StreetHawk
Registered User
- Sep 30, 2017
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- 11,204
Too much term on their vets. Save for Jossi, any deal for the rest is going to be hard to conclude.
That's why I advocate for a Dallas Smith clone: not an obvious top four type, but a guy who can quietly complement one of the game's best players. Bobby Orr didn't need a partner who was a top four. He had the puck all the time, and he just needed a defensive guy with a decent IQ who was a high-average skater and had a good understanding of his role. That was Smith.The problem is who is dealing us a top four RD that could consistently play with Hughes? That kind of talent is very rarely available, and in the event one is they'll come at a premium cost we really can't afford.
Say, for example, Andersson shakes loose. There's no scenario we acquire him without Willander going the other way. And then we won't be able to afford in two years when he inevitably wants 7-8M because we're stuck with 5M in dead cap.
It just isn't going to happen unless we get lucky acquiring someone like Byram who suddenly explodes.
That's why I advocate for a Dallas Smith clone: not an obvious top four type, but a guy who can quietly complement one of the game's best players. Bobby Orr didn't need a partner who was a top four. He had the puck all the time, and he just needed a defensive guy with a decent IQ who was a high-average skater and had a good understanding of his role. That was Smith.
In the first half of the seventies, Orr was notching about 120 points a season (in a league watered down by an expansion that doubled its size). Playing alongside him, Smith averaged about 30 points and allowed Orr to do his thing.
Just my two cents, but I don’t think anyone much cared that he blasted the trolls online. But in the same breath, he took a bunch of shots at the Canucks organization and players - people that CBC counts on having good relationships with and access to. I suspect behind the scenes he was likely coached not to bite the proverbial hand that feeds, no matter how empathetic his employer and colleagues were to what he was dealing with with the trolls.
For that matter, I believe Bieksa likely got a similar chat for his remarks about the media in Edmonton (even though he was bang on).