Poll: Dog Days of Summer. Where Will We Finish in The 2023/24 Western Conference Standings?

[KirkSave]

As it stands our C depth is weak and should an injury occur to either Petey or Miller, we would be hooped. We still don't have a solid 3C  IMHO. Also, although we have some new additions to the D too, I don't think we have found a long term partner for Hughes yet. Cole could be a place-holder for the season and Soucy would be out of his element playing top pairing minutes against the oppositions best players. Hronek is still an unknown. On paper, it looks more promising than we did to start the season last year. I don't think the additions we have made thus far are enough to get us into the playoffs. In a dream world we would somehow pry Carlo from Boston and our D could be legit, playoff worthy.

 

Hughes  Carlo

Cole   Hronek

Soucy  Myers

 

*We send Boston Beauvilier and our 1st for 2025. The cap would be a wash. Good for both sides. I'd even throw in a prospect to make it more appealing (Bloom or Klim).

 

Lastly, wonder if Filip Joho is gonna make some noise at camp and pre-season? Could he play with Huggy????????

[Strawbone]

You’re not kidding about the dog days of summer. I’m going entire days without thinking about the Canucks which is almost unprecedented! The forums are for sure a bit of a wasteland over the summer. 
 

I voted 8. My heart says higher but my head says no, heart, you do that to yourself every year and you’re always disappointed so cut it out. 

[bishopshodan]

1 hour ago, Ghostsof1915 said:

Woof, woof, bark. bark, pant

What's that? Oh no! Timmy fell in the well?

[Slegr]

Sixth! I smell what our rock coach is cooking, and am ready to get behind a super hard-hard working team that is hard wired to win at all costs.

[luckylager]

4 minutes ago, bishopshodan said:

What's that? Oh no! Timmy fell in the well?

How deep is it boy? 

[Chicken.]

5th but im probably too optimistic by nature 

 

Surprisingly nobody has voted 1st yet

[Barnstorm]

3 hours ago, Ghostsof1915 said:

Woof, woof, bark. bark, pant

 

[-Vintage Canuck-]

7th-9th.

[Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw]

9 hours ago, kloubek said:

I think we will make the playoffs. That's all I can say I believe to be true. But there are lots of variables:

 

- Seattle has been better than I think most of us expected. Can they continue their strong play?

- How good are the Avs now? They made the playoffs, but were handily disposed of. Are they currently a playoff team?

- Do the Flames return to form as a playoff team, or are they just screwed for years now?

 

...and for us, Can the Canucks play like their team on paper would suggest? Will the team find a groove under Tocchet? Did management actually fix our D?

But yeah. I'd say this is a playoff team, but probably not good enough to make any extended waves during post-season.

Seattle can probably do better.  They absolutely stockpiled their draft picks these first few years.  10 picks this past draft.  11 the year before.

 

The Avalanche will always make the playoffs as long as their core is healthy.  They qualified despite getting ravaged by injuries this year.  They lost a ton of man-games.  Doesn't matter if they crash out in first round - they're getting a spot.

 

Flames are a coin flip.  They're a strong team on paper but the dressing room seems like it's about to completely implode.  They're one losing streak away from blowing it up.

 

This is something I feel Canucks fans have forgotten over the years - you actually have to be a good regular season team before trying to be a good playoff team.  Some of these teams aren't built for winning in April, but they'll win a lot of games over the course of six months.  And that makes it harder for us to beath them.  I'm not sure if Vancouver is a good enough regular season team to earn a seat at the playoff table.

 

[DownUndaCanuck]

Last year everyone predicted a 3rd in the division to 1st or 2nd wild card spot.

 

This off-season we've made some big, great moves to solidify the defence, our forwards should be even better and our stars even better with a healthy Demko all year.

 

That being said, look at our division:

 

Vegas - just won the Cup, no signs of slowing down.

Edmonton - going head to head with contenders these days.

LAK - made some bold moves, stronger up front, they're well ahead of us now trying to etch their way into the contender category.

Seattle - crazy depth of course, in the LAK category, solid playoff team and pushing to become a contender.

Calgary - trash team but depends on how their stars Huberdeau and Kadri (and their ageing defence and goalie) perform under a new coach, they could drop off but will probably remain around the same - outside of the playoff race looking in.

SJS - trash

Anaheim - trash but with a bit more firepower next year

 

Looking over to the Central:

 

Colorado - not much improvement but their stars will make them contenders as long as they're around.

