Grub's Canucks & NHL News, Rumours, and & Fantasy GM | Christmas Presents

[Nuckles]

A bad omen? Or did Miller do this?

 

[LemonSauceD]

At this point I don’t know if I’m willing to even trade our 1st round pick. This team has too many holes and too many question marks.

I feel like a rework of this team is needed. Even if we get a top 4 dman like Marcus Pettersson, we are still icing a below average d core. Soucy, Juulsen, Brannstrom, Desharnais, Forbort, Friedman are all 6/7/8/9 dman. This roster even with Hronek back and a top 4 dman is a 1st round exit team at best. Our forward group is also too slow and small.

I really don’t know what to feel.

 

[VanJack]

Rutherford on After Hours saying the team is going to make a real effort to keep the Lankinen-Demko tandem intact for next season, even if it means spending more money on goaltending. Interesting.

 

[mriswith]

Letting Lankinen go shouldn't be an option. Demko's injuries might have cost us the cup last year.

We really have no idea if he'll be available to us in the playoffs this year, let alone the future. Demko's contract is also cheap enough that we can pay a lot for Lankinen and still have less committed to the position than some other teams with premier goaltending.

 

[Vector]

Home Record

• Beat themselves at home; 2 out of 3 games this season
• Don’t play with the same urgency at home
• Seem to be more comfortable on the road
• Get a lot of days off and don’t play well when they don’t practice
• Have some adjustments to make; are fixable
• Need to fix these things quick
• Can’t be a playoff team with their home record

Fixing Problems

• Patience for the front office and coaching staff are two different things
• Tocchet does a terrific job and has been dealt a different hand
• Tocchet will figure this out
• Front office will have to start to make decisions
• Talk every day about making the team better and what changes they might have to make; are at that period now

Canucks As Contenders

• Took a big step last year; a bigger step than anyone thought they could take in one season
• Key is to maintain what they did last season
• Lost some good players but have added some good players
• Have dealt with a number of issues; all teams have to do it too
• Need to get everyone in place and settle down
• Certainly a good enough team to be a playoff team and will see where they go from there

Window of Contention

• Can’t go to Costco and pick-up 1 or 2 players that can help you
• Living in a cap world and hard to make deals
• Need to add a couple of players to really give themselves a chance to content

Boeser

• Will deal with Boeser, at the trade deadline, when the time comes
• Are evaluating his situation
• The key is what the term looks like
• Like all contracts, player will have a different opinion than the team does
• Will continue to watch this really close

Tocchet

• Knew him really well from Pittsburgh
• Handled some of the tougher situations, in Pittsburgh, for Mike Sullivan
• Knew how he would be as a head coach because they watched him in Arizona
• Good communicator

Miller

• When a player asks for a reset you always give them that time
• You work at this business to do the best you can but also have to realize these are people and everyone has issues to deal with at certain times
• When a player reaches out for help, you give them the time off
• Been a long career so he can’t remember every situation but does believe this has happened to him before
• 15 years ago they weren’t as well equipped to handle this
• Didn’t have all the tools that they have now
• Has given players some time away; maybe not a month but a week or a few days
• Happens all the time; a lot more than people think
• Miller requested the time and it was for personal reasons
• I get that the sports world makes up trade rumours but when a player is on leave for personal reasons, it’s very disrespectful without any information to start rumours

Lankinen

• Not surprised that he has played well
• Had a goalie situation that was tough
• Lankinen overplayed his hand in free agency
• Marko Torenious was with Lankinen everyday and they told him to talk to Lankinen every day so the Canucks know exactly what he’s doing
• Were keeping an eye on him for about a month
• Possible to keep both Demko and Lankinen
• Don’t know Lankinen’s next contract but need goaltending to win
• Willing to put a little bit more money on the goaltending side than they would somewhere else

Sherwood

• Has been everything they’ve asked for
• Were looking for that type of players
• Lafferty brought a little bit of that last season; Sherwood brings more
• Can play up and down the line-up
• Drives the game some nights

 

[David71]

time to strike a deal with the rangers? Kadm, kakko ?

