2023 Wishes for Canucks Fans

[Hake Virtanen]

Well here we are on the cusp of a new year! Out with 22 and in with 23. What will the New Year bring, more mediocrity from the home team? Any improbable run to the playoffs? A big trade to shake things up? More JTM controversy? Who knows, but as fans we can certainly wish for a brighter future. Here are some of mine.

• fix the defence please, or at least come up with some great nicknames. Chaos Giraffe is awesome, but really don’t we need something for OEL as well? Hughes anyone
• for god’s sake use the farm better. Why bring in plugs like Stillman and Studnicka when we have similar players earning their dues in Abby. Where is Di Giuseppe, Juulsen, Brisebois, Karlsson, Wolanin. 
• enough talk about the salary cap. Sure it’s a reality, but just like the size of a goal net, it’s an unmovable issue that all teams need to navigate equally. Hockey needs to be an escape from reality for three hours, not a remedial accounting course.
• Trades please. If we aren’t winning, then the fans need some red meat. 
• OK, enough of blind fandom. In a sense these players work for you (OK, Aquaman cuts the cheques, but it’s your tickets and eyeballs that drive his revenue), so don’t fall in love with players making millions just cause they wear the teams jersey. This is entertainment not real life.
• Anyone else think that grown adults wearing a $300 team jersey with someone else’s name is a classy look? Just stop. 
• And…..if I had a dime for every time Dan Murphy told his interview subject there was 45 seconds left I would be a rich man. Please mix it up, and oh yeah, get Sat Shaw to tell you who his barber is.

 

[Coconuts]

1. Management fixing their mistake by trading JT Miller and embracing a rebuild or retool of sorts, I'd rather us be bad enough to draft high than stuck in the mediocre muck of no man's land where we'd draft 13th
2. Management allowing Podkolzin and Hoglander to play out the rest of the season with Abbotsford, a place where they'll get larger roles, more ice time, and where they'll actually be put in a position to succeed 
3. The Canucks allowing prospects to stew longer in general, we've got an awful track record regarding the development of prospects in house 
4. No more trading picks
5. A Horvat trade with retainment, more than likely he won't be extending here imo 
6. Management embracing a step or two back to take steps forward going forward as more contracts come off the books 
7. No long term contracts for anyone in the near future unless their name is Elias Pettersson or Quinn Hughes, stick to short and medium term deals 

Edited December 31, 2022 by Coconuts

[Curmudgeon]

Stop the presses. I have just found a lost work of Nostradamus in which he offers 20 predictions for the Canucks in 2023.

 

For I looked into the future

Far as human eye could see

Saw a vision of unknown

And the things that are to be……

 

1. Bruce Boudreau will coach this team to a wild card spot. Then, when he is dumped after the playoffs, he will tell Rutherford to stick his structure where the sun don’t shine, which in Vancouver, is most of October through May.

 

2. After much back and forth, Horvat will be dealt at the draft for not nearly enough, and Allvin will say, “We like Bo, but he isn’t Swedish enough. Besides, the three third round draft picks we got back will really help us over the next 5-7 years.”

 

3. Nikita Tryamkin will still not be coming back, much to the chagrin of those who just can’t accept reality.

 

4. Canucks fans will be angered when Elon Musk cancels all Twitter activity related to the Canucks, stating that Canucks Twitter is a seething cesspit of anger and name-calling, even though that is what Twitter has become anyway.

 

5. The Canucks will introduce fourteen more alternate jerseys to make up for lost ticket revenue. Fans will complain that they have no room left in their closets for any more, but will buy them all anyway.

 

6. The radio guys will suddenly run out of Canucks news to over-analyze. Just kidding, those guys can beat dead horses in a million different ways.

 

7. The thousands of fans who are happy that Aquilini remains silent will be neatly offset by the thousands who complain that Aquilini remains silent. Meanwhile, Aquilini remains silent and lets his chequebook speak for him. Thousands more complain, just because.

 

8. JT Miller will set a new record for the number of stick slams against the boards and frequency of using the F-bomb in a single game. The old record is already his.

