Are We Back on the JR Bandwagon Yet?

[JamesB]

Recent History.

 

When Benning was fired in the middle of last season pretty much everyone in the media and most of the fan base was relieved.  Personally I would have been happy to replace him with Fin or Ryp (the Canuck puppy). When Rutherford (JR) was named as team president that was a bonus as JR has a great track record and is smart.

 

The one slightly awkward thing was that a new coach (Boudreau --BB) was hired by the owner just before JR came on board.

 

The team went on 7-game winning streak and continued to play well, surprising everyone by actually getting into the playoff conversation. JR said he wanted to fill out the front office before making roster moves and he wanted to get a good look at the team. Pretty much everyone was on board with that. The JR bandwagon was pretty full,

 

Some complaints began to surface when the trade deadline came and went with no significant moves. Personally I was unhappy the Canucks did not trade Miller to the Rangers for the reported offer of Chytill, Lundqvist, and a first round pick.  But it was understandable that the team would try to chase a playoff spot and thought it could get more in trades down the road. 

 

Things did not work out. The Canucks faded down the stretch, missed the playoffs, but did well enough to only get the 15th overall draft pick, and did not acquire any other 2022 draft picks. By the time the 2022 draft had come and gone the Canucks had actually lost ground relative to rivals as they did not even have a second round pick. As the summer progressed the team failed to clear meaningful cap space, failed to re-sign Bo Horvat, failed to do anything to improve the D, and spent most of their available cap space on a middle-6 UFA winger (Mikheyev). The one obviously good thing was signing Kuzmenko to a one-year entry level deal. 

 

But overall, the bloom was off the rose and there was increasing grumbling about JR and Patrick Allvin (PA).

 

The criticism got a lot louder after Miller was re-signed. It seemed like another desperate "win-now" move by a team that was not likely to win now and, after the move, seemed less likely to win in the future given Miller's age. Then the team traded away a future 2nd round pick (2024 draft) to save a small amount of cap space and bring on board a replacement level D (Stillman). Then the team got off to a terrible start, losing 7 in a row.

 

Then there was the debacle over the mid-season coaching change. BB was a very popular coach with a very good track record and it seemed the JR treated him with less respect than he should have. Pretty much everyone in the media and almost all posters on CDC (including me) were negative as well. The JR bandwagon was looking pretty empty.

 

Refilling the Bandwagon. .

 

I think it is time to get back on the JR bandwagon. Here is my thinking.

 

1. JR inherited a difficult situation. The team was not very good and looked better than it was during the hot streak because of outstanding and unsustainable goaltending. The Canucks had among the weakest prospect pipelines in the league. The team was in a very bad cap situation, and did not even have a full set of draft picks going into the 2022 draft. We can also add in an impatient and interfering owner.

 

2. The coaching situation was also a challenge. JR apparently thought that BB was hired just to finish the 2021-22 season and did not realize that he was, in effect, signed for another year. BB has a very good regular season record as a coach but JR and BB have different coaching philosophies. BB was never going to be a structured coach of the type JR wanted. And JR has a much better playoff record, which is where structure is particularly important. JR could have handled the situation better but I think that firing BB was the right move. 

 

3. The two coaches JR has hired -- Tocchet on the big team and Colliton in Abby look to me like very good coaches. They are certainly on the same page as JR. In fact, the whole operation in Abby is dramatically improved, including a skating coach and with more development coaches, including the Sedins.The benefits of an improved farm team do not show up right away but are very important as time goes on.

 

4. The team has made a lot of small moves. Some work out and some don't. But, overall, the combination of the these small moves is impressive. Bringing in guys like Bear, Kravtsov, Aman, Joshua, Lazar, Wolanin and others for next to nothing looks good. Stillman and Studnika might not work out but that is pretty good overall. The Horvat trade was excellent. Beauvillier is good and his cap hit is no worse than fair value. At worst he could be traded for something at next year's deadline. But he might re-sign with the Canucks. Raty is a question but he has a big upside and he is a center. And first round picks are like gold. Even the Kuzmenko signing is a plus as it is good value and he could be traded. That contract is a positive value for the Canucks. I still don't like the Miller contract but Miller is playing a lot better and he might even be decent value for a few years.

 

5. The Canucks first round pick -- Lekkerimaki  -- has had a bad year, but health is a big part of the problem, so we can reasonably hope for a big bounce-back next year. But the 3rd rounder -- Elias Pettersson -- has had an excellent draft+1 year and now looks like a steal as a 3rd rounder.  

 

6. We'll see how thing evolve over through the deadline, the draft and the summer. But I expect the Canucks to contend for a playoff spot next year. Building a cup contender is still a longshot, but I think JR was dealt (or inherited) a bad hand and has played it pretty well. 

[Alflives]

Compared to the previous regime the new guys are phenomenal. 

[Coconuts]

Nope, middling results imo. We'll have a better idea of how to gauge them by next season's training camp. 

[ForestFalcon]

Gonna want to wait and see how things go with Petey's contract.

[-AJ-]

A few good moves have been made, which is nice, but I'm not willing to make a commitment yet.

