2024 Offseason - moving forward

[Picker of Cherries]

One concern was losing Cole, their best penalty killing defensemen. Both Forbort and Desharnais are supposed to be quite good on the PK, so that concern seems to be addressed. Cole was a key to stabilizing the penalty kill and deserves a lot of credit for the Canucks fast start last season. He may have been injured, or just wore down in the post season, and showed some warts. We’ll see if the team can get off to a fast start next season with Forbort and Desharnais killing penalties.

The bottom six forwards they signed are speedy and good forecheckers, so that should be an upgrade on what Lafferty and Mikheyev brought.

Switching from Lindholm to DeBrusk is a good bet. We saw that Lindholm had no chemistry playing with Pettersson, so if DeBrusk clicks and makes the second line dangerous, that will be a real win. I don’t think the third line will hurt too much losing Lindholm. Any centre between Garland and Joshua had success last season. Blueger was good there, Suter was better there offensively, and I won’t be surprised if Max Sasson gets a chance playing on that line at some point next season. Getting a solid second line going, probably with DeBrusk and Pettersson, is more important to team success than having an optimum third line going with Lindholm. People were calling it the best third line in hockey when Blueger was in the middle.

Good day for management, nothing overly risky, and they addressed most of their needs. Baring injuries, I think the team is a lock to make the playoffs with Vegas, Edmonton and probably L.A. Lots of time for management to make adjustments before the playoffs begin, and we know Rutherford and Allvin like to keep busy.

[rikster]

Good day for management, nothing overly risky, and they addressed most of their needs. Baring injuries, I think the team is a lock to make the playoffs with Vegas, Edmonton and probably L.A. Lots of time for management to make adjustments before the playoffs begin, and we know Rutherford and Allvin like to keep busy.

You mentioned Sassons in your post, I agree with you that there might be an opportunity for him at some point this season...

I think Canuck fans should be paying special attention to the kids on the farm who will likely see action at the NHL level this season because if one or two of them can stick that will give managment plenty more options outside of their #1 pick to make some major adjustments leading into the post season...

Take care...

[Picker of Cherries]

Schedule is out:

https://twitter.com/canucks/status/1808 ... ng2GS3ApdQ

Seems weird not starting the season against the Oilers.

January looks tough with a lot of road games. They also have a guaranteed lost built into the schedule flying from Carolina on January 10th, playing back-to-back after travelling so they can be set up to lose on January 11th to the Leaves on a Saturday for HNIC - fucking league, fucking sportsnet, fucking Toronto.

[UWSaint]

One concern was losing Cole, their best penalty killing defensemen....

While I agree that the Canucks were looking for defenders for the PK, the claim that Cole was particularly good as a penalty killer is hard to defend outside of "reputation." No Canuck regular defender was on the ice for more goals per 60 than Ian Cole. Carson Soucy, who got a lot of time on the PK, was lights out more effective than Cole. But not just Soucy: Myers, Juulsen (who always played PK when dressed), Hronek, Zadorov -- all more effective by that rate stat. (And by CF% rel, FWIW, but I don't know what its worth...). To be sure, Cole was in the "first group," and always faced the other teams top unit starting with a draw in the defensive end, and no single number can really encapsulate a player's effectiveness on the PK. But did the claim "Cole is great on the PK" really pass the eye test? Not compared to Soucy, for sure.

Cherry, don't mean to pick on you. Its the right set up for a good point, and its conventional wisdom. Ian Cole's play shifted between mediocre and awful last year. It wasn't just the playoffs, where his gaffes so obviously contributed to goals against. And Cole defenders often cited his PK prowess as the set off for all the other warts. The Canucks were a middle of the pack team on the PK this year (not bad after a shaky start), but their first improvement in the PK wasn't signing anyone yesterday. It was not resigning Cole.

[Picker of Cherries]

I really liked Cole on the PK. I haven’t seen any PK stats, just going by my eye test. But Cole was always part of the PKs first unit, often playing his off side, and they improved quite a bit from the year before when they had a historically bad penalty kill, featuring Myers. Myers has never impressed me on the PK. He’s better five-on-five.
Soucy helped a lot too. He was good on the PK, but he missed a lot of the season.
Juulsen is also good, but he gets limited ice time.
Hughes and Hronek have other skills. They can do some second unit PK, but it’s not their strength.

[Diehard1]

Looks like about 10 teams need to move money to either re-sign their own players, sign enough players to finish a roster or additional players to become cap compliant for the season.

