2024 Offseason - moving forward

[Hockey Widow]

Well if it entices Crosby when his contract is up. I mean come back to Canada to a place where you won Olympic Gold.....But bloody hell how do we make cap room for all these stars.

I find myself very happy with today's news. Especially since the media was reporting it couldn't be done and we would have to trade him at the draft to get value back. To me this shows Hronek wants to be here. And that is nice.

We now have a chance to bring back a very good defence which is also nice.

Allvin will have to work some magic to get the offence rolling and find players for Pettersson to play with. But today, I am happy.

[Todd Bersnoozi]

I imagine Hroneks reps came in at 8x8 or maybe even 8.5x8 so that and considering the NTC/NMC considerations good work at Management

Nice to see the Hronek deal done, little higher than I would like, but I guess that's what it takes. His point production did drop off quite a bit in the 2nd half and playoffs, so that may have worked in our favour. It prob forced him to move quite a bit from that $8M that he seemed to really want. I mean, Forsling signed for under $6M, so he can't exactly ask for that much more. At the end of the day, he prob knows he has a good thing here playing with Huggy43 and a chance to win. Don't get too greedy like BoHo53.

Hopefully now that he has his big money, he can lighten up a lil and not act like something is stuck up his ass when speaking with the media.

Hey Hronek, were u injured in the 2nd half of the season?

"No, I was fine."

Why do you think your point production declined in the 2nd half of the season?

"I don't know. If I knew, I would have made the necessary changes."

That's it, easy peasy. Done.

[Per]

Cements the savings on Bo.

League directive not to announce deals until post SCF.

League usually looks the other way when there are slow news day for the 3 day travel between cities, but on a game day?

What? They are still playing? Who knew.

[Per]

Cements the savings on Bo.

League directive not to announce deals until post SCF.

League usually looks the other way when there are slow news day for the 3 day travel between cities, but on a game day?

A shot across the bow of the SC champs?

Love the moxie here.

should be a shot to the schedulers... who ever heard of so many days off between the games or even the start of the series?

winning the cup is supposed to be a grind, every other damn day, until its won. The extra time takes away from the legend of it.

Agreed. Plus - it's June. Who plays hockey in June?

[donlever]

The NHL.

[Topper]

Markstrom to NJ for Bahl and a 2025 1st

[UWSaint]

Well if it entices Crosby when his contract is up. I mean come back to Canada to a place where you won Olympic Gold.....But bloody hell how do we make cap room for all these stars.

I find myself very happy with today's news. Especially since the media was reporting it couldn't be done and we would have to trade him at the draft to get value back. To me this shows Hronek wants to be here. And that is nice.

We now have a chance to bring back a very good defence which is also nice.

Allvin will have to work some magic to get the offence rolling and find players for Pettersson to play with. But today, I am happy.

Yes, good signing. On my scratch pad, I was thinking it would be $7.5.

While Hronek's offensive production was unexpectedly good the first half of the year and less than expected the second half, it measured out to his career high in points (which he might have gotten last year but for the injury). 48 points is nothing to sneeze at: more points than Garland, Hoglander, Joshua, or Lindholm. Secondary scoring from the blue line, without first unit PP time.

Beyond that--and more important than that--Hronek is a solid defender. Positioning, stick-checking, skating, patience, passing, puck handling, all above average. He doesn't truck guys, but he's no wallflower.

The difference between Hughes playing with a guy who in both the offensive and defensive zones can add to/play with Hughes' skill set as opposed to Hughes playing with a guy who's supposedly there to make up for Hughes' relative shortcomings was eye opening. If you want a dynamic team, having 5 dynamic players on the ice makes a big difference. Less time in your zone/more controlled exit options, far superior possession time in the zone, etc.

Hronek is a 2-3, right handed, plays well with the Canucks superstar, and is entering his prime years. If Hronek's health is good, this should be a very good signing. Can you imagine not having to worry about the top end of the defense for the foreseeable future? That's why the Canucks targeted Hronek to begin with, and now they are simply paying a reasonable price (not outstanding, but reasonable) to see the transaction through.

Hronek had a lot of detractors in the playoffs. There weren't many outstanding moments -- that's true. Hronek seemed to squeeze the stick in the first round--bullet passes that couldn't be caught, yet passing up shots. He made a challenge when Nashville was entering the zone that didn't work out and led to a goal -- a conspicuous mistake (most goals are the result of mistakes, but rarely so obvious -- Lindholm, Hronek's support on the play making the challenge a reasonable play, lost an edge that went uncommented on but was as much to blame for the goal as the challenge). It became easy to point to things that Hronek failed at, but overall, he made good plays all playoffs long, and his defensive zone play wasn't bad -- it wasn't worse than any other Canucks blueliner except Hughes, who when looking like he was visibly 75% was the most effective defenseman on the team.

Topper's right that the Canucks opponents worked on isolating Hronek, and the Canucks are going to have to crack that puzzle. But still, Hronek didn't collapse or panic; his play in his zone remained responsible and good, but the Canucks certainly lost some of the dynamism as a result. They've got to get that back.