[BertaNuck]

There are gambling on some big maybe type player trades 

 

raty 

kravstov 

 

hopefully doesn’t turn out to be 

goldoblin, bearcheese players we tried to reclaim 

[Canuck You]

Everyone has a price, Drop the beer prices and cheapen the tix and I'm in!

[24K PureCool]

He is good at trading I'll give you that. But other aspects of the job is meh to atrocious. 

[GB5]

Still disappointed until we see something meaningful with the defense.

 

Ps... JR is not the GM... Alvin is the guy here.

[EdgarM]

48 minutes ago, JamesB said:

 

I think you missed the most obvious and the most important changes that he is making. The Culture of this club is changing and we are already seeing it have an effect. The Bo/Miller conflict is no longer here and Petey seems to have gained from it. He is no longer under Bo's wing and he can now flourish to his potential.

The Coaching change was also a huge change. Before BB, we had 2 rookie coaches which spanned from 2014-21. Thats a long time to be without a legitimate NHL coach. The New coaches are well respected(many have alot of experience and Stanley Cups) and command attention from this young group. The bad habits of this team became obvious and Tocchet has been able to identify them and is in the process of correcting them. They have been missing many good common habits that succeful teams employ. Hopefully those that don't want to follow this plan, will get moved.

Finally, I think they are linking the minor team with the big club so there is a better relationship between the two. This will improve over time.

The one thing I am hoping they improve is our strategies on the draft floor. In the past , it seems we have no game plan and we end up with nothing that we need to build our team.   I think they have been pretty good so far.

[Bob.Loblaw]

I don't care about how successful the club is for some time.  It is still absolutely shameful how he and the front office handled the firing of Bruce Boudreau.  It has actually put a serious stain on the franchise.  When it comes to sports, there is something more than just pure performance.  Fans should want to be proud to support their team.  We have no pride right now.

[grumpyone]

ask me again on saturday, AFTER the deadline

[hammertime]

How's our defense.  

[NewbieCanuckFan]

4 minutes ago, hammertime said:

How's our defense.  

Tough to improve without moving OEL.  Even offering a 1st round pick (lottery pick protected obviously) wouldn't be enough for another team to take on that contract.  Myers is alot more movable.

[Sell.the.team]

new boss same as the old boss

 

but Aqua is the true culprit.

[EdgarM]

2 minutes ago, NewbieCanuckFan said:

Tough to improve without moving OEL.  Even offering a 1st round pick (lottery pick protected obviously) wouldn't be enough for another team to take on that contract.  Myers is alot more movable.

Yes the two biggest stumbling blocks for sure. Hoping for a miracle at this point.

[Crabcakes]

1 hour ago, BertaNuck said:

There are gambling on some big maybe type player trades 

 

raty 

kravstov 

 

hopefully doesn’t turn out to be 

goldoblin, bearcheese players we tried to reclaim 

I think these types of players are hit and miss but mostly miss.  Did Benning hit on any of them?  Baertchi was the best and then he came into concussion issues.  The thing is, it has to be part of your plan but only a small part.  Benning gave away too many picks.  

 

Allvin at least, gets that he needs good picks and insisted on the 1st for Horvat.

 

I think that if you're counting on 60% draft picks, 40% projects, college and Europeans you might be successful.

 

The thing too is that a lot of these reclamation types are running out of time on their ELC which is the reason why they're being traded.  You have to look for the reasons.  Raty has 2 years on his ELC after this season.  Kravstov has arb rights this summer because he was signed in 2019 but he also played off and on in the KHL since.  He's never really performed in the NHL so he'll sign for <$1M for a year again.  But the real reason why he was moved was to make room for Kane so he's fairly low risk.  

[Rush17]

Since Rutherford said he'd take a step back I give them a solid A. Prior to that maybe a B-.

[Crabcakes]

I'm mostly happy with the new regime.  I wasn't happy with keeping Miller over Horvat but I did wonder about the reasons why thing unfolded the way they did.  Was there a conflict between Horvat and Miller as @EdgarM suggested?  They may have felt that they had to sign one or the other and felt that on balance Miller was the better call.  At any rate, they don't seem to be any worse off for losing Horvat.

 

I liked Boudreau a lot but now that Tocchet has been here a few weeks, I think that he is exactly what the team needed.  He took them down, forcing the new system and now he's getting buy in and they're starting to play better.  My impression is that Tocchet is tough but not mean.

 

But the big picture is really what is happening in the front office.  Allvin is the GM and not Rutherford but Rutherford is a better front man.  However, he stuck his foot in it one too many times so Allvin is going to have to learn how to do the dance.  I like the deals that Allvin has done in the main and think that he's pretty much as advertised: cautious, thorough and methodical.  It's clear that the biggest project he has is to re-work the defense but it's very hard to do anything with the top 4 especially will little cap room.  However, he hasn't stopped making deals around the fringes that he is able to.  The Major Surgery that he has done so far has been good.

 

I give them 2 years, the year after next, before they're fighting for a playoff spot again.  It just seems that the mess that they've inherited can't be rushed

[D.B Cooper]

 

They still suck.  
I don’t like the Lekkermaki pick. 
Our defence is absolutely horrible. 
JR is a goof. 
Im fine with the Bo trade, but that’s not enough to sell me on the garbage job the did up until a week or two ago