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

[ManVanFan]

I haven't come across anything suggesting his decision to return is influenced by JT. Do you have a link to that information?

My neighbour has friends. One of his friends is an old teammate of Tocchet's. They had talked/met up in town when Van was here I guess. When I was watching the game with my neighbour, he asked me "Pettersson or Miller, who you keeping?" With a grin. Then he mentioned about Tocchet that he had heard that.

 

[Nick Lang]

Sorry but we have no idea what deals were available .... Funny how not long ago everyone was going in Alvin we trust.

You are not going to make great deals when the team is playing like crap. they will be desperation deals that will do what Dim Jim did all the time; namely trade away futures for marginal help (if any) now. And the number of times those deals saddled us with anchor contracts (like ones we are still paying for) and through away draft picks is sad.

A team that has had one good season in 10 should not be trading draft picks.They should be accumulating them.

It's amazing how many people will tell you different. There is always some reason to keep making impatient and crippling moves in this market. Always. Been like that since I can remember.

 

[JT Milker]

My neighbour has friends. One of his friends is an old teammate of Tocchet's. They had talked/met up in town when Van was here I guess. When I was watching the game with my neighbour, he asked me "Pettersson or Miller, who you keeping?" With a grin. Then he mentioned about Tocchet that he had heard that.

Do they sell bbqs?

 

[bossram]

You CAN trade and UFA your way to a competent blueline but you really need to have good scouting along with a bunch of good luck for it to be viable. Last year we signed Soucy and Cole, and not long before that traded for Hronek, then added Z in another trade. We hit on all our acquisitions and our pro scouts looked like genius.
Fast forward to this season and we signed Desharnais, Forbort and extended Myers and Juulsen, and suddenly our pro scouts looks like idiots.
I guess my point is that while it is possible, the odds are stacked against you to hit so often, eventually you will miss and end up with some duds, and the season is flushed away. Keep playing this game doesn't seem like a sustainable long term strategy.

It's not like they had an alternative. There were no prospect defensemen ready to jump into a top-four role. There was no Faber or Hutson level prospect pushing at the start of the system.

The premise of Allvin's success, given the state of the franchise when he assumed the job, is that in order to thread the needle to make the Canucks competitive he would have to be smarter than other GMs at pro scouting and finding undervalued players. For the most part, he was successful at that. He had some misses this offseason and that's on him.

When a third to a half of the GMs in the league are bumbling idiots, I honestly don't think this is an unsustainable strategy.

 

[brock hughes007]

We're the favorites individually against each team (Calgary may arguably be higher) but against the field itself we're not favorites at all just due to statistical probability (1 in 4).

Moneypuck has our odds at 45.3% and Calgary at 49.3%. Considering there are 4 teams fighting for 1 spot we're not favored to make it. Colorado could also be included but they are far ahead now.

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The Canucks do not deserve to be in the playoffs this year.I for one would not be able to stomach watching this core of players get destroyed by Winnipeg or Edmonton or Vegas or any team in the western conference.
They need a big change with the core and figure out if Tocchet is the right coach for this team.
Funny how we have not heard anything from Allvin..he must be loosing his hair big time ...

 

[Canucker]

The Canucks do not deserve to be in the playoffs this year.I for one would not be able to stomach watching this core of players get destroyed by Winnipeg or Edmonton or Vegas or any team in the western conference.
They need a big change with the core and figure out if Tocchet is the right coach for this team.
Funny how we have not heard anything from Allvin..he must be loosing his hair big time ...

Personally I'd rather see them make the playoffs than miss by one or two points.

 

[sandwichbird2023]

Once Benning left, it was talked about on here that it would take several years to clean up his mess and some of the poison pills that he left behind. Last season was a crazy one (possibly an anomaly) and supercharged expectations. However, the team is still somewhat hamstrung, and there will still be cleaning up to do. We all possibly got ahead of ourselves.

I think the pieces are there to continue being a competitive team (maybe not contender level, but definitely a 2nd round or better playoff team). The problem is 60% of our core players are performing significantly under expectations and 20% is in and out of the lineup.