Dallas - surprisingly solid and deep in the playoffs and their core is still very young, they're close to a decent contending team.

Minnesota - hard to say where they'll go, I think they'll regress a bit. They have a solid bunch of defencemen, good young forwards and top goalies but I think they drop back a bit. In 2 years time when that 14M dead cap is gone, watch out, that's basically two top players to add to the team.

Winnipeg - all depends on what happens to Hellebuyk, but even if he stays I think that team is in a real state. They need some big moves, shake up the core. Think they're getting a bit too toxic and drop down a bit and under-perform.

Nashville - bottom of the league area. They have around 9M in dead cap next year, a lot more the next few years, have a fair few picks but have a bunch of kids coming in to play under 1M in cap hits. They made some interesting moves but they're going to surely be a bottom team for a few years. Saros and Forsberg and Josi might keep them kind-of relevant but not sure what the ROR move was for, they're going to struggle.

St Louis - a bit of a Calgary-problem, old goalie who's surely going to be rubbish next year, young forwards but none of them are truly elite and their D isn't anything amazing anymore to be honest. I think they'll struggle and be well out of a playoff spot and end up being a big time seller.

Arizona - trash

Chicago - trash

 

On that note I think we'll end up seeing Vegas, Edmonton and LAK easily take top 3 in our division (LA maybe even higher than Edmonton with PLD and Gavrikov in the fold). Seattle a very close 4th takes one of the wild card spots.

 

In the Central, it's a bit more up in the air but I think Dallas takes the division, Colorado second and one of Winnipeg or Minnesota the last spot (it's a real coin toss, right now I'll give it to Winnipeg depending on how the drama all goes). 

 

So that last wild card spot is really down to the Canucks, Flames and maybe Minnesota. Are we better than those two teams? I think we can be. I doubt we push our way into the top-4 of the division. We've got a great core like Dallas but lack their size and depth but you never know.

 

It's not great but I think we take the last wild card spot. Not really where you want to be - headed into a Vegas first round matchup on the road is basically a white wash anyway and waste of a year, but at least it's something.

[HorvatToBaertschi]

I think this is the year we see a big step up in the standings. A healthy Demko, a revamped defence, an established system by a competent coaching staff and a retooled PK unit makes us a much stronger team. If we can just get lucky and have a relatively healthy season, we can do a lot of damage. I'm not very sold on LA as a lock for a top 3 spot in the division, and Calgary is on the downswing. It's as good a year as any to start making some noise. 

[HorvatToBaertschi]

13 hours ago, KirkSave said:

As it stands our C depth is weak and should an injury occur to either Petey or Miller, we would be hooped. We still don't have a solid 3C  IMHO. Also, although we have some new additions to the D too, I don't think we have found a long term partner for Hughes yet. Cole could be a place-holder for the season and Soucy would be out of his element playing top pairing minutes against the oppositions best players. Hronek is still an unknown. On paper, it looks more promising than we did to start the season last year. I don't think the additions we have made thus far are enough to get us into the playoffs. In a dream world we would somehow pry Carlo from Boston and our D could be legit, playoff worthy.

 

Hughes  Carlo

Cole   Hronek

Soucy  Myers

 

*We send Boston Beauvilier and our 1st for 2025. The cap would be a wash. Good for both sides. I'd even throw in a prospect to make it more appealing (Bloom or Klim).

 

Lastly, wonder if Filip Joho is gonna make some noise at camp and pre-season? Could he play with Huggy????????

I agree with you (other than Hronek being an unknown) but let's face it, any team with an injury to their top 2 players would struggle heavily. Just in our division, an injury to McDavid or Drai would be horrific, an injury to Kopitar or Doughty could crush the Kings, Vegas seems to be immune to it, an injury to Lindholm or Huberdeau could cripple the Flames, an injured McCann or Beniers could be terrible for Seattle....

 

This year we start with the following players not needing season-ending surgery; Demko, OEL, Pearson and Mikheyev....

 

We have a huge advantage compared to last year

Edited August 1, 2023 by HorvatToBaertschi

[iinatcc]

If we are to rank the conference

 

Will make the playoffs 

Minnesota

Dallas

Colorado

Edmonton

Vegas

Los Angeles 

 

Might make the playoffs but a higher tier than Vancouver 

Seattle 

 

Fighting for the Wild Card 

Nashville 

Winnipeg

Calgary

St. Louis

Vancouver 

 

The Rest 

Arizona

Anaheim 

San Jose 

Chicago

 

From this we can assume between 7 and 12

 

So safe I side I will predict 9th between their group 

[grandmaster]

We’re gonna kick a$$

 

Canucks will not only make the playoffs, they will win a round or two (hopefully more!)