And for all of the accolades Z got -- some deserved, some a product of what I'll call conspicuousness bias (we value what we see not what we didn't see that made the big play unnecessary, etc.) -- understand that was the best Z will ever show. And it wasn't good enough to get the Canucks passed the 2d round -- there are multiple reasons for that and things could have bounced another way -- but the deployment of the defense, and the corresponding collapse to "collapse"/Greeny defense and its best-result-is-to-flip-puck-out side effect shortened the Canucks ceiling. Z isn't going to improve his play from last playoffs. Nor is Soucy, who played high-floor, low-ceiling as expected. Nor can Myers (if even resigned), who played as well as he can. Improvement comes from the coaching staff and Hronek (the heretofore playoff virgin) learning from the experience and finding ways to counter or bypass the assault. Because while Hronek played decently in the playoffs, there's a lot of room to improve, and the same (room for improvement) can't be said from 91, 57, and 7.

Good signing, now lets' see what happens with the rest.

[theman]

Markstrom to NJ for Bahl and a 2025 1st

A bit surprised they managed to get a 1st back for him, even if it is top 10 protected for the '25 draft.

[theman]

Canucks re-sign D Friedman to one-year, $775,000 deal per TSN

[Cornuck]

The Vancouver Canucks have signed Mark Friedman to a one year deal worth $775,000.

Depth signing.

[UWSaint]

Markstrom to NJ for Bahl and a 2025 1st

That's a decent return for a 34 year old goalie who hasn't impressed in the last 2 years (maybe league average starter at best?)). I think Bahl's range is probably top 4 on the high end and a 6-8 tweener on the low, but I like a team in the Flames position going after a guy like Bahl and find out if he's got what it takes to be a bigger impact by (likely) giving him a chance to be in that situation (20 minutes a night) right away. Maybe he'll use that size to his full potential, develop into a 4-5 guy, and people will be saying crazy things like he'll earn a 6 year/$6M salary when he's 29 years old.... And I don't know if there's protection on the first, but the Devils could be anywhere from not good to very good next year. They are putting a ton of weight on their on young defensemen to step up and excel and for Hamilton to return in form. If it all breaks well and they make a good signing or two (they have about $17M to resign Mercer, fill 4-5 forward spots (none top 6 required), and 2 defensemen (at least one of which really needs to be good), they might be one of the better teams in the league, but there's also a chance this pick in 10th overall.

Goalies and their trade returns...never seem to make sense.

EDIT -- top 10 protected, so worse case is 11th....

[theman]

Number taken from Capfriendly:

CAP SPACE WITH LTIR CANDIDATES: $18,553,333. with 17 players signed so far.


So, say:

Myers: $2.75 mil
Zadorov $5.25 mil
Bluger $1.5 mil

Jake Guentzel $9mil

= $18.5 mil with 21 players signed.

leaves nothing for anyone else and the Canucks going with a 21 man roster. It will be tight.

Didn't include a potential Silovs cap hit as it would be about the same as the current back up's on Capfriendly's website

[Topper]

Markstrom to NJ for Bahl and a 2025 1st

That's a decent return for a 34 year old goalie who hasn't impressed in the last 2 years (maybe league average starter at best?)). I think Bahl's range is probably top 4 on the high end and a 6-8 tweener on the low, but I like a team in the Flames position going after a guy like Bahl and find out if he's got what it takes to be a bigger impact by (likely) giving him a chance to be in that situation (20 minutes a night) right away. Maybe he'll use that size to his full potential, develop into a 4-5 guy, and people will be saying crazy things like he'll earn a 6 year/$6M salary when he's 29 years old.... And I don't know if there's protection on the first, but the Devils could be anywhere from not good to very good next year. They are putting a ton of weight on their on young defensemen to step up and excel and for Hamilton to return in form. If it all breaks well and they make a good signing or two (they have about $17M to resign Mercer, fill 4-5 forward spots (none top 6 required), and 2 defensemen (at least one of which really needs to be good), they might be one of the better teams in the league, but there's also a chance this pick in 10th overall.

Goalies and their trade returns...never seem to make sense.

EDIT -- top 10 protected, so worse case is 11th....

There was also a hefty retention, $1.85mil for the next two years carried by the Flames.

Goalie market is divided in tiers. Top shelf are getting 1st line forward money (makes Demko a massive bargain). Those hanging around the fringe are in the $5-$6 range and then there is everyone else. The Devils are getting one of those fringe guys who not long ago was kicking at the doors of top tier for two years at a decent price...as long as he doesn't Schneider it.

[Topper]

PLD for Kuemper, straight across.

[dbr]

If you sub in Kuemper's name on the original PLD trade from Winnipeg it still looks awful, but nevertheless nice save by Blake.

Maybe he'll use that size to his full potential, develop into a 4-5 guy, and people will be saying crazy things like he'll earn a 6 year/$6M salary when he's 29 years old....

By the time Bahl hits 29 six years from now we really might be looking at 6 x 6 for a second pairing guy.. but mostly I just want to express my appreciation for anyone who can reach the considerable height required to shade Zadorov like this, haha