

Right now we need to dump salary to keep Markstrom/Tanev/Tofolli.   

Somebody already asked this question and I already answered it on the bottom of the first page.

[oldnews]

1 hour ago, IBatch said:

Well Boston traded their 40 point ELC RHD Hamilton to Calgary for a 1st rounder - (insanity really - just for the slim chance of getting another ... Hamilton).  So stranger things have happened...

not quite.  not accurate at all.

It was for a

1st

2nd

2nd.

 

And wadr - using Hamilton as a comparable to Ekblad is also questionable - Hamilton was nowhere near the player that Ekblad is, (and fwiw, still isn't). The minute you go beyond production, Hamilton is what he is (one of the more over-rated D out there).

[EP40.]

7 minutes ago, NewbieCanuckFan said:

Myers is "only" 1.5 million cheaper.  His contract isn't that bad.  Look at the offensive production of both players with their current respective teams.

Except Myers is a “bad” contract. He’s grossly overpaid. 

[Sweathog]

I can't see a trade for Ekblad happening, I believe that Florida would insist on both Brock and Podz being a part of the deal.

 

Cernak makes more sense imo.

[peaches5]

17 minutes ago, EP40. said:

Yep I’m not denying that. If anything, you’re devaluing Boeser. It would never be Boeser/Juolevi/1st. That’s 3 1sts. Florida would jump on that lol.

 

I am not devaluing Boeser. He is a top 6 winger. Ekblad is a top 2 dman who is 24 and under contract for 5 more years. There is no way Boeser alone is close to being enough. Juolevi could possible play in the NHL next season but is a complete wildcard with his injuries and slow development he isn't worth a 1st anymore maybe a 2nd. Adding a 1st which will likely be a 16+ and possibly 24+ pick is just the cost of business unless you want to add in another solid prospect which I would not want to do I'd rather give up the mid to late first. That is bareminium what a young top 2 dman is going to cost that is under contract on a fair deal. 

Edited September 20, 2020 by peaches5

[oldnews]

1 hour ago, mll said:

Tampa only has McDonagh, Hedman and Coburn under contract for next season.  Cernak and Sergachev makes it 5.   A D-corps is minimum 6 Ds.    

 

They are more likely to try and move players up front.  

 

teams however are not looking at it that simply - they are also forced to consider who they expose in the expansion draft, obviously.  it complicates things consderably (and imo is a major pain in the ass for everyone that is not merely a casual observer of the league.   Few things worse than these repeated distractions in team building that cause all kinds of divided objectives.

[Alienhuggyflow]

1 hour ago, bree2 said:

why do you people constantly add Boeser to every trade, Benning has already said he is not trading Boeser. just doesn't make any sense, when Benning got Toffoli to complete the top six and now you all want to give away Boeser and make the top six incomplete again! why not go with Jake, Gaudette, Leivo,  or some picks

 I am a big Brock fan and I think with him finally being healthy he's going to have his breakout season next year.

On other forums and a bit here, he gets a lot of flack about being one dimensional and liability on D, which is crap.

That being said, if a team offered us a legit top pairing young RHD that made us better, then Benning I'm sure would consider it but I'm not as high on Ekblad as others are on here. I'd rather keep Brock and use other pieces to get Risto. Hell, let Marky, Tanev, walk move Stech and go after AP. True #1 franchise D almost never become available for free. 

[oldnews]

I'm all for kids having blogs.

However, when it comes to credible sources - hearing that Florida might move a big fish on it's blueline - and then assuming/speculating that that statement boils down to Ekblad being available - unfortunately steers people away from reality - real hockey talk - and into the  fantasy scenarios of any blogger's liberal interpretation of a statement that did not in fact state - or even imply - that Ekblad is available.

 

Unfortunately, the result of treating any speculator as a valid source - is that forums like this wind up getting steered away from the more realistic discussions and into borderline Proposals and Armchair GMing forum.

 

Unfortunately I'm not sure the smarmies of beat writers in this market are that conscious of the difference - or care -  they've 'trained' in a field/context in which their older peers have randomly throw this kind of speculation around.   And further - there is an underlying competition for attention - that unfortunately seems to reward the most outrageous, or wishful, 'reports' - stories, proposals.

