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I don't know if he's trying to hint at Willander returning to school as an option or just opining about what kind of contract he'll get.

Drance has been talking about it for a bit, looking at past contracts given and bonus structures they've had. If he'll play in nhl right away and burn a year or if he'll sign a PTO and go to abbotsford.

I think Rick is just talking to talk.

He’s just getting the agent’s voice out there. It’s all talk. Willander should be the easiest contract to sign.

Drance reported that the Canucks prefer Willander play in the AHL to end the season purely for development reasons. He’d get more minutes and more games than if he was rotating with Pettersson and Mancini.
 
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Rick is a mouthpiece for agents, the agent is trying to put pressure on management to get a better bonus structure, I think the year burn off is guaranteed, Rick keeps mentioning how education is important to Willander, but no way he stays in college for another year, that would be insane.
 
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Rick is a mouthpiece for agents, the agent is trying to put pressure on management to get a better bonus structure, I think the year burn off is guaranteed, Rick keeps mentioning how education is important to Willander, but no way he stays in college for another year, that would be insane.
If he pressures and decides to stay you trade him for a top 6 elc equivalent Center, no question.

I am going to assume this is just a agent pressure tactic, but I don’t understand, are they not already giving him Max everything?
 
If he pressures and decides to stay you trade him for a top 6 elc equivalent Center, no question.

I am going to assume this is just a agent pressure tactic, but I don’t understand, are they not already giving him Max everything?
If they dont give him max I can see a Cutter Gauthier situation.
 
Words can’t describe how unbothered by Dhaliwal’s tweet I am. All reports, by Rick himself, is that Willander will sign after this season. There’s no reason to fly off the handle.

This is just the agent trying to jockey for higher schedule B bonuses and/or burn a year off his ELC. Neither are a big deal. The Frozen Four doesn’t even start for nearly two weeks.
 
Words can’t describe how unbothered by Dhaliwal’s tweet I am. All reports, by Rick himself, is that Willander will sign after this season. There’s no reason to fly off the handle.

This is just the agent trying to jockey for higher schedule B bonuses and/or burn a year off his ELC. Neither are a big deal. The Frozen Four doesn’t even start for nearly two weeks.
Yeah I won't be losing sleep over this one.

I do find it funny how Rick presents these little bits here and there as though he's a neutral arbiter, when it is hilariously clear that he's speaking as the agent.

Pretty questionable from a journalism ethics perspective, but it's hockey so meh.

Reminds me of when corporations write entire bills for congress.
 
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The first phone call Allvin made as GM was probably to ask about a RHD. He's probably made 1000 of that same call. If there is one GM I feel has crazy recent bias on the lack of RHD in this league, its Allvin. If there is one team that wants to tell about 20 other franchises to pound sand when they ask about his RHD, I have to believe its Allvin. Willy stays.
 
This Willander talk is just Rick being a mouthpiece, big nothingburger. He has to put some work in on behalf of the agents to justify them giving him information a lot of the time. Fully expect him to be in the lineup next year.
 
There are many names for center that fans and some posters will promote as trade ideas or FA signings at face value, true fantasy ideas without a lot of depth or deep thought.
But it is a forum.

In that vein, here is another wild thought, EP40 and Hoglander have already been packaged together for a trade. I only post this because of the dearth of info on any injuries. They could simply just have the bug really bad but ......

IMHO trading for any player with less upside than Misa just for instant gratification is going to lead to a repeat of this year, just another pretender season. IF they have a plan to get Misa and Mckenna combined with a bold trade that might include EP40 and Hoglander or not, that might be enough to get Hughes to sign a 3 or 4 year deal at max money because of a positive future growth of those players. Those players would not be on an Island, there would be a couple more added due to the added cap space of having two star players with entry level contracts, maybe even a couple more.

So who could Willander be traded for? A drop in the draft and he might not be enough. If SJ, Chicago or Preds get that pick or a few others, they may want a very young RH defender that can start next year. I don't think he is that good but then I post on a forum. :D

Willander and the Canucks 1rst and 3rd this year and 2nd next year might get them low enough although there will be some teams that may want "a" Pettersson, :D. EPD looks close to being a top 4 dman now, a lot like Edler did.

But the team does have some depth at defence now so they could trade both EPD and Willander plus their 1rst to move down to take Misa.
They will know before the draft after the lottery. But to be sure they get him, the team's really big need, they may have to go for the first over all or make the deal at the draft.
Too bad the draft is virtual this year, it will be really hard to watch all the activity at the draft tables.
 
Funny now the Lekkerimaki is in the NHL the Canucks have 1 grade A prospect coming in Willander.

Most teams with a decent prospect pool have 5 Willander’s and other high end prospects. The Blues have so many studs coming and are already better than Vancouver. That’s why when people scoff at a rebuild it’s so narrow sighted.

The Canucks didn’t sell off and are now about to miss the playoffs. They’ll end up with 15-17 overall. Exact mushy middle were all used to.

So sick of the same shit every year with this team. Benning 2.0 is here and barely better than the original.
 
Funny now the Lekkerimaki is in the NHL the Canucks have 1 grade A prospect coming in Willander.

Most teams with a decent prospect pool have 5 Willander’s and other high end prospects. The Blues have so many studs coming and are already better than Vancouver. That’s why when people scoff at a rebuild it’s so narrow sighted.

The Canucks didn’t sell off and are now about to miss the playoffs. They’ll end up with 15-17 overall. Exact mushy middle were all used to.

So sick of the same shit every year with this team. Benning 2.0 is here and barely better than the original.
You can’t miss the playoffs and pick 17th.
 
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Funny now the Lekkerimaki is in the NHL the Canucks have 1 grade A prospect coming in Willander.