Wsh, Edm, VGK (might be fine with LTIR), Preds, NYI, Avs (they are really screwed), TBay, NJD, Florida, Dallas all need to move varying amounts of cash. Ottawa just moved Joseph and had to pay to do it but could still need to move money to sign Pinto and 3-4 more players. That’s a lot of contracts to dump!

I may have missed 1 or 2 but the general idea is teams need to move money. Might be able to grab a solid player and a pick from a team just for the use of our cap space. Smart management leaves a team lots of options.

[Diehard1]

As I write that post I see Dallas cleared space to sign Harley. That’s one deal but many more like it to come.

[BoS]

Are there any teams needing to get to the cap floor? I wonder if Allvin has any intentions of moving Poolman’s contract

[Aaronp18]

I really liked Cole on the PK. I haven’t seen any PK stats, just going by my eye test. But Cole was always part of the PKs first unit, often playing his off side, and they improved quite a bit from the year before when they had a historically bad penalty kill, featuring Myers. Myers has never impressed me on the PK. He’s better five-on-five.
Soucy helped a lot too. He was good on the PK, but he missed a lot of the season.
Juulsen is also good, but he gets limited ice time.
Hughes and Hronek have other skills. They can do some second unit PK, but it’s not their strength.

My eye test says we would've been better off with him not on the PK in OT in game 2 vs EDM.

Didn't he deflect a couple other shots into our own net as well that series?

[Diehard1]

Are there any teams needing to get to the cap floor? I wonder if Allvin has any intentions of moving Poolman’s contract

Just the Ducks but who knows what their plan is.

There’s no reason to move Poolman’s contract at the moment - it leaves flexibility if you need it to go over the cap, and if you’re under the cap like they are now it doesn’t hurt you at all to keep it. It’s only 1 year left so I think they’ll keep it in case they want to go into LTIR later to grab a player.

[Diehard1]

I really liked Cole on the PK. I haven’t seen any PK stats, just going by my eye test. But Cole was always part of the PKs first unit, often playing his off side, and they improved quite a bit from the year before when they had a historically bad penalty kill, featuring Myers. Myers has never impressed me on the PK. He’s better five-on-five.
Soucy helped a lot too. He was good on the PK, but he missed a lot of the season.
Juulsen is also good, but he gets limited ice time.
Hughes and Hronek have other skills. They can do some second unit PK, but it’s not their strength.

My eye test says we would've been better off with him not on the PK in OT in game 2 vs EDM.

Didn't he deflect a couple other shots into our own net as well that series?

If there’s one thing that this team did well it’s grab multiple strong PK players yesterday. Forbort, Desharnais, DeBrusk, Heinen, Sherwood all killed penalties very well on their old teams. Add them to Blueger, Myers, Soucy and Joshua and we have a ton of high level PK ability on the team.

Cole was solid for about 60 games but a total train wreck in the playoffs. He was directly responsible for 5 goals against in the 2 rounds, either by deflecting the puck into the net or by taking the penalty that led to the opposition goal. He seemed like a great guy and was well liked, but he tired as the season went on. Add that to the fact he’s making $3.1 million a year in Utah which is almost as much as we are paying our 3rd pair, and it was a good decision to move on.

[UWSaint]

I really liked Cole on the PK. I haven’t seen any PK stats, just going by my eye test. But Cole was always part of the PKs first unit, often playing his off side, and they improved quite a bit from the year before when they had a historically bad penalty kill, featuring Myers. Myers has never impressed me on the PK. He’s better five-on-five.
Soucy helped a lot too. He was good on the PK, but he missed a lot of the season.
Juulsen is also good, but he gets limited ice time.
Hughes and Hronek have other skills. They can do some second unit PK, but it’s not their strength.

Myers was pretty good on the PK last year. Improvement came, I think, from the coaching staff as well.

Hughes would probably be fine on the PK despite unimpressive net front presence. But his highest value is 5 on 5 and the PP, and so if he's going to play big minutes, use them where he is best. He played very little PK; mostly when it was a defenseman's penalty being killed or the Canucks had a cluster of penalties.

Hronek played significant short-handed minutes, behind only Cole and Myers, and acquitted himself well. His defensive play is extraordinarily underappreciated. Positioning is really good, skating is really good, and he's really quite strong, both on the puck and leaning into the opposition, and he is a good decisionmaker with the puck. He just doesn't blow people up much and isn't a freak size wise (he's not small, though). I sometimes think people get in their head that he's an "offensive defenseman" or some such thing, but he's definitely styles as a two way defenseman.

Juulsen played a lot on the PK when he drew into the lineup; 4th highest D PK ice time per game on the team.