 

9. Quinn Hughes will smile at some point during the year, though cameras may not catch it. Meanwhile, in the calendar year of 2023, Hughes will pile up 104 points, 103 of them assists and 100 of those on the power play. He will remain unhappy because the goals aren’t coming.

 

10. Every time a scorer slumps, or a defencemen is burned too often, the fault will be attributed to Jim Benning for acquiring them and Travis Green for coaching them. Radio guys aren’t the only ones to beat dead horses.

 

11. In a masterstroke of counter-intuition, and knowing the team needs defencemen and centres, the Canucks draft four left wingers, a right winger and two goalies. Five of the seven will have names ending in -strom, -sson, or -in.

 

12. In free agency Luke Schenn is offered a two year, $2M AAV salary from Edmonton. When he finally signs, fans will blame Jim Benning because that’s how that works. Allvin will claim he ran out of time.

 

13. After every loss, angry fans will announce on CDC that they are finished, that they’ll never watch this team again, and that they don’t even care what happens. Every one of them will continue to watch to find fault and cirticize before swearing that  that they are finished, that they’ll never watch this team again, and they don’t even care what happens

 

14. After every game, at least ten posters will complain that they don’t like the music played between whistles. Evidently, they don’t understand that if they want a soundtrack to the game, they can stream whatever they want through their own earbuds and phone.

 

15. About 65% of CDC posters continue to believe that the team can guarantee a number one draft pick just by tanking, even though no professional athlete or coach would ever deliberately set out to lose. But Vancouver, this year seeded 14th, will win the lottery, only to find out that they can’t move up any more than 10 spots, thereby giving them 4th overall and out of the goodies.

 

16. CDC will continue to be a hotbed of bizarre trade proposals, like Quinn Hughes for two picks and a prospect, or Schenn for a first round pick, or Kuzmenko for next to nothing. Most of these proposal will fail to consider cap hits, suitability or any semblance of reality.

 

17. After clearly stating that gaining cap space is what Vancouver needs, they will blow virtually all of it on July 1st when the free agent they sign put them right back in cap hell. But hey, everybody’s doing it and you have to keep up. I guess.

 

18. Canada will win every game of the 2024 WJC by an average goal differential of nine. TSN’s Gord Miller’s head will explode with excitement as he rushes down to kiss the behinds of every Canadian player. It will not be pretty. Vancouver will have zero prospects in the tournament.

 

19. In a unique twist, when the Canucks play in Toronto, the game time will be 10:00 pm EST to accommodate a 7:00 pm start in Vancouver. Toronto fans be like, “Oh, now I get it.”

 

20. Ron McLean, who is harder to get rid of than herpes, will win the award for the most muted man in Canadian television. He still won’t get the hint, nor will Cassie Calgary, er, Campbell, Craig Simpson, who never met a Leaf he couldn’t suck up to, and Louie deBrusk, whose incessant drone resembles a frozen cat run through a bandsaw, only worse.

[combover]

Same as it’s been for 5 years 

 

—— new owners. 
 

The team can’t be fixed with Francesco involved, it’s been proven. 
once again we heard it from a few weeks back 

PA- “this franchise isn’t interested in a rebuild” 

 

just  like they weren't 10 years ago 2 gm 4 coaches 

Yet we have the same problems. 
 

 

 

 

 

[Sativika]

9 minutes ago, Curmudgeon said:

Stop the presses. I have just found a lost work of Nostradamus in which he offers 20 predictions for the Canucks in 2023.

 

For I looked into the future

Far as human eye could see

Saw a vision of unknown

And the things that are to be……

 

1. Bruce Boudreau will coach this team to a wild card spot. Then, when he is dumped after the playoffs, he will tell Rutherford to stick his structure where the sun don’t shine, which in Vancouver, is most of October through May.

 

2. After much back and forth, Horvat will be dealt at the draft for not nearly enough, and Allvin will say, “We like Bo, but he isn’t Swedish enough. Besides, the three third round draft picks we got back will really help us over the next 5-7 years.”