 

[SelltheTeamFrancesco]

Home Record

• Beat themselves at home; 2 out of 3 games this season
• Don’t play with the same urgency at home
• Seem to be more comfortable on the road
• Get a lot of days off and don’t play well when they don’t practice
• Have some adjustments to make; are fixable
• Need to fix these things quick
• Can’t be a playoff team with their home record

Fixing Problems

• Patience for the front office and coaching staff are two different things
• Tocchet does a terrific job and has been dealt a different hand
• Tocchet will figure this out
• Front office will have to start to make decisions
• Talk every day about making the team better and what changes they might have to make; are at that period now

Canucks As Contenders

• Took a big step last year; a bigger step than anyone thought they could take in one season
• Key is to maintain what they did last season
• Lost some good players but have added some good players
• Have dealt with a number of issues; all teams have to do it too
• Need to get everyone in place and settle down
• Certainly a good enough team to be a playoff team and will see where they go from there

Window of Contention

• Can’t go to Costco and pick-up 1 or 2 players that can help you
• Living in a cap world and hard to make deals
• Need to add a couple of players to really give themselves a chance to content

Boeser

• Will deal with Boeser, at the trade deadline, when the time comes
• Are evaluating his situation
• The key is what the term looks like
• Like all contracts, player will have a different opinion than the team does
• Will continue to watch this really close

Tocchet

• Knew him really well from Pittsburgh
• Handled some of the tougher situations, in Pittsburgh, for Mike Sullivan
• Knew how he would be as a head coach because they watched him in Arizona
• Good communicator

Miller

• When a player asks for a reset you always give them that time
• You work at this business to do the best you can but also have to realize these are people and everyone has issues to deal with at certain times
• When a player reaches out for help, you give them the time off
• Been a long career so he can’t remember every situation but does believe this has happened to him before
• 15 years ago they weren’t as well equipped to handle this
• Didn’t have all the tools that they have now
• Has given players some time away; maybe not a month but a week or a few days
• Happens all the time; a lot more than people think
• Miller requested the time and it was for personal reasons
• I get that the sports world makes up trade rumours but when a player is on leave for personal reasons, it’s very disrespectful without any information to start rumours

Lankinen

• Not surprised that he has played well
• Had a goalie situation that was tough
• Lankinen overplayed his hand in free agency
• Marko Torenious was with Lankinen everyday and they told him to talk to Lankinen every day so the Canucks know exactly what he’s doing
• Were keeping an eye on him for about a month
• Possible to keep both Demko and Lankinen
• Don’t know Lankinen’s next contract but need goaltending to win
• Willing to put a little bit more money on the goaltending side than they would somewhere else

Sherwood

• Has been everything they’ve asked for
• Were looking for that type of players
• Lafferty brought a little bit of that last season; Sherwood brings more
• Can play up and down the line-up
• Drives the game some nights

Too bad because the Canucks have the shortest distance from their arena to the nearest Costco in the league. What an advantage that would be.

 

[David71]

It’s going to come at the cost of our picks and prospects, in addition to current roster players. The FO wants to add a big fish and if you followed JR in his stint with the penguins he was almost addicted to being aggressive and making moves.

 

[VanJack]

time to strike a deal with the rangers? Kadm, kakko ?

Rangers and Canucks are both spinning their wheels right now. I wouldn't rule out some sort of blockbuster.

Things can't continue this way in either market. Both the Canucks and Rangers were booed off the ice tonight in their home rinks.

 

[Josepho]

We should absolutely get rid of our first-round pick for a top 4 defenceman <28 years old or something. It's way more likely that that player moves the needle more than the ~17th overall pick.

You have the best defenceman on the planet. Go aggressive. If it doesn't work out and Hughes forces his way out in a few years, you can recoup the pick.

 

[Curm]

I don't see a blockbuster with the Rangers materializing unless a third team is involved. If a center goes from the Canucks, they need another back along with a D and the Rangers don't have anything that should be of interest to the Canucks down the middle. Zibby is an absolute no-go.

A meaningful trade or a big fish brought in means cap has to go out.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

At this point I don’t know if I’m willing to even trade our 1st round pick. This team has too many holes and too many question marks.