To be honest, I'd be okay giving up Lekkerimaki for Byram or Willander for Anderrson. Although, I'd be far more hesitant on the latter. Both are solid, long term assets that fit our age window. Byram comes with concession concerns, but even then, he's such a massive improvement on our left side, I'd be willing to risk it. Especially with how well he's played this season.

If it wasn't for Willander playing right, I'd be more willing to move him for Byram too.

That's like buying luxury furnitures for a house that is falling apart. The foundation needs fixing, you need to either fix that or replace the foundation before you add to it. Otherwise it is just a waste of asset to add expensive pieces to a house that is falling apart.
No point in adding until you figure out what to do with Miller/Petey/Brock.

It's not like they had an alternative. There were no prospect defensemen ready to jump into a top-four role. There was no Faber or Hutson level prospect pushing at the start of the system.

The premise of Allvin's success, given the state of the franchise when he assumed the job, is that in order to thread the needle to make the Canucks competitive he would have to be smarter than other GMs at pro scouting and finding undervalued players. For the most part, he was successful at that. He had some misses this offseason and that's on him.

When a third to a half of the GMs in the league are bumbling idiots, I honestly don't think this is an unsustainable strategy.

Agreed about Allvin needing to be near perfect based on the mess Benning left him. But that is a tough (and maybe unfair) standards to hold him to, expecting him to hit on every pro-scouting decisions. And to be fair, even though we complained about his 2024 off season, he still nailed the Sherwood signing, and I thought he did good extending Blueger to his contract.
Even the Caps, which you used as an example previously, didn't always made great decisions on their blueline. Signing Bear was a questionable choice, Edmundson wasn't very good for them, and I'm not sure trading a 1st for Sandin was good either (but maybe others buy into his potential).
I just think it's unrealistic to expect them to build a good blueline year after year hunting from the bargain bin, even though again, I know that Benning puts them in this situation. Things will be a lot easier/better if Willander lives up to his hype.

 

[Vector]

 

[theguardianII]

The Canucks do not deserve to be in the playoffs this year.I for one would not be able to stomach watching this core of players get destroyed by Winnipeg or Edmonton or Vegas or any team in the western conference.
They need a big change with the core and figure out if Tocchet is the right coach for this team.
Funny how we have not heard anything from Allvin..he must be loosing his hair big time ...

Want a laffer? Boston, who have made the playoffs more times in the last 8 years than the Canucks in the last 16 yrs, is upset and thinking of re-tooling because they are only in the WC2 spot.
Their CEO, Jacobs, he isn't the President, states where they are isn't good enough, making the playoffs, paraphrasing, is the minimum expectation.
So the President of Boston, Neely, states;
“We’re aware of the expectations here,” Neely said. “We try to meet and exceed those every year. Right now, it’s a year that we’re not really accustomed to.”

In Vancouver the talk of the fans is keep this group together and the owner and President are silent. This is a losing core group for 6 of 7 years and re-tooling shouldn't even be a question!

 

[kanucks25]

Any idea why we even need to call up players when we're at home just to sit in the press box?

Wouldn't it save cap to keep them down and if something weird happens just call them up on emergency?

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

In fairness, I think the less Aquilini says and/or is involved, the better. Let Allvin and Rutherford run the ship, and they've always kept things tight lipped.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

I never said in there he should've done the Richards deal, that part is flying over people's heads

I'm saying you can't use that price for Richards as an excuse for not finding complementary scoring elsewhere. Middle six players like Vrbata on 1 million dollar contracts were traded for fourth line players like Kevvyn Adams that season - that's the mid-market that Nonis missed, and that's why he was fired.

Similarly this year, if the Canucks are only looking at the Andersson's and Provorov's of the world to patch up the blueline, of course teams are going to ask about Willander. They likely need to take a step down & look at the more mid-tier market like what they did last year with the Zadorov.