 

3. Nikita Tryamkin will still not be coming back, much to the chagrin of those who just can’t accept reality.

 

4. Canucks fans will be angered when Elon Musk cancels all Twitter activity related to the Canucks, stating that Canucks Twitter is a seething cesspit of anger and name-calling, even though that is what Twitter has become anyway.

 

5. The Canucks will introduce fourteen more alternate jerseys to make up for lost ticket revenue. Fans will complain that they have no room left in their closets for any more, but will buy them all anyway.

 

6. The radio guys will suddenly run out of Canucks news to over-analyze. Just kidding, those guys can beat dead horses in a million different ways.

 

7. The thousands of fans who are happy that Aquilini remains silent will be neatly offset by the thousands who complain that Aquilini remains silent. Meanwhile, Aquilini remains silent and lets his chequebook speak for him. Thousands more complain, just because.

 

8. JT Miller will set a new record for the number of stick slams against the boards and frequency of using the F-bomb in a single game. The old record is already his.

 

9. Quinn Hughes will smile at some point during the year, though cameras may not catch it. Meanwhile, in the calendar year of 2023, Hughes will pile up 104 points, 103 of them assists and 100 of those on the power play. He will remain unhappy because the goals aren’t coming.

 

10. Every time a scorer slumps, or a defencemen is burned too often, the fault will be attributed to Jim Benning for acquiring them and Travis Green for coaching them. Radio guys aren’t the only ones to beat dead horses.

 

11. In a masterstroke of counter-intuition, and knowing the team needs defencemen and centres, the Canucks draft four left wingers, a right winger and two goalies. Five of the seven will have names ending in -strom, -sson, or -in.

 

12. In free agency Luke Schenn is offered a two year, $2M AAV salary from Edmonton. When he finally signs, fans will blame Jim Benning because that’s how that works. Allvin will claim he ran out of time.

 

13. After every loss, angry fans will announce on CDC that they are finished, that they’ll never watch this team again, and that they don’t even care what happens. Every one of them will continue to watch to find fault and cirticize before swearing that  that they are finished, that they’ll never watch this team again, and they don’t even care what happens

 

14. After every game, at least ten posters will complain that they don’t like the music played between whistles. Evidently, they don’t understand that if they want a soundtrack to the game, they can stream whatever they want through their own earbuds and phone.

 

15. About 65% of CDC posters continue to believe that the team can guarantee a number one draft pick just by tanking, even though no professional athlete or coach would ever deliberately set out to lose. But Vancouver, this year seeded 14th, will win the lottery, only to find out that they can’t move up any more than 10 spots, thereby giving them 4th overall and out of the goodies.

 

16. CDC will continue to be a hotbed of bizarre trade proposals, like Quinn Hughes for two picks and a prospect, or Schenn for a first round pick, or Kuzmenko for next to nothing. Most of these proposal will fail to consider cap hits, suitability or any semblance of reality.

 

17. After clearly stating that gaining cap space is what Vancouver needs, they will blow virtually all of it on July 1st when the free agent they sign put them right back in cap hell. But hey, everybody’s doing it and you have to keep up. I guess.

 

18. Canada will win every game of the 2024 WJC by an average goal differential of nine. TSN’s Gord Miller’s head will explode with excitement as he rushes down to kiss the behinds of every Canadian player. It will not be pretty. Vancouver will have zero prospects in the tournament.

 

19. In a unique twist, when the Canucks play in Toronto, the game time will be 10:00 pm EST to accommodate a 7:00 pm start in Vancouver. Toronto fans be like, “Oh, now I get it.”

 

20. Ron McLean, who is harder to get rid of than herpes, will win the award for the most muted man in Canadian television. He still won’t get the hint, nor will Cassie Calgary, er, Campbell, Craig Simpson, who never met a Leaf he couldn’t suck up to, and Louie deBrusk, whose incessant drone resembles a frozen cat run through a bandsaw, only worse.

LOL! Great post, dude.

