Around the league (signings, RFAs injuries)

[Chef Boi RD]

Maybe you should become an Oilers or Flames fan then Blob... doesn't sound like you are having much fun being a Canucks fan...

Ahhhhh so if one wants to be a fan of a team they have to support said team in all of their personnel decisions regardless of if the decisions are dumb or not . I'm not sure if you were a fan of the Canucks from say 1983-1988 .... It was brutal following the Canucks but not because they were bad but because they didn't appear to have a fucking clue what was going on . It was brutal because they had very inept management who made some putrid trades and worse draft picks . I see a similar pattern developing with Jim Benning and Willie Desjardins .

If you and the get along gang want to delude yourself into thinking the Canucks are going to be a good team for the next five to ten years fill your fucking boots . I see no top end prospects other than Bo Horvat . I see zero defencemen coming up who project as a top 4 d. There aren't any forwards who look to be first line players in the future . The team is old, slow, soft and tiny . After the top three defencemen it drops off to depth NHL guys and AHL quality players.The best thing for this team long term would be to have a terrible start and or lose a key guy to injury and end up in the lottery . Hopefully then Elmer Benning can flog a few guys at the deadline for .50 on the dollar . It would be a marked improvement from the .25 on the buck he usually obtains.

Blob, you strike me as an intelligent hockey man. You and I have been posting on these boards for centuries. Are you telling me you never saw this coming? That you just woke up and said "WTF?!?!? What happened to 2011??? I do take great pride in me predicting the adversity this team is going through right now, the dawning of the Sedin era, the book is coming to a close. But seriously dude, your Boi Gillis left a shit storm for Benning to clean up that is comparable to the shit storm Bush left for Obama. He's a year into this "TRANSITIONING" phase, the fix is in, but dude relax, it ain't going to be fixed overnight. Sit back and relax, you of all people making like the panty crushers over at the Canucks Hockeysfutures boards, it's really surprising. I do have a glimmer of hope that you are just having one on us.

[Island Nucklehead]

If you and the get along gang want to delude yourself into thinking the Canucks are going to be a good team for the next five to ten years fill your fucking boots . I see no top end prospects other than Bo Horvat . I see zero defencemen coming up who project as a top 4 d. There aren't any forwards who look to be first line players in the future . The team is old, slow, soft and tiny . After the top three defencemen it drops off to depth NHL guys and AHL quality players.The best thing for this team long term would be to have a terrible start and or lose a key guy to injury and end up in the lottery .

I guess that's why they play the games, but for me this team will continue to live and die with the Sedins. The "rebuild while staying competitive" is pretty much "ride the Sedins til they're done". Eventually, we'll get that lottery pick, and hopefully, with what looks like a decent amateur scout in Benning at the helm, we don't fuck it up.

As for the around the league part of this thread, it's hard not to look at teams like the Oilers (who appear to have sorted out their management old boys club) and Calgary (who have assembled one of the deepest d's in the West to go along with a young exciting group of forwards) and see a brighter future for them than for us. Hopefully we're not in for an Oilers-style decade of darkness, but I can certainly see a Flames-style "flirt with the playoffs but fall just short" for a couple years before we hit lottery territory. The Flames missed the playoffs for 5 straight seasons, and might have been better off had they gone "rebuild mode" sooner.

[TDA Rum]

Not at all.... you can support the team any way you like... it just seems lately that you don't seem to like anything about this hockey team... but seem to like what the Oilers & Flames are doing, so i was just trying to save you the aggravation of supporting a team you think is awful & with no future...
I believe, on the contrary, that the future looks very bright for this team and i think once the season starts, you will see that what you are saying in incorrect... just my opinion
I have been a Canucks fan since day 1 and will be a Canucks fan even after i am long gone
You may be right with what you are saying, i don't believe that you are, but may i suggest watching a few games to start the season & see how the team performs, before writing them off for the next 10 years...

[Hockey Widow]

I see Blob differently. He has always been a passionate Canuck fan. He was even handed about Gillis, saw the good he did but also see the righting on the wall. I find nothing wrong with his saying Edmonton and Calgary have improved and are on the upside after years of mediocrity. I do think he is over the top critical of everything Benning but not because he loved Gillis, because he doesn't trust Benning. I have no problem with that.

I think most of us pretty much agree we are not contenders. Some see us as a playoff team, others don't. Some agree with the transitioning, others don't. Most agree we need to get lucky in the draft. Blob can be over the top in his criticism but not because he hates the Canucks. He is just doing what Dude did for a few years.

I'm less concerned about Blob's negativity than I am curious about this new Dude

[Cornuck]

I'm less concerned about Blob's negativity than I am curious about this new Dude

You might have missed it, but there was a 'Freaky Friday' incident here a couple of months back...

[Island Nucklehead]

Penguins sign Tom Sestito to a PTO.

[2Fingers]

I understand where Blob is coming from, it is damn scary to think that for the last 10 years we did have a fairly good team and we went all the way to the SC finals. with 30 teams there is a slim chance to win the cup and as we grow older we wonder when in the hell will this team ever go all the way again?

It will be a few years before we see this team get up there again, IMO.

What I don't like so far is the half ass change, the quote "change on the fly". A team has a better chance of getting the player(s) needed when they draft top 10. I know Agua man and his family want to see the money as they have spent to the cap every year but they need to realize asking fans to pay one of the highest ticket prices in the league and the same old team will not work.

Linden and Benning are talking out the sides of their mouths if they think all the team needs is to keep drafting middle of the pack and try to make the playoffs every year. I don't think it works.

