Grub's Canucks & NHL News, Rumours, and & Fantasy GM | The Boys of Summer

[TruGr1t]

Not a fan of Sprong and I can't imagine Tocchet liking Sprong. I suppose if the plan is to play him on the 4th line with a safe defensive player like Aman Sprong could be useful.

I'm not a huge fan either, but he's been consistent offensively for two seasons now. If you get him on the cheap it's not a bad add, plus he's arguably superior to Hoglander, Podz and PDG. And he's a right shot, which we need. It also lets you move a winger in trade for something else.

 

[LemonSauceD]

Could be a Drouin type of thing next season where you just leave Sprong in the top 6 beside Pettersson. If he comes at under $2M I see no issues here. $1.5M x 1. Plays a pretty decent transition game which is something Kuzmenko lacked.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Because a girl hasn't walked in with an itty-bitty waist.

All this talk about Sprong, I had to highlight this reply from the T&R forum that had me in stitches. It was the answer to the question “why isn’t anyone getting Sprong”.

 

[Canucks LB]

I like sprong more than mercer 2bh

 

[Nick Lang]

Some good things and bad things about Sprong. The good thing is that he’s legit Dutch and I like hockey weirdos.

The bad things is that he seems to have an attitude issue. Not like the typical Dutch are blunt but more like he occasionally assaults people at bars. There’s also been rumblings for a while that he’s not well liked.

Yeah, Tocchet was his coach for the 18 games he played with the Penguins. Allvin would be extremely familiar with him given his role in scouting and the minor leagues.

I remember at that time getting into the later first round draft options and not sure who we'd pick at #23. Originally Sprong was supposed to go first round and I wondered if we would select him as we needed scoring. Super glad we took Brock star instead. Could have had Carlo, Aho, Cernak, or Christian Fischer, as well but Sprong was the next best player in between pick 23 and pick 46. At the time he was coming off 88 points in 68 games and I figured hey here comes another player that will have huge success in Pitt. Well ... not quite. lol

 

[RandV]

my point isn't that willander for mercer is a slam dunk must do trade. i dunno what to think about mercer and i don't know it would work out that well. i think it's the type of trade the team needs to look at if they are serious about contending with this core though

there's this idea that 'contributing elcs' is some kind of must have for contenders and that's simply not true. no contender has had significant players on elcs except for byram and maybe dallas if you consider them a contender. you win with elite players in their prime and cheap depth

if you're banking on willander and lekkerimaki coming in and pushing this roster over the top you're sacrificing at least one and possibly more years of waiting and you're betting on a couple of prospects that aren't even sure bets to come in and make that kind of contribution

Personally I think you're way off the mark here missing on a couple key points. First, contending teams don't typically have the type of blue chip prospects that can step in and contribute on an ELC. Those players typically come in the top half of the draft and contenders have almost always been drafting late. Second, when a playoff team does have such a luxury, they have a stack of assets to trade at the deadline and you don't deal from the top of the deck for a rental. Expanding beyond just 'contenders and looking at playoff teams/deadline buyers, Colorado didn't sell on Byram, Rangers on Lafreniere/Kakko, Florida on Lundell, Minnesota on Boldy/Rossi, etc etc.

Now if you're talking about trading for a new core piece like a Matthew Tkachuk, then sure everyone can be on the table. But the Canucks simply don't have the cap space to add a guy like that. I feel like at this point in the season some fans will get to far into 'fantasy hockey' mode when the roster is pretty much set. What we have room for is rentals or maybe more modest additions and you can acquire those by trading your upcoming draft picks and spare prospects like Brzustewicz.

While you can't just pencil guys like Willander/Lekkerimaki into the lineup, the point is that having the luxury of decent blue chip prospects like that on a playoff team you have a pretty good chance that they will be able to be good players on ELC and that's an immense boost to your Cup chances.

 

[LemonSauceD]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1814425473918918749

If you can get him for $1.5M x 1 or 2 then Hoglander instantly becomes a trade piece.

 

[David71]

need more goal scoring from the bottom 6. with a glut of forwards hoglander or pods on the move for a dman?

 

[TruGr1t]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1814425473918918749

If you can get him for $1.5M x 1 or 2 then Hoglander instantly becomes a trade piece.

I'd be surprised if he takes much of a discount on his last deal, if you can get him at 2x$2M it's probably realistic. There will be some cap gymnastics to make it work.

 

[LemonSauceD]

another suter type signing. need more goal scoring from the bottom 6. with a glut of fwds, hoglander or pods on the move for a dman?

I don’t know how we would be able to do that as of right now. Myers, Desharnais, Forbort pretty much all occupy the 4/5/6 part when they should be 5/6/7.

