Former Canucks Thread 2023-24 Off-Season Edition

[Vector]

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.

Yeah…no this is not true at all.

 

[F A N]

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.

There's a tendency here for some posters to fall in love with youngish players who are perceived to be better than their production (the latest is Aman). I'm guilty of that myself. I've long said that a lot of times the difference between an NHL 4th line player/bottom pairing Dman and a fringe NHL player is opportunity.

Kenins was excellent in his first season here. He had 4 goals, 12 points in 30 games. That is good production for a 4th line player (I think he played up the lineup?). IIRC, he was given a one-way contract after that season. Then for whatever reason (injuries?) he sucked the following season. Looking at his game logs, he played a couple of games in April when he was supposedly healthy. I don't think he did anything with his opportunities? At the end of the day, he was like a heat-seeking missile. He was fast and threw big hits but that was pretty much it. He wasn't good defensively, didn't exactly have good IQ, and he can't finish. Could he have gotten more of an opportunity? Sure, but the end result will be the same. IIRC he was a UFA at the end of the season.

Prust sucked but I recall Cracknell being decent especially early on.

 

[Jyrki21]

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.

To be clear, this was top speed reached in-game, through tracking technology. It wasn't an organized race around the ice. I saw the clip (I can't remember where now) where that speed was reached and I think he was chasing on the forecheck when it happened.

Obviously the opportunity to reach top speeds will depend heavily on game situation, and the tracking technology hasn't existed for very long, so all known records are going to be from recent years.

 

[RobertKron]

Yeah…no this is not true at all.

Imagine believing this

 

[RobertKron]

Imagine believing this

Like how many pucks do they think there are

 

[MS]

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?

Weird, I thought I responded to this yesterday but must not have pushed the 'post' button.

I don't know what happened in that one weird 1-goal season, whether he was injured or having issues with his team or what. He did promptly return to being a very good ES scorer in that season's playoffs and then for several years again after that.

I saw enough of Kenins to be pretty comfortable that he was capable of being a fast, cheap, highly physical, 15-20 point energy 4th liner for the team. And yeah, these guys are pretty fungible and in the big picture it wasn't a huge loss ... but he was released in 2016 and then the 16-17 season was the year when Skille/Chaput/Megna all played pretty regularly for the team and absolutely horrid players like Labate and Cramarossa were also given 10-15 game looks. What we saw of Kenins was more effective than all of those guys and he certainly could have helped here for a couple years.

 

[F A N]

Weird, I thought I responded to this yesterday but must not have pushed the 'post' button.

I don't know what happened in that one weird 1-goal season, whether he was injured or having issues with his team or what. He did promptly return to being a very good ES scorer in that season's playoffs and then for several years again after that.

I saw enough of Kenins to be pretty comfortable that he was capable of being a fast, cheap, highly physical, 15-20 point energy 4th liner for the team. And yeah, these guys are pretty fungible and in the big picture it wasn't a huge loss ... but he was released in 2016 and then the 16-17 season was the year when Skille/Chaput/Megna all played pretty regularly for the team and absolutely horrid players like Labate and Cramarossa were also given 10-15 game looks. What we saw of Kenins was more effective than all of those guys and he certainly could have helped here for a couple years.

I get what you are saying but at the end of the day Kenins did get an audition towards the end of the season and wasn't the same player we saw in his first season here. Was he capable? Sure. But he didn't do much with his opportunity.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I believe Kenins was a Group VI UFA so the Canucks didn't "release" him. I don't think Kenins was interested in signing a two-way contract and earn a spot either. Meanwhile a guy like Skille was willing to come on as a PTO and Chaput and Megna were suppose to be depth players but Willie D fell in love.

 

[MS]

I get what you are saying but at the end of the day Kenins did get an audition towards the end of the season and wasn't the same player we saw in his first season here. Was he capable? Sure. But he didn't do much with his opportunity.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I believe Kenins was a Group VI UFA so the Canucks didn't "release" him. I don't think Kenins was interested in signing a two-way contract and earn a spot either. Meanwhile a guy like Skille was willing to come on as a PTO and Chaput and Megna were suppose to be depth players but Willie D fell in love.

He was called up for 2 games right at the end of the season which wasn't really enough to make a call on him one way or another.

Yeah, he was a Group VI UFA ... but we didn't make any attempt to bring him back and it's unlikely he would have left if he received an NHL offer. Our bottom-6 at that point was horrific and he was one of the only guys who could actually skate and finish checks.

 

[RobertKron]

Honestly, Chaput was a passable player.

 

[F A N]

He was called up for 2 games right at the end of the season which wasn't really enough to make a call on him one way or another.