[Blob Mckenzie]

Jake DeBrusk
6’1” 198, Edmonton AB

Danton Heinen
6’2” 195, Langley BC

Derek Forbort
6’4” 216, Duluth MN

Vincent Desharnais
6’7” 226, Laval PQ

Kiefer Sherwood
6’ 194, Columbus OH

Pretty clear that Canada Day had a literal meaning for the Canucks brass. Bigger, faster, heavier, harder and most definitely more Canadian …… well …… North American.

I like the moves and really the contracts given out were more than reasonable in comparison to some of the other signings today.

Summer has just begun so we’ll see if the Canucks can make another big hockey move that could push us closer to contention!

Nice well rounded July 1 IMO.

Late to the party I know, hung out in sunny South Surrey watching the kiddo at Canada Cup this weekend! Some good ball was played.

Agreed, AP. I like the addition of tenacity and a bit more beef.

I agree with the sentiment to move Piglander. I just don't find him to be a useless tit. If Podz could ever put it together he would solve a few issues with this group.

Is there a deal to be made involving Hoglander for Dante Fabbro? I think Dante makes a bit more. Curious if they could expand a deal. I like Allvin's composition of the D. More Redwoods. Gorillas in the mist.

Barry Trotz killed free agency. Smart hockey man.


Watching Macklin on Spittin Chiclets, what a nice young kid. Friend of mine is tight with his Dad, Rick. They played soccer together for Cliff Ave for a few years when they were a big deal. He's such a well spoken young guy. Bedard too. McDavid could learn a few things from these kids. He has the personality of a wet mop.

How did your daughter make out at the Canada Cup AP? That's a good tourney!

I'm going to watch some old teammates, buddies, and pricks Aug 10-17 at the ISC's at Softball City which hasn't been in this province in 27 years and I'll never see it again locally.

[Blob Mckenzie]

I really liked Cole on the PK. I haven’t seen any PK stats, just going by my eye test. But Cole was always part of the PKs first unit, often playing his off side, and they improved quite a bit from the year before when they had a historically bad penalty kill, featuring Myers. Myers has never impressed me on the PK. He’s better five-on-five.
Soucy helped a lot too. He was good on the PK, but he missed a lot of the season.
Juulsen is also good, but he gets limited ice time.
Hughes and Hronek have other skills. They can do some second unit PK, but it’s not their strength.

My eye test says we would've been better off with him not on the PK in OT in game 2 vs EDM.

Didn't he deflect a couple other shots into our own net as well that series?

If there’s one thing that this team did well it’s grab multiple strong PK players yesterday. Forbort, Desharnais, DeBrusk, Heinen, Sherwood all killed penalties very well on their old teams. Add them to Blueger, Myers, Soucy and Joshua and we have a ton of high level PK ability on the team.

Cole was solid for about 60 games but a total train wreck in the playoffs. He was directly responsible for 5 goals against in the 2 rounds, either by deflecting the puck into the net or by taking the penalty that led to the opposition goal. He seemed like a great guy and was well liked, but he tired as the season went on. Add that to the fact he’s making $3.1 million a year in Utah which is almost as much as we are paying our 3rd pair, and it was a good decision to move on.

Cole also had a buggered foot, and played his off side in the playoffs. I thought he fine in the first round but he got lit up against the oilers. Agreed. 3 million makes no sense for Vancouver

[UWSaint]

Are there any teams needing to get to the cap floor? I wonder if Allvin has any intentions of moving Poolman’s contract

Allvin mentioned it at yesterday's press conference, I think, that he was trying to move it. Something about how moving it would make it easier to bring up AHL guys.

Capologists correct me, but I think that when a guy's on LTIR, his contract is still counting -- its just that you can exceed the Cap. But you aren't accruing cap space. Cap is what you spend in the year, so if your roster is $500,000 under the cap, at the deadline you could add a $1.5 million player (rough numbers) -- adding the salaries would be more than the cap, but the team spend is up to the cap. But if you've got a $2.5 million salary sitting on top of it, you haven't accrued anything.

Similarly, if you've got a $500,000 cushion and no LTIR, you can call people up when folks are injured for a short time and not on LTIR. You are "over" the cap for those games in terms of the rostered salary being over the cap limit, but you are in compliance because the year's burn will be under. These cup of coffee's aren't possible when you are consistently over the cap, at least not without sending players down. Instead, you've got to wait until a guy is hurt bad enough to go on LTIR. Then I suppose you could rotate in a few guys for cups of coffee.