Sometimes when your car has been totaled, you have to bite the bullet and buy a Civic - yapping about the price of a Porche in that spot helps no one.

Okay, I apologize for the misinterpretation. I think what I took umbrage with was when someone said you have to do it for your job and I disagree unilaterally. An overwhelming majority of crappy moves are instigated with that line of thinking.

I think they tried a lot of things last offseason, but no focus has been made on the blue line. Every Canucks team ever worth anything had good defenders. I like the tower theory, but we went too overboard with it.

Ironically the type of player i like would have been Hampus Lindholm but we weren’t in position to do that at the time.

 

[ManVanFan]

Want a laffer? Boston, who have made the playoffs more times in the last 8 years than the Canucks in the last 16 yrs, is upset and thinking of re-tooling because they are only in the WC2 spot.
Their CEO, Jacobs, he isn't the President, states where they are isn't good enough, making the playoffs, paraphrasing, is the minimum expectation.
So the President of Boston, Neely, states;
“We’re aware of the expectations here,” Neely said. “We try to meet and exceed those every year. Right now, it’s a year that we’re not really accustomed to.”

In Vancouver the talk of the fans is keep this group together and the owner and President are silent. This is a losing core group for 6 of 7 years and re-tooling shouldn't even be a question!

Boston has also fired two out of the last 5 Jack Adams winners.

 

[bandwagonesque]

It's not like they had an alternative. There were no prospect defensemen ready to jump into a top-four role. There was no Faber or Hutson level prospect pushing at the start of the system.

The premise of Allvin's success, given the state of the franchise when he assumed the job, is that in order to thread the needle to make the Canucks competitive he would have to be smarter than other GMs at pro scouting and finding undervalued players. For the most part, he was successful at that. He had some misses this offseason and that's on him.

When a third to a half of the GMs in the league are bumbling idiots, I honestly don't think this is an unsustainable strategy.

This is all true, but an opinion that was widely held then and seems true in retrospect is that paying for one or maybe two good, proven defencemen and a having couple of waiver/AHL fill-ins treading water would be more effective than picking up 2-3 defencemen like Desharnais and Forbort that we more or less know can't hang with NHL forwards. I'm not a big fan of Zadorov but he and nearly anyone else would be the best 2nd pairing we've had all season.

 

[Vector]

Any idea why we even need to call up players when we're at home just to sit in the press box?

Wouldn't it save cap to keep them down and if something weird happens just call them up on emergency?

My best guess is that, at the moment, even if they are scratched Tocchet considers them part of the NHL team and wants them as an option to play. I understand recalling two forwards since they need at least one for tonight's game and it makes sense to have another on-hand just in-case.

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

Most teams completely out of the playoff race are in the West.

East is packed top to bottom.

I don't think there will be many sellers.

So if the Nucks start falling behind, it may be advantageous to be sellers (to some degree) by the TDL.

Then re-examine in the offseason.

 

[M2Beezy]

Most teams completely out of the playoff race are in the West.

East is packed top to bottom.

I don't think there will be many sellers.

So if the Nucks start falling behind, it may be advantageous to be sellers (to some degree) by the TDL.

Then re-examine in the offseason.

Or just win the cup. Easy breasy

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

Or just win the cup. Easy breasy

Gonna be tough to win the Calder but they might have a shot. Never know.

 

[theguardianII]

Boston has also fired two out of the last 5 Jack Adams winners.

Yep, team results are bigger than individuals.
The same with Vegas.

 

[Bleach Clean]

It's not like they had an alternative. There were no prospect defensemen ready to jump into a top-four role. There was no Faber or Hutson level prospect pushing at the start of the system.

The premise of Allvin's success, given the state of the franchise when he assumed the job, is that in order to thread the needle to make the Canucks competitive he would have to be smarter than other GMs at pro scouting and finding undervalued players. For the most part, he was successful at that. He had some misses this offseason and that's on him.

When a third to a half of the GMs in the league are bumbling idiots, I honestly don't think this is an unsustainable strategy.

