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[Report/Rumour] Ethan Bear Contract Talks


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I’d like to see either 2 or 3 years on Bear at ballpark 2.3 -2.7. I think 2.75 is where I max out on him if it’s more than 1 year. I love the guy. He’s a great guy, plays a good hockey game. I just don’t think he will ever develop into more than what he is now and to me, I think 2.75 or less is really where his value tops out. I also think since he’s had some injury history and seeing where we’re at with Poolman right now, it’s better to be a bit cautious. Win-win for both sides is 3 years at 2.5. Bear gets stability with a team for a few years and Canucks get a reliable player at a fair price for a few years. 

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27 minutes ago, Diamonds said:

If he ends up being only a bottom pair guy, sure. But so far Bear is ahead of them and looks to have more potential. Johansson is obviously a wildcard but I'm not getting my hopes up too high before he plays a game in North America.

 

Bear has proven to be a #5 that can play top 4 spot duty, the question is whether he can up his game to be a consistent #4. Burroughs has shown to be a competent 6/7 guy but not more than that. Juulsen might still have more upside to him, but he's also at best a 6/7 guy right now. Schenn is a great leader and has chemistry with Hughes, but he's only a 5/6 guy which forces other defensemen to double-shift with Hughes and he is going to start slowing down with age.

Personally, I don't think Bear is far enough ahead of guys like Juulsen, Burroughs, or Johansson to bother paying an extra ~$2m per year. He's a 7th dman on a contender (Carolina), so why not save some cap, give others a chance, and roll with it until you find another top 4 rhd?

 

25 minutes ago, High and Inside said:

Juulsen has been awful. Brisebois can help out as as a 7th guy though even he had a brutal giveaway last night. I would definitely be happy to give Wolanin a shot as he seems like a  pretty sound player a guy you just don't notice good or bad but can eat some minutes. 

Juulsen had a great game beside Hughes yesterday. Looked solid, smart plays, big body, good mobility and sufficient IQ like Bear. 

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Wonder what his leverage is. He was a 7th/8th D in Carolina but has rebounded well here in big mins. I think he's an important player for us to retain given he has mobility & has played well in the Top 4 with both Hughes & OEL.

 

I'd pay him 2-3 on a 3 year deal if that was necessary. If we could then get out from Poolman & Myers this D could really be moving in the right direction. 

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Was on the Bear train to success when he started, but I wonder if we focus that 2M or so against a true top 4 defensive D man to pair with Hughes.

Burroughs could be our answer for a RD bottom pairing for less and I think his game matches what Tocchet would like to see. 

 

Also when possible concussion news hits most Canuck players it does not turn out well

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Bear probably tops out as a 5/6 defenseman. I think it would be best at this point to give him a one year deal. I'm hoping that AILvin will be active this summer actually dealing with the defense and providing both Hughes and Hronek will long term defensive partners that will finally solidify the top 4 spots on defense, preferably with defensemen who're more defensive and possess size and a nasty disposition to the opposition. I also hope that Schenn will return in the off-season. Perhaps Bear could be partnered with him? 

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1 hour ago, DeNiro said:

Save all our cap space for legit top 4’s and give guys like Brisebois, Wolanin, and Juulsen a shot. 

 

Cant be paying 2+ mil for a bottom pair defender. And if we are that money should go to Schenn not Bear.

 

Disagree that he's just an average 'bottom pair' defender. He was playing a Top 4 role pretty well in EDM at one time & has played it pretty well here. Not saying he's a surefire T4D but the Carolina stint seems like the outlier.

 

He's a 4/5 that is #5 on a good team but can step up & play the top 4 well. He has good mobility which is important for us & can score form time to time. For a defense that has been bad & often dealt with injuries I think its very good utility. And he'll likely be our best top 4 option until Myers is gone anyways. 

 

Brisebois, Wolanin & Juulsen have all had poor moments (tho some more than others) and I wouldn't trust them to be more than bottom pair D. 

