Re tooling through free agency. For kick's. (Proposal)

[hammertime]

So where I'm at is this team needs an identity change. Our team needs to be more aggressive on pucks and on bodies. Too many easy nights for the opposition. I'm sick of watching the uninspiring play of the team. We need a lil swagger a lil Kes, Burr, Jarko Ruutu, in the lineup to let em know it's not gonna be a fun game of pickup shinny. 

 

In:

Max Domi  5m

Nichushkin 4.25m

Sam Carrick 1.25m

Brendan Lemieux 1.75m

12.25m

+ Halak

 

Out:

Brock 6m

Pearson 3.25m

Dickinson 2.65m

Poolman 2.5

14.4m

 

Pete Miller Pod

Hoglander Bo Nichushkin

Lemieux Domi Garland

Lammi Carrick Lockwood

 

Hughes Schenn

OEL Myers 

Derm Burr

Rath Juulson

 

Demko Martin

 

I don't think it'll cost the moon to move Dicki, or Poolman. Hopefully That cost can be offset by any return we get on dealing Brocks rights.  

 

 

 

 

 

[flickyoursedin]

Think we gotta upgrade that defence. I’d say nix the Nichushkin addition then move Garland up and spend that money on a RHD.

[Dazzle]

With UFA, you inevitably pay higher than normal prices for average defenseman, and extra high prices for 'good' defenseman. I'm not sure UFA is the right direction to go. We've seen this team try to build through UFA, so they add all these expensive pieces into the roster, only for the fans to turn around and complain about the spending...

[Elias Pettersson]

I highly doubt we are going to be players in free agency given our cap situation.  Also, free agency is what got us to this point cap wise, so best to make hockey trades to fill needs and use free agency only to fill holes at the bottom of the lineup with cheap contracts.  I'd pick up a guy like Nick Deslauriers to play on the 4th line for $1 million. 

[IBatch]

4 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said:

I highly doubt we are going to be players in free agency given our cap situation.  Also, free agency is what got us to this point cap wise, so best to make hockey trades to fill needs and use free agency only to fill holes at the bottom of the lineup with cheap contracts.  I'd pick up a guy like Nick Deslauriers to play on the 4th line for $1 million. 

Yes.  As we've seen guys can play in our bottom six for 50% of the cost ... That said we did miss our PKers this season dreadfully.    Hasn't really gotten that much better since Bruce arrived...still in the lower middle of the league.   Motte had a lot to do with that as well.     Free agents definitely are something every team needs .... we just aren't quite there yet as far as team structure goes.    Maybe in a couple of years - hopefully in a couple of years.   Team needs a good hockey trade (or two) - and draft incredibly well to get ourselves to the next level (a consistent playoff team).   I like the Blues make-up...nobody paid top money allows for a lot of depth.    You can find a lot of value in the 4-6 range. 

[Alflives]

  Read the thread title as “Retrolling”. 

 

Far better we trade off some of the guys like Miller, Boeser, Garland, etc.  Collect assets and rebuild into a team that’s a consistent playoff performer.  The OP’s plan continues the same craperolla we’ve experienced for the last 8 seasons.  

Edited April 1, 2022 by Alflives

[Dazzle]

I don't get it at all... people have such short memories, or choose to remember certain things, but forget the others.

 

At one moment, fans complain about depth, and talk about signing a bunch of well-known UFAs, which inevitably come with term.

 

Then, at another moment, complain about UFAs taking up cap space... people bitch about Myers, even though he's still a useful defenseman who has improved a lot in his game since he came here.

[Nucker 67]

Trade Boeser, Garland and Hunt for size ands speed.  Also dump Myers, Dickinson, Pearson and Poolman 

 

Re-start with this group?  (still not sold on a long term deal with Miller, but if he accepts 5 years or less...)

 

Pettersson - Miller - ?

Hoglander - Horvat - Podkolzin

? - ? - ?

Highmore - Lammikko - Lockwood

 

OEL - ?

Hughes - Schenn

Dermott - Burroughs

Rathbone

 

 

 

[Devron]

I like the proposal for fun but you over pay every time. Rarely very rarely does end up being a good deal for the team.

 

One or 2 big trades and a couple bottom 5 signings. Hopefully we draft well 

[smithers joe]

i wonder if we can fix this team, defense, cap and younger faster by moving miller? love miller but can moving him correct our many problems? we may have to move more trades.

