I wonder if they are legitimately considering throwing McCann in Utica next year. I think it would be the right course of action barring an awesome camp given how his season has went, but the optics wouldn't be great. Would make it seem like their development strategy was a waste of time.
With McCann in Utica we would have 5 centres with 3 having the option to move to wing (even if it's not ideal for Gaunce or probably for Granlund as well).
I know this will get me ***** slapped and told to get out of Vancouver business because I don't have any idea what I'm talking about, but here goes anyways.
Can anyone there be truly honest for one minute instead of Blue and Green blood stream brain fogged? Take all of the centers in Vancouver possession in both the NHL and AHL and stack them up. Sedin is a #1 center. Bo is going to be an NHL player, but not a #1, maybe not even a star #2 (he will be able to take that role, but will he star in it). He would be a definite star #3. The rest of the centers are not NHL star #1s. McCann is maybe going to be a good one and seems more likely to be the #2.
Before you start bashing, just look at the state of the game. Look at every good team in the NHL, teams that contend for the top spot. They all have a star at #1 center. That guy established himself at that position at a pretty early age and when he wasn't number 1 he was taking a regular shift at #2 or putting up big points on a wing, with everyone raving about how good he was going to be. The rest of the hockey world outside of Vancouver is not talking about any Canucks in that vein. Jimbo is stacking the lineup with outcasts and bottom 6 players with every move he makes. Sutter was a #3 and that's what he is still. Bo is being forced to be a #2 and he is treading water compared to the rest of the league's #2s on any contender.
I know the Canucks are not contenders. No one can rightly say whether they are rebuilding or retooling. The moves of this management team don't illustrate their knowledge of which it is either. They aren't acquiring the kind of draft picks that teams like Toronto and Calgary are amassing to try and attain those players that will make them contenders. They are not acquiring the kind of players that show a retool either. Their farm is not rich in prospects showing a ceiling higher than bottom level, NHLers either. The whole system is in a form of developmental chaos.
Until the Canucks acquire players that are capable of comparable play to the rest of the league's top lines this franchise will continue to flounder in a sea of hurt of their own making. How is Jimbo going to obtain the Toews, Kane, Crosby, Malkin, Kopitar, Ovechkin, Tavares, Eichel, McDavid, Mathews, Parise, Keith, Weber, Suter types when he continually passes up chances for high draft picks, trades away #2s and 3's, and continues to stock his roster with guys other teams gave up on, and extends unrealistic contracts for guys no one else would pay that kind of money and then is cap strapped when he tries to add to his roaster and can't free up that space because no one else can afford those guys at that salary level. He's not tryng to trade Stamkos. He'd be trying to trade Sbisa, Sutter, or Miller on anchor contracts. It's been recently reported that Miller maybe getting an extension rather than just playing out his contract. Benning just doesn't stop.
This appears to be a franchise locked into going nowhere for years to come. The best they can hope for is the borderline playoff team and an early exit. Just enough talent to hang in there, but never enough to take off. Their ownership team seems not only satisfied with that, but committed to it. Thus, never low enough in the draft to acquire key top level pieces and constantly trying to figure out a way to get players marginally better than what they have and forever bailing while the ship continues to take on water. This management team is completely at a loss for any semblance of solution. It will take brilliant minds, and probably several, very ballsy management teams willing to tell Aquaman he is wrong and be willing to take a stand until the dope either listens or sells, in order to right this ship.
Looks like a lot of frustrating years ahead for the followers of Canucks and Comets hockey. Ownership is doggedly convinced it knows something and the hires it takes on to run things are selected due to their ability to be controlled. Thus, aside from the one nice run of success and another short one, this franchise has not been a factor in the NHL and Aquman and company won't be any time soon and he seems okay with that as long as he makes his money like Ballard was in Toronto for years and that franchise has yet to recover from his reign and those that followed him. They may finally be on the right track as they have relented to strong mindedness on the part of their management team who has the reins in their hands at least for now. That's what it will take in Vancouver, but someone has to be smart enough to find that team as Shanahan was and Aquaman needs someone smart enough to steer him to that catalyst. Linden certainly failed at that capacity.
One can always hope. That's all we as fans can actually do. The rest is always going to be out of our hands.