 

Not sure whether the Trades Forum can be regulated in that sense - there's so much fluff out there to sort out - and posters here regularly take it as....news.  Unfortunatelty opinions, imagination, proposals - are not news, don't really raise to the level of news - they are hobbyists of sorts, looking for professional validation.

Bottom line: a valid source would not 'report' this as Ekblad being available.  But bait taken....pages of discussion, proposals - of Ekblad to Vancouver - with absolutely no indication that Florida has made him available, or that the Canucks are, or intend to be, in some kind of negotiations around Ekblad.

 

No one wants to be too critical of kids looking to participate in hockey media, but at the same time, there is little question that the general standards of reporting in the social media era -  the work actually necessary to conduct oneself as a professional - has deteriorated.  In general, what this indicates to me, is that brand names of the present, like the Athletic, can't be considered credible - will hire literally any hobbyist to represent hockey 'news'.

 

[mll]

1 minute ago, oldnews said:

teams however are not looking at it that simply - they are also forced to consider who they expose in the expansion draft, obviously.  it complicates things consderably (and imo is a major pain in the ass for everyone that is not merely a casual observer of the league.   Few things worse than these repeated distractions in team building that cause all kinds of divided objectives.

They probably can more easily replace a winger than a good D and he's only 23 and a right shot - Hedman, Sergachev and McDonagh shoot left.  For expansion they can go 4 + 4.  I think most teams won't overthink it as much this time around. 

 

[EP40.]

18 minutes ago, peaches5 said:

I am not devaluing Boeser. He is a top 6 winger. Ekblad is a top 2 dman who is 24 and under contract for 5 more years. There is no way Boeser alone is close to being enough. Juolevi could possible play in the NHL next season but is a complete wildcard with his injuries and slow development he isn't worth a 1st anymore maybe a 2nd. Adding a 1st which will likely be a 16+ and possibly 24+ pick is just the cost of business unless you want to add in another solid prospect which I would not want to do I'd rather give up the mid to late first. That is bareminium what a young top 2 dman is going to cost that is under contract on a fair deal. 

So yea this is where and why I think you are devaluing Boeser.

 

Labelling him as a top6 forward is doing him a disservice. That’d be like calling Ekblad a top4 dman. Very broad and both players easily surpass such tiers. As such, Ekblad is a top2 dman as you say and imo Boeser is very easily a 1st line scoring winger. 
 

And yea I’m agreeing Boeser alone doesn’t cut it. However Florida wouldn’t get the world from us either. Would be a comprise in the middle. The way I see it, we wouldn’t give them some A grade + nor would they accept a below value. Why I think a B grade prospect/middle round pick(s) would be a fair compromise for both sides and fair value.

[70seven]

Brock won’t be in this deal.  Only reason to trade Ekblad is to lose the high salary.  They have too many...  ownership lost tonnes of money...  time to shed salary. 
 

They’ll want picks, prospects, and serviceable replacements that won’t break the bank. This is also a rare occasion that Eriksson is attractive because his cap will help them reach the floor and have to pay him less... if that’s a direction they like. 
 

Eriksson (Retention), 2021 1st, Stecher, Gaudette, Hoglander

 

for Ekblad

[ilduce39]

You’d have to think spending assets to clear space for a run at Pietrangelo would be a lot “cheaper” than trading for Ekblad if JB is that desperate for a #1 RD.
 

Of course, that would depend on Pietrangelo. 
 

Aren’t OEL and Dumba also rumoured to be on the market?  
 

It might actually be time for JB to make a splash on the right side and see how cheap he can bring back Taney or Stech in a 3rd pair role.  Tanev with Juolevi or Rathbone behind a locked a loaded top 4 would have us looking rather studly.  It’s fun to dream anyways.

Edited September 20, 2020 by ilduce39

[oldnews]

7 minutes ago, mll said:

They probably can more easily replace a winger than a good D and he's only 23 and a right shot - Hedman, Sergachev and McDonagh shoot left.  For expansion they can go 4 + 4.  I think most teams won't overthink it as much this time around. 

