I really enjoyed reading a Dude post I mostly agreed with, but there'd be little point commenting if I agreed entirely.RoyalDude wrote:The future at forward is very good especially at centre - Horvat, Pettersen, Gaudette. The Wings look good as well - Boeser, Baertschi, Virtanen, Dahlen, Lind, Lockwood, Gadjovich. The future on Defence is the problem, nithing much outside of Juolevi. Tryamkin coming back sooner than later would help but no point in going there until that day, if there ever is that day. Tanev is just too injury prone, love the guy but if we could somehow package him to a win now team that has a good young D prospect in the system like Fabbro in Nashvilles system. With the bitch slapping the team is getting Im all in on keeping Gudbranson over Edler, Hutton and Tanev. Edler is done here, like Tanev see if we can off load him for a good young D prospect. Hutton is garbage not sure what you'd get for him. I'm starting to smell what Topper is cooking regarding Stecher. So yeah, the defence is in awful shape and Demko can't come soon enough. Markstrom is starting to remind me of Cloutier.
I agree the Canucks need more of what Gudbranson brings, but the defenceman position is too important to the function of the team to keep a marginal hockey player in that position for benefit of physical presence. In the current interpretation of the rules, net front battles are less of a thing, now, and the other elements of good defensive play are more important than ever. If you have to compromise hockey ability to get the physical element (and usually, you do), better to get it from a winger who can double as puck-retriever and forechecker-who-wears-down-the-defence. Even if Virtanen never blossoms into a scoring power forward, we can still hope that he brings value to the team by excelling in that role (fast enough to actually get in on the forecheck is an important element in which many other players otherwise suitable for the role are lacking). The Canucks just need 3 more like that.