[Phil_314]

IDK if I see Domi as part of the solution, esp. at that price.  Gotta wonder why he keeps changing teams.
Lemieux at that price also seems a little steep.
If after trading Brock and getting an RHD we still have $4.25 million, then I'd be open to splurging on Nichushkin (he'll really help Bo), but not before D is fixed.

[Angry Goose]

I would also have Highmore in the lineup b/c although not big, he plays Boudreau’s system to a tee (hunting pucks in the neutral zone/hardforecheck) is hard to play against.

 

Assuming those players are traded (imo I wouldnt mind keeping Pearson tho). Guys u could target:

 

Brett Ritchie

 

Through trade:

 

Miles Wood

Nick Ritchie (def a gamble) 

 

 

 

 

[BigTramFan]

16 hours ago, hammertime said:

So where I'm at is this team needs an identity change. Our team needs to be more aggressive on pucks and on bodies. Too many easy nights for the opposition. I'm sick of watching the uninspiring play of the team. We need a lil swagger a lil Kes, Burr, Jarko Ruutu, in the lineup to let em know it's not gonna be a fun game of pickup shinny. 

 

In:

Max Domi  5m

Nichushkin 4.25m

Sam Carrick 1.25m

Brendan Lemieux 1.75m

12.25m

+ Halak

 

Out:

Brock 6m

Pearson 3.25m

Dickinson 2.65m

Poolman 2.5

14.4m

I agree with the need for more aggressive players. I like the Sam Carrick idea. Not on board with Lemieux. Guy can't score, can't PK, usually either injured or suspended. Also not sold on Domi, certainly not at 5m. He hasn't lived up to his current contract. Would be ok at 4m.

 

I would love Nichushkin, but I don't think you get him for 4.25m. COL are no doubt looking to resign him for around that amount, I think we'd need to offer more like 6m...but you get 6'4" of immovable granite, on pace for more goals/points than Boeser, plays all situations including PK. Put him on a line with Petey and Podz. Look out!

[hammertime]

4 hours ago, BigTramFan said:

I agree with the need for more aggressive players. I like the Sam Carrick idea. Not on board with Lemieux. Guy can't score, can't PK, usually either injured or suspended. Also not sold on Domi, certainly not at 5m. He hasn't lived up to his current contract. Would be ok at 4m.

 

I would love Nichushkin, but I don't think you get him for 4.25m. COL are no doubt looking to resign him for around that amount, I think we'd need to offer more like 6m...but you get 6'4" of immovable granite, on pace for more goals/points than Boeser, plays all situations including PK. Put him on a line with Petey and Podz. Look out!

So what I'm hearing is pay less for Domi and more for Nich. I mean to be fair I'd be ok with that although Nichushkin is scoring at a rate he's never even approached before. The prices aren't set in granite agreed on Lemieux but I like that he really pisses people off and draws a ton of penalties. On paper we should have a really good PP. 

[BigTramFan]

1 hour ago, hammertime said:

So what I'm hearing is pay less for Domi and more for Nich. I mean to be fair I'd be ok with that although Nichushkin is scoring at a rate he's never even approached before. The prices aren't set in granite agreed on Lemieux but I like that he really pisses people off and draws a ton of penalties. On paper we should have a really good PP. 

If you put it like that...I'd prefer not Domi at all! hehe

 

I'd prefer to move out:

Boeser (for ANA 1st round pick) 

Garland (to NJD for Severson)

 

Offer sheet Nicholas Roy for 2.055m (3rd round pick compensation to VGK)

 

Sign UFAs:

Nichushkin 6m

Nick Paul 3m

Lafferty 1.2

 

Put Paul-Horvat-Roy together as our main matchup line. Free up the Miller and Pettersson lines for offense.

 

Also like that Paul and Roy provide center depth for injuries and also can be our 3C if Miller or Horvat do not resign the following season.

 

Lineup something like this (note Poolman is in the minors for this lineup, might get picked up off waivers and save another 1.375m):

 

 

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by BigTramFan

[Boknows08]

All depends on how many trades and who we trade this summer. Assuming we're trading one or a combo of Miller/Boeser/Garland for help on defence, I'm hoping, then we'll need to fill some spots upfront. As mentioned above, I'm all for Nichushkin and offer sheeting Nic Roy. We should be getting some picks back in trades so will be ok to use some capital for the offer sheet. They both bring some much needed size and skating. 