 

rhetorical question: which way does Cal Foote shoot?

[peaches5]

2 minutes ago, EP40. said:

So yea this is where and why I think you are devaluing Boeser.

 

Labelling him as a top6 forward is doing him a disservice. That’d be like calling Ekblad a top4 dman. Very broad and both players easily surpass such tiers. As such, Ekblad is a top2 dman as you say and imo Boeser is very easily a 1st line scoring winger. 
 

And yea I’m agreeing Boeser alone doesn’t cut it. However Florida wouldn’t get the world from us either. Would be a comprise in the middle. The way I see it, we wouldn’t give them some A grade + nor would they accept a below value. Why I think a B grade prospect/middle round pick(s) would be a fair compromise for both sides and fair value.

Even if he is a top-line winger, which is questionable - he is definitely borderline, a top-line winger isn't worth nearly as much as a top pairing dman. A few b grade prospects and mid range picks isn't going to cut it. Why is Florida compromising? They have something you want and most teams want. They have no reason to compromise. 

[Devron]

Would be cool to add a Dman of that caliber. On the same token it sucks because anytime canucks show some interest in someone y’all throw Boeser through the trade grinder.

its gotta stop!

[Alienhuggyflow]

26 minutes ago, peaches5 said:

Worth nothing? excuse me? How is trading for a 24 year old d-man worth nothing? What team did you watch this playoffs? The defense was terrible. It needs to be rebuilt because Edler who was our best dman is 35 next year and he isn't going to be able to keep playing at the level he is playing at. If you sign Toffoli and if Florida is willing to trade Ekblad with Boeser being the core piece that is huge addition and makes the canucks much stronger than they are. Benning would not be laughed at if he was able to pull of a deal like that.

And also its not about wanting to get rid of Boeser its about wanting to make the team better. Boeser is not irreplaceable Toffoli can easily replace him. Try replacing Horvat, Miller, Pettersson.. You're not going to.

Actually, our d was far from terrible, what series were you watching? 

The main reason we got outshot and were getting hemmed in was on our forwards a lot more than our D.  Look at the Vegas series and the amount of shots we got and how little time we spent with the puck. It seemed every time our D got the puck out the forwards either dumped it in and changed or were unable to sustain any pressure when they did get it in.

It's obvious that JT, TT, were far from healthy and our 3rd line was complete garbage aside from Sutter who I thought was good most nights.

It's easy to blame the D when you look at the shot totals but our D did a fantastic job blocking shots, having active sticks and keeping the shots to the outside. I'm not saying our D doesn't need a few tweaks but it's not their fault that our forwards constantly gave up possession and couldn't sustain any time in the offensive zone. 

I think our top six was out of gas and clearly not healthy, it didn't help that because our third line sucked our top six was overused, not to mention the amount of games in such a short time. 

Game seven, tie game with a 5 min pp, we had 1 shot. 13 shots the whole game.

The last 3 games Vegas scored twice (not including empty net goals) sure Demko was awesome but our D made it pretty easy for him.

Look at Dallas, they played the exact same way we did, except they were able to sustain pressure and take advantage of mistakes. 

[erkayloomeh]

3 hours ago, oldnews said:

I think Friedman is leaking wadr.  And a bit ignorant here.

 

This team won't be 'overhauling' it's blueline - that is absurd - and dramatic.  It might make a change - possibly two - but overhaul is laughable.

 

Further:  it's funy that he'd talk about 'pressuring' Vegas and overlook the forward group - where a great deal of the 'pressure' he appears to be talking about - originates.

 

The Canucks most significant challenge vs Vegas had far more to do with limping centers than it did it's blueline.

 

Miller on the wing.  Sutter on the wing.   One key faceoff - league leader - on the wing.  Another veteran shutdown guy - on the wing - in favour of a rookie and sophomore.

Gaudette in at center - trying to shelter him in the playoffs.

