Canucks News, Rumours, and & Fantasy GM | Playoffs Approaching

[bossram]

I hate to say it but established what?
BB has never played on a winner, this entire team has not had a winning season in the player's careers. Established losers not counting this season and one season does make a career.

Rutherford knows the way forward is to change the status quo

Look at who LA moved for PLD

They can't dismantled the defence and make it smaller at the same time. They ARE the 5th best defence in the league their first year as a group.

Jarmo, Babs, DFL again, not even mentioned in the market for anything good all year, the other 15 AAA prospects? Capped out?

They have already committed cap space to defence, they need to have a BIG good news announcement for a really good player that has history they can sell.
You gotta admit it would be news worthy.

They're established NHL players. Boeser is bonafide top-line player. He scores at a career pace of 65 points per 82. Yes, that is established. You want to trade for prospects. In what way are they "established"? What have those prospects won? PLD was also traded for a couple of legitimate NHL players. I can't even really tell what you're arguing here because your arguments are incoherent.

Plus this obsession with trading for Jiricek is off-the-wall. They're not going to trade him, short of an offer that is absolutely mind-blowing. Let's get real here. The Canucks have two assets that CBJ would trade Jiricek for: Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes. That is it. We know it's not happening. Let's move on here.

 

[PavelBure10]

Allvin has been a superb GM and is probably a leading candidate for GM of the year but I found his trade deadline no show extremely disappointing. Allvin said he made all his moves during the season but the Canucks are showing as of late that there are still some glaring holes on this roster. Another top 6 forward and a top 4 defenseman are a must on this roster, and it hasn't been more evident than the past stretch of sloppy games by the Canucks. The Canucks defense is showing their warts. I kind of feel like Allvin got so enamored with acquiring Guentzel that he totally missed out on other potential suiters such as Toffoli. Just like Benning did when he was obsessed with acquiring OEL 2 years before actually trading for him. I can't really criticize Allvin for much of anything because he's been great but even the Kuzmenko trade has been subpar. Ever since Kuzmenko was traded the whole team seemed to lose their killer instinct. I'm hoping in the off-season that Allvin addresses our needs.

 

[B-rock]

I think that’s over the top. He absolutely turned the team around 180 degrees from the direction it had been heading for the past eight years by making smart acquisitions in free agency and throughout the season.

We all want the team to go from last to nhl champions in a season but I don’t think it’s a one season job. I think the process is ongoing. Getting to the playoffs and leading the league over the bulk of the season is a monumental change from where we were a year ago. Winning a cup would be nice but I think its a stretch for that much change.

They’ve thankfully made the decision to not sell off all their futures and assets to go all in for one year and instead have multiple chances at it.

 

[sting101]

Allvin has been a superb GM and is probably a leading candidate for GM of the year but I found his trade deadline no show extremely disappointing. Allvin said he made all his moves during the season but the Canucks are showing as of late that there are still some glaring holes on this roster. Another top 6 forward and a top 4 defenseman are a must on this roster, and it hasn't been more evident than the past stretch of sloppy games by the Canucks. The Canucks defense is showing their warts. I kind of feel like Allvin got so enamored with acquiring Guentzel that he totally missed out on other potential suiters such as Toffoli. Just like Benning did when he was obsessed with acquiring OEL 2 years before actually trading for him. I can't really criticize Allvin for much of anything because he's been great but even the Kuzmenko trade has been subpar. Ever since Kuzmenko was traded the whole team seemed to lose their killer instinct. I'm hoping in the off-season that Allvin addresses our needs.

cap space?

would have required more than just trading future assets for players. There is a reason why Lindholm and Zadorov were rumoured to be potentially back on the block because they were limited by who they could move that would get back enough cap space and then still have value assets to trade...... i believe them when they said it didn't make sense.

Our past GM would have done irreparable damage to make a move. These guys are smarter than that.

The shame/problem is Pettersson Demko and Lindholm are doing very little to nothing to help this team win right now and a handful of players have hit the wall. Gotta get it back on the tracks quick here. Not a good way to go into post season as a speed and skill team struggling to score and not looking that fast.

