No Sundin this season

[Bret H]

Not much of a suprise, but Sundin will (with some 99% certainty) not dress up for the Canucks this season. Gillis has said he wants Sundin if he's ready at Day 1, but Sundin himself says he won't make a decision until earliest September and Sundin's agent says it is highly unlikely that Sundin will be playing when the season starts. So... guess Gillis will have to look elsewhere for some offense.

I fully understood Sundin last season, it's OK to take your time _once_ when you've played for as long as Sundin has... but if he's going for a repeat this season it gets kind of embarrasing. This time he should know what kind of answers he was looking for last season.

[Cornuck]

Good - I would have loved to have an affordable Sundin back in fold, if he let us know by now. To play the waiting game 2 years in a row would have been a joke. I'm glad to hear that Gillis has (99%) cut bait.

I don't know how we would have afforded him anyway.

Now we just have the Luongo watch to keep an eye on....

Anyone seen the latest payroll numbers? Who's left to sign and how much do we have?

[Mikodat]

So, now we've lost both our best secondary scoring - Sundin and our best Dman - Ohlund ( playoff stats ).. No adequate replacements in sight.. This years team isn't shaping up to be much of a contender. Another season of " wait till next year? "..

[ClamRussel]

Bringing Sundin back as our no.2 center would have taken alot of the pressure off Hodgson *and* given him a bit of a mentor. ...actually it would have taken some of the load off of Daniel as well. Now we're back to Sedin being our only offensive threat up the middle...moving Kesler back to the middle...and more pressure being mounted on Hodgson's shoulders. Sedin for one more season would have kept Kesler on the wing where he is more effective offensively and been great for Hodgson's development imo....just to play with such a storied vet like Mats could have a great effect on the kid. By moving Kesler back to center it also weakens our depth at wing but I guess thats what Samuelsson's 15 goals will be for.

I'm glad MG isn't going to bend over *again* for Mats to hum & haw his way through yet another off-season while missing camp again. Either sign or don't, then he can move on.

[the toucan kid]

I don't understand how anyone thinks a guy without a contract doesn't have the right to take however much time he wants. That said, we know now that Sundin without proper prep is something mediocre, so MG would probably be right to pass. That said by January I'm sort of sure if Sundin says he's up for another half-season and will play for whatever money, I bet we will be clamoring for it.

So, now we've lost both our best secondary scoring - Sundin and our best Dman - Ohlund ( playoff stats ).. No adequate replacements in sight.. This years team isn't shaping up to be much of a contender. Another season of " wait till next year? "..

Yup, that's what you get with an expensive and mediocre core.

[Island Nucklehead]

So, now we've lost both our best secondary scoring - Sundin and our best Dman - Ohlund ( playoff stats ).. No adequate replacements in sight.. This years team isn't shaping up to be much of a contender. Another season of " wait till next year? "..

Edler was our best defenseman stat-wise in the playoffs with 8 points in 10 games... there is no way Ohlund was our best defenseman last year. Not by a long shot. We've discussed it to death, but what we really lost was two over-the-hill swedes who weren't getting any better, and certainly not any faster. Thank Vishnu we don't have Sundin on the books for this season at $10M... Gillis would be the laughingstock of the league.

So far, our forwards are shaping up to be better than last year, imo. Certainly faster, younger and probably more skilled. With guys like Hodgson, Grabner, Shirokov pushing to make the team, and players like Raymond, Hansen and Bernier looking to improve I'm certainly not terrified of our offensive potential... at least compared to last year at this time.

We're thin on the back end, but having 13 or 14 forwards seems to tell me that a trade will be made before the season starts to bring in another 4-6 defenseman, effectively replacing Ohlund for less coin.

Doom and Gloom! Doom and Gloom! Right, Touc?

[Arachnid]

So, now we've lost both our best secondary scoring - Sundin and our best Dman - Ohlund ( playoff stats ).. No adequate replacements in sight.. This years team isn't shaping up to be much of a contender. Another season of " wait till next year? "..

Heh heh, that's what they said last year...

And we made the playoffs and the 2nd round?!


Great (low) expectations

[ClamRussel]

I don't understand how anyone thinks a guy without a contract doesn't have the right to take however much time he wants. That said, we know now that Sundin without proper prep is something mediocre, so MG would probably be right to pass. That said by January I'm sort of sure if Sundin says he's up for another half-season and will play for whatever money, I bet we will be clamoring for it..

He can take 5 years if he wants, just ask Fleury.



Doesn't mean Gillis has to take him.

[Ridleyfan]

Who were these people who bought authentic Canucks "Sundin" jerseys?
There have to be dozens more for sale on eBay.

[Island Nucklehead]

Who were these people who bought authentic Canucks "Sundin" jerseys?

Idiots?

