Canucks & NHL News, Rumours, and & Fantasy GM | 4 Nations Break Edition

[UrbanImpact]

How i see the trade deadline going:

-Boeser re-signed 6 yr deal instead of 8
- Canucks add forwards with speed and size ( Greenway, Mccaron, Bjorkstrand, Fredric)
- We move guys like Raty, Krudysayev, picks
- Lankinen extension
-Suter Extension
-Soucy doesnt get traded until off-season

 

[Ernie]

People are slowly realizing that we need a 1C post Miller and the options are very underwhelming.

The free agent players are also v underwhelming.

Nobody agrees and that’s fine but we need to rebuild. We have a bad pipeline and no ability the full the holes that need filling.

We have some decent assets and 1 unbelievable asset to move (Hughes)

The window is closed on us. The next few years is just a team filling random pieces always a few pieces away from being a good team.

EP, Demko and JT ruined this current teams contending window for varying reasons.

Yep, you're on an island here. No team will ever rebuild until they have to. As long as Quinn Hughes is on this team, they will push, and there's zero chance he's traded in the next year. If the team is out of the playoffs at next year's deadline and he's signalling he doesn't want to re-sign, he could theoretically be moved, but even then I would expect that would wait until the summer and the team would be looking for win now assets even then.

Worthwhile to note that the defence looks good without him playing right now.

This could be a very decent defence in a couple of seasons if Quinn was moved:

MP - Hronek
EP25 - Willander
Kudratsev - Myers

They'd obviously be getting a boatload of star talent back to bolster their forward corps and with all the homegrown talent their defence would be very cost effective. They are probably 2-3 star level forwards away from contender status, but Lekkerimaki projects to be a top line sniper.

 

[Vector]

Interview with Rick Dhaliwal on this mornings' Halford & Brough.

Penticton WHL Team

• Penticton and Okotoks abstained from declaring for the BCHL
• Penticton is paying $10-15m to enter the WHL as an expansion team next season
• Former NHL players may be involved in the ownership group; won’t name names
• Their owner and GM played a big role in the BCHL leaving Hockey Canada and now are joining the WHL; brough the AJHL teams into the Fold; other teams in the BCHL are not impressed
• Were the flagship team in the BCHL
• Was told that the BCHL will not survive in its current form
• Incredible amounts of travel; big budgets but small crowds; will have trouble recruiting top players
• WHL is getting stronger

Demko

• Believes Canucks will practice on Wednesday
• Still being told it’s not a serious injury and is not his knee or hips
• Eligible for a contract extension this summer but his health will prevent him from getting term
• His health will play a big role in how they re-sign Lankinen

Lankinen & Boeser

• Contract talks are quiet

Kravtsov

• People keep asking about him; no contract talks with his agent, Dan Milstein
• Not even a PPG guy in Russia; not a bottom-6 player in the NHL
• Find it hard to believe the Canucks have any interest in him

Willander

• Decision for him to sign is a few weeks away
• Don’t discount him getting time in the AHL
• Have scouts telling Dhaliwal that Willander won’t generate a tonne of offense but is a great skater and has a high compete level; hates to lose
• Straight A student and committed to his education
• Everything Dhaliwal hears about him is positive

Lekkerimaki

• Weights only 170lbs; will be a big summer for him
• Two summers ago, worked really hard to get himself in-shape
• Teams are asking for Lekkerimaki & Willander in trade talks

Season Ticket Prices

• Rising because salary cap is going up, renovations, and Canadian dollar dripping
• Have priced 80% of the public out
• Probably 7 then 10 then 15 games on Amazon Prime

Elliotte Friedman

• Called Dhaliwal’s cell phone 7 minutes into the interview and Dhaliwal didn’t pick up

 

[Ernie]

He is signed next year on an option deal.

Too early for extension talk

It's a two way option deal, apparently. If they don't extend him this summer he's basically a lame duck.

I hope they do extend him but they desperately need to bring in an assistant who has extensive NHL coaching experience.

 

[ManVanFan]

How i see the trade deadline going:

-Boeser re-signed 6 yr deal instead of 8
- Canucks add forwards with speed and size ( Greenway, Mccaron, Bjorkstrand, Fredric)
- We move guys like Raty, Krudysayev, picks
- Lankinen extension
-Suter Extension
-Soucy doesnt get traded until off-season

The Canucks already have Joshua, Sherwood and O'Connor now. How many more of these guys do they need? The Canucks need more high end skill. Boeser the highest PPG forward is 93rd.

 

[Nucker42]

How i see the trade deadline going:

-Boeser re-signed 6 yr deal instead of 8
- Canucks add forwards with speed and size ( Greenway, Mccaron, Bjorkstrand, Fredric)
- We move guys like Raty, Krudysayev, picks
- Lankinen extension
-Suter Extension
-Soucy doesnt get traded until off-season

So they are buyers? Hopefully not. Barely in the playoffs. Have a couple decent prospects but one of the worst farms in the league. That short term outlook has really cost this team over the years.