 

[sting101]

Tough reality is that we have to shave 5 million off the roster and not get worse somehow when all went right this year from a health and coaching stand point.

 

[Vector]

Tough reality is that we have to shave 5 million off the roster and not get worse somehow when all went right this year from a health and coaching stand point.

Why? Where did you get this number?

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

Why? Where did you get this number?

 

[sting101]

Why? Where did you get this number?

OEL penalty Pettersson Hronek Joshua raises = roughly 12-13 million
cap increase + Myers or replacement = add roughly 6-7 million

Roughly about 5 million less to replace Blueger Lafferty DeSmith Lindholm Zadorov Cole at what they currently are making.= 16.45

 

[LemonSauceD]

During the off season, I’d be looking hard to sign 2-3 of Roy, Tanev, DeMelo, Walker, and Pesce and using Hronek as a trade piece for a top 6 forward between 22-26.

With 28.4M of cap:

Tanev 2 x 4.0M
Pesce 5 or 6 x 6.0M
Zadorov 4 x 4.2M (let him walk if he’s asking for more than $4.5M), sign Dillon instead.
Joshua 4 x 3.85M

Hughes-Pesce
Soucy-Tanev
Zadorov/Dillon-Juulsen

whatever we choose to do, I expect us to be very busy this off season sitting on all this cap and like 10 upcoming free agents. Feel like next season is the year we go balls to the wall in.

 

[Vector]

OEL penalty Pettersson Hronek Joshua raises = roughly 12-13 million
cap increase + Myers or replacement = add roughly 6-7 million

Roughly about 5 million less to replace Blueger Lafferty DeSmith Lindholm Zadorov Cole at what they currently are making.

Signing Hronek and Podkolzin to around 9m total leaves the team with around 18.8m in cap space.

XXX-Miller-Garland
Hoglander-Pettersson-Boeser
Mikheyev-Suter-Podkolzin
Di-Giuseppe-XXX-XXX
Aman

Hughes-Hronek
Soucy-XXX
XXX-Juulsen
XXX/XXX

Demko

(18.8m in cap space)

The two main spots of concern would be adding a top-6 forward and a top-4 defenceman. There are multiple avenues to do it. The bottom-6 forwards should all be getting paid sub-2m and the 3rd pairing LD should be at 3m or less. You could sign a top-6 forward and a top-4 defenceman (or acquire them) for 6m each and still have 6m left over to fill out of the bottom of the roster.

Canucks don't have to move out anyone. They can choose to move Mikheyev to free up even more flexibility but they aren't in the position where they are forced to do it.

 

[credulous]

They’ve thankfully made the decision to not sell off all their futures and assets to go all in for one year and instead have multiple chances at it.

that's not really true though

they've traded brzustewicz, a first, a 4th (lindholm), a 3rd (desmith/pearson), another 3rd and a 5th (zadorov) and a 5th (lafferty) all for assets that expire this summer. individually all those trades are alright but if this was just supposed to be a 'get into the playoffs and anything can happen!' year then it was too much to give up in my opinion. they should have targeted longer term assets or they should have actually committed. the middle path is the worst path

 

[sting101]

Siging Hronek and Podkolzin to around 9m total leaves the team with around 18.8m in cap space.

XXX-Miller-Garland
Hoglander-Pettersson-Boeser
Mikheyev-Suter-Podkolzin
Di-Giuseppe-XXX-XXX
Aman

Hughes-Hronek
Soucy-XXX
XXX-Juulsen
XXX/XXX

Demko

(18.8m in cap space)

The two main spots of concern would be adding a top-6 forward and a top-4 defenceman. There are multiple avenues to do it. The bottom-6 forwards should all be getting paid sub-2m and the 3rd pairing LD should be at 3m or less. You could sign a top-6 forward and a top-4 defenceman (or acquire them) for 6m each and still have 6m left over to fill out of the bottom of the roster.