[Toni Zamboni]

 

[Nucker 67]

IMO, forget about playoffs this year. They'll be out before January is over. 

 

Trade Miller, Pearson, Garland, Boeser and OEL (dangle Rathbone and Hoglander if they need to) - Bring in several good young players/prospects and picks (Rds 1-3)

 

Re-sign (UFAs) Horvat, Kuzmenko and Schenn, and (RFAs) Pederson, Lockwood, Bear and Dermott 

 

Hire a head coach who's won (the Cup) before and demands 100% effort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 31, 2022 by NUCKER67

[nopROBlemo]

I wish hockey could just be hockey again. 

It's more like a business than a sport. 

Just constant talk about how much $ a player should get. 

How will it fit under the cap blah blah blah

That's my wish but I know that will never happen. 

[Nuxfanabroad]

Beautiful Bedardian-bounty!

[Nuxfanabroad]

56 minutes ago, nopROBlemo said:

I wish hockey could just be hockey again. 

It's more like a business than a sport. 

Just constant talk about how much $ a player should get. 

How will it fit under the cap blah blah blah

That's my wish but I know that will never happen. 

Certainly understandable sentiment. Things will get interesting, when dynamite gets tied to the dollar. We all got fat on the false credit from decades of over-printing.

 

There's going to be a crash-course(pardon pun) on economic geopolitical-dissatisfaction, pdq. Will be something to watch (self-proclaimed)elites deal w/it.

Edited January 1, 2023 by Nuxfanabroad

[Ted Lasso]

5 hours ago, Coconuts said:

1. Management fixing their mistake by trading JT Miller and embracing a rebuild or retool of sorts, I'd rather us be bad enough to draft high than stuck in the mediocre muck of no man's land where we'd draft 13th
2. Management allowing Podkolzin and Hoglander to play out the rest of the season with Abbotsford, a place where they'll get larger roles, more ice time, and where they'll actually be put in a position to succeed 
3. The Canucks allowing prospects to stew longer in general, we've got an awful track record regarding the development of prospects in house 
4. No more trading picks
5. A Horvat trade with retainment, more than likely he won't be extending here imo 
6. Management embracing a step or two back to take steps forward going forward as more contracts come off the books 
7. No long term contracts for anyone in the near future unless their name is Elias Pettersson or Quinn Hughes, stick to short and medium term deals 

Are you available for a GM job starting next week?

[FlyLow_]

1. New Owners that actually want to build a stanley cup team

2. Miller traded for something useful and cheap

3. Myers traded for something useful and cheap

4. Horvat traded for fair value

5. Total revamping of the defense and bottom six

6. Demko gets healthy and good again

7. Team continues to get tougher and faster

[Phil_314]

1. Stop trying to win now by making stopgap moves (e.g. trading for players in their 20's who cost picks and while currently serviceable, don't really raise the team's ceiling)

2. Clear the deck of overinflated contracts (e.g., Miller due to bad defense, Myers [at next TDL], Pearson [can retain some and trade for a pick when healthy], determine where they stand with Boeser/ Garland in the long run; if they're viewed as bad contracts, either trade for other serviceable pieces in need positions who might also be overpriced, wanting to move from their current teams or pending UFA [e.g. Connor Murphy/ Erik Johnson/ Scott Mayfield]; if not, put them in positions to succeed by playing up the lineup with Petey and Bo to raise their value, then can re-assess for trade); trade Kuzmenko and Schenn for maximal draft asset return at TDL, then re-sign Luke to similar level cheap deal

3. Marinate or move Hoglander/ Podkolzin/ Rathbone (if the upside isn't there, use as sweetener to free up cap space)
4. Keep players outside of the top-6 F, top-4 D and #1 goalie cheap and hungry (e.g., looking at Tampa, they loaded up on minimum contract vets and prospects [which we've done with Aman/ Joshua/ Lazar], while their top guys who deserved it made millions -- they basically rendered the middle, overpriced but underperforming portion of the lineup [of which we have many of this type of player] nonexistent in their championship roster)
5. Make adding that defensive stalwart RHD who will partner with Hughes a priority

Edited January 1, 2023 by Phil_314

[Bounce000]

I want them to sign me to a Louis Eriksson contract. Will it help the team? Nope. Will Canucks fans be outraged? Absolutely.

