Cultural Learnings of Vancouver for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Canucks

[Zfetch]

Cultural Learnings of Vancouver for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Canucks

 

It takes perspective to assess any situation. Overt homerism, overt pessimism will get us nowhere. I will assess what I believe is the true problem (decade long arguably) plaguing the Canucks. This problem is not unique to the organization. Many teams have the same issue. But we are one of the few struggling to find the answer year...after year.

 

Secondary Scoring: The Tree

 

Secondary Scoring is the issue plaguing the Canucks. Make no mistake, we can do a brief search to prove this. Yes we need better from our best players, but the problem is our worst players.

 

We'll use the following forward lines and examine individually:

 

Quote

 

VASILY PODKOLZIN	J.T. MILLER	CONOR GARLAND
TANNER PEARSON	BO HORVAT	BROCK BOESER
ANDREI KUZMENKO	ELIAS PETTERSSON	CURTIS LAZAR
DAKOTA JOSHUA	NILS AMAN	NILS HOGLANDER

 

 

PODKOLZIN: Make no mistake, homerism aside this was an objectively bad pick. When the winger taken before you was Trevor Zegras, and the two wingers taken after you were Matt Boldy and Cole Caufield, its disappointing to see that Podkolzin was the objectively worst pick of the four wingers in our vicinity in that draft. Could he turn it around? Yea maybe. But change is hard. We are accustomed to the sensationalist Kreider stories but those are far few in between. Outside of strength, Mayson Raymond was perhaps a better winger in every regard..but he was a short lived middle 6er. Podkolzin is appearing to go more or less the same route unless he can pick it up. Being a recent pick, obviously some fans are optimistic about his future, but I urge you to look at the present and notice the lackluster performance from this man. He needs to at least establish himself as a consistent secondary scorer before pegging him as our future 1st line winger...he has yet to do that and an experienced NHL body in his place would yield better results at this moment. 

 

MILLER: Yes, his effort level appears low. Yes, we rely on him. But if we had 12 JT Millers on this team, this would not be a bad team. He's there to provide scoring and he does it. His defensive play may be questionable, but there are 5 other Canucks on the ice and I don't believe in blaming him for the first 8GA or whatever it was because there were 40 other players responsible during those goals as well..

 

GARLAND: This one perhaps hurts me the most as I had blind homerism towards this man. He was arguably dominant in his last year as a Coyote and had a blistering start with us last year. Is he a secondary scorer on a cup team? Yeah, I would say so. He's not the problem but it is disappointing that he did not take the step forward that we paid 9th overall for.

 

PEARSON: He's not optimal. He's not the worst secondary scoring option. He has NHL level skill. In the right circumstances he's shown to be a benefit to a cup winner. Ignore for later.

 

HORVAT: Should not be relied on for top scoring. Would excel as a 3rd liner providing secondary scorer behind stronger forwards IMO. He has NHL level skills that are desirable and can be of benefit. But he needs much better matchups and better linemates.

 

BOESER: He should be gone. It hurts that he has been through so much hurt. But there are so many more NHL players who would be effective in a 2nd/3rd line wing role. Boeser peaked when he had all the time and space in the world being setup by the Sedins before injury. Sucks but one has to come to accept it.

 

KUZMENKO: In his short NHL stint this man is beautiful. A good secondary scoring option for sure and maybe he's top 6 worthy...time will tell.

 

PETTERSSON: Beautiful player. Easy to blame but he is the reason we start the season bad or end the season well. He is the heart of the team.

 

LAZAR: Maybe idk. Might actually be a decent fourth line option.

 

JOSHUA: Absolutely unacceptable to bury that empty net in a 4-4 game. Not an NHLer.

 

AMAN: Not an NHLer

 

HOGLANDER: There was a player some moons ago named Tomas Jurco. Skilled middle 6er who thrived on flashy puck skills but was rather soft. Nevertheless, Jurco played one exciting season and then fell off as teams adjusted to him. Nils Hoglander is Tomas Jurco. 

 

and this just covers the forwards. Take a step back and gather some perspective. The team has some strength and some weaknesses. The big theme with the weakness is below average -- poor secondary scoring. 10th leading scorer on the Avalanche had 33pts last season. Our 10th leading scorer needed 50% more points to match that production.

 

What separates the good from the bad in this league tends to be secondary scoring.

Penguins had Crosby, Malkin and Letang for the longest time but they did not win two cups in a row until they had key depth appear from seemingly nowhere. Sheary and Rust burst onto the scene as very adequate NHLers. Ovechkin did not have a Wilson, Oshie and Eller backing him up his whole career. Tampas last cup team had their 10th leading scorer posting 38pts compared to the comparative Canucks 10th posting 22pts.

 

Not to say D is not responsible. Afterall, I just compared Sergachev (38pts, 10th) to Chiasson (22pts, 10th). But I'm not opening up an agenda against obvious depth NHL defenders like Burroughs, Juulsen, Poolman and Stllman. Already spending more than enough time on this post to just be barked back at by overt homerism (or maybe overt pessimism)

 

Amateur Scouting: The Root

 

Therein lies the beef of the problem, or the root to the tree.

