Former Canucks Thread 2023-24 Off-Season Edition

[DL44]

What's Jake Virtanen up to?
Guy was an all time ass but an all time skating talent.... Is he still at it?

 

[F A N]

What's Jake Virtanen up to?
Guy was an all time ass but an all time skating talent.... Is he still at it?

He's been playing in Germany. Interestingly, Dal Colle and Ritchie from his draft class also played in Germany last season.

 

[HairyKneel]

I'm waiting for someone to pipe up about how Vancouver needs to snap up Burrows as an assistant coach.

If we are talking ex players....give me Kevin Bieksa or Tanner Glass in management.

And Dana Murzyn as the nutrition coach. Maybe Murray Baron as his understudy.

 

[F A N]

I'm waiting for someone to pipe up about how Vancouver needs to snap up Burrows as an assistant coach.

If we are talking ex players....give me Kevin Bieksa or Tanner Glass in management.

And Dana Murzyn as the nutrition coach. Maybe Murray Baron as his understudy.

It sounded like Burrows wanted to spend more time with family though. If he was let go, I would be in favour of hiring Burrows as an assistant coach or even head coach of Abbotsford if he wanted to.

 

[lawrence]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1805685932114461027

Welcome to the Hall of Fame, you traitor!
edit: hmmm, both a former Canuck and a Blazer. How many of those were there?

!@#$% him. I'm not kidding @#$ him.

I'm waiting for someone to pipe up about how Vancouver needs to snap up Burrows as an assistant coach.

he has a development role allows him to not have to travel with the team like he did as an assisant.

 

[AlainVigneaultsGum]

 

[rypper]

View attachment 892738

I'm not surprised.

 

[AlainVigneaultsGum]

I'm not surprised.

Seriously. The guys are physical freaks.

 

[Jyrki21]

I just learned something surprising from a Youtube video… the fastest speed a hockey player has ever been clocked at in-game (41.32 km/h) is by… Ronalds Kenins.

McDavid’s top recorded speed is 40.9 km/h.

 

[AlainVigneaultsGum]

I just learned something surprising from a Youtube video… the fastest speed a hockey player has ever been clocked at in-game (41.32 km/h) is by… Ronalds Kenins.

McDavid’s top recorded speed is 40.9 km/h.

That's f***ing wild. Would never have guessed that hahahahahaha.

 

[LemonSauceD]

I just learned something surprising from a Youtube video… the fastest speed a hockey player has ever been clocked at in-game (41.32 km/h) is by… Ronalds Kenins.

McDavid’s top recorded speed is 40.9 km/h.

Still don’t understand why Kenins wasn’t given a proper shot. Stupid f***ing Willie Desjardins

 

[EpochLink]

Hunter Shinkaruk has signed with the Cardiff Devils.

One of the all time major draft busts the Canucks have drafted, then shipped to Calgary and HF Canucks lost their shit over. Couldn't crack the NHL roster in Calgary either, plays in the AHL then plays in Europe.

Wasn't the same after his development was halted due to injuries.

 

[racerjoe]

Hunter Shinkaruk has signed with the Cardiff Devils.

One of the all time major draft busts the Canucks have drafted, then shipped to Calgary and HF Canucks lost their shit over. Couldn't crack the NHL roster in Calgary either, plays in the AHL then plays in Europe.

Wasn't the same after his development was halted due to injuries.

There is much bigger busts… see joulevi and that was just a few years later. A mid to lat first busting isn’t too uncommon

 

[MS]

Still don’t understand why Kenins wasn’t given a proper shot. Stupid f***ing Willie Desjardins

Kenins was obviously excellent after being called up in 14-15.

Then he got hurt in training camp (shoulder IIRC?) and was terrible in the preseason and should have been shut down. But they didn't and instead he kicked around between the AHL and NHL for the next 3 months and had 1 point in 18 games between the two leagues and was totally ineffective.

Then they FINALLY shut him down for a month in January and after he rehabbed his injury he came back and had 21 points in the last 28 games of that AHL season and was Utica's best player down the stretch ... but they never really gave him another chance as a healthy NHLer.

TL;DR - they decided he sucked based on his play when he was hurt and he didn't get another chance after that. It was dumb.

 

[Lindgren]

Kenins was obviously excellent after being called up in 14-15.

Then he got hurt in training camp (shoulder IIRC?) and was terrible in the preseason and should have been shut down. But they didn't and instead he kicked around between the AHL and NHL for the next 3 months and had 1 point in 18 games between the two leagues and was totally ineffective.

Then they FINALLY shut him down for a month in January and after he rehabbed his injury he came back and had 21 points in the last 28 games of that AHL season and was Utica's best player down the stretch ... but they never really gave him another chance as a healthy NHLer.

TL;DR - they decided he sucked based on his play when he was hurt and he didn't get another chance after that. It was dumb.

When thinking about that era and weird moments like the one you review, I'm often reminded of the opening paragraphs of Moneyball, which, as I recall, are a rant about the incompetence of MLB management. The incompetence was so deep that it seemed almost committed, as though there were some underlying will to defy logic and intelligence.

With the Benning regime, it felt as though there was an acting out of some sort, as though management was driven to show all those "intelligent" people that bullied them when they were children that intelligence was just ... wrong.

 

[LemonSauceD]

Kenins was obviously excellent after being called up in 14-15.

Then he got hurt in training camp (shoulder IIRC?) and was terrible in the preseason and should have been shut down. But they didn't and instead he kicked around between the AHL and NHL for the next 3 months and had 1 point in 18 games between the two leagues and was totally ineffective.

