Name a random Canuck

[Vector]

I think about Todd Warriner way too much.

 

[RobertKron]

He was awful

Hurt his shoulder at the very start of the season, or maybe in the preseason. I think he'd had surgery in the offseason and the early injury compounded on the offseason recovery and he just looked slow and out of step, and never really settled in.

I think about Todd Warriner way too much.

Dave Roberts.

As an aside, the number of names in here who were national team members makes me kind of miss the days of the national team being an actual sustained entity and players like Gregg or Plavsic delaying their career or stepping away to play in the Olympics. A guy like Sean Burke putting his career on hold to go play for the national team and compete in the Olympics added some sort of mystique to it that, IMO, has been lost. I still remember Plavsic rejoining the team after playing the first chunk of the year with the national team and winning silver at the Olympics, and how that seemed like such a big deal.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

I think about Todd Warriner way too much.

Good old “One Touch”.

On that note - Trevor Letowski.

Underrated trade by Burke getting rid of Drake Berehowsky and Denis Pederson for Letowski, Warriner and Bouck. Letowski was a solid bottom six player for us, Warriner had a few decent games and even bagged a goal in the playoffs, and Prince George Cougars legend Tyler Bouck saw some action with the Canucks while being a fixture with the Moose for a few years too.

 

[RobertKron]

I remain a Jonas Andersson truther.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

I think about Todd Warriner way too much.

Was confused as hell for a second there.

Then I noticed what thread I was scrolling through.

 

[SopelFanThe3rd]

Really liked Todd Warriner back then. He filled in for Klatt with the Sedins well enough when Klatt tore his butthole.

 

[Jerry the great]

Brent Sopel.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Lonny Bohonos - one of the all time great names in team history. Had a pretty nice run with the team in the 96-97 season, and was an AHL superstar. But I probably remember him better for going and playing in Davos and thwarting Canada's Spengler Cup hopes on more than one occasion. But not before the Canucks had dealt him away for Brandon Convery.

 

[HairyKneel]

That’s the point.

Really shitty players played a lot of hockey games in the 1990s. Good defenders who were small with low PIM totals weren’t given a chance.

Chris McAllister played 300 NHL games and the guy could barely skate.

Strudwick was an awful hockey player who got a ton of mileage out of being a great dressing room guy who was Scott Niedermayer’s cousin.

Strudwick was a much better player than Mac. Struds was tough as hell and knew when to answer the bell as well as being a quality teammate. Being a cousin of the Niedermayers didn't have anything to do with anything. If so Jamie Linden and Scott Neely would have cared out careers.

It was all about the eras as you know. Kurtz would get the nod today but that era valued toughness more.


Sean Pronger

 

[MS]

Strudwick was a much better player than Mac. Struds was tough as hell and knew when to answer the bell as well as being a quality teammate. Being a cousin of the Niedermayers didn't have anything to do with anything. If so Jamie Linden and Scott Neely would have cared out careers.

It was all about the eras as you know. Kurtz would get the nod today but that era valued toughness more.


Sean Pronger

Strudwick was a better player than McAllister, yes.

Yes, Strudwick was tough and a quality teammate.

That doesn't change the fact that he was an absolutely shitty hockey player who got completely caved for his entire career when any team gave him any sort of regular defensive reps.

It isn't 'oh, he worked better in that era', it's 'that era valued the wrong things and bad players were given icetime over better ones'.

On a team that had plenty of size/toughness already with Brashear up front and Ohlund/Jovo/Baron etc. on the blueline ... a Justin Kurtz who was better at both ends of the rink would have helped us win games a hell of a lot more than a Jason Strudwick who was a pure AHL-level player in terms of ability.

 

[F A N]

He was awful

Yes he was. It's actually one of the more surprising failures (to me) but in retrospect it was a player who was simply a great fit for Lemaire's system.

Like he was coming off two good seasons playing a 3C role. He's big, played on the PP and PK, right-shot C who can win faceoffs. He was 29 years of age. It's not like he was Schaller who had one season of being a decent 4th line player. The dropoff shouldn't be he was so bad he's out of the league in half a season.

 

[HairyKneel]

Justin Kurtz wasn't helping us win a bunch more games. He got a look here and nowhere else. He wasn't some unknown. He x wasn't good enough. Strudwick played for many years under a bunch of GM's and coaches. I think some of them knew what they were doing.

Back to the topic

Bob Manno

 

[MS]

Yes he was. It's actually one of the more surprising failures (to me) but in retrospect it was a player who was simply a great fit for Lemaire's system.

Like he was coming off two good seasons playing a 3C role. He's big, played on the PP and PK, right-shot C who can win faceoffs. He was 29 years of age. It's not like he was Schaller who had one season of being a decent 4th line player. The dropoff shouldn't be he was so bad he's out of the league in half a season.

It was stunning how bad Chouinard was.

Part of it was that people were expecting a '30 point 3C' when in fact the previous year he had 16 ESP and then a bunch of PP points in PP usage he wouldn't/didn't get in Vancouver. Nonis was fooled by looking at hockey card stats when he made the signing.

But part of it was just that his compete/engagement level was horrific. I don't know how he played for Lemaire and did well. Or whether Lemaire pushed the right buttons and Vigneault didn't?

