[Discussion] Are the Canucks now a legitimate playoff team?

[Provost]

The answer to me is a solid “maybe”.

 

We will be playing in likely the weakest division so we don’t actually have to be very good to get into jute playoffs.

 

On the other side, the defence is mostly question marks.  Will OEL be a top pairing D again?  
Can Hughes be relied on defensively… he will need to be as the other option is Rathbone to take any minutes that OEL doesn’t.

Is one of Rathbone or Juolevi ready to be thrust into more minutes and be less sheltered?

Can anyone on the right side play 1st pairing minutes?

Can Tyler Minors take on more responsibility? 

Is Poolman going to be any good and fit with any partners we have for him?

Can a new defensive coach get more out of what is a fairly weak defence overall.

 

If the defence can’t get sorted out, then having better forwards won’t help a lot since they will

never get the puck.

 

[Smashian Kassian]

24 minutes ago, Viper007 said:

Manson is not a #2 for me.  Parayko on the other hand, definitely is.

 

Yeah Parayko is definitely preferably. Would you consider Manson a legitimate #3? I actually view building defenses now as a top 3/bottom 3 thing.

 

Like in order to have a good defense it starts with having 3 guys that you'd consider credible top end/hard minute defenseman, no matter how the pairs line up. Example; Tampa with Hedman/McDonagh/Sergachev, or St.Louis winning with Pietrangelo/Parayko/Bouwmesster. You need a good #4 too (Cernak, Edmundson), and depth after that, but it starts by finding your top 3.

 

OEL & Hughes could be 2 of them for Vancouver, just not sure about the third guy yet.

 

[Elias Pettersson]

17 minutes ago, Smashian Kassian said:

 

Yeah Parayko is definitely preferably. Would you consider Manson a legitimate #3? I actually view building defenses now as a top 3/bottom 3 thing.

 

Like in order to have a good defense it starts with having 3 guys that you'd consider credible top end/hard minute defenseman, no matter how the pairs line up. Example; Tampa with Hedman/McDonagh/Sergachev, or St.Louis winning with Pietrangelo/Parayko/Bouwmesster. You need a good #4 too (Cernak, Edmundson), and depth after that, but it starts by finding your top 3.

 

OEL & Hughes could be 2 of them for Vancouver, just not sure about the third guy yet.

 

I don't think we have that 3rd guy yet but at least Benning added another top 3.  At the end of the day we first need to make the playoffs and maybe make some noise.  If we do that then Benning can assess the D next summer to see if he needs to add another top 3 guy.

 

He did ALOT this summer.  Added a top 6 forward, added a top 3 Dman, added a 3rd line centre, added depth to the RHD position, added a good backup goalie, turned Sutter into a 4C with a great contract, wiped out all the bad contracts within 48 hours, got most if not all of the malcontents and trouble makers out of the dressing room AND he retooled the entire farm club in Abbotsford.  Plus on top of all of that we have Podkolzin joining the team.  I mean that's ALOT in one summer.

 

The Sedins and Brad Shaw are probably doing much more than we know behind the scenes.  There is no way one man could do all of that in one summer.  This is probably the greatest offseason in Canucks history really...

Edited July 30, 2021 by Elias Pettersson

[Viper007]

17 minutes ago, Smashian Kassian said:

 

Yeah Parayko is definitely preferably. Would you consider Manson a legitimate #3? I actually view building defenses now as a top 3/bottom 3 thing.

 

Like in order to have a good defense it starts with having 3 guys that you'd consider credible top end/hard minute defenseman, no matter how the pairs line up. Example; Tampa with Hedman/McDonagh/Sergachev, or St.Louis winning with Pietrangelo/Parayko/Bouwmesster. You need a good #4 too (Cernak, Edmundson), and depth after that, but it starts by finding your top 3.

 

OEL & Hughes could be 2 of them for Vancouver, just not sure about the third guy yet.

 

I would consider Manson a 2nd pairing guy.  So #3/4.

[lmm]

22 minutes ago, Smashian Kassian said:

 

Yeah Parayko is definitely preferably. Would you consider Manson a legitimate #3? I actually view building defenses now as a top 3/bottom 3 thing.

 

Like in order to have a good defense it starts with having 3 guys that you'd consider credible top end/hard minute defenseman, no matter how the pairs line up. Example; Tampa with Hedman/McDonagh/Sergachev, or St.Louis winning with Pietrangelo/Parayko/Bouwmesster. You need a good #4 too (Cernak, Edmundson), and depth after that, but it starts by finding your top 3.