Then they FINALLY shut him down for a month in January and after he rehabbed his injury he came back and had 21 points in the last 28 games of that AHL season and was Utica's best player down the stretch ... but they never really gave him another chance as a healthy NHLer.

TL;DR - they decided he sucked based on his play when he was hurt and he didn't get another chance after that. It was dumb.

Oof I recall something like that. He also had a serious knee injury now that I am remembering things but can’t recall exactly when that was.

I just remember the little bit of excitement he gave us in his 40 or so games 10 years ago now. We hadn’t seen that kind of tenacity, physicality, and energy since like 06-08 Burrows.

A bit of a side note, seeing Horvat play with Kenins/Hansen made me hopeful of the kind of player Horvat could turn out to be considering I wasn’t really high on him and thought he had low upside. Especially when his linemates for 3/4 of the season were Kassian and Matthias/Vey? Playing with Kenins and Hansen really unlocked some of Horvat’s hidden offensive instincts.

 

[Vector]

It was dumb.

Way to summarize the entire Jim Benning era in 3 words.

 

[RobertKron]

Hunter Shinkaruk has signed with the Cardiff Devils.

One of the all time major draft busts the Canucks have drafted, then shipped to Calgary and HF Canucks lost their shit over. Couldn't crack the NHL roster in Calgary either, plays in the AHL then plays in Europe.

Wasn't the same after his development was halted due to injuries.

IIRC, he hung around late in camp in 2013, and you wonder what happens if he sticks even just long enough to avoid tearing up his hip back in the WHL in October and then keep playing on it for 2+ months in an attempt to make the WJHC team.

What's Jake Virtanen up to?
Guy was an all time ass but an all time skating talent.... Is he still at it?

Probably being a piece of shit somewhere.

 

[Lindgren]

IIRC, he hung around late in camp in 2013, and you wonder what happens if he sticks even just long enough to avoid tearing up his hip back in the WHL in October and then keep playing on it for 2+ months in an attempt to make the WJHC team.


Probably being a piece of shit somewhere.

Last season he played with the Fischtown Pinguins in the DEL (36/6/15/21).

This coming season he's signed with the Iseriohn Roosters, also of the DEL.

 

[RobertKron]

Not a former Canuck, but jesus, former Giant Garet Hunt is still playing in the coast league, and is on SC's protected list for next season so you'd have to imagine he's playing.

 

[F A N]

TL;DR - they decided he sucked based on his play when he was hurt and he didn't get another chance after that. It was dumb.

That was likely the correct call. He had one good season that surprised everyone. Oreskovich looked good for a short period of time as well.

MS, you are very much about looking at offensive production. Look at Kenins’ offensive production after he left here. Does it say NHL calibre to you? Two seasons later he had this weird season where he had 1 goal 10pts in 40 games in the regular season only to put up 5 goals 11 points in 18 games in the playoffs.

You are not a poster who would ever think a player in his prime who puts up 1 goal in 40 games playing in Switzerland is an NHL player. Am I wrong?

 

[BimJenning]

That was likely the correct call. He had one good season that surprised everyone. Oreskovich looked good for a short period of time as well.

MS, you are very much about looking at offensive production. Look at Kenins’ offensive production after he left here. Does it say NHL calibre to you? Two seasons later he had this weird season where he had 1 goal 10pts in 40 games in the regular season only to put up 5 goals 11 points in 18 games in the playoffs.

You are not a poster who would ever think a player in his prime who puts up 1 goal in 40 games playing in Switzerland is an NHL player. Am I wrong?

I dunno, points or not, given Jim liked to overpay free agents who played his style of hockey while we had him literally sitting there doesn't really speak well to not giving him a shot. I'm not sure Kenins any slower than Prust even playing on one leg

 

[Vector]

 

[LemonSauceD]

That was likely the correct call. He had one good season that surprised everyone. Oreskovich looked good for a short period of time as well.

MS, you are very much about looking at offensive production. Look at Kenins’ offensive production after he left here. Does it say NHL calibre to you? Two seasons later he had this weird season where he had 1 goal 10pts in 40 games in the regular season only to put up 5 goals 11 points in 18 games in the playoffs.

You are not a poster who would ever think a player in his prime who puts up 1 goal in 40 games playing in Switzerland is an NHL player. Am I wrong?

Kenins was never really a goal scorer and he had low goal totals pretty much everywhere.

Also the season he had 1 goal in 40 games (2017/2018, 2 years after NA), he had a concussion and missed 2 months of that season. After, in the playoffs he had 5 goals and 11 points in 18 games en route to a championship. He then had some real solid campaigns as a middle 6 contributor in a top 5 league in hockey.

Injuries seemed to have really derailed his career. He played with a ton of energy and physicality. Score maybe 5 goals a season but create 10-15 goals just off of his hard work and was a forechecking wrecking ball when he was on his game. probably wasn’t going to have a very long career in the NHL but he still never really got a good chance and became casted out in favour of other trash.

I mean there’s a reason why literally every Canucks fan who watched him during his small time here always has positive things to say about him. He was memorable. Those who appreciated him more than others never really got their answers questioned as to why a slow and aging team let him go just to bring in absolute trash like Adam Cracknell and Brandon Prust.

 

[VanJack]

I just learned something surprising from a Youtube video… the fastest speed a hockey player has ever been clocked at in-game (41.32 km/h) is by… Ronalds Kenins.

McDavid’s top recorded speed is 40.9 km/h.

Assume that this clocking came on a straight line, without carrying the puck. For hockey players, the only skill that really matters is how fast they skate while carrying the puck.

As I recall, Kenins had 'hands of stone' for most of his NHL career. And it seems to be a fact that when each NHL team holds their 'open house' and skills competition, it's always some guy you would never expect who gets around the course with the fastest time.