Either way, Myers and Desharnais on the right side pretty much makes it impossible to get a RHD, for now? I highly doubt we’d pay $2M for Desharnais just to sit on the press box so he’s likely permanently 6RD. If you can get a legitimate #3 LHD, you can pencil Soucy down as a #5 and Forbort can be pushed down as a 7th D which is again not ideal but better than $2M sitting in the press box. And then you can have a rotation of 3 5/6 defenseman similar to last season carry each others weight.

Myers resigning kind of sucks imo. 3 years x 3M for a 34 year old bottom pairing defenseman is kind of gross and handcuffs the right side.

 

[sting101]

A little behind here but I would be all over Mercer. I've been a big fan since his draft year. Think he can be an excellent top6 C as he matures and could be an excellent player to put beside Miller so they could move him to wing in a couple yrs. The thing i dont agree with is this notion that you cash out on Willander and/or Lekkerimaki to do it. Handing over a whack of contractual value as a contender would be a mistake. We simply don't have many avenues left to abstract a surplus. Some may believe that we won't get return of investment for the window in our 2 top prospects but it's too big a gamble for players that are not huge impacts and are on the cusp of getting paid.
Hoglander on the other hand is a year away from a new deal so if you can move Hoglander plus pick/player and attach Poolman to square the contracts and get Mercer/Sillinger thats a move I would do easy.

As far as Sprong. He's obviously a head case and it goes back to his draft even. I don't really want to rovk the boat with Tocchet and chemistry here so I would pass but do agree with the principle of cheap young scorer in for free and trading another to help the D if that was the type of deal they could pull off.

Hayton Pinto Sillinger Dach Mercer Necas are all guys I would be kicking tires on. It's very important we find another C that can be a capable top6 guy in a couple years.

 

[Diablo2020]

The defense should be upgraded mid season with the likes of Desharnais, Juulsen, Forbort or Wolanin as the dmen we upgrade on.

Something like Desharnais, Mynio, conditional 1st for a half retained Adam Larsson so salaries are a wash.

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

All this talk about Sprong, I had to highlight this reply from the T&R forum that had me in stitches. It was the answer to the question “why isn’t anyone getting Sprong”.

Still waiting on a round thing in your face.

 

[David71]

I don’t know how we would be able to do that as of right now. Myers, Desharnais, Forbort pretty much all occupy the 4/5/6 part when they should be 5/6/7.

Either way, Myers and Desharnais on the right side pretty much makes it impossible to get a RHD, for now? I highly doubt we’d pay $2M for Desharnais just to sit on the press box so he’s likely permanently 6RD. If you can get a legitimate #3 LHD, you can pencil Soucy down as a #5 and Forbort can be pushed down as a 7th D which is again not ideal but better than $2M sitting in the press box. And then you can have a rotation of 3 5/6 defenseman similar to last season carry each others weight.

Myers resigning kind of sucks imo. 3 years x 3M for a 34 year old bottom pairing defenseman is kind of gross and handcuffs the right side.

another LHD. dont trust forbort moving up in case of injuries. someone whose a bit younger and can move the puck

 

[Wisp]

Some good things and bad things about Sprong. The good thing is that he’s legit Dutch and I like hockey weirdos.

The bad things is that he seems to have an attitude issue. Not like the typical Dutch are blunt but more like he occasionally assaults people at bars. There’s also been rumblings for a while that he’s not well liked.

honestly his name being 'sprong' was doing a lot of work making me think he was a happy-go-lucky guy.

 

[VanJack]

honestly his name being 'sprong' was doing a lot of work making me think he was a happy-go-lucky guy.

Sprong is probably the highest potential value UFA left on the board, and a player Rutherford drafted in the second round of the 2015 draft, when he was in Pittsburgh.

Coming off an 18-goal, 25 assist season in Detroit, you have to scratch your head. All he could earn last season was a one-year 'show me deal' from the Wings after 21 goals and 25 assists in the 2022-23 season with the Seattle Kraken.

I mean those are pretty respectable scoring numbers, Yet somehow the 27-year old Sprong is now on his fifth NHL organization after the Wings let him walk. and it now seems that he quickly wears out his welcome.

Then there's the possibility 'off-ice' issues. A story making the rounds on Yahoo is that Sprong assaulted former Indy Car Driver Zach DeMelo in a bar-room brawl in Detroit, and then sucker-punched him after the fracas was broken up. The allegation was contained in an Instagram post, and it's not clear whether any other action has been taken by the authorities or if DeMelo is taking legal action.

But the Canucks had a lot of luck last year, nabbing Pius Sutter after he'd sailed past the July 1st deadline, and had to accept a 'team friendly' deal. So you never know.