 

[ManVanFan]

Interview with Rick Dhaliwal on this mornings' Halford & Brough.

Penticton WHL Team

• Penticton and Okotoks abstained from declaring for the BCHL
• Penticton is paying $10-15m to enter the WHL as an expansion team next season
• Former NHL players may be involved in the ownership group; won’t name names
• Their owner and GM played a big role in the BCHL leaving Hockey Canada and now are joining the WHL; brough the AJHL teams into the Fold; other teams in the BCHL are not impressed
• Were the flagship team in the BCHL
• Was told that the BCHL will not survive in its current form
• Incredible amounts of travel; big budgets but small crowds; will have trouble recruiting top players
• WHL is getting stronger

Demko

• Believes Canucks will practice on Wednesday
• Still being told it’s not a serious injury and is not his knee or hips
• Eligible for a contract extension this summer but his health will prevent him from getting term
• His health will play a big role in how they re-sign Lankinen

Lankinen & Boeser

• Contract talks are quiet

Kravtsov

• People keep asking about him; no contract talks with his agent, Dan Milstein
• Not even a PPG guy in Russia; not a bottom-6 player in the NHL
• Find it hard to believe the Canucks have any interest in him

Willander

• Decision for him to sign is a few weeks away
• Don’t discount him getting time in the AHL
• Have scouts telling Dhaliwal that Willander won’t generate a tonne of offense but is a great skater and has a high compete level; hates to lose
• Straight A student and committed to his education
• Everything Dhaliwal hears about him is positive

Lekkerimaki

• Weights only 170lbs; will be a big summer for him
• Two summers ago, worked really hard to get himself in-shape
• Teams are asking for Lekkerimaki & Willander in trade talks

Season Ticket Prices

• Rising because salary cap is going up, renovations, and Canadian dollar dripping
• Have priced 80% of the public out
• Probably 7 then 10 then 15 games on Amazon Prime

Elliotte Friedman

• Called Dhaliwal’s cell phone 7 minutes into the interview and Dhaliwal didn’t pick up

This whole not allowed to "like" is getting rather bothersome.

*LIKE*

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

This whole not allowed to "like" is getting rather bothersome.

*LIKE*

There's always other options:

 

[ManVanFan]

There's always other options:

Will Ferrell is the option? or Vince Vaughan.

 

[TruGr1t]

The Demko situation is going to be messy. Trade him when his value is in the tank, or extend him to uncomfortable term. I suspect he'll just hold out and go to free agency where some team will probably risk giving him the term as a free asset, so either trade him at a discount or have him walk for nothing.

 

[UrbanImpact]

Dhaliwall was on sportsnet 650 @ 8am this morning and he ended the segment by saying the Friedman kept calling him during the hit.

Something might be cooking.....it is Friday after all.

Actually, its likely Friedman was calling to see if Dhaliwal who spoke with Lankinen's agent, had a scoop regarding if Lankinen is starting tomorrow vs Sweden.

Looks like Lankinen is starting, Friedman was just probably trying to report it first before teh Finnish practice today which had Lankinen in the starters role.

 

[sandwichbird2023]

The Demko situation is going to be messy. Trade him when his value is in the tank, or extend him to uncomfortable term. I suspect he'll just hold out and go to free agency where some team will probably risk giving him the term as a free asset, so either trade him at a discount or have him walk for nothing.

We still have him under contract for next season, lots of time to evaluate. It depends on how his body holds up from now until spring of 2026, and go from there.

 

[UrbanImpact]

So they are buyers? Hopefully not. Barely in the playoffs. Have a couple decent prospects but one of the worst farms in the league. That short term outlook has really cost this team over the years.

Canucks are comfortable being "buyers" as long as the cost isnt their first round pick or high end prospects like Willander or Lekky.

Thats why i think its secondary prospects like Raty or Krud along with mid to late picks that get moved.


If there is somehow a deal to be made in which it costs us our 1st rounder or Lekkerimaki, then we are buying a young player under contract and term and not a rental.

a name I keep hearing is Josh Norris. Apparently it wouldnt cost much in regards to assets as we have the cap space to gamble on him.

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

Will Ferrell is the option? or Vince Vaughan.

Whatever floats your boat.

 

[racerjoe]

I can almost guarantee we won't be getting any of those guys and certainly not without giving up Willander and/or Lekk.

As someone else mentioned maybe Zegras, but I don't even think I would want him on the team. He's a weak 40 point showboat and not much more. Even Cozens is going to take one of those top picks plus a first. He's Buffalo's 7th overall from 2019 and is only 24 years old. The rumor was for our 5th overall Petey drafted in 2017. They are certainly not giving him away for scraps.

