Nonis said the same thing with teams asking for Edler, Bourdon and Kesler in every deal when looking for offensive help, then his ass got fired in the offseason. At some point you just have to do your job.
Management was praised nonstop last year for finding a way to get the job done without giving up major pieces, and deserves equal amounts of blame for sitting on their ass all year & allowing the defense + culture issues to spiral out of control.
Every contract except Hughes and Demko has been signed by these guys - no excuses for not being able to fix it. Fabbro was available for free, Carrier for peanuts, etc. Instead Juulsen is still playing hard matchup minutes for us instead of riding the bench.
Tocchet’s also got to get his act together. I defended him nonstop earlier in the season, but the team has come out extremely flat lately. I gave him all the praise in the world for fixing the teams defensive issues & making them play hard, but now they can’t even do that out there. Yes, there’s issues with the defense, but the effort just isn’t there right now.
Hilariously misinformed example. The literal best thing Nonis did, outside of the Luongo deal that fell in his lap, was keep his powder dry and not give up our entire future for a soon to be UFA who MIGHT have gotten us to the 2nd round once before leaving. It would have been the ultimate in selfish, self-preservation thinking.
I do find it a bit ironic that Chychrun is being referenced as someone who may have been part of the solution as I recall many on here, from an advanced statistics perspective, didn’t like him.
The dislike for Chychrun came in response to those who more casually follow the rest of the league and thought we were 'crazy' to go after Hronek and should have gone after Chychrun. It didn't make sense then and time has borne that out. It doesn't mean he isn't a legit top 4. But he was redundant on LD and had a contract guiding him to UFA.
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This is a disappointing and frustrating season, and last year got everyone's expectations really high.
I do think this board tends to sort of amplify the most histrionic voices.
I said at the start of the year, this season will be a reload. We will probably lose in the 1st round.
Our window in earnest starts when Willander (and to a lesser extent Lekkerimaki) are contributing on their ELCs.
I think Willander will be a quick study and be a useful shutdown guy, at least against 2nd lines most of the time, relatively quickly.
We will then need a solid two way or puck moving LD who can grow with the organization.
The dramatic responses about how 'this core is cooked' are nonsense and I'm always curious how those who want to trade everyone after a bad two months would emotionally survive the 'burn it all down' rebuilds they mistakenly think they want.
If Miller and Petey can't co-exist, I deal Miller easily without a second thought. Keeping him would be a catastrophe.
With that in mind, I trade him for that needed LD and a flawed middle 6 center and whatever pick we can get. To use the NYR, I do KAM and Trochek or, more likely, Chytil.
If I have to, I trade him for a similarly paid guy who might need a move like Timo Meier.
I probably let Brock walk if he wants something like 8x8. I don't think that ages well.
I do whatever I can to acquire Nikolaj Ehlers, the guy I wanted with the stupid Virtanen pick incidentally.
We desperately need to adopt team speed as our identity again like we had for large stretches of last year.
Those aren't the only moves I would make but a team with:
DeBrusk-EP-Ehlers
As the top line.
Chytil and then our buzz saws of Sherwood, Garland, Joshua, Blueger, and a hopefully emerging Lekkerimaki is a forward group you can start with.
Yes, we still need a better 2nd line center, but that's more easy to acquire or fill by committee than this awful bottom 4 D, and absolute dearth of speed on our wings.
A top four of Hughes-Hronek
KAM (or similar)- Willander
Has the potential to grow into an INSANE strength in terms of puck retrievals, puck movement, skill in their zone.
An underrated thing about having a really skilled D is that they can make middle 6 lines incredibly effective.
Let's say you put, just e.g. Garland with Chytil and Joshua. None of those guys are stone cold, create something out of nothing killers. But if they have intelligent and skilled D to play off of, then they can have 2 minute shifts in the other team's zone.
But similar players with Myers, Desharnais, etc get one shot, regain the puck, send it to the point and it's off a shin pad and out.
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I still maintain strongly that the germ of the Canucks team that can win the Stanley Cup is here in Petey, Hughes, Hronek, DeBrusk making 5.5, Willander and possibly Demko if he can regain his game and stay healthy.
It may be time to move off of Miller if the room is as toxic as the reports, and Boeser is so loveable but 8x8 for him is crippling.
