Popular Post Canucks_fo_life Posted May 17, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted May 17, 2021 (edited) It's been a season to forget, from the worst schedule and Covid-19 outbreak in professional sports, to rape allegations and flying anti-Benning banners, this has been a lot to take as a die-hard fan and season ticket holder. I wanted to post something positive and I think we could all use that right now as fans of this team. Next season, we don't have to put up with playing the same 6 teams over and over again, it looks like we'll be back to a regular 82 game schedule and the divisions will go back to normal. If you look at the teams in the Pacific Division, you would think the Canucks should land in a top 4 spot and a playoff position. The California teams (ANA,LA,SJ) are all still in rebuild mode after yet another year of no playoffs, kinda like where we were in 2017. Seattle will be a coin toss but I wouldn't expect them to be like Vegas in their inaugural season, the Flames will have many question marks surrounding their club, Edmonton looks to have turned the corner, and Vegas again the clear #1 in the division. I will also say, this Covid schedule and division alignment to me has made some teams look better than they actually are this season, such as the Florida Panthers and Minnesota Wild. Pacific Division standings 2021-2022 prediction 1. Vegas * 2. Edmonton * 3. Vancouver * 4. Seattle * 5. Calgary 6. Anaheim 7. Los Angeles 8. San Jose What do your standings look like next season? Edited May 17, 2021 by Canucks_fo_life 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertuzzipunch Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 Definitely not 3rd lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkyard Dog Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 Given the fact that we're probably gonna be rolling with a much younger roster, due to guys being ready for NHL experience and on cheaper contract, so I don't think we will be making the playoffs. Our roster will pretty much look similar to what it is now just replace some of the warm bodies(Vesey/Boyd/etc) with young players just branching out. I expect it to be a development year. I can see us drafting top 10 again. JB said he sees 2 years till we're competitive. That's when we'll have cap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drive-By Body Pierce Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 That's a bold prediction on Seattle considering they have just one player signed in the entire organization. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apollo Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 1 minute ago, Bertuzzipunch said: Definitely not 3rd lol Why not? I think that's a pretty modest prediction... It's tough to say before we see how the off season pans out, but any team with this many young franchise quality players can compete for a cup under normal circumstances... We were on fire before covid hit our entire roster. I'm guessing 3rd or 2nd in the division followed by a cup run assuming Sekeres is once again proven to be north Korean propaganda and Jim Benning stays at his rightful helm. Long live the king! Long live his highness Jim Benning! 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canucks_fo_life Posted May 17, 2021 Author Share Posted May 17, 2021 1 minute ago, Drive-By Body Pierce said: That's a bold prediction on Seattle considering they have just one player signed in the entire organization. Looking at expansion draft possibilities, they could land a couple really good goalies and d-men, I'm basically predicting a huge down year in Calgary with no expectations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
70seven Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 (edited) Way too early to be making predictions... it’s going to be a crazy offseason league wide. But my current bet would be... Vegas Edmonton LA Calgary Vancouver SJ Anaheim Seattle Kings are on the verge of breaking through. Loads of young talent and also my bet to win the Eichel sweeps. Edited May 17, 2021 by 70seven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eeeeergh Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 6 minutes ago, Drive-By Body Pierce said: That's a bold prediction on Seattle considering they have just one player signed in the entire organization. He could take on our squad tbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VegasCanuck Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 I believe that the Canucks make the playoffs next season. We have enough cap space opening up to round out the roster and enough depth on the farm to sustain us through the season, with them moving to Abbotsford, where we can access them without quarantine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Vintage Canuck- Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 It's a bit early to tell at this point what the standings will look like for the Pacific division. I think we will have a better idea after the Seattle expansion draft and free agency since there will be more player movement than before. I don't think there will be any drastic roster changes for the Canucks, but I do see us making the playoffs next year. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bertuzzipunch Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 7 minutes ago, apollo said: Why not? I think that's a pretty modest prediction... It's tough to say before we see how the off season pans out, but any team with this many young franchise quality players can compete for a cup under normal circumstances... We were on fire before covid hit our entire roster. I'm guessing 3rd or 2nd in the division followed by a cup run assuming Sekeres is once again proven to be north Korean propaganda and Jim Benning stays at his rightful helm. Long live the king! Long live his highness Jim Benning! Mostly just from what I've seen this season. Its modest prediction i suppose but id rather keep my projections low so its not so bad if we crash n burn like we did this season. after we see what the team looks like after free agency and the draft i will make a more serious prediction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eeeeergh Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 7 minutes ago, VegasCanuck said: I believe that the Canucks make the playoffs next season. We have enough cap space opening up to round out the roster and enough depth on the farm to sustain us through the season, with them moving to Abbotsford, where we can access them without quarantine. We'll only have lots of cap room if JB gets creative and FA is willing to spend some money on buyouts. The contracts falling off should provide just enough to sign Petey and Hughes. To open up more, the obvious moves that could be made are: - Buyout LE (2m savings) - Buyout JV (2m savings) - Get Seattle to take Holtby somehow (4.3m) I wanna keep Beagle if possible (Healthy Beagle will help our PK and is a face off machine). Not opposed to keeping rooster, but if JB can dump him somehow, a new world of possibilities opens up. He better not sell the farm to do it though. I think theres a decent chance we have 8m or so to play with. Pick up a really solid shutdown D man to give Hughes some cover, and use the rest to build a proper shutdown 3rd line, and roll our top two lines as scoring machines. Keep Hamonic too, so Rathbone can be our 7th man who can play some sheltered minutes and get acclimated to the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24K PureCool Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 All I am going to say is that the Pacific is a pathetic division next year. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VegasCanuck Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 4 minutes ago, eeeeergh said: We'll only have lots of cap room if JB gets creative and FA is willing to spend some money on buyouts. The contracts falling off should provide just enough to sign Petey and Hughes. To open up more, the obvious moves that could be made are: - Buyout LE (2m savings) - Buyout JV (2m savings) - Get Seattle to take Holtby somehow (4.3m) I wanna keep Beagle if possible (Healthy Beagle will help our PK and is a face off machine). Not opposed to keeping rooster, but if JB can dump him somehow, a new world of possibilities opens up. He better not sell the farm to do it though. I think theres a decent chance we have 8m or so to play with. Pick up a really solid shutdown D man to give Hughes some cover, and use the rest to build a proper shutdown 3rd line, and roll our top two lines as scoring machines. Keep Hamonic too, so Rathbone can be our 7th man who can play some sheltered minutes and get acclimated to the league. Seattle will take Holtby, he's the best player that we are leaving exposed, most hockey people and mock drafts, show Seattle taking Holtby as well. I believe that we will buy out Virtanen, it will only cost us cap hit of $50,000 for next season and $500,00 for the one after. The only variable I can see here is, did he cross a line that would allow the Canucks to just unilaterally terminate his contract for code of conduct clause. I'm also hoping Beagle will be able to come back. I'm also hoping that Roussel can have a bounce back season, he was very effective his first year hear, before blowing out his knee and requiring major surgury. Hoping that we keep Hamonic, and IF Edler wants to stay, something around the 2.5 million range for 1 year. Hughes and Pettersson should sign for combined cap hits around 13 - 14 million per season and with the other changes, we should still have about 10 - 12 million to fill out the roster and resign other guys. Its the following summer when we don't have the Luongo recapture hanging over us, and we have enough young talent taking over spots, where we should be in a pretty good position to start really assembling supporting cast for a better playoff run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewbieCanuckFan Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 13 minutes ago, VegasCanuck said: Seattle will take Holtby, he's the best player that we are leaving exposed, most hockey people and mock drafts, show Seattle taking Holtby as well. I believe that we will buy out Virtanen, it will only cost us cap hit of $50,000 for next season and $500,00 for the one after. The only variable I can see here is, did he cross a line that would allow the Canucks to just unilaterally terminate his contract