That sounds like an even proposition (50%+), instead, of 'threading the needle' (top 10-15%). Allvin not only has to hit, he has to hit high, with quality... And that was always going to be low probability even against bumbling GMs... (Losing out on Guentzel was huge, as an example)

Edit: Sure, the defense was competent last year, but @kanucks25 makes a good point that Zadorov and Cole had good years (per their respective careers). Not something to bank on. This is why they either need quality to offset low ebbs, or change their reliance on DFDs ( change type).

There has to be a philosophy shift here, rather than just getting better DFDs.

 

[theguardianII]

In fairness, I think the less Aquilini says and/or is involved, the better. Let Allvin and Rutherford run the ship, and they've always kept things tight lipped.

The idea is TEAM, from the top down. Not just here and there.

Expectations shouldn't be Allvin's "the fans deserve a playoff", it should have been what Rutherford stated in his hiring, long term cup contender, not just a playoff team. Doesn't seem to be too much working together there, in fact it seems Rutherford stopped talking because most of what he said was against what Allvin was doing.

I see disconnect on this team from the owner staying quiet, to the President saying what he thinks, to Allvin going his own way and Tocchet pushing as hard as he can to change the team into a bunch of mini me's, to players being frustrated.

When messages are behind closed doors cover up can happen. When, like Tocchet calling out players, made in public it puts pressure on players, if the owner or President says something it puts pressure on management to perform or ..... have a damn good reason not to and gives the market more certainty.

The winning teams all have direct ownership input and direction. They pay millions to have professionals do those jobs, but deciding what is success is always in the owner's hands, if they shut up and stay away then as long as bums are in seats the GM keeps his job. If they start losing then the coach(s) goes. 4 coaches, 3 GM's, 3 Presidents and the core still loses. What hasn't changed? Boeser, Demko, Miller, Pettersson and Hughes, the core for the last 7 years or since Brock was drafted in 2015.

Every winning team has hands on ownership, pretty much all of them. But like winning the cup only one wins each year but those with those owners are in the real hunt most years.

Rutherford said manage up as well as down. well he better start doing the down side because Allvin is over taking Benning for rookie mistakes at lightning speed.

 

[ManVanFan]

That sounds like an even proposition (50%+), instead, of 'threading the needle' (top 10-15%). Allvin not only has to hit, he has to hit high, with quality... And that was always going to be low probability even against bumbling GMs... (Losing out on Guentzel was huge, as an example)

Consider Dom's roster efficiency model: VAN has one of the most efficient rosters in the league with an "A-" rating. Very good contract values, but their top-end is still thin... Improving at the margins on the mid/lower end doesn't change this.

I'll be interested to see if they continue to develop Lekkerimaki and Willander, or use them to bolster their 2~ year go-for-it plan.

If the Canucks have a 2 year go for it plan that doesn't include Willander or Lekkerimaki, I'd think this team better win a cup or expect a mid team with no future for a long while.

 

[UrbanImpact]

Left Shot Top 4 needs to be the priority Asap.

- Sanheim
- Provorov
- Byram
-Matheson
-Edvindsson
-Chabot
-M Pettersson
-K Miller
- Walman/Ferraro

 

[Bleach Clean]

If the Canucks have a 2 year go for it plan that doesn't include Willander or Lekkerimaki, I'd think this team better win a cup or expect a mid team with no future for a long while.

I edited my post to address the defense more specifically.

But yes, the timeline for Lekkerimaki and Willander was always going to be outside their short window focus. Development seems incongruent with that plan (futures went out for pure rentals last year). Doubling down on the 2 year run would be foolish now. (I don't think they trade either one)

 

[krutovsdonut]

My neighbour has friends. One of his friends is an old teammate of Tocchet's. They had talked/met up in town when Van was here I guess. When I was watching the game with my neighbour, he asked me "Pettersson or Miller, who you keeping?" With a grin. Then he mentioned about Tocchet that he had heard that.

does your friend of a friend of a neighbour have any crypto tips?