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  • -Vintage Canuck- changed the title to [Report/Rumour] Ethan Bear Contract Talks
40 minutes ago, Captain Canuck #12 said:

Would we be better off putting Bear's money toward a UFA RHD in the Summer?  We might be able to find someone more effective than him.  I guess the positive aspect of resigning him, especially if it's a short-term deal, is that we can potentially unload him for an asset at the next TDL.

Probably not. Take a look at the available UFA right shot defencemen. Best guys are too old or way too expensive.

 

https://www.capfriendly.com/browse/free-agents/2024/salary/all/defense/ufa/desc/right?stats-season=2023

 

I think improvement will have to come via free agent signings or trades. 

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So, does everyone want an undersized d core that will get pushed around,  injured and goalies crashed constantly?

 

Hughes 5"10 180lbs Bear 5"11 197lbs

Oel 6"2 200lbs Hronek 6" 190lbs

 

will be the softest and probably smallest top 4 in the league by a mile.

 

 

time for some critical thinking.

 

Acquisition of Hronek after Bears injury implies what?

 

 

 

 

 

52 minutes ago, canucklehead44 said:

18 minutes per game. 14 points 43 games.  Best partner for Hughes since Tanev.

 

Do we re-sign him? Absolutely. Do his ice time and point performance scream massive raise? Not really.

 

1 year @2.8 or 3 years @ 2.5 million per

 

Don’t forget this guy didn’t even make the Hurricane and they essentially gave him to us for free (the 5th rounder was for the cap retention). He will want to stay in Van

Bear is an overpaid 7/8 dman on a contender. he lost his spot in Carolina to Jalen Chatfield.

 

 

Edited by GhostsOf1994
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4 minutes ago, GhostsOf1994 said:

So, does everyone want an undersized d core that will get pushed around,  injured and goalies crashed constantly?

 

Hughes 5"10 180lbs Bear 5"11 197lbs

Oel 6"2 200lbs Hronek 6" 190lbs

 

will be the softest and probably smallest top 4 in the league by a mile.

 

 

time for some critical thinking.

 

Acquisition of Hronek after Bears injury implies what?

 

 

 

 

 

Bear is an overpaid 7/8 dman on a contender. he lost his spot in Carolina to Jalen Chatfield.

 

 

There's this angle to consider as well. Buidling a defense based on puck-moving and speed without any consideration for how the games change in the playoffs is a mistake. The checking gets tighter and more brutal, and the stuff in between the whistles escalates as well. This defense should have a decent component of size to combat that. Size that can play though. 

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18 minutes ago, Smashian Kassian said:

 

Disagree that he's just an average 'bottom pair' defender. He was playing a Top 4 role pretty well in EDM at one time & has played it pretty well here. Not saying he's a surefire T4D but the Carolina stint seems like the outlier.

 

He's a 4/5 that is #5 on a good team but can step up & play the top 4 well. He has good mobility which is important for us & can score form time to time. For a defense that has been bad & often dealt with injuries I think its very good utility. And he'll likely be our best top 4 option until Myers is gone anyways. 

 

Brisebois, Wolanin & Juulsen have all had poor moments (tho some more than others) and I wouldn't trust them to be more than bottom pair D. 

I mean, considering their defense hasn't been solid forever that's not really a ringing endorsement. Same goes for his being anywhere near our top 4, we haven't had a really solid D core since the early 2010's. Maybe his stint in Carolina was an outlier, maybe it wasn't, at the end of the day he wasn't cracking the D core of one of the best defensive teams in the league. 

 

If our aim is to really build our defense we want better players than Bear in our top 4 imo. He's a 5 who can slot higher tops imo, or he should be. And at that point he's a bottom pairing RD, there are more cost effective options for bottom pairing RD, Schenn would be one of them. 

 

Myers has actually looked better of late, we've seen fewer of those chaos giraffe moments. If he's not traded I could very well see us just riding out that last season, at least til the deadline. Or maybe in it's entirety.  

 

I'm not opposed to retaining Bear but I don't think he's as important as some folks seem to. I wouldn't be giving him anything beyond a short term deal. 