 

OEL & Hughes could be 2 of them for Vancouver, just not sure about the third guy yet.

 

so if yu have Hedman, McDonagh and Sergachev, yu would trade 2 of them for Hughes and OEL?

[Smashian Kassian]

5 minutes ago, lmm said:

so if yu have Hedman, McDonagh and Sergachev, yu would trade 2 of them for Hughes and OEL?

 

Hmmm... I mean it would be pretty hard to turn down a trade with Victor Hedman coming back.

 

I love Quinn Hughes & want to see him retire a Canuck.. but maybe for Hedman/Sergachev. 

[Smashian Kassian]

13 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

I don't think we have that 3rd guy yet but at least Benning added another top 3.  At the end of the day we first need to make the playoffs and maybe make some noise.  If we do that then Benning can assess the D next summer to see if he needs to add another top 3 guy.

 

He did ALOT this summer.  Added a top 6 forward, added a top 3 Dman, added a 3rd line centre, added depth to the RHD position, added a good backup goalie, turned Sutter into a 4C with a great contract, wiped out all the bad contracts within 48 hours, got most if not all of the malcontents and trouble makers out of the dressing room AND he retooled the entire farm club in Abbotsford.  Plus on top of all of that we have Podkolzin joining the team.  I mean that's ALOT in one summer.

 

The Sedins and Brad Shaw are probably doing much more than we know behind the scenes.  There is no way one man could do all of that in one summer.  This is probably the greatest offseason in Canucks history really...

 

I agree they've done a great job.

 

The last time I was this excited about the changes going into a season was the 2010 offseason.. and obviously we know how good that team was. We won't be that, but Jim has drastically improved the personnel & I can't wait to see it on the ice. 

 

Still more work to do on defense in the coming years to make this a contender, but being a consistent playoff team is the first step & with Garland/OEL locked down (along with our existing core) I think we have the pieces in place to be that for the foreseeable future.

 

Then just gotta keep adding & tweaking from there. 

 

 

[iinatcc]

12 hours ago, cory40 said:

Everything doesn't have to be perfect for them to be a play-off team. They have some depth at forward and on defense.  

Well not much perfect but everything going right and clicking at the same time 

 

In the 2019 - 2020 season everything went right . Tanev didn't get hurt, Markstrom was playing out of his mind, Hughes was having a Rookie of the year caliber year, Pettersson took a step forward, Pearson and Miller were basically having career years, and even Eriksson was useful in the 2nd line 

 

And despite that Canucks were probably a bubble playoff team at best if they played a full 82 game season 

Edited July 30, 2021 by iinatcc

[Elias Pettersson]

41 minutes ago, Smashian Kassian said:

 

I agree they've done a great job.

 

The last time I was this excited about the changes going into a season was the 2010 offseason.. and obviously we know how good that team was. We won't be that, but Jim has drastically improved the personnel & I can't wait to see it on the ice. 

 

Still more work to do on defense in the coming years to make this a contender, but being a consistent playoff team is the first step & with Garland/OEL locked down (along with our existing core) I think we have the pieces in place to be that for the foreseeable future.

 

Then just gotta keep adding & tweaking from there. 

 

 

Really the only missing piece is that stud RHD partner for Hughes.  Unfortunately they are almost impossible to find.  The only two blue chip stud RHD that were available this summer were Jones and Hamilton.  We just didn't have the means to get either one and even Hamilton isn't a perfect fit with Hughes.  

 

Parayko will be available next summer.  We have to move cap out but most of our contracts now are quite moveable.  If we are close this year and Parayko is the one missing piece then maybe Benning goes for it.

[wallstreetamigo]

Coaching needs to be better to get the most out of this group, especially defensively. That is going to make a huge difference in how far this team can go.

 

It really needs to be back to the drawing board on the defensive systems and strategies the team employs with this group. The transition game also needs to be much better as this D is full of guys who arent shutdown type guys but puck movers. 

 

The passive D style needs to be replaced with a more aggressive pursuit style to take away time and space. And the forwards doing their job defensively is just as big a part of that as the dmen.

 

Hopefully Shaw is designing the overall D systems because Baumgartner clearly has limited ability to match a system to the D he has or build competent pairings.