[canuck73_3]

8th is my guess. Calgary will be the biggest wildcard. Will they bounce back after a dinosaur like Sutter running things or is it more of the same?

[Ted Lasso]

Mid-Summer power rankings have us at 13th in the West.

 

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/nhl-power-rankings-which-teams-are-on-the-rise-at-the-mid-summer-mark/

 

Using their order, here is an attempted tier list for the division:

 

tier 1 - contenders 

 

Colorado

Vegas

Edmonton

 

tier 2 - playoff calibre (trending up, fairly complete roster)

 

Dallas 

LA 

Seattle

 

tier 3 - playoff hopeful (trending flat, missing an important piece, like 1C)

 

Minnesota 

Nashville 

 

tier 4 - teams in flux (decent rosters, but key players want out)

 

Calgary

Winnipeg

 

tier 5 - not close to the playoffs

 

St. Louis 

Arizona

 

tier 5 - rebuilding 

 

Anaheim

Chicago

San Jose

 

On paper, I can see us hanging with Seattle at our best, and possibly taking 3rd in the Pacific.

 

More realistically, we should be competitive in tier 3, while watching the rearview for the Jets or Flames to turn things around faster than expected.

 

Knowing management is committed to the playoffs, I voted for 7th. 

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by Ted Lasso
relocated Columbus and Chicago to their proper conferences

[iinatcc]

7 minutes ago, Ted Lasso said:

Mid-Summer power rankings have us at 13th in the West.

 

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/nhl-power-rankings-which-teams-are-on-the-rise-at-the-mid-summer-mark/

 

Using their order, here is an attempted tier list for the division:

 

tier 1 - contenders 

 

Colorado

Vegas

Edmonton

 

tier 2 - playoff calibre (trending up, fairly complete roster)

 

Dallas 

LA 

Seattle

 

tier 3 - playoff hopeful (trending flat, missing an important piece, like 1C)

 

Minnesota 

Nashville 

Columbus 

 

tier 4 - teams in flux (decent rosters, but key players want out)

 

Calgary

Winnipeg

 

tier 5 - not close to the playoffs

 

St. Louis 

Arizona

 

tier 5 - rebuilding 

 

Anaheim

San Jose

 

On paper, I can see us hanging with Seattle at our best, and possibly taking 3rd in the Pacific.

 

More realistically, we should be competitive in tier 3, while watching the rearview for the Jets or Flames to turn things around faster than expected.

 

Knowing management is committed to the playoffs, I voted for 7th. 

 

Insert Columbus multiverse joke here 

[spook007]

3rd....

If I predict the future, may as well do it optimistic...

 

What the point of lookiing down beat and predict we won't make it. Its summer be happy...

 

[kloubek]

12 hours ago, Bob.Loblaw said:

This is something I feel Canucks fans have forgotten over the years - you actually have to be a good regular season team before trying to be a good playoff team.  Some of these teams aren't built for winning in April, but they'll win a lot of games over the course of six months.  And that makes it harder for us to beath them.  I'm not sure if Vancouver is a good enough regular season team to earn a seat at the playoff table.

 

You just wait. Do you not recall the adversity our own team went through recently? Fired coaches, covid, players like Petey losing all confidence, internal conflicts, serious injuries. The Canucks have had a rough go of it themselves, and such issues can afflict any team from time to time. I feel if all that didn't happen, you would have seen a much more competitive team over the last couple of years. The difference between winning and losing in the NHL is often a fine line - not unusual to be decided by one goal. I feel if our team remains healthy and build off of Tocchet's leadership, that enough changes have been made that by all rights the Canucks should be notably more successful in the regular season if nothing else.

 

Like you say, the playoffs are a different game though and in that regard, I'll be interested to see how this team holds up against the bigger teams in the playoffs. But for the regular season, despite being wrong 2 years in a row now, I maintain this IS the year the team gets into the post-season.

[Ted Lasso]

1 hour ago, iinatcc said:

Insert Columbus multiverse joke here 

Oh boy..woops.

 

Cheers