I feel like a rework of this team is needed. Even if we get a top 4 dman like Marcus Pettersson, we are still icing a below average d core. Soucy, Juulsen, Brannstrom, Desharnais, Forbort, Friedman are all 6/7/8/9 dman. This roster even with Hronek back and a top 4 dman is a 1st round exit team at best. Our forward group is also too slow and small.

I really don’t know what to feel.

Keeping our 1st makes little sense. We're not finishing below 15th which means unless we find a diamond, it'll be years before that player even sniffs the NHL. I mean look at Lekkerimaki. He won't crack our roster as a mainstay until year three of his draft. And that's far from a guarantee.

Three years from now puts Miller at 35 and likely on the downswing of his career, Hughes up for a massive 13-14M rise and Boeser at 30--essentially Miller's position now of "win soon or he'll fall off." Assuming we re-sign him, of course.

We basically have to try and win now. Otherwise, we're just wasting all the prime years of our entire core. And for anyone thinking we should sell that core off, does that include Quinn Hughes because I don't see him having any desire to stay if we suddenly decide to try forcing a tank job.

 

[Quinning]

If there was ever a year to tank and rebuild, it's 2026. The top end of the draft is insanely stacked, it looks like another 2015. McKenna and Bjorck are having generational seasons as 16 year olds.

 

[VanJack]

Jim Benning's first draft was 2014 and his last was 2021. That's a total of eight entry drafts, and the only defensemen they drafted who amounted to anything was Quinn Hughes.

How is that even possible? A scout putting a draft list on the wall and throwing darts at it could surely uncover more blueliners than that. But it is, what it is.

And fast forward to 2024, and the Canucks are still mired in dung on their back end. They finally have some legitimate blueline prospects in the system. But they're all 19-20 and too young to help now.

And people who think there's a magic bullet out there that will somehow transform this anemic blueline, are just dreaming. The Canucks could squander their first and second rounders again, and throw kids like Wilander and Lekkerimaki on to the steaming pile, and it still wouldn't get them much more than a rental d-man or two.

And even if they could bring in some guys like Provorov, Marcus Pettersson or any of the other 'names' out there, it's not going to move the needle enough to transform this team into a legit contender.

You can't go through a 'lost decade' at the draft table and not pay a steep price.

 

[Quinning]

Jim Benning's first draft was 2014 and his last was 2021. That's a total of eight entry drafts, and the only defensemen they drafted who amounted to anything was Quinn Hughes.

How is that even possible? A scout putting a draft list on the wall and throwing darts at it could surely uncover more blueliners than that. But it is, what it is.

And fast forward to 2024, and the Canucks are still mired in dung on their back end. They finally have some legitimate blueline prospects in the system. But they're all 19-20 and too young to help now.

And people who think there's a magic bullet out there that will somehow transform this anemic blueline, are just dreaming. The Canucks could squander their first and second rounders again, and throw kids like Wilander and Lekkerimaki on to the steaming pile, and it still wouldn't get them much more than a rental d-man or two.

And even if they could bring in some guys like Provorov, Marcus Pettersson or any of the other 'names' out there, it's not going to move the needle enough to transform this team into a legit contender.

You can't go through a 'lost decade' at the draft table and not pay a steep price.

I honestly don't think there is any hope for this core...last year was their chance. Piss poor managerial decisions for more than a decade squandered most of their primes and we have no elite ELC talent to support them. That's what happens when you trade away most of your picks from 2019-2023 and draft mediocre players with the ones you keep. The shit drafting goes back to 2014 - Virtanen, Juolevi and Podkolzin were all horrible picks that set this team back years.

It's a largely a team of free agent signings mixed with some good trades, but we are paying the vast majority of players at or above their market value. That's not a winning strategy. Now they have the OEL cap hit to deal with on top of everything else.

