Confirmed Signing with Link: [VAN] F Daniel Sprong signs with the Canucks (1 year, $975k)

[I Hart Conor Garland]

Ask yourself mate, which other country uses that spelling and all shall be revealed to you.

Right on. I had my suspicions yet didn't shoot that shot.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

No actually the coaches and GMs aren't idiots on this one. Sprong is now on his 4th team in 4 seasons. There reason is because he is God awful definitely. Sure he scores at a decent rate for a bottom 6 forward. But he hurts the team by not playing defense that once he starts going cold offensively or you are in a playoff race he gets scratched.

Because in the playoffs teams tighten up and the mismatch he gets to feed off of aren't there anymore and so the coach doesn't use him and struggles to get offense out of his team anyway. Sprong has barely 2 playoffs under his belt. It's also a possibility he joins cap strapped teams and is still trying to find a team where he can make his mark.

Not uncommon from what Anthony Duclair had done before him. Your team was idiotic enough to sign him so either they're too stupid to not do research beforehand or that they wanted to add some offense and signed him to a contract and saw that other youth were pushing for a spot and decided to move in that direction. Same for what Seattle did.

This need to trash the lad because Laloser didn't like him is rather odd.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Right on. I had my suspicions yet didn't shoot that shot.

I feel like profiles are often skipped over. I think I filled it out once just to answer an inquiry such as this. All good mate.

 

[Pucklington]

Decent depth signing. Flawed player, but very good price and worst case he can be buried.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Decent depth signing. Flawed player, but very good price and worst case he can be buried.

He'd probably get claimed so if he doesn't fit and he's waived then he's likely gone anyway.

 

[PullHard]

Sprong absolutely has the scoring tools to score 30+ goals. Quite easily if he's playing with Pettersson or Miller.

The reason Sprong hasn't gotten those roles is because he doesn't play a lick of defense. So it might not be very good for Vancouver if he's in the top six, and I don't expect Tocchet to play him there often, but if he does, he'll score in bunches.

I would never argue that he doesn’t have the tools to accomplish those milestones especially playing with centers as good as Pettersson or Miller. It’s more the idea that Vancouver has taken this big step forward last year and has hopes and expectations to be a meaningful playoff team deploying Sprong in their top 6. Sprong has played for bad and average teams, teams that had less expectations than Vancouver currently has, and has never been a permanent or even semi permanent top 6er anywhere. He might get a game or a period here and there but he is what he is. And that’s why I think the idea of him hitting those numbers is comical. There’s more players than just Sprong you could say this about. Well hell even a player like Suter is going to have his numbers inflated playing with Miller and Boeser. Suter is a much more balanced player and doesn’t create on his own like Sprong, but I hope you understand what I’m saying.

 

[SopelFanThe3rd]

People pencilling Sprong into the top 6 need to stop. Ridiculous.

 

[bigdog16]

Guy is a locker room cancer and doesn’t play an ounce of defense. Wouldn’t want the Rangers signing him if he came for free

 

[Rowlet]

Guy is a locker room cancer and doesn’t play an ounce of defense. Wouldn’t want the Rangers signing him if he came for free

Good news, if he's a cancer the Canucks can just waive him and he won't cost anything against the cap.

 

[deca guard]

he knows how to find space to operate in then has the kill instinct n accurate shot to finish with . piss n moan that he doesnt have a complete game while hes getting a team 20g @ 1m . point is 1 mil of cap hit makes him nothing but an excellent signing

 

[LouJersey]

Could be the next Verhaeghe

 

[VanJack]

It's safe to say that Sprong has never played for a coach like Rick Tocchet.

He'll have to produce, both offensively and defensively. That's the only way you're going to earn ice-time with this coach.

 

[Skolman]

Great deal for VAN. Wish the Leafs could have snagged him. Surprised he signed so cheap.

Yes, because that's exactly what the Leafs need more of... A soft one-dimensional forward.

 

[canadianmagpie]

Ask yourself mate, which other country uses that spelling and all shall be revealed to you.

To be fair, you could be English, Australian or from any English speaking country not named the USA.

 

[HairyKneel]

Probably more like, "nobody has interest in Sprong - so his agent asked Dhaliwal to put it out there that he has a suitor to try to drum something up". That's usually his schtick when it's something like this.


Like...people thought RikTok was unfair and too hard on Kuzmenko for his defensive play and effort level? How is Sprong ever gonna even see the ice under him? There's a good reason a guy with his sort of offensive skillset is still unsigned at this point in the summer. With his agent trying to use the various mouthpieces like Dhaliwal to drum up some sort of sense of interest somewhere.

Meh..... who listens to Dhaliwal? The guy is a complete hack. You think the agents and GM's put any stock into what that dripdick says?

If so I have a parcel of land for you up in Tumbler Ridge.

 

[Reality Check]

The contract Sprong received tells all that you need to know.

Either he ships up or next stop: KHL

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

It's safe to say that Sprong has never played for a coach like Rick Tocchet.

he literally has

albeit briefly

but i think it can work. if all three of tocchet, allvin, and rutherford are willing to work with him again, there must be something they think they can get out of him that other teams couldn’t untap.

 

[TheUnusedCrayon]

This is a great contract. As good as you can get. Take your swings and see if you can hit a home run for cheap. Take this any day of the week.