To be fair it was for Cozens BYRAM plus.

What I really remember from that LAK Cup run was that at the deadline, they were a bubble team and we were a top team. They outbid us for Jeff Carter because we weren’t willing to trade enough future assets and they were. They sneak in as the 8 seed they knock us out on their way to winning the Cup, Jeff Carter lead the playoffs in goals.

They are actually an example of a GM believing in his core and supporting them while we were preaching some bullshit Detroit Red Wings compete forever model (which was BS…Detroit sucked as soon as Lidstrom wasn’t dominant).

That’s why you go all-in when you have the key elite player(s).

I hear this all the time, it truth is we didn’t have the assets the kings had. We didn’t have a great prospect to send. Our top prospect was a goalie, and most teams don’t value them as high as a top centre or Dman.

While we may not of been willing, I also don’t think we had the assets to do it.

 

[tyhee]

We've seen suggestions that the Canucks trade for Brayden Schenn.

The guy is 33 years old. He's on an 8 year contract. As Rutherford was quoted saying a year or so ago, when a team gives a player approaching ufa an 8 year contract, the deal is expected to be a negative in the last few seasons and the positive benefit the team gets in the first few years has to make up for it.

Schenn will have the final 3 years of his deal left after this season-the years in which a contract is expected to be a loss. He's already slowing down. People age differently but the likelihood at his age with already slowing production is that it will be all downhill from here.

He'd be worth more as a rental with an expiring contract. He might be reasonable value with just one season left, but for a team which has not demonstrated that they have an open window to contend this season, taking on the final 3 years of his deal and spending assets to do it seems like a horrible gamble to me.

 

[VanillaCoke]

To reiterate—that the Ottawa Senators are making such a player available should set off alarm bells.

Some of us have lost our ability to critically think. Why would they be so ready to get rid of a player that profiles like that?

The frequency of his shoulder surgeries sure make it seem like there is an inherent deficiency there that cannot be avoided with better training or physio.

If it could be mitigated—the Sens wouldn’t be jettisoning a relatively young right shot center who can produce and be defensively reliable.

Some ppl here are definitely glazing over the severity of his shoulder injuries, one of, if not the worst possible injuries for any pro athlete, and three of them before age twenty-five..

If he's available for free, okay roll the dice on Hughes bestie, but even Hoglander could be an overpay.

Seems like the MP3/chytil pre trade talk where more than half of ppl clearly hadn't watched either player like ever.
I watched norris shoulder disintegrate taking a faceoff with no contact, and i watched his shoulder fall apart a second time from a light bump into the back of the net.

As you already reiterated, If Norris was healthy he wouldn't be available.

 

[iceburg]

Trade deadline 3 weeks today....when will the frenzy start?

Things to watch:
Boeser and Lankinen signings (or not). if not, these are two obvious trade chips.
Lekkermaki. If he's called up in the next two weeks it could be a sign
Hughes injury. If Hughes' injury is more serious then they become sellers vs buyers.

 

[sandwichbird2023]

Canucks are comfortable being "buyers" as long as the cost isnt their first round pick or high end prospects like Willander or Lekky.

Thats why i think its secondary prospects like Raty or Krud along with mid to late picks that get moved.


If there is somehow a deal to be made in which it costs us our 1st rounder or Lekkerimaki, then we are buying a young player under contract and term and not a rental.

a name I keep hearing is Josh Norris. Apparently it wouldnt cost much in regards to assets as we have the cap space to gamble on him.

Norris has 5 more seasons on his contract though. While we are very comfortable this season with cap space, we are fairly tight even for next season if we extend Boeser. Although the cap is increasing, we also have to budget about $14m for Hughes in a couple years when he is up. Not to mention we have to either extend or replace a bunch of other players (ie: Garland/Joshua/Demko/Myers/Chytil) in key positions that will cost more than their current cap hit, due to inflation/increased salary expectations from rising cap. We will also have to allocate some room for the 2nd contracts of DPetey/Willander/Lek.

And that doesn't include any significant upgrade or big UFA signings to improve the team. We would essentially be running back the same team that finish this season.

While things look great for this season, it doesn't mean we have the cap flexibility to take $8m gambles on a contract that has 5 more years in term. The only exception is if Quinn say if we get his BFF, he will guarantee extending with us in 2 seasons, then you definitely acquire Norris. Anything less than that, we should pass.

 

[UrbanImpact]

Norris has 5 more seasons on his contract though. While we are very comfortable this season with cap space, we are fairly tight even for next season if we extend Boeser. Although the cap is increasing, we also have to budget about $14m for Hughes in a couple years when he is up. Not to mention we have to either extend or replace a bunch of other players (ie: Garland/Joshua/Demko/Myers/Chytil) in key positions that will cost more than their current cap hit, due to inflation/increased salary expectations from rising cap. We will also have to allocate some room for the 2nd contracts of DPetey/Willander/Lek.