And to make matters worse - Toffoli was limping so badly he was a liability, and Pearson dropped off the production board - so they had literally one effective line vs Vegas  - and that was the Beagle Motte combination, who were outstanding under the circumstances.  EP's line was very good, but the reality was that both Miller and Boeser were gutting it out.  Against St Louis they had the entire top 6 rolling - and the bottom six in turn dominated St Louis'.   Motte, Beagle, Sutter put a stamp on those critical closing games - the top 6 looked otherworldly at times, with an extremely different Horvat line than you saw in the Vegas series....

 

Before Friedman purports to 'overhaul' anything - he ought to get a grasp on what actually happened.   The blueline was fine - it was unusually healthy with the exception of Myers - and when the factors I mention above were not - or less - present - in the St Louis series - the team knocked off the defending champions.

 

Those things compounded however (the overlapping shallowing effect of the forward group at key positions)  - the inability to create the pressure, forecheck - and sustain ozone time - are not separable - and can't be put on the blueline.   Moreover - you take a limping group and make them play 5 games in 7 nights - after having gone deeper in the previous series (while Vegas waited), facing a relatively healthy contender - and how much pressure are you expecting out of them in game 7.

 

Did they seek to protect the center of the ice, the hard areas, prevent second scoring chances - of course they did - they were in concession mode - and moving a rookie goaltender into elimination games of a playoff series - not because their defense needed overhauling.

 

Dallas was more comfortable 'pressing' Vegas....because they had a healthier, heavier  forward group as well.

But the bottom line here - this entire prescription screams of desperate goalpost chasing - something this team - at this stage -absolutely does not have to do.

 

I think this report - while 'interesting' (condescending word somewhat intended) - is borderline ignorance of the team - or trolling.

 

What I do value - is the realization that players like Cernak might be opportune targets this offseason - no mystery around here - some of us have been targetting Cernak forever (some of us drafted him in fantasy leagues....)

 

But the "overhaul" drama is typical Friedman imo - he likes to mix a bit of truth, in with a bit of drama, and a bit of leaky Torontroll, seeking attention.

Juice should call him out on this lol.

 

Further - if it's overhauls he's focused on, his own backyard is where the overhaul is going to happen - and if it doesn''t - it's long overdue for the cheerleader Toronto media to do it's job.  Spamaplan / Dubas' #proper-rebuild - are where the "overhaul" needs to happen.

 

 

 But we do need to work on our defense though.  

How much longer will Tanev last? Edler? Do they have another playoff run? 

How good do you think Myers is old news? 

We really have Hughes that's it. 

Rathbone is still a maybe and no matter what needs development. Same with juolevi. 

We can't really wait for those two can we. ? 

It seems our d needs to ketchup with the mustard we have in our top six. 

At minimum I would relish cernac next year.  

But ekblad would make me jump up in the air and scream hot dog. 

[oldnews]

Actually - I think Friedman's "Canucks looking to overhaul blueline" comment may trump the Ekblad idea for stupidity - so scratch my comments about bloggers or credible sources - clearly it's no longer a thing in the hockey world.

[erkayloomeh]

Just now, oldnews said:

Actually - I think Friedman's "Canucks looking to overhaul blueline" comment may trump the Ekblad idea for stupidity - so scratch my comments about bloggers or credible sources - clearly it's no longer a thing in the hockey world.

Yes.  Overhauls not the right word. But upgrade is. 

[Coconuts]

Ekblad would be a monstrous add tbh.

 

He's locked in for five more seasons at 7.5m and he's turned 24 in February, that gives you a #1D with contract stability through his prime. Petro wouldn't require assets, but he's six years older and he'd likely cost a bit more in cap space.

 

It's just a matter of what Florida would want back. Petey, Quinn, and Bo are untouchables. They're gonna have to stick with Bob given the contract, so they're probably not looking at Demko. Podz should be untouchable as well, we'll need ELC's going forward. We probably won't trade Miller, having just acquired him. 

 

That leaves Boeser and other pieces. If they wanted Podz I'd look elsewhere. Whatever the price would be, it would hurt. 

 

Would Florida want Boeser/Hoglander/+? Should we be willing to part with that? I'm glad I'm not the one making these decisions. 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Coconuts