 

But you asked what I wished for.

[Ruthervin]

Try the following line combinations:

 

Kuzmenko-Horvat-Pettersson

Mikheyev-Miller-Boeser

Garland-Studnicka-Lazar

Joshua-Dries-Pederson

 

Stack your top line with your three best players and make them a modern day WCE. Make your bottom 6 total energy

[van_ws]

I want a God damn plan and direction. I will not be investing my time and money in this team until I see a clear plan. Other things I would like to see in 2023 is some significant changes to this roster and tanking for Bedard or a top pick.

[Ted Lasso]

1. Stay true to retaining all picks in this draft

2. Support BB or replace him, no more lame duck coach

3. Replace the Assistants (regardless of 2)

4. Trade all UFA’s we don’t re-sign by the deadline

5. Sell high (may need to wait til the off-season to get max values)

6. Compromise on trade returns - accept picks and prospects that build our future OR can be used as currency for C or RHD

[Canuckfanforlife82]

Accept change and stop with the empty promises. Rebuild, accept that term.

[IBatch]

What's with the hack on people not wearing their favourite player(s) jerseys!? 

 

Odd wish.   Are fans supposed to dress up and behave?   Good grief will leave that one alone.   Maybe hockey isn't your sport, and no i don't own one either.   Just a 94 western conference championship shirt that's 4 sizes too small lol.   A gift, and one i couldn't wear by the time I was 12-13. 

 

Leagues  creating a "standard" for games about how we should "behave".    That doesn't sound like fun.   Will reserve judgement until i can read it.   Better not be stupid crap in it like "be quiet".    And maybe include people have to keep their phones in their pockets - nothing is more annoying then someone close by with their face in their device most of the game - especially talking to some friend about their day or some crap.    That would be my first wish for the New Year.    Have you ever been "shussed" at a game by the security!    Wow imagine that - cheering is bannned.   Polite clapping i suppose.  Wouldn't want the person a row down and a couple seats over not be able to hear their discussion about their inane life BS while their face is in their phone. 

 

My wish is prices don't go up so hardworking folks who circle a date on their calender when the schedule comes out, can enjoy the game.    In TO up to 100k fans who aren't fortunate enough to find tickets and or afford them, watch the big screen.   Often 50-60k fans outside, while suits miss the game for some function.    That's not for me - that's for the fans in general.   

 

Biggest wish is salaries are no longer disclosed.   Everyone has to sign that they won't tell anyone their salary:  it can be kept internal.   So OP great job on that.   Let them talk about it after they've retired for 3 years or something.   The media and myself included, get way too caught up in that.   Agree it's pretty distracting, pre-cap was so so much better.  

 

Going back to the uniforms.   I remember seeing Ryan Walter, Dixon Ward and Lafayette jerseys.     It wasn't just Linden/Bure/McLean.    People identified to how they played, or some other thing - and wore it proudly.   Now? Well cap and stuff.   Everyone who's ever followed the NHL, suffered because of greed - both owners and players.   Would love to see that again.   League should NOT disclose cap to the public, it's really none of our business anyways.  Imagine IF we had to disclose our income, and how goofy that would make this forum.   Butt kissing and envy and all sorts of BS would follow.

 

As for the Canucks.   Just no more half measures.   If management thinks we are close - then trade the next 3 years firsts or whatever it takes to go for it.   Or blow it all up.   No more half measures.  That's it.  
 

 

[BertaNuck]

On 12/31/2022 at 8:10 PM, Bounce000 said:

I want them to sign me to a Louis Eriksson contract. Will it help the team? Nope. Will Canucks fans be outraged? Absolutely.

 

But you asked what I wished for.

That’s it? 
personally I’m going for the sundin contract