The really crazy thing was that it wasn't like it was a bad team/bad environment that year. That was the year after we acquired Mitchell and Luongo and rode goaltending/defense to the division title.

 

[MS]

Justin Kurtz wasn't helping us win a bunch more games. He got a look here and nowhere else. He wasn't some unknown. He x wasn't good enough. Strudwick played for many years under a bunch of GM's and coaches. I think some of them knew what they were doing.

Back to the topic

Bob Manno

Kurtz was a better player. Of course he would have helped us win more games.

Awarding of NHL roster spots is not a perfect system where the 'right' players get the right jobs and GMs haven't badly misjudged what makes a successful player in the past.

It's a harder thing to 'prove' in the NHL but in MLB we can see this effect very clearly with improved statistical understanding of the sport.

Ken Reitz Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Ken Reitz. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com

www.baseball-reference.com

MLB GMs and managers thought that this guy was one of the best 3B in the sport in the 1970s. He played in ASGs and won Gold Gloves. He was also absolutely shit (never got on base, had limited power at a premier offensive position, and had lousy defensive range at 3B which was hidden by the fact that he had safe hands and made few errors), and should probably never even have been in MLB.

There's no way similar stuff wasn't happening in the NHL and 'coaches played this guy so he must've been good' isn't evidence that a player was good.

Neil Eisenhut.

 

[God]

Evan Oberg

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Gerald Diduck

 

[MS]

Evan Oberg

The thing I most remember about Oberg is that orcatown for some reason called him O'Berg in literally every mention of him during his entire time here.

Ken Hammond, who is the only player in franchise history to appear in playoff games for the team but never a regular season game.

 

[God]

The thing I most remember about Oberg is that orcatown for some reason called him O'Berg in literally every mention of him during his entire time here.

Ken Hammond, who is the only player in franchise history to appear in playoff games for the team but never a regular season game.

someone should make a list of orcatown typos, i'll start: micheyev

 

[MS]

someone should make a list of orcatown typos, i'll start: micheyev

Horvath

And to keep the thread on topic, Todd Hawkins. One of my first prospect crushes when I was like 9 years old (dude was on pace for like 30 goals/400 PIM in the IHL!) and never really got a look and then they traded him for some terrible D named Brian Blad (10 year old me : MORE LIKE BRIAN BAD!) and I was not happy.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i saw lonny bohonos but i don’t think anyone has said larry courville yet

 

[bandwagonesque]

Brad Ference.

Drafted 10th overall in 1997 because he was a mean, somewhat mobile defenceman with one or two projectable skills, a grossly overvalued combination at the time. Ference never played a regular season game for the team, but did appear in a few preseason games and basically went apeshit at the slightest provocation trying to impress management and stick. Went to Florida in the Bure trade and had a fairly short career.

 

[AlainVigneaultsGum]

Andrew Ebbett

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Jason Herter.

One of the crowning achievements of our swings and misses at the draft table in the 80s and 90s, Herter is the first guy I ever attributed the term “bust” to, thanks to my cousin. I pulled this card in a pack of hockey cards and I was excited to get a Canuck - any Canuck - and my cousin kindly informed me that he actually sucked and was a total bust. I think he’d been traded already by this point.

Looking at his stat lines, he put up some really nice college numbers. And had some decent stat seasons in the minors. But never translated to a pro career.

 

[F A N]

It was stunning how bad Chouinard was.

Part of it was that people were expecting a '30 point 3C' when in fact the previous year he had 16 ESP and then a bunch of PP points in PP usage he wouldn't/didn't get in Vancouver. Nonis was fooled by looking at hockey card stats when he made the signing.

But part of it was just that his compete/engagement level was horrific. I don't know how he played for Lemaire and did well. Or whether Lemaire pushed the right buttons and Vigneault didn't?

The really crazy thing was that it wasn't like it was a bad team/bad environment that year. That was the year after we acquired Mitchell and Luongo and rode goaltending/defense to the division title.

I don't think our expectations were that high. He was suppose to be useful defensively while playing on the PK and winning his share of faceoffs while chipping in with some offence. And it's not like 16ESP is that terrible either in that era. Aging Linden for example had 15ESP that year. Young Kesler had 20ESP. He could have been an offensively limited 4C with size who was solid defensively, contributed on the PK, and can win faceoffs rather than out of the league.

 

[RobertKron]

Again, I believe Chouinard was coming off shoulder surgery in the offseason, and then got hurt very early on and just never seemed to be able to get in the swing of things when he came back. I suspect either his body had broken down, or he was just out of shape and not good enough to be an NHL player out of shape. Basically cooked his career, IIRC.

Josh Green should have stuck for a while as a bottom six PK specialist. I don't think I've ever been more unexpectedly impressed with a player seeing them live than him on the PK.

Also I mentioned him before, but you're all going to keep hearing about Jonas Andersson until everyone agrees that he is the best player ever. I went to one of the games where he played like 3 minutes, but he was a big body who moved around well and seemed fairly responsible. Was surprised he didn't get more of a look.

IIRC, Bieksa beat the shit out of Aaron Voros in that same game and I think broke his orbital. It was brutal. You could hear it.