for code of conduct clause. I'm also hoping Beagle will be able to come back. I'm also hoping that Roussel can have a bounce back season, he was very effective his first year hear, before blowing out his knee and requiring major surgury. Hoping that we keep Hamonic, and IF Edler wants to stay, something around the 2.5 million range for 1 year. Hughes and Pettersson should sign for combined cap hits around 13 - 14 million per season and with the other changes, we should still have about 10 - 12 million to fill out the roster and resign other guys. Its the following summer when we don't have the Luongo recapture hanging over us, and we have enough young talent taking over spots, where we should be in a pretty good position to start really assembling supporting cast for a better playoff run. Sub-par backup 30+ year old goalie making $5.7 million cash (you are sub-par if you have a save percentage under 0.9). I seriously doubt they'll even entertain the thought of claiming him barring a series of shutouts by him in this remaining season. Seattle wants to compete. You don't by committing that much cap space on a guy that just isn't that good anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eeeeergh Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 3 minutes ago, VegasCanuck said: Seattle will take Holtby, he's the best player that we are leaving exposed, most hockey people and mock drafts, show Seattle taking Holtby as well. I believe that we will buy out Virtanen, it will only cost us cap hit of $50,000 for next season and $500,00 for the one after. The only variable I can see here is, did he cross a line that would allow the Canucks to just unilaterally terminate his contract for code of conduct clause. I'm also hoping Beagle will be able to come back. I'm also hoping that Roussel can have a bounce back season, he was very effective his first year hear, before blowing out his knee and requiring major surgury. Hoping that we keep Hamonic, and IF Edler wants to stay, something around the 2.5 million range for 1 year. Hughes and Pettersson should sign for combined cap hits around 13 - 14 million per season and with the other changes, we should still have about 10 - 12 million to fill out the roster and resign other guys. Its the following summer when we don't have the Luongo recapture hanging over us, and we have enough young talent taking over spots, where we should be in a pretty good position to start really assembling supporting cast for a better playoff run. Woohoo a fellow optimist! I do think next year is gonna be better than people assume. And we have some pretty slick deals already on the books. Demkos deal was a steal. Once we've got DiPietro as backup, the tandem are running us a good 4-5m less than equivalent quality goaltending pairs around the league. Horvat and Boeser are at or under market value. Hoagie on his ELC is terrific for producing top 6 forward who's gonna take a big step next year. Imagine if Podz comes in and does something on his ELC next year... I also thought Highmore was phenomenal value. Great motor, responsible defensively, and effective PKer. I really liked Vesey at times, I was just bummed he couldn't find his scoring touch. Apples to Apples, I think Highmore does more for the team if we need to pick. Miller-Pettersson-Boeser Hoglander-Horvat-Pearson Podkolzin-Upgraded 3C-Highmore Roussel-Beagle-Gadjovich (lmao this line would be hell to play against) Hughes-Shutdown D (Savard? Lindholm?) Schmidt-Juolevi (a bit shaky, but Juolevi has generally impressed me defensively, and move Schmidt back to the right side where he was killing it with Vegas) Giraffe-Hamonic - Hamonic is good enough to let Giraffe go cause his chaos and create some chances. Shelter Rathbone for a season - bring him in for easy games, and ease him into the league. Good enough roster to beat the Kings and the Flames next year IMO. 2022 we'll have 10m more to be a major contender, and our young guns will all have taken big steps forward. Imagine Hughes, Petey, Boeser, Horvat, Hoglander 2 years from now lmao. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eeeeergh Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 10 minutes ago, NewbieCanuckFan said: Sub-par backup 30+ year old goalie making $5.7 million cash (you are sub-par if you have a save percentage under 0.9). I seriously doubt they'll even entertain the thought of claiming him barring a series of shutouts by him in this remaining season. Seattle wants to compete. You don't by committing that much cap space on a guy that just isn't that good anymore. Yeah but they need to take 3 goalies, and their options aren't as great as you might think. I think they take one of Cam Talbot, Khudobin, or Jake Allen. Decent stats, but none have ever taken on a full time starter role. So no chance they're taking 2, or all 3. I think they take one promising goalie prospect (theres a few to choose from). I don't see a better option than Holts for them for their workhorse. They must know our defence was nonexistent this year. They're not getting a franchise goaltender from the expansion draft. Holts only has a year left on his contract, so its a very low risk option for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quantum Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 