SKYO wrote:
If your planning on tanking for one year, it's a 2-3 year process of ridding yourself of all your vet's who all have term contracts...so please get rid of that thought process like it's so easy to tank for ONE season...
Fair enuff, but I don't think we have to get rid of all our vets to tank for the 2014-15 season. I'd keep Hammer and Juice around (prob Edler too) and the Sedins aren't going anywhere with their contracts. Maybe we'd have to get rid of all these guys to truly tank it and be neck in neck for the turtle derby; however, I simply wouldn't have bothered trading for roster players (ie - Bonino + Sbisa) and spending big money on free agents (Miller + Vrbata) to help the team at this present time.
Obviously with the lottery system, u can't simply blow up your team, turn it to shit and get the guaranteed 1st pick. Someone mentioned the key is to finish in the bottom five. We had Kes, Garrison and Lou for most of the season and we still got the 6th pick. If we took all those guys out for the majority of the season, we would be quite a bit weaker. Just go with what we have, let the chips fall where it may and hope for a bottom 5 standing.
I just want to mention to, it's a hell of a lot tougher to acquire good young talent vs getting good solid veterans. Just look at what a great young goalie (Schneids) entering his prime got us? A 9th overall pick. One of the best 2-way centres (Kes) in the game? A 24th pick (and yes, I know, 2 other guys). If Benning could of got the 10th pick for Kes, u know he'd be all over it. Solid veterans can be acquired all the time via free agency. Unlike Calgary and Edmonton where not a lot of players want to go, Vancouver has a lot going for it and seems like a popular destination for a lot of players. Just look at the cast of talented and character veterans who we acquired over the years: Mike Keane, Willie Mitchell, Dan Hamhuis, Matt Sundin, Manny Malhotra, and Mark Messier (LOL*), etc. Heck, if rumours are true, even Iggy would of came here, if we matched a 3 year deal for him. Free agents who are still good players, who don't cost us prospects or draft picks, nothing but monetary value.
Good dollars (no probs for the Aquamen) + popular destination (Van-City) = win for acquiring good free agents. Just ask Vrbata and Miller.
People scared of the team of making the playoffs and getting slaughtered, so you want to suck even further with getting shitty players in, need to give your head a shake, this team when healthy was coming off back to back President trophy winning season's a cup final and MG fucked it all up and dropped a nuke on it with Torts, now JB/TL/LG are here to clear out crap and rebuild fast on the fly, and they're doing a damn fine job of it imo.
I would disagree with u there. The team was on the decline before Torts even got here. One of the things he said at the end of the season was that he felt the team was
stale once he got here. I would agree with him. OK, the 2011 team was awesome, no doubt, our key players were all having career years and we won the President's trophy. 2012 team, even though we won the President's trophy again, the team was showing signs of being on the decline, playing in the weak pacific division helped our team to be on top of the standings once again. 2013 team, we took a dip, once again being in the weak division helped us make the playoffs. If would of been a hell of a lot tougher to make it if we weren't playing the likes of Colorado, Calgary, Edmonton all the time. 2014 team, we get a new coach and we get aligned in a new division, our team sunk to new lows and missed the playoffs for the first time in like 6 years. Injuries didn't help for sure and Torts made some mistakes for sure, but I think Scotty Bowman could of been our coach and we would of still missed the playoffs. U can't pin the failure of the 2014 season all on Torts, just saying.
Basically, I think our team sank not so much because of the coaching, but more so because of the decline of our key players and playing in the tougher division. Seriously, just look at why did Kesler want out? It's not because of the coach because Linden already got rid of good old Torts. Kes went to Anaheim, which is in our same tough division. He basically
believes he can win with the players currently on the Duck's roster, while he
doesn't believe he can win anymore with some of his buddies who he went to war with all these years. Boy, if I were the Sedins, Burr and Juice, what a slap in the face. Time to burn some Kesler jerseys! Boy, if the Nucks ended up playing Anaheim in the first round next season and we knock them out? That might be better than a Stanley Cup win. Motivation can be a huge factor in how a team plays and karma can be a bitch. I digress.