[jchockey]

Who were these people who bought authentic Canucks "Sundin" jerseys?

Idiots?

This guy has him beat:

http://www.620wtmj.com/shows/johnjagler/51569227.html

But then again, he doesn't care what you think.

[the toucan kid]

Doesn't mean Gillis has to take him.

Doesn't mean he shouldn't either...

Doom and Gloom! Doom and Gloom! Right, Touc?

Yes, but even I have to admit, I'll be sitting on the couch in my jersey rooting with renewed optimism on opening night. I think it might fade quicker than most years because this team is such a dull one to watch, but at least there's some youth, like you say, that will provide some interesting variables. I don't think the team will get up to much (who knows playoffs or not), but there's a potential to have more youth with upside on the squad than we have had in a while.

t what we really lost was two over-the-hill swedes

You're right in a sense, but you'll only have to watch a few games to see what nonsense that is

[Badfish]

Doom and Gloom! Doom and Gloom! Right, Touc?

Yes, but even I have to admit, I'll be sitting on the couch in my jersey rooting with renewed optimism on opening night. I think it might fade quicker than most years because this team is such a dull one to watch, but at least there's some youth, like you say, that will provide some interesting variables. I don't think the team will get up to much (who knows playoffs or not), but there's a potential to have more youth with upside on the squad than we have had in a while.

t what we really lost was two over-the-hill swedes

You're right in a sense, but you'll only have to watch a few games to see what nonsense that is

I don't get this whole "this team is such a dull one to watch" idea going around. With the exception of Bure and one or two years of WCE run-and-gun hockey (Which got us where exactly?) when has "Our" team ever been ultra-exciting? For that matter, with the exception of possibly the Pens and Caps, what teams out there are jump-out-of-your-seat exciting? We've got youth and speed in our top 9, with two of the prettiest passers in the game on our top line. Add in some tough Dmen (albeit currently short a top 4) and I'm psyched to watch this season play out. Missing Ohlie will be a factor we haven't addressed yet, but I have to assume MG's working on that. We've got a plethora of forwards all fighting for a spot, which makes for good competition since half of them are playing for their jobs this season either because of 1 year contracts or the threat of going back to the AHL. We lost Sundin for half a season - not the most exciting player to watch as he scored all of 9 goals. Yes he's a talent but it's not like he was a franchise player for us, a talented underachieving vet at best who can't decide if he wants to play for us again after we treated him like gold and made a good run in the playoffs. Not to mention he was injured twice in his short stay with us, If he wants a cup as he claims he'd be here in camp in Sept, in great shape, ready to make this team better for a full season. I'll take a winning team over pure excitement any day! It got real old watching the Canucks storm through the regular season in the WCE days only to be out-played when it came to the crunch time. Our team last year did amazingly well especially considering the "experts" and many on here felt we weren't good enough to even make the playoffs. A Division title later, and it's the same story this offseason.

I like our options up front, and the idea of getting Burr and Kes back together fulltime excites me. watching those two crash and bang their way through the league was a definite highlight. I like Burr with the twins allot, but I LOVE Burr and Kes together.

[the toucan kid]

I don't get this whole "this team is such a dull one to watch" idea going around. With the exception of Bure and one or two years of WCE run-and-gun hockey (Which got us where exactly?) when has "Our" team ever been ultra-exciting?

It's tough to argue this point because it's solely about what excites you as a hockey fan. So you're entitled to that view, but I find the trap game and the Sedins shifts (fully-admitting that they make some interesting passes and occasionally Hendrik's setups are eye boggling) to be dull. We have great skaters, but for half the game they aren't allowed to forecheck, so that goes out the window. If we have a lead you almost have to turn the game off.

I've often found Sundin exciting to watch and made a number of great setups (at par with Hendrik) to Kesler on the PP.

I'll take a winning team over pure excitement any day!

As would I, but we're going to get neither. I stood by AV's methods last year because who can knock that second half? But we missed our shot and didn't do much of anything with it.

A Division title later, and it's the same story this offseason.

If you actually care about Division titles, more power to you.

[Island Nucklehead]

It's tough to argue this point because it's solely about what excites you as a hockey fan. So you're entitled to that view, but I find the trap game and the Sedins shifts (fully-admitting that they make some interesting passes and occasionally Hendrik's setups are eye boggling) to be dull. We have great skaters, but for half the game they aren't allowed to forecheck, so that goes out the window. If we have a lead you almost have to turn the game off.

It may be dull to you, but last years team was one that missed being a top-10 scoring team by 1 goal.

The Canucks (as most teams) play to their strengths. Recently that has been our goaltending and our defensive depth. I think this season you will see that change. Goaltending will still be a priority, but we'll have better forwards than we've seen in a while. Luongo might have to work harder for his large paycheck, but we should be able to get him some more support at the other end.