1 Step Back, 2 Steps Forward?

[Rick_theRyper]

Millertime PeteyGreen Shotgun

Motter Boho Boeser

Pearson Gaud ZacMac

Rooster Beatles Jayce(da ace) 

 

[CRAZY_4_NAZZY]

One thing that Green has instilled in this group of players is a mentality of "next man up" whenever a key player was out or missing.

 

I fully believe despite taking a step back in losing some key FA's this serves as a huge huge opportunity and incentive for our prospects.  If anything this allows us to test the strength of our farm system and really see whether our development of prospects has been thorough and adequate.

 

This also allows us to finally promote some prospects that have earned a look with the big club and we have a slew of them who are hungry.

 

 

[vannuck59]

         The Kids will make a difference again this year. Pettersson will be better, Hughes will be better, D as a whole will be better, goal tenders will be a wash their record will be slightly better then last year. Pettersson is growing into a man and will be a 1.3 point a game producer  Hughes  will be a 1.1 point a game producer. Offence will increase because of these two players. Teams winning percentage will climb because of this. The young defense needs to play, no more vets unless you can add Cernak . I would give up a second and Woo for him . Cernak would make a difference to  our D core. Rafferty may allso surprise. 

[vannuck59]

13 minutes ago, CRAZY_4_NAZZY said:

One thing that Green has instilled in this group of players is a mentality of "next man up" whenever a key player was out or missing.

 

I fully believe despite taking a step back in losing some key FA's this serves as a huge huge opportunity and incentive for our prospects.  If anything this allows us to test the strength of our farm system and really see whether our development of prospects has been thorough and adequate.

 

This also allows us to finally promote some prospects that have earned a look with the big club and we have a slew of them who are hungry.

 

 

I dont believe we are taking a step back. The goal tending will be the same or better because the defense will be better. Hughes and Pettersson will be better making the team a hell of a lot better.

[Coconuts]

1 hour ago, 10pavelbure96 said:

This season will be a very condensed schedule, we also lost our 3rd string goalie in Domingue, which doesnt seem like much,  but an injury to Demko or Holtby and who gets bumped up?

 

I dont think DiPietro is ready for the big league yet and its best for him to get steady starts with the comets. 

 

We need a veteran AHL goalie/backup 

Agreed, but surely there's someone out there? There's gotta be someone we could sign to a sub 1m 1-way contract or a two-way deal. I wonder if Schneider might be interested in something like that. He'd inevitably get at least a few games in Van. Could be a good mentor for DiPietro. Doubt he bites on a minor league contract though, he might just retire. 

 

Someone like Michael Hutchinson might do. You never expect your third-string guy to be all-world. 

 

Perhaps they want DiPietro as our third-string guy? Seems risky. 

Edited October 29, 2020 by Coconuts

[King Heffy]

1 hour ago, lmm said:

Holtby is 137 days older than Markstrom

are you expecting Marky to fall off a cliff at midseaon?

I'm expecting him to fall off a cliff immediately now that he's playing behind a bunch of AHLers and a top 6 that makes Pierre Turgeon look like a tough guy.

[Crabcakes]

3 hours ago, MrCanuck94 said:

Michaelis and Lockwood seemed to be forgotten in conversation. Sure there's a chance that they do not amount to NHL players, but vice versa they could make impacts in the bottom 6 sooner rather than later as well.

 

I fully expect Macewen, Juolevi and Hawryluk to be locks for the team this season.

I think that Michaelis is a total sleeper coming into camp this year.  He had been a point per game player the last 2 seasons at Minnesota State.  (1.42 last year as opposed to Gaudette's Hobey Baker year 1.41)  The 5'11" 187 lb 25 year old was given a trial contract for 1 year at league minimum.  I'm not saying he makes the team, just pay attention.

[logic]

Intentional year of regression in order to benefit the team long run, I respect benning for not mortgaging the future to keep his job like a lot of gms would do

[Phil_314]

2 hours ago, lmm said:

Holtby is 137 days older than Markstrom

are you expecting Marky to fall off a cliff at midseaon?

Not saying I am, but if that's what happens so be it lol.  

[sxqhfeh]

Markstrom was the reason that Canucks made the playoff, its a big lost

Edited October 29, 2020 by sxqhfeh

[komodo0921]

The only loss I really lament is Toffoli.

This one comes down to another ball dropped by JB.

He spent too much time kicking a dead horse in Markstrom when he should've made the decision to move on much earlier and commit to Demko, giving himself the necessary time to get Toffoli signed.

4 yrs @ a 4.25 million aav is a steal and should be looked at as just as big a gaff as signing Eriksson.

I look at this step back as a bigger one then is necessary due to JB's inability to make desicive, timely decisions and is a real con to JB being gm. 

It's these mistakes that give JB haters legitimacy and really make me wonder if they're right.

 

[UKNuck96]

3 hours ago, Coconuts said:

Agreed, but surely there's someone out there? There's gotta be someone we could sign to a sub 1m 1-way contract or a two-way deal. I wonder if Schneider might be interested in something like that. He'd inevitably get at least a few games in Van. Could be a good mentor for DiPietro. Doubt he bites on a minor league contract though, he might just retire. 

 

Someone like Michael Hutchinson might do. You never expect your third-string guy to be all-world. 

 

Perhaps they want DiPietro as our third-string guy? Seems risky. 

