[proposal] Yes, it’s Canucks-Devils part infinity, and yes it involves Quinn Hughes part infinity

[timberz21]

Graves and Severson are two good defenseman, but they don't have Hughes' ceiling and abilities.  Does that make us deeper on the backend, yes, but right now we don't necessarily need depth, we need better defenseman in our top 3.  This proposal doesn't address this, in fact, we lose a top 2/3 defenseman to add two solid top 4.  

 

Also, I'm curious to see how Graves numbers will be affected leaving Colorado to NJ.  These two teams are not on the same level.  I'm not sure  he will have the same impact he had in Colorado.  They didn't let him go for nothing, I don't think it was only a money decision.  If they didn't think he was expendable, they would have find a way to keep him.

 

The NJ pick could be nice, but again, it's so far away and could be a middle of the pack pick that won't really help us anytime soon.

Edited September 29, 2021 by timberz21

[Patel Bure]

10 hours ago, mll said:

 

Hamonic is considering opting out and looks to be high maintenance.  Has asked for a trade out west, put limits on where he wants to play etc.  Don't see why NJD would want to encumber themselves with the hassle and uncertainty.  

 

Also look at how Hughes/Pettersson are holding out together for leverage.  The Hughes brothers probably all have the same agent - contract negotiations could be an even worse nightmare than it is right now for Vancouver. 

Severson and Ty Smith were pretty much their top pairing last season with Severson their most played D. 

 

Zacha is finally showing his worth and brings versatility as he can play all positions and in all situations.  Don't see why they would want to trade him.  He fits their group and has been playing well under Ruff.  NJD are looking to build a team that can win a Cup.  They talk of how there are teams that have a lot of good players but that those teams don't always do well because they don't have the right culture and mix.  

 

Lamoriello is no longer with NJD but he was strongly against the idea that players are larger than the team.  Not convinced that teams would want to promote 3 brothers as that would put them ahead of the brand and give them just so much leverage.  Winning is also a far better path to retain fans than some marketing mirage.

 

 

Hamilton and Hughes are offensive Ds that even play a rover like game.  Both were paired with defensive Ds.  Hamilton with even one of the best defensive D in the game.  Hard to see how two highly offensive Ds paired together is going to make for a reliable pairing.

 

 

This is such a good well thought out response.  Thank you so much for this @mll.

 

Before reading the addendum to your original response, I was going to suggest that we add Ty Smith instead of Graves.  So basically,

 

Smith, Severson, and either a 1st or Kevin Bahl for Hughes and Hamonic.  The idea being that the Canucks and Devils would essentially be trading their 2nd pairings with one another.  On the Canucks, OEL would then become the clear cut alpha defender on the team, while Rathbone would still get enough time to develop properly on the 3rd pairing. 
 

Your thoughts with Hamonic make a lot of sense though.  His conduct over these past 12-18 months definitely puts him in the high maintenance category.  
 

ps - one thing I didn’t understand in a previous post of yours.  You said that the addition of Quinn Hughes to the Devils could potentially present a problem since Hughes likes to keep possession of the puck and carry it into the offensive zone (which could serve as a conflict of interest to his brother Jack and to also Dougie Hamilton).  I’m not sure if I understand this argument.  Couldn’t the same thing be said about Pettersson and Boeser?  Hughes often plays behind the lotto line and his willingness to carry the puck doesn’t seem to impact Petey and Boeser in a negative way.  It’s likely that I’m not understanding your argument here.

[kloubek]

My thoughts:

1) Quinn Hughes is the better of the defensemen in question, by far. I feel this past year was not indicative of what we have in Hughes, and when he comes back and shakes of the likely rust, I expect a year similar to his rookie season or better. It's not every day you come across a guy like Huggy, and this is our only opportunity that I've seen as a Canuck fan for 30 years to have a guy of this calibre on our blueline. Losing that needs to be done with the most careful of consideration.
 

2) While there is little doubt NJ would love to have Quinn, it creates a an imbalance on NJ whereby they have scoring, but not as much size or defensive acumen. Not SO bad though if they can get Hamonic in return, but without being able to play Canadian teams, his participation would be intermittent so I'm not sure they'd be keen on this.

3) I DO like that it addresses our own needs. We'd get two guys with size - one with solid shutdown ability and the other a more balanced skillset - somewhat similar in nature to what Edler provided us. I feel that IF Rathbone is going to continue to progress and can regularly contribute points from the backend that this actually works out pretty well for us. That's a big "IF" though, since otherwise we rely on OEL and Severson and Myers to put up points and IMO, that just isn't ideal. But it's still not truly horrible, considering what we've had to work with over the last several years. 

4) It should be noted (if it hasn't been already) that both NJ players in question are UFA in 2 years. As such, this could work well for 2 years, after which it's possible they could simply walk for nothing. Whereby if we keep Hughes, we are almost certainly going to get longer term before replacement(s) are required.

Anyway, I think this is a reasonable trade suggestion from a value perspective. Overall, nice work!

[The Lock]

To be honest, these Hughes proposals are getting a little draining and I'd rather read/talk about proposals that are a little more interesting.

 

That being said, I don't know if I see the 3 brothers in New Jersey long term. Teams often have enough trouble working around 2 star players. Imagine what that would be like having the cap hit of 3 of them. This doesn't even consider the fact that Hischier and Hamilton are being paid a lot and are on long term contracts.

 

I just don't see Quinn to New Jersey happening at all. I'm not saying that strictly as a Canucks fan. Looking at the overall picture, it seems more an idea of novelty than it does a an idea of practicality.

Edited September 29, 2021 by The Lock

[sassbs]

On 9/28/2021 at 4:44 PM, Playoff Beered said:

I think I had to be high to have read that