i think i laid it out pretty clearly? the canucks don't have enough good players and don't have the means to get enough good players in a short timeline. it's really three things:
you need a large amount of really good players to contend in the nhl. it's not as simple as getting a couple elite pieces and then filling in the rest of the roster with whatever you have lying around
the cost to get good players to supplement elite pieces is much higher than you would expect. fans are salivating over possible horvat returns while ignoring that to get a player of horvat's level (i would say very good but not elite) is expensive
vancouver is basically a poverty level franchise when it comes to having the assets to make moves for good players. they have the following 'in their wallet':
2023+ first (2023 and each year beyond)
2023 second
2025+ second
2023+ third
hoglander
podkolzin
klimovich
rathbone
lekkerimaki
even if you add whatever the returns are for horvat, schenn and possibly garland/kuzmenko/whoever that's less than almost every single team in the league. there's really nothing else with significant value either in the farm or on the roster. maybe you can get a third or two if you move someone like bear or dermott or lazar but that's not really significant. there's certainly not enough to make the kind of moves colorado made in building their winning roster
given all this all i'm saying is that vancouver is in no position to 'go for it' either now or in the next few years. they shouldn't be making win now moves like buying out oel/boeser/garland, signing somewhat questionable defenders (like gavrikov or severson) to big money and term, acquiring assets that are going to be appreciably worse three years from now at the cost of assets that should be worth more than now (and by this i mean prioritizing nhl ready assets in the horvat deal instead of just getting the most valuable assets you can). they need to take a longer view
I disagree. I think there are a couple of big things, I don’t think they are going all in right now so it’s a weird argument to make that they are. They have been saying they want to build this brick by brick with the goal of having a contender within a 3 year time frame.
Like you argue we need a large amount of really good players, ok agreed, but we need to be more specific. I see the “base” as this right now.
Kuz-Petey-Mik
??? - Miller - ???
Pod - top10pick - Hog
Hughes ????
????? Bo’s return
Derm Bear
The 1st line as good as any. The 2nd line needs work and 3rd line ideally needs a 2nd line level center and more established winger than Hog. Like I really don’t see why it’s such an impossible task to say acquire a borderline 2C to play on the 3rd line next year and a 2nd paring guy to go with the hypothetical defender we will get for Bo.
I am not saying that this is some world beater but it’s a base to build off of and improve upon. It’s not like we have to get EVERYTHING in one off season to be a playoff team.
If we said last off-season, yeah Allvin will get 2 1st line piece to play with Petey without spending any asset, we would’ve gone like wtf are you smoking and they did it.
Like the question should be, what pieces do we need to become a playoff team and is it possible to get there in a sustainable and not burn all our asset Jim Benning type of way.
I think factoring what we will get for Bo, we are missing a 2nd line piece, 3rd line C and one actual top4 guy. That’s my opinion and we can debate whether or not that’s enough for just a playoff team.
With that assumption, I don’t know why we would assume it’s harder to get 2nd or 3rd line pieces. Yes you need good pro scouting, I don’t know if our pro scouting is good enough to get it done, we will find out soon enough but it’s not like it’s conclusive already that it’s impossible.