 

[syz]

Canucks already trying to fight the upcoming PDO regression by signing one of the league's PDO kings.

 

[Thechozen1]

I really wonder if this opens up Hoglander in a move for a Top 4 D

You can have Pionk.

 

[Bankerguy]

his even strength production per 60 minutes is crazy impressive.
however, this is mostly against bottom pairing defense pairings and the occasional mid pairing since he did this all from a bottom 6, (really fourth line) role.

lets say Rick Tocchet gets through to this beer-leaguer and he's OKAY enough on the D side of the puck to warrant middle-six duty.
He'll face tougher D for sure.
Can someone smarter than me adjust and prorate his stats based on playing 17:30 minutes a night, over 82 games with his points per 60 reduced 25%. What would this be? like 55 points? ( can you calculate this based on his last two years-averaged)

 

[Wry n Ginger]

his even strength production per 60 minutes is crazy impressive.
however, this is mostly against bottom pairing defense pairings and the occasional mid pairing since he did this all from a bottom 6, (really fourth line) role.

lets say Rick Tocchet gets through to this beer-leaguer and he's OKAY enough on the D side of the puck to warrant middle-six duty.
He'll face tougher D for sure.
Can someone smarter than me adjust and prorate his stats based on playing 17:30 minutes a night, over 82 games with his points per 60 reduced 25%. What would this be? like 55 points? ( can you calculate this based on his last two years-averaged)

He's 27 and based on Allvins comments of 'he has learned etc etc', there doesn't seem to be a huge expectation that he is expected to "flip a switch" or anything.

Assume he is meant to start the season on the 4th line with Blueger and Sherwood and is expected to hold his own defensively for now.

Between the coaching staff, Allvin, the Sedins and teammates like JT, Myers, Joshua and others...i think he understands completely that his attitude and performance will change drastically this year.

Looking forward to watching his journey!!!

 

[majormajor]

It's safe to say that Sprong has never played for a coach like Rick Tocchet.

He'll have to produce, both offensively and defensively. That's the only way you're going to earn ice-time with this coach.

That's the reason he hasn't earned more than 4th line ice time with his last two coaches, despite being one of the best per minute scorers. Because they, like most coaches, have high standards for defensive play. It's not just a Tocchet thing.

his even strength production per 60 minutes is crazy impressive.
however, this is mostly against bottom pairing defense pairings and the occasional mid pairing since he did this all from a bottom 6, (really fourth line) role.

lets say Rick Tocchet gets through to this beer-leaguer and he's OKAY enough on the D side of the puck to warrant middle-six duty.
He'll face tougher D for sure.
Can someone smarter than me adjust and prorate his stats based on playing 17:30 minutes a night, over 82 games with his points per 60 reduced 25%. What would this be? like 55 points? ( can you calculate this based on his last two years-averaged)

You can do it yourself. Multiply his ES P/60 by 17.5/60 * 82 * .75 and then add the non ES points back in.

 

[BluesyShoes]

his even strength production per 60 minutes is crazy impressive.
however, this is mostly against bottom pairing defense pairings and the occasional mid pairing since he did this all from a bottom 6, (really fourth line) role.

lets say Rick Tocchet gets through to this beer-leaguer and he's OKAY enough on the D side of the puck to warrant middle-six duty.
He'll face tougher D for sure.
Can someone smarter than me adjust and prorate his stats based on playing 17:30 minutes a night, over 82 games with his points per 60 reduced 25%. What would this be? like 55 points? ( can you calculate this based on his last two years-averaged)

I did a quick spreadsheet, pro-rated at 17.5 mins a game, he'd have scored 77pts over 82 games on average. 3/4 of that is 58pts, so pretty close to what you were guessing.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

he literally has

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albeit briefly

but i think it can work. if all three of tocchet, allvin, and rutherford are willing to work with him again, there must be something they think they can get out of him that other teams couldn’t untap.

Context is important, maybe ask a Penguins fan like myself or others and we'll clarify it for you.

Mike Sullivan was quoted about how to develop Sprong and before him it was MJ that was trying to figure that out and wasn't doing a good job of it. Tocchet was there, sure, but he wasn't the one in charge of that, at the end of the day, the usage and minutes were up to the head coach and Mike Sullivan wanted Sprong to learn how to play with Crosby by playing Crosby's game and getting him the puck.

You know, because why would you ask a prospect to play his game and work on his game to get better, nah mate, learn to play with 1 player that the coach didn't even bother to really try him with outside of a few shifts and when Sprong did look good with Malkin, he was immediately demoted to the 4th line or press box. They drafted a scorer and promptly had Sullivan try to turn him into a pass first winger that follows Sid around the ice only to never really have the intention of playing him anywhere near the top 6.

Tocchet, outside of being a fan of his since his playing days as a Penguin, I have been a fan of his coaching style and ideology for a while, I liked that even while his time in Tampa wasn't great, he identified Stamkos needing to get stronger and sent him off to train with Gary Roberts to gain some strength. If Tocchet was actually in charge of Sprong back then, he'd probably have a better chance. Rutherford also screwed Sprong royally by keeping him up and screwing up the waiver process for him, Rutherford has admitted this already so that's on the record. Seems like JR continues his reunion tour with ex-Pens and this time, hopefully he can correct the wrongs he did by Sprong.