Schneider signed for the Islanders 

[alucard]

If this year is a "let`s see year" and they let prospects and team gel together as long as the our cap situation stays the same and not worsened,

I think is a smart move,

next year Woo, Poldi, Olli, Raferty,Hoglander with a one year baked Demko and more cap flexibility plus a good first round pick in 2021 draft - Which is a deep draft-

Hell ye it is a good plan.

I just hope JB does not trade picks for a limited cap move, cause it`s okay to let the team be what it is for a -seems to be-shortened season.

Most thing i admire about a good organization is how they keep the prospect pool full and draft well.

never trade picks. unless a bargain like Miller happens which is very very very rare.

always build through the draft and scout strongly, address yearly issues with cap friendly free agents with limited terms.

Let the team bake for a year, it is gonna be good for our future.

Edited October 29, 2020 by BENN

[Chris12345]

RW and D are bad.

 

Offseason not over yet!

Edited October 29, 2020 by Chris12345

[Kevin Biestra]

[Coconuts]

7 hours ago, UKNuck96 said:

Schneider signed for the Islanders 

Ahh that's right, I wonder why capfriendly hasn't updated that yet

[BCNate]

13 hours ago, 10pavelbure96 said:

This season will be a very condensed schedule, we also lost our 3rd string goalie in Domingue, which doesnt seem like much,  but an injury to Demko or Holtby and who gets bumped up?

 

I dont think DiPietro is ready for the big league yet and its best for him to get steady starts with the comets. 

 

We need a veteran AHL goalie/backup 

We traded for Domingue when Markstrom got hurt. If one of our goalies get hurt this year we will make a similar move.

[BCNate]

We still have a lot of time to finish out the roster.  There are still a number of teams, STL, TB and NYI in particular who have lots of work to do and a few key UFA's left to sign.  I firmly believe that JB is still looking to bring in a top 6 forward and bottom pair D, but obviously needs to A) work through Ferlands injury situation B ) Move out salary-Benn, Sutter, Rousel, Pearson to a degree are options.

 

As it stands I think our forward group will be better than last season based on two factors-  young guys continuing to develop and improve, and that we didn't lose anything from last season.  BB and TT only played 2 games together prior to the VGK series, it was never both, only one or the other.

 

We needed to shake up our D to get more mobile, and 100% accomplished that.  Schmidt/Joulevi is a huge improvement over Tanev/Stecher.

 

Goaltending will be a step back most likely.  It will be interesting to see how Demko handles his new responsibility.  Long term gain for short term pain is what I expect, as there is no way we could have/should have signed JM to the deal he took in Calgary.

 

I think we are still a team that will be in the mix for the 3rd division spot (Pacific) or Wildcard with the current roster.  I do expect at least one big move from JB to finish up the offseason to push us over the top.  

 

I don't see that our conference got a whole lot better:

STL-    Downgraded D, still needs to move out money to sign Dunn

VGK-   Brought in AP, but lost Schmidt and Statsny to do so.  Awful centre depth

COL-   Should be much better

EDM-  Better offensively, but did not address goaltending or D

DAL-    No major changes

CAL-    Improved in goal, which was already strong.  D is worse, better depth

WIN-    Should be much better, pending the Laine situation.

NAS-    Probably not done, but haven't done much to get better as of yet.

VAN-    Better D, downgrade in goal

MIN-    Strange offseason, did nothing to get better at centre

ARZ-    Not much change

CHI-     I think they will be better than expected.  They have some real nice young pieces.

3 California teams- Rebuilding.

 

 

 

 

 

[RU SERIOUS]

16 hours ago, Zhukini said:

I'll be wild surprised if we don't take a step back this year. We have 4 top 6 forwards, 2 maybe 3 really good dmen, and are putting a lot of pressure on Holtby to bounce back and Demko to show up. 

 

2021- onwards is where gigantic steps forward should be expected even though it should have been this season. 

I agree, except I think it will be 2022-23 before you see real changes, as by then we will be rid of $35-45M of crap contracts, deadwood and drifters - which will allow some serious movement by the team (even after the new contracts with our few star players).  Until then - it's business as usual and I expect about the same results more or less as last year.  In the meantime and until then - the team should give some of the younger drafted players a chance to draw in and get experience.   That is so important for our future success and for god sakes - no more giving away good prospects & draft picks for rental players (like the Toffoli deal) and no more long term contracts to old players.  If JB does that again - replace him.

[coolboarder]

If this is a shorten Covid season, then I don't mind them missing the playoffs as it's the perfect season to take a step back and allow for rookies to learn the rope and if they perform much better than expectation, we could make a playoff as a bonus and Benning will be seen as genius for his off-season moves.  Cap space will be huge with so many bad contracts coming off the books at once in next few years.  With one or two more high picks, we'd be set for decades, I'm not kidding with Benning scouting ability and ability to find players in the draft.   Playoffs from last season was experience they needed, just like Tampa Bay, they tend to make the playoffs and miss the playoffs on and off for years before finally becoming a top team and they got boatload of playoff experience worth when they were ready to contend.   So for Canucks, I expect them to miss the playoffs or barely make it, depends on how you look at your expectation for this upcoming season. 

 

I am actually ok with Benning's work for this off-season is exactly what we need, but not what we want but need is more important for a big picture.  Benning and the owner saw that they were actually having a tough time in the playoffs, deke out wins when they didn't deserve to win this type of games and saw them struggle against overmatched team.  This is exactly experience they needed but if they were to repeat next playoffs with overmatched experience, it's not in their best interest for the Canucks to go through that.  Let them improve internally and they'll be ready to contend when contract comes off the book and ability to sign UFA with lots of quality players to get them on the team.