 

[Baby Pettersson]

Home Record

• Beat themselves at home; 2 out of 3 games this season
• Don’t play with the same urgency at home
• Seem to be more comfortable on the road
• Get a lot of days off and don’t play well when they don’t practice
• Have some adjustments to make; are fixable
• Need to fix these things quick
• Can’t be a playoff team with their home record

Fixing Problems

• Patience for the front office and coaching staff are two different things
• Tocchet does a terrific job and has been dealt a different hand
• Tocchet will figure this out
• Front office will have to start to make decisions
• Talk every day about making the team better and what changes they might have to make; are at that period now

Canucks As Contenders

• Took a big step last year; a bigger step than anyone thought they could take in one season
• Key is to maintain what they did last season
• Lost some good players but have added some good players
• Have dealt with a number of issues; all teams have to do it too
• Need to get everyone in place and settle down
• Certainly a good enough team to be a playoff team and will see where they go from there

Window of Contention

• Can’t go to Costco and pick-up 1 or 2 players that can help you
• Living in a cap world and hard to make deals
• Need to add a couple of players to really give themselves a chance to content

Boeser

• Will deal with Boeser, at the trade deadline, when the time comes
• Are evaluating his situation
• The key is what the term looks like
• Like all contracts, player will have a different opinion than the team does
• Will continue to watch this really close

Tocchet

• Knew him really well from Pittsburgh
• Handled some of the tougher situations, in Pittsburgh, for Mike Sullivan
• Knew how he would be as a head coach because they watched him in Arizona
• Good communicator

Miller

• When a player asks for a reset you always give them that time
• You work at this business to do the best you can but also have to realize these are people and everyone has issues to deal with at certain times
• When a player reaches out for help, you give them the time off
• Been a long career so he can’t remember every situation but does believe this has happened to him before
• 15 years ago they weren’t as well equipped to handle this
• Didn’t have all the tools that they have now
• Has given players some time away; maybe not a month but a week or a few days
• Happens all the time; a lot more than people think
• Miller requested the time and it was for personal reasons
• I get that the sports world makes up trade rumours but when a player is on leave for personal reasons, it’s very disrespectful without any information to start rumours

Lankinen

• Not surprised that he has played well
• Had a goalie situation that was tough
• Lankinen overplayed his hand in free agency
• Marko Torenious was with Lankinen everyday and they told him to talk to Lankinen every day so the Canucks know exactly what he’s doing
• Were keeping an eye on him for about a month
• Possible to keep both Demko and Lankinen
• Don’t know Lankinen’s next contract but need goaltending to win
• Willing to put a little bit more money on the goaltending side than they would somewhere else

Sherwood

• Has been everything they’ve asked for
• Were looking for that type of players
• Lafferty brought a little bit of that last season; Sherwood brings more
• Can play up and down the line-up
• Drives the game some nights

This gives me hope that everything is going to be alright. It's nice having a guy like Rutherford in charge.

 

[rypper]

Thanks Jim.

 

[Nucker42]

This gives me hope that everything is going to be alright. It's nice having a guy like Rutherford in charge.

I have a different take, it scares the hell out of me thinking about this team needing to “add a couple players”.

If they just throw more assets at bandaid solutions then soon enough the team is going to have the worst farm system in the league. It’s already pretty poor with only 2 grade prospects.

I don’t think this team is close to good enough. Why buy at this point?

I would be a smart seller, Boeser and Suter. Forbort. Lankinen if you can’t resign him.

Add a bunch of assets and have Willander in your starting D next year along with another legit top 4 guy.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

I just don't know where these additional pieces will come from. Parity this year is a real thing and even bad teams feel inclined to hold onto their assets.

It will take a dramatic overpay to acquire a defenseman given the fact many other teams are seeking to improve depth on their blueline as well. St Louis did the wise thing and acquired Cam Fowler now..

 

[Nona Di Giuseppe]

the doom and bitchery after a bad loss is gross.

trade the 1st if a decent deal comes along. Get a pulse on the Lankinen situation and trade him if he isn't re-signing.

I just don't know where these additional pieces will come from. Parity this year is a real thing and even bad teams feel inclined to hold onto their assets.

It will take a dramatic overpay to acquire a defenseman given the fact many other teams are seeking to improve depth on their blueline as well. St Louis did the wise thing and acquired Cam Fowler

I have a different take, it scares the hell out of me thinking about this team needing to “add a couple players”.

If they just throw more assets at bandaid solutions then soon enough the team is going to have the worst farm system in the league. It’s already pretty poor with only 2 grade prospects.

I don’t think this team is close to good enough. Why buy at this point?