Most teams with a decent prospect pool have 5 Willander’s and other high end prospects. The Blues have so many studs coming and are already better than Vancouver. That’s why when people scoff at a rebuild it’s so narrow sighted.

The Canucks didn’t sell off and are now about to miss the playoffs. They’ll end up with 15-17 overall. Exact mushy middle were all used to.

So sick of the same shit every year with this team. Benning 2.0 is here and barely better than the original.
No team in the NHL has 5 prospects comparable to Willander. He is a worst a top 30 drafted prospect in hockey the Blues like the Canucks have two of those players Snuggerud and Dvorsky. Some teams might have higher end blue chip propects like Montreal and San Jose but no team has the depth you are talking about.
 
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Funny now the Lekkerimaki is in the NHL the Canucks have 1 grade A prospect coming in Willander.

Most teams with a decent prospect pool have 5 Willander’s and other high end prospects. The Blues have so many studs coming and are already better than Vancouver. That’s why when people scoff at a rebuild it’s so narrow sighted.

The Canucks didn’t sell off and are now about to miss the playoffs. They’ll end up with 15-17 overall. Exact mushy middle were all used to.

So sick of the same shit every year with this team. Benning 2.0 is here and barely better than the original.
How many firsts have been traded away or ended up totally blown picks the last 10 years, might add the team's 2nd's as well. I think a couple were close enough to almost be really late firsts.

Still they don't need to tank but they will need to be very bold and daring. One bad season, this one if they fail the next 7 games. They could get down around 10 if they work at it. :D

I did the lottery wheel thingy and #16 did win but can only go up 10 spots, IMO they need to aim for #11 worst, or finish 21srt in the league for a chance, that is only 6 points.
 
Funny now the Lekkerimaki is in the NHL the Canucks have 1 grade A prospect coming in Willander.

Most teams with a decent prospect pool have 5 Willander’s and other high end prospects. The Blues have so many studs coming and are already better than Vancouver. That’s why when people scoff at a rebuild it’s so narrow sighted.

The Canucks didn’t sell off and are now about to miss the playoffs. They’ll end up with 15-17 overall. Exact mushy middle were all used to.

So sick of the same shit every year with this team. Benning 2.0 is here and barely better than the original.
Well the Blues were in the mushy middle for the last 3-4 seasons themselves. They picked Snuggerud at 23, Jiricek at 16, Dvorsky at 10 in 2023 (we picked a spot later and took Willy at 11), Bolduc at 17, and Neighbours at 26 (the year we beat them in the bubble playoffs), every single one of them in separate drafts.

We had our good season last year, they’re having their good season this year.

The main difference is they’ve kept all their 1sts and have hit on every single one of them. They had no 2nds much like us from 2020-2022 and their picks outside of the 1st round are either unremarkable or massive misses.

Their 2023 draft was really good. 3 first round picks (they got a 1st + picks + 2 AHL’ers (including Gaudette) from the Leafs for Noel Acciari and got another 1st from trading Tarasenko to the Rangers in which they used to draft Lindstein and Stenberg.

Some of their better prospects have arguably come from outside of that 2023 draft however with the exception of Dvorsky.

And obviously them offersheeting 2 former high 1st rounders from EDM was an amazing move that has paid off dividends.

Lekkerimaki, Willander, D-Petey, and Raty all need to hit.
 
Well the Blues were in the mushy middle for the last 3-4 seasons themselves. They picked Snuggerud at 23, Jiricek at 16, Dvorsky at 10 in 2023 (we picked a spot later and took Willy at 11), Bolduc at 17, and Neighbours at 26 (the year we beat them in the bubble playoffs), every single one of them in separate drafts.

We had our good season last year, they’re having their good season this year.

The main difference is they’ve kept all their 1sts and have hit on every single one of them. They had no 2nds much like us from 2020-2022 and their picks outside of the 1st round are either unremarkable or massive misses.

Their 2023 draft was really good. 3 first round picks (they got a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd + 2 AHL’ers (including Gaudette) from the Leafs for Noel Acciari and got another 1st from trading Tarasenko to the Rangers.

Some of their better prospects have arguably come from outside of that 2023 draft however with the exception of Dvorsky.

And obviously them offersheeting 2 former high 1st rounders from EDM was an amazing move that has paid off dividends.

Vancouver needs to model them.
Armstrong is one of the top GMs in my view.

My top 5 would be any order of Cheveldayoff, Patrick (assuming he was responsible for most of their latest offseason moves), Armstrong, Zito, and McCrimmon.

Honourable mentions to Brisebois and Nill. Too early to tell for many other GMs on rebuilding teams like Grier.
 
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No team in the NHL has 5 prospects comparable to Willander. He is a worst a top 30 drafted prospect in hockey the Blues like the Canucks have two those players Snuggerud and Dvorsky. Some teams might have higher end blue chip propects like Montreal and San Jose but no team has the depth you are talking about.

We don't have flashy point getters that light up juniors right now, but the Canucks blueline prospects are punching way above rate. D Petey looks like a potential 4/5 guy long-term based on his NHL play, and Willander is playing exactly like you'd expect a future Brodin-esque player would play. There's also a chance one of Kudryavtsev, Mancini, or Mynio end up as a decent 5/6.

Yes, it's barren on the forward front in terms of top 6 guys, but being able to put two top 4 guys into the league in the next two years is awesome. These are the types of picks you need to supplement your core vs building out a brand new one.

This management team has done well with the limited draft resources its had, especially when you contrast it to what Benning did with his picks outside of the top 10. They do need to fix the forward core, but the timeline from draft --> NHL is much faster for forwards than dmen, so if they focus on that in the upcoming ones they'll be in a good spot.
 
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