Canucks don't have to move out anyone. They can choose to move Mikheyev to free up even more flexibility but they aren't in the position where they are forced to do it.

Not saying there aren't options. The point still stands.

At best if we dont have to activate bonuses and Hronek Joshua Myers/replacement come in at the very bottom of expected were looking at dropping 3-3.5 million without running a smaller roster

from your roster

Garland is not a top6 winger. Podkolzin and Suter in our top3 lines is a question mark. Soucy still hasn't played a full season as a good top4 although all would seem capable it's not exactly a situation where you are creating an advantage by having proven players that should be able to do it. And that's the reality of the salary cap but you still need a bunch of savvy signings to make it work without creating holes and/or just hoping it works.

It will be a tough off season especially if Hronek and his agent decide to keep pushing for some ridiculous set the market signing that seems to be in discussion.

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

During the off season, I’d be looking hard to sign 2-3 of Roy, Tanev, DeMelo, Walker, and Pesce and using Hronek as a trade piece for a top 6 forward between 22-26.

With 28.4M of cap:

Tanev 2 x 4.0M
Pesce 5 or 6 x 6.0M
Zadorov 4 x 4.2M (let him walk if he’s asking for more than $4.5M), sign Dillon instead.
Joshua 4 x 3.85M

Hughes-Pesce
Soucy-Tanev
Zadorov/Dillon-Juulsen

whatever we choose to do, I expect us to be very busy this off season sitting on all this cap and like 10 upcoming free agents. Feel like next season is the year we go balls to the wall in.

I'd love to flip Hronek to Buffalo for Peterka.

 

[Nick Lang]

Allvin has been a superb GM and is probably a leading candidate for GM of the year but I found his trade deadline no show extremely disappointing. Allvin said he made all his moves during the season but the Canucks are showing as of late that there are still some glaring holes on this roster. Another top 6 forward and a top 4 defenseman are a must on this roster, and it hasn't been more evident than the past stretch of sloppy games by the Canucks. The Canucks defense is showing their warts. I kind of feel like Allvin got so enamored with acquiring Guentzel that he totally missed out on other potential suiters such as Toffoli. Just like Benning did when he was obsessed with acquiring OEL 2 years before actually trading for him. I can't really criticize Allvin for much of anything because he's been great but even the Kuzmenko trade has been subpar. Ever since Kuzmenko was traded the whole team seemed to lose their killer instinct. I'm hoping in the off-season that Allvin addresses our needs.

The reality is Benning messed up the cap structure and prospect feeder system for the team beyond belief. We had no money or sellable assets to be players at the deadline. We couldn't beat the Toffoli offer unless we added the 2025 first. It's going to be very difficult to add both a top 4 defender and a top 6 forward to this roster without some crazy magic from PA. Unfortunately Allvin made one big mistake so far and that was signing Mikheyev. Moving forward he's standing in the way of a top 6 forward upgrade. Even then we are broke.

I think the all-star break and point of the season had more to do with the team regression then the Kuz trade. That's what happens when you take 5-6 top players off of a super tight team and separate them for a week to get high on themselves. The whole cohesion goes to sh!t. I hate that game with every fiber of my being.

 

[supercanuck]

Maybe it's wishful thinking but I feel Tanev would give us a nice hometown discount to come back.

 

[UrbanImpact]

Hate to say it beause i think they did a really good job this season but management let the team down at the trade deadline.

Everyone and their dog knew that this team needed another top 6 winger. The fact that Tofolli and Guentzel both went for peanuts in my opinion is criminal,.
We should have matched and beat those offer.

Management tried to go " half all in"

Jury is still out on the Lindholm move as i believe he has been injured for a while.

The fact that we consistently have Mikhayev and Suter in our top 6 should have been a big red flashing alarm to management. Instead they stood still.

Im sure Aquaman will be happy with the revenue money he will make from a couple of home playoffs games though.

 

[TruGr1t]

Siging Hronek and Podkolzin to around 9m total leaves the team with around 18.8m in cap space.