[spook007]

Think Benning has done a good on many levels....

Started with them getting an additional Coach in, who has done well coaching several NHL teams defense,

Got Ian Clark resigned,

and then it went fast...

 

He moved a lot of Dead cap for flexibility, 

He got another top pairing Dman (hopefully) at slightly discounted rate, which in turn likely helps protect QH, so he doesn't havee to play way over 20min each night,

He got us another top 6 player with neither NTC nor NMC

Got us another 3C,

Re-signed a 4th C at a very discounted rate,

Rebuilt bottom 6

Got 3 RD (quality remains to be seen), but by sound of it defensively ok,

A few of the new defenders, can/will drop the gloves,

Left money to counter for any offer sheets,

Got a real solid back up on a greatly build contract (earn as you win),

Moved the, suposedly, unhappy player from the dressing room,

Got a lot of interesting players for Abby,

And did I mention, no more LE,....

 

Nobody knows for sure, what the future holds,  and we can nit pick about minor details, a few dollars here and there, but if people can't applaud Benning for this total turn around, its not because he hasn't done a decent job of it, its becase they don't like Benning as a GM. 

 

 

Edited July 30, 2021 by spook007

[Smashian Kassian]

If this team really succeeds I would not be surprised if Jim Benning ends up being a GM of the year candidate.

[D.B Cooper]

6 hours ago, lmm said:

so if yu have Hedman, McDonagh and Sergachev, yu would trade 2 of them for Hughes and OEL?

Hedman and Serg for Hughes and OEL?   
Yep.   Sign me up. 

Edited July 30, 2021 by drummerboy

[Nucker 67]

Final Standings - April 2022

 

1. VAN

2. SEA

3. EDM

4. VGK

5. CGY

6. LA

7. SJ

8. ANA

[grandmaster]

In all fairness, the Canucks were a legit playoff team as of 2 years ago. That bubble run was not a fluke. Last season was marred with us losing our best player to injury, Covid that hit our team the hardest in the NHL and a stupid condensed schedule to make up for games afterwards.

 

Our core pieces are getting better, more mature and all these improvements are bound to catapult the team even higher. This team is going to turn some heads!

[lmm]

4 hours ago, drummerboy said:

Hedman and Serg for Hughes and OEL?   
Yep.   Sign me up. 

ya, I meant if you were Tampa

[FlyLow_]

It depends on our young core, all these side pieces are nice but they have to be a lot better or we will still be a bubble team. And quite a bit rests on Shaw's shoulders as well. He's got to work some magic with this defense. Can he get Quinn back on track? Can he make Myers a more reliable defender that can be steady and pair with an offensive guy? 

 

What about the PP? It has to be way better. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

[The Listening]

21 hours ago, King Heffy said:

Colorado lost a ton of their depth and Minnesota lacks scoring depth to begin with.  Vegas is a donut with a hole in the middle and a coach who specializes in destroying the confidence of his goalies.  We can give all three a run for their money.

That is true, I did not account for the losses that all three of those teams had over the last few days. I apologize. I still think Colorado is a powerhouse, a team with Makar, Landeskog, MacKinnon and Rantenen will be able to contend for a playoff spot. Vegas does look a lot worse now now that they lost Fleury and Minny is mainly a defensive team. 

[King Heffy]

5 minutes ago, The Listening said:

That is true, I did not account for the losses that all three of those teams had over the last few days. I apologize. I still think Colorado is a powerhouse, a team with Makar, Landeskog, MacKinnon and Rantenen will be able to contend for a playoff spot. Vegas does look a lot worse now now that they lost Fleury and Minny is mainly a defensive team. 

Colorado is still a great team.  We closed the gap, but anyone with those guys will be a force.  I think we can play anyone and make it competitive though.

[flat land fish]

2 hours ago, NUCKER67 said:

Final Standings - April 2022

 

1. VAN

2. SEA

3. EDM

4. VGK

5. CGY

6. LA

7. SJ

8. ANA

Pacific will be interesting Vegas probably still the front runner but there depth has taken a big hit and they are potentially vulnerable in goal if Lehrer can’t stay healthy,   Expect Edmonton to be good in the regular season their back end and goaltending is concerning for a legit playoff team.  LA should be in the 4-5 hole depending on performance of their youth.  Calgary should push for top 4.  This will be the weakest of the 4 divisions but should be a fun year.