26 minutes ago, NewbieCanuckFan said: Sub-par backup 30+ year old goalie making $5.7 million cash (you are sub-par if you have a save percentage under 0.9). I seriously doubt they'll even entertain the thought of claiming him barring a series of shutouts by him in this remaining season. Seattle wants to compete. You don't by committing that much cap space on a guy that just isn't that good anymore. Holtby's only got 1 year left on his deal. He's not on some giant contract for the next 4 years. He'll be a good backup --- or a goalie they flip --- especially if the rumors that the Kraken are looking at Chris Driedger as being there first starter. May be good to have some insurance in the event that Driedger isn't up for the task of being a full time starter in the NHL. I also see Holtby not being taken and a guy like Jonah Gadjovich or Zack MacEwen going instead. A younger forward going would sting but it wouldn't be the end of the world so it's possible. I just feel like Holtby still holds more value as an asset than either Gadjovich and MacEwen at this time -- and I also don't expect Gadjovich or MacEwen to ever rival Alex Tuch and what he's become in Vegas.... Tuch is a former first rounder who may be the best skater of his size in the world -- Gadjovich and MacEwen don't have the same skating. Hard to say --- we'll probably lose someone more valuable than we did when Vegas selected Lucas Sbisa but we won't be losing anyone on the Marchessault/Karlsson scale of "HOW DID THEY LET THOSE GUYS GO FOR NOTHING?!?". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khay Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 I don't know where we will finish but we have a good chance to make the playoffs. If Petey is healthy, that should increase our goal scoring by as much as 0.5. Canucks have scored 2.46 GF per game since Petey's injury. Before Petey's injury, 2.81 GFG. Demko took some time to get adjusted to being the main guy but he should be good to go next season, which should bring our goals against down. He has 2.87 GAA at the moment. That number should improve. Defence needs improvement on the right side but even if it stays status quo (Hamonic and Edler re-signed), it should be good enough against the 3 Cali teams + Arizona and other comparable teams of the NHL. Plus, the young guys like Hog, Rathbone, and Juolevi will have improved, and Pod should add new dimension to the team. Our bottom 6 needs quite a bit of work though. Depending on how we improve the defence (in particular, RHD) and bottom 6, I can see us finishing as high as #2 in the division. If defence stays status quo and bottom 6 is not improved, I can see us barely clinging on to #4 spot, and might make/miss it depending on how the wild card race goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khay Posted May 18, 2021 Share Posted May 18, 2021 35 minutes ago, eeeeergh said: Woohoo a fellow optimist! I do think next year is gonna be better than people assume. And we have some pretty slick deals already on the books. Demkos deal was a steal. Once we've got DiPietro as backup, the tandem are running us a good 4-5m less than equivalent quality goaltending pairs around the league. Horvat and Boeser are at or under market value. Hoagie on his ELC is terrific for producing top 6 forward who's gonna take a big step next year. Imagine if Podz comes in and does something on his ELC next year... I also thought Highmore was phenomenal value. Great motor, responsible defensively, and effective PKer. I really liked Vesey at times, I was just bummed he couldn't find his scoring touch. Apples to Apples, I think Highmore does more for the team if we need to pick. Miller-Pettersson-Boeser Hoglander-Horvat-Pearson Podkolzin-Upgraded 3C-Highmore Roussel-Beagle-Gadjovich (lmao this line would be hell to play against) Hughes-Shutdown D (Savard? Lindholm?) Schmidt-Juolevi (a bit shaky, but Juolevi has generally impressed me defensively, and move Schmidt back to the right side where he was killing it with Vegas) Giraffe-Hamonic - Hamonic is good enough to let Giraffe go cause his chaos and create some chances. Shelter Rathbone for a season - bring him in for easy games, and ease him into the league. Good enough roster to beat the Kings and the Flames next year IMO. 2022 we'll have 10m more to be a major contender, and our young guns will all have taken big steps forward. Imagine Hughes, Petey, Boeser, Horvat, Hoglander 2 years from now lmao. I also hope Beagle comes back but guys at his age, usually don't... unfortunately. Similarly for Roussel. He was great in his first year, then the knee gave out and he lost explosiveness going to the net and forechecking. I actually think Rathbone is better than Juolevi and he requires very little sheltering, if any. Juolevi clearly has some nagging pain that's impacting his mobility. I've noticed him grimace a few times yesterday. Until that gets sorted out, OJ is a #7D. If defence stays status quo, I have Hughes-Hamonic Rathbone-Schmidt Edler-Myers Juolevi-Chatfield Edler still kills penalties in place of Rathbone but Rathbone gets top 4 minutes 5-on-5 ice time. I think he will do well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now