There shouldn't be any players who are un-touchable. I know we need some character players to develop the young guys, I get that and I agree. But players like Vrbata should bring a 1st round pick if he is over 20 goals at TDD. Trade several of the players like Burrows and retain part of their salary. If you don't think other teams will pay for players like that look no further than what the Nucks did the past 10 years when they thought they were a player or 2 away from making noise in the playoffs.

I will wait and see what Benning/Linden does this year. Nothing they have done is really bad or really good just middle of the road but the next 2 years is crucial or it will be a long wait until they make the playoffs again with new management at the helms.

[Strangelove]

LOL this thread somehow turned into "What About Blob".

GUYS... I don't think he's quite ready for Bountiful... yet.

[Strangelove]

Giordano-Hamilton
Brodie-Wideman
Russell-Smid
Engelland

Solid back end. It'll be interesting to watch Edmonton's young, high-powered offence go up agasint that D.

The backend is where Calgary's strength lies they say.

But rumours are... "There is something rotten in Hamilton".

In Boston... he was thoroughly despised 'in the room'.

Not just unliked.... despised.

So yeah, all the "intangibles" Gio brings are completely negated by Hamilton.

Now Gio is a great defenseman, but he's injury-prone and will be 32 to start the season.

And Hamilton will be a great defenseman, but he's only 22 and fucked-up inside.

One great season at age 32 and everyone forgets how HORRIBLE Wideman is??

Brodie is a number 4 and the rest are number-2-as-in- "poo".

The Flames dee overachieved to such a degree that they'll fall back somewhat, even with Hamhead on board.

31-year-old Hudler drove what little offense there was from the forwards.

I don't see that happening again.

The goalies suck.

*yaaaaaawn*

I see the Flames as a bubble team for years to come....

[Island Nucklehead]

I see a lot of similarities to the Seguin situation, as in Boston desperately trying to justify moving their young, potential star player for an underwhelming return. Some have called in a smear campaign, others character assassination. Seguin has turned into one of the best players in hockey, and it would not shock me if Hamilton continues to develop into a solid 1st-pairing, minute-eating d-man. Seriously, how did Boston butcher their future so badly, so quickly? Can we now say the nobody "won" the Kessel trade??

Anyways, a lot of reaching there, Doc, even for your standards. And Hiller was better than Miller last season.

Maybe they'll regress after last season. But I have hard time putting money down saying they'll be worse than us, considering they pretty much added a top-pair of dmen (Gio-Hamilton) since trouncing us is the playoffs.

[Chef Boi RD]

Smear campaign? Did the cigarette smoking man make it all up? Wag the Dog? Seguin was hypnotized by the Great Reveen into becoming party central in bean town and sucking on the ice. Hats off to Seguin for turning his life around. It. It could have gone either way

[Island Nucklehead]

Smear campaign? Did the cigarette smoking man make it all up? Wag the Dog? Seguin was hypnotized by the Great Reveen into becoming party central in bean town and sucking on the ice. Hats off to Seguin for turning his life around. It. It could have gone either way

Or maybe he was just being a 21-year old kid. And his stats (60 and 50-point pace) seem fine to me.

[Chef Boi RD]

Like I said, the change of scenery for the party'ers can go either way. Take for instance, the party bro's of Brotherly love - Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. One got his shit together and the other is rockin the OxyContin. Either way, getting them out of dodge is usually what has to be done in order for them to wake up.

On the other hand you get 24 year olds like Kassian still in 18 year old party animal mode. Some just never grow up when gifted the job of a lifetime - playing professional sports

[Hockey Widow]

Mike Richards formally charged with possession of a controlled substance while crossing the border.

http://news.nationalpost.com/sports/nhl ... -substance

His hearing date for his appeal with the NHL has not yet been set.

[Rayxor]

The Flames dee overachieved to such a degree that they'll fall back somewhat, even with Hamhead on board.

31-year-old Hudler drove what little offense there was from the forwards.

I don't see that happening again.

I was going mention this earlier, but it's summer and I was lazy. Long story short, we should expect to see a regression toward the mean. In statistics it means that when you see an extreme data point, it will most likely be followed by one that it closer to average. In sports, it means a career year for a veteran tends to be followed by a drop in production.

As Doc mentioned, The flames D and Hudler had great years. In fact, The top 4 Dmen (Gio, Brodie, Wideman and Russel) and Hudler all had career years, statistically. Gio was a serious Norris contender when he got injured and Russel was able to replace his production at the end of the season and into the playoffs. Outside of Gio, the other top 4 missed a total of 6 games. A lot of things just went right for them last year.

I also recall early in the year that Gio and Brodie were the leading scorers. As they cooled down/got injured other guys were hot. Even their goalies took turns being hot. Missing their #1 dman, captain, and Norris candidate in March, Russel and Wideman each had 12 pts in 15 games while Hudler put up 23. Was I the only one looking for Emilio Estevez behind the bench?

As a comparison, the Canuck players had pretty average seasons. In fact, they just demonstrated a regression toward the mean in the other direction. The Torts year had some players putting up decade worst numbers. both Sedins, Edler, and Burrows were way bellow expectations. Most others were below average. Even guys that had relatively good seasons like Hammer (+13) still had low point totals despite having a career high shot total.

What does it all mean for next year? Mostly that you shouldn't take Hudler in your top 10 at the draft table but the Sedins are a reasonably safe bet around #10. Certainly do not take Benn 1st overall. Team performances have more variables at work but if the Flames need that much production from the back end to be successful or if their top line runs cold too long, chances are that they fall back and miss the playoffs.