 

When was the last time we had a late round pick become a regular NHLer?

When was the last time we had a Connor Sheary/Bryan Rust/Anthony Cirelli etc. come out of the system?

Why did we trade 9OA away for Garland and OEL?

Why did we take Podkolzin over a defender or the other wingers available at his position?

 

Why did we take Lekkerimaki who has 2pts in 7GP in the SHL's AHL when Joakim Kemell was considered higher upside and has now shown to be capable in LIIGA and the WJC?

 

• Yes, I realize Kemell fell because of injury concerns. But who are we to not shoot for the stars? We need to take the BPA. And that clearly was not Lekkerimaki (I hope I'm wrong, but the stats early are not promising). Nevertheless, I was a McGroarty truther in the draft for multiple reasons so I am not going to continue pushing this Kemell narrative when a much more attractive man was taken one spot before us ().

 

Scouting did some things right. Taking Pettersson at 5OA was a great selection. Hughes was a bit more of a BPA but still a terrific pick. We had an EXCITING core growing...that suddenly just stopped in 2019.

 

Is the defense on this team suspect? Maybe, but if they moved the puck up more akin to the last...5 cup winners? Perhaps we would be in a better place. This all comes down to the secondary scoring depth of this team. There is a lot that needs to be tweaked to make this team a genuine threat. I saw comments in the PGT saying to blow up the core...that might be a bit of the overt pessimism I alluded to earlier. The problem lies in being unable to trust any secondary scoring to come through.

 

The Buffalo freaking Sabres have Cozens, Power and Krebs on their 2nd PP Unit...who do we have?...

 

Z

[nuckin_futz]

[Aladeen]

The first win of the season be like:

[4petesake]

The first three games.

 

 

[Coconuts]

Our inability to get NHL'ers from beyond the 1st round for the most part kills this team. Our development has been mediocre, if not awful, for years. 

 

Our lack of willingness to draft D high also contributes to our lack of being able to draft and develop our own D as well. Prior to Juolevi and then Hughes in recent years you've got to go all the way back to Bourdon to find a D drafted in the 1st round. And after Woo you've got to go all the way back to Sauve to find one we drafted in the 2nd round. Ain't good enough. 

 

We shouldn't be trading our picks, we should be drafting and developing our own in talent in house, that's what'll turn this team around long term. Actually being able to do that. 

Edited October 18, 2022 by Coconuts

[Guest]

Zegras was taken AHEAD of Podkolzin as you say, so that's not an argument that makes Podkolzin a bad pick. 

[canuck73_3]

1 hour ago, VancouverHabitant said:

Zegras was taken AHEAD of Podkolzin as you say, so that's not an argument that makes Podkolzin a bad pick. 

Can you believe the Oilers picked McDavid and we only got Boeser?! Ridiculous

[RU SERIOUS]

At least they bring home the hardware in Kazakhstan....

Edited October 18, 2022 by RU SERIOUS

[Goal:thecup]

B-Zip

Plonk

Fzzzzzzz

[AV.]

6 hours ago, VancouverHabitant said:

Zegras was taken AHEAD of Podkolzin as you say, so that's not an argument that makes Podkolzin a bad pick. 

That's only 33% of the players he's mentioned.

Caufield, Boldy...all looking like studs.

[Chickenspear]

I stopped reading after you said Podz was a bad pick.

[Zfetch]

10 hours ago, VancouverHabitant said:

Zegras was taken AHEAD of Podkolzin as you say, so that's not an argument that makes Podkolzin a bad pick. 

If you had seen the conclusion to that sentence “its disappointing to see that Podkolzin was the objectively worst pick of the four wingers in our vicinity in that draft.”

 

Not saying Podkolzin is a bad pick because of Zegras.

[luckylager]

I agree with most of the sentiment from the op. 

I'd add that player development is a significant problem as well as scouting, which although could be viewed as married, I'd argue a competent AHL system would be doing a better job at developing at least the occasional mid-late round pick.

If we remove Demko from the equation, who has been developed by the Canucks org that actually plays in the NHL?

 

Jonah Gadjovich and Zack McEwan are the only two guys I can think of. 

[J-23]

This team needs to do a better job in the drafting and developing department outside of the 1st round. Stop trading picks, especially 1st rounders and draft some f*****g RHD’s every now and then…

[EddieVedder]

22 hours ago, Zfetch said:

If you had seen the conclusion to that sentence “its disappointing to see that Podkolzin was the objectively worst pick of the four wingers in our vicinity in that draft.”

 

Not saying Podkolzin is a bad pick because of Zegras.

Id take podz over them all.  Zegras is just another 1 dimensional softie.  

[JM_]

1 hour ago, EddieVedder said:

Id take podz over them all.  Zegras is just another 1 dimensional softie.  

whiner too. Beagle was mean to us. 

[RogersTowell]

Some people make 'hot takes'.  This is a 'hot mess take'.