[N4ZZY]

On 3/31/2022 at 11:51 PM, Dazzle said:

With UFA, you inevitably pay higher than normal prices for average defenseman, and extra high prices for 'good' defenseman. I'm not sure UFA is the right direction to go. We've seen this team try to build through UFA, so they add all these expensive pieces into the roster, only for the fans to turn around and complain about the spending...

Definitely agree that we cannot “retool” through free agency. We’ve seen Benning blunder his way through that by giving expensive contracts to bottom six players that inevitably crippled this team moving forward. 

 

Signing UFA’s for depth? Only if those contracts are value contracts, and we’re getting decent output from those players, then okay. But giving a fourth line player 4M over 3/4 years? Let’s not do those kinds of contracts again. Ever. 

[BigTramFan]

47 minutes ago, N4ZZY said:

Definitely agree that we cannot “retool” through free agency. We’ve seen Benning blunder his way through that by giving expensive contracts to bottom six players that inevitably crippled this team moving forward. 

 

Signing UFA’s for depth? Only if those contracts are value contracts, and we’re getting decent output from those players, then okay. But giving a fourth line player 4M over 3/4 years? Let’s not do those kinds of contracts again. Ever. 

Definitely no to those overpaid contracts.

 

I think during the Benning era VAN was not seen as an attractive team to play for, so the caliber of UFAs available and the contract values that needed to be paid were well beyond market rate. Jim signed them anyway. So we saw guys like Roussel, Beagle, Gagner getting paid too much or given too much term.

 

It remains to be seen if the team is seen in a different light now, with new management and a very good record since Boudreau took over as coach. Decent UFAs may be available to the Canucks and at decent value. 

 

Also worth mentioning that VAN has only really 4 guys that we signed as UFA on our main roster: Myers, Schenn, Poolman, Halak (not counting AHL level guys signed for depth like Hunt, Burroughs, Chiasson, Petan). Most of the top teams have more like 8-10 players signed in free agency. I think the Schenn and Halak signings show that you can get decent UFA players without overspending. Just need to be selective.

 

On 4/1/2022 at 7:51 PM, Dazzle said:

With UFA, you inevitably pay higher than normal prices for average defenseman, and extra high prices for 'good' defenseman. I'm not sure UFA is the right direction to go. We've seen this team try to build through UFA, so they add all these expensive pieces into the roster, only for the fans to turn around and complain about the spending...

For players such as Boeser, Miller and Horvat who have expiring contracts in the next 1-2 years, we are going to have to pay them the market rate (and in Boeser's case potentially higher than his market rate if he was a UFA) to keep them. So I fail to see the difference between resigning these guys and signing a similar player via free agency.

 

I agree you can't build the whole team through free agency. But our core of Pettersson, Hughes and Demko are all guys we drafted.

[DownUndaCanuck]

Realistically that'll never happen but someone a lot of Canucks have kept their eye on for a while is Chris Tierny. Big strong two way center who can defend well, he's a perfect 3C on any team. He's on a 3.5M contract and surely will use this chance to get out of Ottawa.

 

I say we sign him to a 3.5-4M x 3 year deal. Locks down our 3C spot with Sutter injured, Lammikko gets a 800K-1M deal and stays as our 4th line center and Petey plays in our top-6.

 

To free up the cap space we'll have to give up on the Dickinson and Poolman projects which I think everyone here is all for. Poolman's been replaced nicely by Dermott and Dickinson by Tierny. Flip them for late picks, I'm sure we can find takers.

 

Yes, we need to bolster our defence but I don't see options other than a big trade to fix this.

 

Pettersson - Miller - Boeser

Podkolzin - Horvat - Garland

Pearson - Tierney - Hoglander

Highmore - Lammikko - Lockwood

Chiasson

 

Hughes - Schenn

OEL - Myers

Rathbone - Dermott

Burroughs

 

Demko

Martin

 

Happy with that. 1 top-4 defenceman away from a top-1 Pacific team but I think that team above makes the playoffs easily.

 

[nameci]

I don’t want to sign any free agents.  The money spent would put us back in cap hell and we would probably end up with overpaid free agents who would produce little toward the end of their bloated contracts.  If we are going to spend money to bring in players let’s choose fro among those whose clubs cannot afford them at the end of next season’s training camps. 
In my perfect world we get a good haul of young players when we trade Miller (too much money and too long term) and Boeser (too much money for the return) this summer and we live with the growing pains as our team gets younger, but more economical.