 

[ddawg1950]

Do not wish to have Koffer Sprong.

 

[Vector]

Something I thought is kind of neat is that if you total up all the goals from players that left the organization from last season you get 48. If you add up all the goals for the players entering the organization, you get 47.

Mikheyev - 11
Lafferty - 13
Kuzmenko - 8
Zadorov - 5
Lindholm - 6
Beauvillier - 2
Studnicka - 1
Cole - 2
=48 goals

Heinen - 17
DeBrusk - 19
Sherwood - 10
Desharnais - 1
=47 goals

 

[Huggy Bear]

If we sign another forward and Podkolzin/Hoglander are being traded, based on the young players reportedly available, I’d go for any of Soderstrom, Barron, Robertson (mainly considering Podkolzin for these) for the right cost. I haven’t done a deep dive on defensive prospects that are close to their expiry dates for boom/busting, though so there are likely better options available too.

Otherwise Hoglander+ for Theodore would be a great move assuming other moves would be made to shuffle cap.

 

[Diversification]

I still predict a late summer 1 year signing of Kylington at around 2.5M. Would have to dip into LTIR, but he fits a real need and, assuming his troubles are behind him, really solidify the 3rd pairing.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

If we sign another forward and Podkolzin/Hoglander are being traded, based on the young players reportedly available, I’d go for any of Soderstrom, Barron, Robertson (mainly considering Podkolzin for these) for the right cost. I haven’t done a deep dive on defensive prospects that are close to their expiry dates for boom/busting, though so there are likely better options available too.

Otherwise Hoglander+ for Theodore would be a great move assuming other moves would be made to shuffle cap.

I think even before this talk of Sprong started, Hoglander and Podkolzin are probably your most likely trade chips on the roster if you are looking to upgrade somewhere. If we do indeed add Sprong, it makes one of them moving almost a certainty, IMO.

Hoglander is a desirable piece in his own right. Podkolzin would likely be more of a throw in/added piece.

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

Something I thought is kind of neat is that if you total up all the goals from players that left the organization from last season you get 48. If you add up all the goals for the players entering the organization, you get 47.

Mikheyev - 11
Lafferty - 13
Kuzmenko - 8
Zadorov - 5
Lindholm - 6
Beauvillier - 2
Studnicka - 1
Cole - 2
=48 goals

Heinen - 17
DeBrusk - 19
Sherwood - 10
Desharnais - 1
=47 goals

Desharnais looks like the new Cole.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Something I thought is kind of neat is that if you total up all the goals from players that left the organization from last season you get 48. If you add up all the goals for the players entering the organization, you get 47.

Mikheyev - 11
Lafferty - 13
Kuzmenko - 8
Zadorov - 5
Lindholm - 6
Beauvillier - 2
Studnicka - 1
Cole - 2
=48 goals

Heinen - 17
DeBrusk - 19
Sherwood - 10
Desharnais - 1
=47 goals

I think you can probably count on DeBrusk getting more goals this year given his history.
I think we see a small increase in goals but more importantly have better two way forwards in DeBrusk and Heinen.

 

[TruGr1t]

I think even before this talk of Sprong started, Hoglander and Podkolzin are probably your most likely trade chips on the roster if you are looking to upgrade somewhere. If we do indeed add Sprong, it makes one of them moving almost a certainty, IMO.

Hoglander is a desirable piece in his own right. Podkolzin would likely be more of a throw in/added piece.

I'm not sure how you'd fit him cap-wise if you didn't move one of them anyways. You have around $166k in cap space, and assuming Sprong signs for somewhere around $2M (maybe slightly under) you'd need to move Hoglander or Podz and probably waive Aman for it to fit.

 

[sting101]

Sprong is less talented Kuzmenko 2.0

Allergic to the boards, quirky bad personality. Inconsistent, often poor defensively, streaky scoring winger

He's 27 and about to be on his 6th team. Cant believe some of you just agreed that you like him more than Mercer??

Dawson Mercer will be a stud and kinda is already in this league as he approaches his prime ages.

Making marginal improvements to his athleticism defending and faceoffs is pretty commonplace for 21/22 yr olds. He already has PK acumen and is a board demon with some of the better hands shot and he can dish. He's a target player in the mold of a young JT Miller who hasn't solidified himself in a playoff teams top6 just yet.

Mercer >>>>>> Sprong unless your just simply looking at this year but even then given the versatility Mercer is still a better player. If Allvin and JR are sniffing around it's because they are smart and see a player about to be bridged that should immediately outplay his contract for 2-3 yrs before he gets expensive and they are trying to plan for Miller to the wing to lessen his heavy lifting