I've mentioned this to you before. I get that you like the player but your thinking doesn't always reflect reality. What I mean by that is that players like Kenins who have fallen out of favour don't get opportunities after opportunities. He got a shot towards the end of the season and failed to impress. And for a guy who can fly all over the ice and hit everything that moves it's actually not that hard to for him to stand out. So it doesn't really matter what you think of the player the player can't put up 0s and expect a spot on the roster.

Yeah, he was a Group VI UFA ... but we didn't make any attempt to bring him back and it's unlikely he would have left if he received an NHL offer. Our bottom-6 at that point was horrific and he was one of the only guys who could actually skate and finish checks.

And by NHL offer you mean a one-way deal? He didn't deserve it. It doesn't appear that any team outbid the Canucks either. Group VI UFAs aside from goalies often change teams for a reason. It doesn't mean the team doesn't like the player. That's how we got Joshua. We gave him a 2 year 1-way deal and the Blues didn't. There are also plenty of waiver wire candidates.

Plus it was the offseason. (Not that we did) but the bottom 6 could have been addressed in the offseason.

The Canucks opening night roster at forward: Sedins, Eriksson, Gralund, Sutter, Hansen, Baertschi, Horvat, Virtanen, Burrows, Gaunce, Dorsett, They probably expected Etem to earn a spot but he sucked. Skille ended up making the team and Ruutu and Sheppard were cut. Again, you can like Kenins all you want but the reality is that there was no guarantee that he would have won a roster spot. He certainly didn't deserve to be guaranteed one.

 

[valkynax]

Honestly, Chaput was a passable player.

Are you SURE about that?!

 

[Vector]

Chaput was fine and was mostly played in the right spots in the line-up. Megna was the guy that kept getting top-6 opportunity.

 

[wonton15]

Chaput and Jayson Smegma era was a fever dream and it never actually happened

 

[valkynax]

Chaput and Jayson Smegma era was a fever dream and it never actually happened

 

[Nucker101]

Honestly, Chaput was a passable player.

The bar was also low back then, any player who made close to league minimum and wasn't atrocious was passable for us.

 

[rypper]

Honestly, Chaput was a passable player.

Chaput always was unfairly lumped in with Megna.

Megna got the weird Willie boost to play with the twins. Chaput was decent as a 4th line fill in player.

 

[F A N]

Chaput always was unfairly lumped in with Megna.

Megna got the weird Willie boost to play with the twins. Chaput was decent as a 4th line fill in player.

I think used for the original purpose (AHL depth/1st callup) both Chaput and Megna were fine signings at the time. Chaput, especially, was 24 and was worth a shot.

 

[kaiser matias]

2020 pick Dmitri Zlodeyev, who spent last season with Abbotsford, is heading back to the KHL.

 

[EpochLink]

2020 pick Dmitri Zlodeyev, who spent last season with Abbotsford, is heading back to the KHL.

WHO

 

[LemonSauceD]

WHO

Dmitri Zhukenov’s younger brother

 

[Hit the post]

Chaput always was unfairly lumped in with Megna.

Megna got the weird Willie boost to play with the twins. Chaput was decent as a 4th line fill in player.

That wasn't even the strangest Willie lineup move. Putting a known solid two-way center that Benning just acquired as a winger for the Sedins. Leave the tough defensive assignments to a sophomore like Horvat (not horrible defensive but not exactly great at it either especially consider he was still kind of green). At least this "tactic" didn't last that long in the regular season.

 

[rypper]

Willie ate Bo Horvat, just like he ate the dog poop.

 

[RobertKron]

That wasn't even the strangest Willie lineup move. Putting a known solid two-way center that Benning just acquired as a winger for the Sedins. Leave the tough defensive assignments to a sophomore like Horvat (not horrible defensive but not exactly great at it either especially consider he was still kind of green). At least this "tactic" didn't last that long in the regular season.

Are you forgetting about the stuff?

Also, I think you've omitted the important contextual detail that this was done because Horvat had led the team in scoring down the stretch, and they didn't want him - as a recent top-10 pick - to feel like he "had" to score points.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

Are you forgetting about the stuff?

Also, I think you've omitted the important contextual detail that this was done because Horvat had led the team in scoring down the stretch, and they didn't want him - as a recent top-10 pick - to feel like he "had" to score points.

I'll take any excuse to post the dumbest quote from a head coach in the history of the NHL:

“[Horvat] knew we needed scoring. So he changed his game to score. So did Jannik Hansen. They went, ‘Yeah, we need scoring, I have to contribute more.’

“But I think both of those guys, the best part of their games is the two-way parts. They’re really good defensively.”

 

[racerjoe]

I'll take any excuse to post the dumbest quote from a head coach in the history of the NHL:

Sadly I think he had much dumber quotes…