I would be a smart seller, Boeser and Suter. Forbort. Lankinen if you can’t resign him.

Add a bunch of assets and have Willander in your starting D next year along with another legit top 4 guy.

now.. who tf is gonna score on the team?

now.. who is gonna score on the team?

 

[JT Milker]

the doom and bitchery after a bad loss is gross.

trade the 1st if a decent deal comes along. Get a pulse on the Lankinen situation and trade him if he isn't re-signing.



now.. who is gonna score on the team?

We’re not trading Lankinen unless we’re sellers at the TDL.

 

[Rowlet]

The amount of people who want to be annual sellers when we're a contender to make the playoffs is concerning.

We play to win, remember? Or has it been so long that all you know is Benning.

Who cares about 3rd round picks, I want to win the cup and you do that by taking big swings while you have the best defenseman in the league who is probably a top 5 player overall for 3 more years, two top 10~ 100pt Cs, and a top 5 goalie.

I will drive as many Sawyer Mynios and Hunter Brzustewiczs to the airport as I possibly can to see the team win playoff games.

 

[Nucker42]

The amount of people who want to be annual sellers when we're a contender to make the playoffs is concerning.

We play to win, remember? Or has it been so long that all you know is Benning.

Who cares about 3rd round picks, I want to win the cup and you do that by taking big swings while you have the best defenseman in the league who is probably a top 5 player overall for 3 more years, two top 10~ 100pt Cs, and a top 5 goalie.

I will drive as many Sawyer Mynios and Hunter Brzustewiczs to the airport as I possibly can to see the team win playoff games.

The philosophy of trading picks and prospects year over year has really worked for this team right?

And none of the guys that have been moved have panned out right?

Come on. Sure take big swings for cost controllable players. Like a Hronek type deal all day. But don’t acquire guys that walk for nothing. That’s my only issue with selling the farm.

 

[LemonSauceD]

We should absolutely get rid of our first-round pick for a top 4 defenceman <28 years old or something. It's way more likely that that player moves the needle more than the ~17th overall pick.

You have the best defenceman on the planet. Go aggressive. If it doesn't work out and Hughes forces his way out in a few years, you can recoup the pick.

Keeping our 1st makes little sense. We're not finishing below 15th which means unless we find a diamond, it'll be years before that player even sniffs the NHL. I mean look at Lekkerimaki. He won't crack our roster as a mainstay until year three of his draft. And that's far from a guarantee.

Three years from now puts Miller at 35 and likely on the downswing of his career, Hughes up for a massive 13-14M rise and Boeser at 30--essentially Miller's position now of "win soon or he'll fall off." Assuming we re-sign him, of course.

We basically have to try and win now. Otherwise, we're just wasting all the prime years of our entire core. And for anyone thinking we should sell that core off, does that include Quinn Hughes because I don't see him having any desire to stay if we suddenly decide to try forcing a tank job.

Yeah, now that last nights game emotions have settled, my original position has always been this.

Holy f*** though, this current roster needs some corrective surgery, like right now.

Hoglander and Desharnais cap hits need to be moved. I also think Heinen could very well be a cap casualty as $2.25M on the 4th line is not ideal. Sucks about Forbort, but $1.5M to be our Andrew Alberts is also not ideal.

 

[Rowlet]

The philosophy of trading picks and prospects year over year has really worked for this team right?

And none of the guys that have been moved have panned out right?

Come on. Sure take big swings for cost controllable players. Like a Hronek type deal all day. But don’t acquire guys that walk for nothing. That’s my only issue with selling the farm.

Trading picks has worked just fine for this management group. Zadorov and Lindholm helped while they were here but they weren't able to he re-signed and that's fine. The average 3rd round pick will play less games for the Canucks than Zadorov did anyways.

I want the team to acquire rentals because it's better than asking what-if, like in 2011 and 2012. Trade 1sts if you have to, if you can re-sign them that's great, but it's not necessary. The team has a chance to compete for the first time in over a decade so go for it.

I want to win, not gradually accrue mid round picks by trading necessary pieces of this team because I'm scared of career bottom 6ers and backups walking as free agents.

If Lankinen and Suter want too much then let them go. We will find more Joshuas and Sherwoods to replace them.