XXX-Miller-Garland
Hoglander-Pettersson-Boeser
Mikheyev-Suter-Podkolzin
Di-Giuseppe-XXX-XXX
Aman

Hughes-Hronek
Soucy-XXX
XXX-Juulsen
XXX/XXX

Demko

(18.8m in cap space)

The two main spots of concern would be adding a top-6 forward and a top-4 defenceman. There are multiple avenues to do it. The bottom-6 forwards should all be getting paid sub-2m and the 3rd pairing LD should be at 3m or less. You could sign a top-6 forward and a top-4 defenceman (or acquire them) for 6m each and still have 6m left over to fill out of the bottom of the roster.

Canucks don't have to move out anyone. They can choose to move Mikheyev to free up even more flexibility but they aren't in the position where they are forced to do it.

This doesn't look like a great situation to be in to me.

 

[SelltheTeamFrancesco]

I'd love to flip Hronek to Buffalo for Peterka.

Yes trading a number 2 defenceman for a one dimensional winger who is gonna get 80% of his salary in a year sounds like a great idea.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

This doesn't look like a great situation to be in to me.

Assuming the team can sign the depth roles (bottom pairing D, 4th liners, and a backup goalie) to about $1.5 mill each, that leaves about $11-12 million to be used on a top 6 forward and top 4 D. I could see them signing Tanev for around $4 million and then using $7 million for a forward, if they want to push their chips in.

 

[arttk]

This doesn't look like a great situation to be in to me.

I mean Benning is not the one in charge.
I think it’s safe to assume changes will be coming.

It would be a giant fail if fans can accurately predict what the roster will be next season.

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

Yes trading a number 2 defenceman for a one dimensional winger who is gonna get 80% of his salary in a year sounds like a great idea.

Glad you are onboard!

 

[bossram]

Posted this in the Vegas post-game thread, but will quote myself here because I think the charts will be of interest. Some data to support my, "Canucks need to generate more and different types of offense" position.

The issue is, if they can't keep converting at an elevated rate (they never were going to sustain their first-half shooting percentage)....then they need to create more chances and diversify how they create chances.

I do have an issue with NST's HDC metric. I don't think it's actually that representative. They classify anything near the crease/low slot as a "high-danger" chance, even if it's jabbing a rebound into a pad. To me, that is not a high-danger chance (because it isn't one). The Canes were notorious for "juicing" these numbers because they take a ton of shots and jab at rebounds, but that style never really panned out for them.

NST also doesn't capture pre-shot movement. A private xG model, like SportLogic, tries to do that, as they have a lot more puck and player location data. Now, we don't have access to it, but JFresh compared xG models and found EH's very similar to SL:
View attachment 845565

Since the All-Star break, the Canucks are 21st in xGF/60 at 5v5 per EH. This is decidedly mediocre. They are not creating enough offense. Worse than that, how they generate offense is not varied. They rely a ton on forechecking, cycling to the point, and getting tips/deflections. The JFresh chart below summarizes this with some manually tracked data from Corey Sznajder:

View attachment 845567
Basically non-existent rush chance creation, or east-west passing plays. Their differentials are still solid because they've been good defensively. But when you are fundamentally a low-event team, as the Canucks are, you are very subject to the whims of variance (shooting percentage and save percentage, as you mentioned).

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

 

[TruGr1t]

I mean Benning is not the one in charge.
I think it’s safe to assume changes will be coming.

It would be a giant fail if fans can accurately predict what the roster will be next season.

I'd argue they need to upgrade both the top and bottom six, plus fill-out the better part of a defense sans the top pair. Discounting anything to do with chemistry and roster turnover, because the current line-blender group doesn't seem to have a lot of that, I do wonder how you go about materially improving scoring by just adding one player.

It is not like you have a concrete first or second line to build around. I think floating a similar record next year will be challenging, let alone improving any specific metric outside probably special teams, which is probably more of a coaching issue anyway.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

Lindholm trade turned this year from a slam dunk win to a 50/50 shot.

 

[iceburg]

Lindholm trade turned this year from a slam dunk win to a 50/50 shot.

How so?