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I'd go 1 year at 1.5 mil.  2 mil max for him.  He has been pretty good this season, but I'd put him on a show me type deal.  He takes a little less than he could get elsewhere to have the opportunity to earn a bigger long term deal the following year.  He is going to get a far bigger opportunity in Vancouver than he will on most teams.

 

I think we need a legit top 4 stay at home D for each of Hronek and Hughes and that should be priority #1.   I think a Bear/Johansson combo will be our #3 RD next year.

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1 hour ago, High and Inside said:

Juulsen has been awful. Brisebois can help out as as a 7th guy though even he had a brutal giveaway last night. I would definitely be happy to give Wolanin a shot as he seems like a  pretty sound player a guy you just don't notice good or bad but can eat some minutes. 

Juulsen was solid yesterday. 

 

He had that one game where he lost his guy who got a tap-in goal, but he's been fine except for that game. 

 

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1 hour ago, canucklehead44 said:

18 minutes per game. 14 points 43 games.  Best partner for Hughes since Tanev.

 

Do we re-sign him? Absolutely. Do his ice time and point performance scream massive raise? Not really.

 

1 year @2.8 or 3 years @ 2.5 million per

 

Don’t forget this guy didn’t even make the Hurricane and they essentially gave him to us for free (the 5th rounder was for the cap retention). He will want to stay in Van

I think we will wait to sign Bear after we find out if we get Livingston. If we get Livingston, then likely we let Bear walk. Would his qualifying offer be too much for our bottom pairing?

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Just now, Alflives said:

I think we will wait to sign Bear after we find out if we get Livingston. If we get Livingston, then likely we let Bear walk. Would his qualifying offer be too much for our bottom pairing?

It's a good point, who else is available and how we project our internal options will impact what happens with Bear

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A cheap and short deal if anything IMO. I don't mind Bear, but he hasn't been much better than a bottom pairing guy in my estimation. I'm not sure if he's worth $2M+ like his qualifying offer implies.

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8 minutes ago, PhillipBlunt said:

There's this angle to consider as well. Buidling a defense based on puck-moving and speed without any consideration for how the games change in the playoffs is a mistake. The checking gets tighter and more brutal, and the stuff in between the whistles escalates as well. This defense should have a decent component of size to combat that. Size that can play though. 

Also thought the Preds took liberties with some of our players lastnite mostly the D men though. a few preds players were hanging legs, high sticked Hughes, jumped on Wolanins back and pulled him down etc

 

its not about having the biggest meanest d core as a whole, more of a mix of everything is needed to be a complete team.

 

having a bunch of undersized d men will get the Canucks nowhere fast.

 

Hughes & Hronek are locks, the rest of the dcore is a major question mark. Heard a few rumours OEL may be done though those are probably wishful thinking by the poster. Myers will likely be moved also.

 

Hughes RHD

LHD Hronek

LHD RHD

???? ???

 

Bear, Dermott, Brisebois and Juulsen are all RFA. Ideally I'd like to keep Juulsen & Dermott in the 7-8 spots.

 

No, I do not want bear as a top 8, hell i don't even want him in Abby.

 

Bear to Winnepeg for Logan Stanley? both are RFA with Stanley fitting the age bracket Allvin has mentioned.

 

Bigger, Younger, Tougher & harder to play against.

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I'm sure they will wait until the summer to see who else is available.  Bear was a top 4 Dman on an AHL defence in Edmonton, moved down to a 7th Dman on a Stanley Cup contender and now is back in the top 4 on another AHL defence.  He's not a top 4 guy, he's a 5/6 guy.  We now have a great all around puck moving Dman in Hronek on the rigth side, so either Bear is playing with Hughes or he is on the bottom pairing.  We can't be paying guys $2.5 million+ to play the bottom pairing and we need a big defensive Dman to play with Hughes.

 

If we can sign Livingstone as a free agent and bring back Schenn between $1-1.5 million then we don't really need Bear anymore.  We can use that money to try and find a legit partner for Hughes.

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