Balls Mahoney
2015-2016 HF Premier League World Champion
Thinking about the Jovo-Ohlund pairing makes me weep both at the current state of the Canucks and how old I am.
Just googled it, it's even worse than we remember lol.
Why Weekes was traded: Questionable knee injury and an incredible tale of robbery led to goaltender's exit from Canucks
According to sources, Weekes told the coaching staff and team security he’d been robbed. His story went like this.
On his way to the game, he’d gone into a dry cleaner in downtown Vancouver to pick up some items he’d dropped off earlier. When he walked out of the shop, he was approached by a man.
”Are you Kevin Weekes?” the man allegedly asked.
”Yes.”
”Follow me,” he said.
At this point, Weekes told coaches and team security, the robber hopped in his car and started driving.
Weekes hopped in his and followed the guy across the Granville Street Bridge to an alley somewhere in the Granville Island area.
The guy asked for any money Weekes was carrying and the player handed over several hundred dollars in bills. There was no gun involved.
And that, said Kevin Weekes, was why he was late.
Thinking about the Jovo-Ohlund pairing makes me weep both at the current state of the Canucks and how old I am.
I seriously think they should have fire the management team prior to this disaster. Same bunch bungled the Gretzky signing!!
Think about that! Gretzky wanted to center Bure and tried to come to Vancouver but Quinn screwed it up in negotiations! The best player in history wants to play with the greatest Canuck and Quinn can't climb down off his monumental ego! FFS!
If you think about it, our defense was ridiculous in 1999. Ohlund, Jovo, McCabe, and Aucoin - all of whom would become top pairing d-men - under the age of 25. Plus Allen and Sopel as prospects.
Was he though? I thought Kaberle covered up alot of his weaknesses (much like Campbell made Guds look like a #4 D in Florida).That sucked Aucoin was traded for Cloutier, he did get paid big by the Islanders though.
McCabe when he was here was pretty good, although he would be much maligned in Toronto.
Was he though? I thought Kaberle covered up alot of his weaknesses (much like Campbell made Guds look like a #4 D in Florida).
Thinking about the Jovo-Ohlund pairing makes me weep both at the current state of the Canucks and how old I am.
The killer in the deal was throwing a 28 y/o Bret Hedican into it.
Hedican was quite frankly nearly as good a player as Jovanovski over the next decade and the #1 defender on a Cup winner in 2006.
If we’d got Jovanovski for Bure ... it sucks but at least you have a good asset coming back. Jovanovski for Bure and Hedican is a big loss.
Ward had a Conn Smythe post season + Justin Williams taking out the eye of the leader of the Habs (imagine how how we would’ve lasted in the 1994 playoffs had somebody do that to Linden in the first round?)bret hedican wasn’t a number one d on a cup winner; that team had no number one. it didn’t even have any number twos. but sure, a 35 year old hedican played the most minutes, ahead of aaron ward, which kind of says it all.
The greatest curiosity about this trade was the potential for Bure to play with Gretzky. Gretzky was highly familiar with Bure, having played so many games against him with the Los Angeles Kings. Pavel scored more goals and points against the Kings than any other team in the NHL.Burke was close in working out a deal with the Rangers. Cloutier Sundstrom and a 1st. Burke wanted Manny as well and Smith didn't want to trade him.
There another rumour as well. Bure Hedican for Palffy Berard
Malhotra was a projected checking center -- a role that he developed into and played effectively in the NHL -, but Jovanovski was better than any piece in that potential Rangers deal....
Who are all these young players that Smith keeps talking about? Christian Dube? Jeff Brown? Daniel Goneau? From the 1994, 1995 and 1996 drafts, only Cloutier and Marc Savard have turned out to be, will ever turn out to be, regular NHL players. Consistently, the Rangers have rated skill above grit in making selections at points of drafts where the blue-chip players are long gone.
So what else did the Rangers, really, have to offer to sweeten a pot, as long as they were going to make Malhotra, projected to be a solid third-line player, an touchable? Why would Vancouver GM Brian Burke even get back to Smith after Smith insisted Malhotra was a deal-breaker? Hoping that the Rangers would offer Mike Knuble? Savard? Scott Fraser?
The Canucks believed their most pressing needs were for a defenseman and a center, not a checking winger like Sundstrom, not a goalie like Dan Cloutier. If Malhotra couldn’t be part of the deal, then the best of Vancouver’s limited options probably was with Florida, no matter how much better Cloutier turns out to be than Kevin Weekes, if he turns out to be better at all.
The Panthers’ offer wasn’t great, just, for the Canucks’ purposes, a little better than the Rangers, who couldn’t raise it without risking just another of the kind of trade that has won them one Cup in 58 years.
...
Then again, the Rangers haven’t had too many young players, so maybe they don’t know how to nurture them. They obviously don’t know how to rate them, which is what is scary about making a checking center a deal-breaker when there was a chance to acquire a superstar.
...
The greatest curiosity about this trade was the potential for Bure to play with Gretzky. Gretzky was highly familiar with Bure, having played so many games against him with the Los Angeles Kings. Pavel scored more goals and points against the Kings than any other team in the NHL.
Gretzky would have played one more season in the NHL had Bure joined the Rangers in 1999.
Larry Brooks wrote a piece about it the day after the trade.
https://nypost.com/1999/01/20/years-of-neil-neglect-cost-blueshirts-bure/
Malhotra was a projected checking center -- a role that he developed into and played effectively in the NHL -, but Jovanovski was better than any piece in that potential Rangers deal.
It's just too bad that we couldn't get a year of Bure and Gretzky together.
On the Weekes robbery story: Fiction, friction on Canucks
Canucks almost got 99 in 1996 as well but owners messed up that deal by telling Quinn to call 99 and asked him to sign now. When the Rangers did get Bure, 99 retired already.
Yep, I've posted it before, but I'll repost it. The Gretzky story has always seemed off, and with the benefit of hindsight I don't think he was ever all that serious.It was George McPhee who phoned him and the circumstantial evidence indicates they we’re right about Gretzky using them to drive up NYR’s offer.
If you’re referring to the Gretzky thing (which was 1996), keep in mind sober second thought since the incident has led to speculation that Gretzky was never all that serious about signing with the Canucks, but was rather using them to bargain with the Rangers.
And the evidence frankly makes sense. For one, his decision proves that Quinn was right to be nervous. Who makes a career-altering choice on the spot after their “mind is made up” because they got annoyed by a phone call? I’ll bet plenty of sports stars would be more taken aback by the team not showing desperation.
Secondly, I don’t believe for a second that his celebrity wife, after years of living in Los Angeles, was willing to take Vancouver over New York. To a lesser extent I’d think this of Wayne himself, but as a Canadian who had already spent years in Edmonton I assume he wouldn’t see it as the same sacrifice.
Quinn Hughes coming up next year sure is a depressing thought.
Depressing times indeed.
Dont be silly.
So......you’re saying that I *should* be excited that Quinn Hughes, a man that some (Pierre Lebrun, etc.) are already pegging to be almost as good as Rasmus Dahlin, is coming here next year?
Getouttatown!
Yep, I've posted it before, but I'll repost it. The Gretzky story has always seemed off, and with the benefit of hindsight I don't think he was ever all that serious.
Post-Game Talk: - 18/19 Endless boilerplate arguments regarding Management thread | Pt. V. Oil up your mouse wheel.
Gretzky says otherwise: I can't find a link unfortunately, maybe someone else can, but Wayne said clearly he thought he was going to be a Canuck and that it was Quinn calling him at I think 2 am insisting he sign the deal that ended it. And he wanted to be a Canuck because of Pavel.