And that doesn't include any significant upgrade or big UFA signings to improve the team. We would essentially be running back the same team that finish this season.

While things look great for this season, it doesn't mean we have the cap flexibility to take $8m gambles on a contract that has 5 more years in term. The only exception is if Quinn say if we get his BFF, he will guarantee extending with us in 2 seasons, then you definitely acquire Norris. Anything less than that, we should pass.

Thats the gamble for sure is health and the length of term on his contract.

If , and thats a big if...he ever stayed healthy tho, this guy can score 30-40 goals in his sleep.

and yes the bff w Q Hughes can be a factor too.

 

[TruGr1t]

We've seen suggestions that the Canucks trade for Brayden Schenn.

The guy is 33 years old. He's on an 8 year contract. As Rutherford was quoted saying a year or so ago, when a team gives a player approaching ufa an 8 year contract, the deal is expected to be a negative in the last few seasons and the positive benefit the team gets in the first few years has to make up for it.

Schenn will have the final 3 years of his deal left after this season-the years in which a contract is expected to be a loss. He's already slowing down. People age differently but the likelihood at his age with already slowing production is that it will be all downhill from here.

He'd be worth more as a rental with an expiring contract. He might be reasonable value with just one season left, but for a team which has not demonstrated that they have an open window to contend this season, taking on the final 3 years of his deal and spending assets to do it seems like a horrible gamble to me.

He's only got 3 years left at 33 years old. The point is it may be worth the risk if he can maintain somewhat consistent performance over those last three years since that is basically the window to sign Hughes. He's also a good veteran that brings some edge. Given where the cap is going his $6.5M cap hit isn't crazy.

Is a guy like him or O'Reilly ideal? Obviously not. But you deal with what the market has available versus your needs. Given what the Canucks want to do, I'd probably prefer some of these veteran guys on 2-3 year deals over long-term reclamation projects like Cozens, who really carry more term risk, and a lot of them aren't even established centres.

Your goal is really to make the team as good as possible heading into the Hughes negotations.

 

[tyhee]

He's only got 3 years left at 33 years old. The point is it may be worth the risk if he can maintain somewhat consistent performance over those last three years since that is basically the window to sign Hughes. He's also a good veteran that brings some edge. Given where the cap is going his $6.5M cap hit isn't crazy.

Is a guy like him or O'Reilly ideal? Obviously not. But you deal with what the market has available versus your needs. Given what the Canucks want to do, I'd probably prefer some of these veteran guys on 2-3 year deals over long-term reclamation projects like Cozens, who really carry more term risk.

We obviously differ on how bad a move trading for Schenn would be. While the degree to which the moves are awful differ somewhat, the thought of trading assets for Brayden Schenn right makes about as much sense to me as the LE signing, Sbisa extension and OEL and Gudbranson trades did at the time the Canucks made those moves.

 

[TruGr1t]

We obviously differ on how bad a move trading for Schenn would be. While the degree to which the moves are awful differ somewhat, the thought of trading assets for Brayden Schenn right makes about as much sense to me as the LE signing, Sbisa extension and OEL and Gudbranson trades did at the time the Canucks made those moves.

Yes we disgree, he's still a 20-goal, 50-60pt 2C that would immediately make the team better this year and next. Plus he'll cost less than younger reclamation projects in assets and be off the books relatively quickly.

But I would agree it depends on cost, I wouldn't sell the farm for him.

 

[Jerry the great]

We obviously differ on how bad a move trading for Schenn would be. While the degree to which the moves are awful differ somewhat, the thought of trading assets for Brayden Schenn right makes about as much sense to me as the LE signing, Sbisa extension and OEL and Gudbranson trades did at the time the Canucks made those moves.

2/3C tweener whose numbers are declining materially. PPG by season oldest first:

.94
.79
.60
.57 (ytd)

Acquiring a legit (mostly wart free) 2C mid season is unlikely to be possible unless we're willing to part with big pieces (lekkerimaki/Willander/EP25/RD1 picks/Kudryavtsev) and even then it's a long shot.

so you're looking at reclamation projects like Cozens or Mittlestadt

guys with massive injury risk like Norris

The Elderly: ROR, Schenn etc

Or you're looking at trying to find a younger guy who's role you might be able to elevate: Evans, Mcleod, Hayton (latter two not likely available IMO)

Or you can find a good 3C who won't cost a ton and pray Chytil can elevate his game to 2C production levels: Pageau (Gourde if he hadn't got hurt).

 

[Jyrki21]

This is not surprising in the least.

Revenue = CDN
Salary = USD

Current exchange rate is murder and so they have to find ways to close the gap.

It's also just the plain increase in the cap. They weren't going to incur more expenses going forward without making it up somewhere.