Vancouver Canucks

[paul]

Looking forward to the NHL Draft today and I'm hoping my Canucks can land a great prospect with the #11 Overall pick provided that they don't trade down.

Right now the team's two biggest needs are Defencemen and Center in that order. Our blueline was atrocious this past year with Quinn Hughes and Ethan Bear being the only two productive members. Hometown bias aside I genuinely believe Hughes should have been a finalist for the Norris trophy this season. After the Awards the other night I was disappointed to see he only came in ninth in voting.

Buying out Oliver Ekman-Larsson's contract last week was the definition of "addition by subtraction." Trading for him was arguably the worst trade in franchise history, (although getting rid of Cam Neely is definitely in the discussion too.) Previous GM Jim Benning sent a first and second round draft pick along with 3 bad contracts to Arizona in exchange for Larsson and Conor Garland. I was glad to get Garland since he's an agitator, which is always useful to have, but taking on the remaining years of Larsson's contract hindered this team cap-wise.

Larsson was already starting to show signs of decline in Arizona and the Coyotes were probably relieved to be free of his $7 Million plus annual salary. Granted they had to take on three bad contracts in return Loui Eriksson, Jay Beagle and Antoine Roussel) but those contracts each only had one year left. Plus they got two prime draft picks out of it too. While the Coyotes are certainly not a grade A model when it comes to roster building they royally fleeced the Canucks on that deal.

I can't help but wonder where the Canucks would be right now if they hadn't made that deal and held on to the draft picks. Not to mention if they had held on to Tyler Toffoli after the 2020 Bubble Playoffs. They put forth a great effort there eliminating the Blues and taking the Golden Knights to Game 7 in the Western Conference Semifinals before losing.

Since then its been tough to be a Canucks fan; I strongly considered canceling my quarter-season ticket membership after this past season but in the end I handed $1000 of my money over to the team again.

Recent struggles aside I still feel like there's a lot to like about this team. We have two genuine superstars in Hughes and Elias Petterson plus a great goalie in Thatcher Demko. I feel like the rest of out top six is pretty good with Andrei Kuzmenko, Anthony Beauvillier, JT Miller and Ilya Mikheyev. Adding Filip Hronek from the Red Wings will hopefully enhance our Defence corps. Akito Hirose, who was signed as a College Free Agent, showed promise in limited action last year on the blueline as well plus with Ekman-Larsson gone the Canucks have some extra money to bring in a third pairing defencemen or two in free agency.

I'm willing to be patient and give the new management team some time to improve things as they still have to clean up the mess the previous regime left. There have been rumors floating around that the Canucks might trade down in the First Round of the Draft and try to get a second round pick in return as well. They could probably still get a decent player between picks 16-19 so it will be interesting to see what they do. I kind of hope they stay put myself.

Hoping for better days ahead.🤞

[on_the_edge]

Hopefully they have a great draft and show improvement over next couple years. Just not as good a draft as my Wings.

[paul]

Awesome! The Canucks just got one of the top defencemen in the draft: Tom Willander.

I was hoping they would take Dalibor Dvorsky as we could use a two-way Center but the Blues got to him first. Still, we need help on the blueline more so Willander should be a huge asset for this team and he's Swedish to boot. Many of the best players in franchise history were Swedes so hopefully Willander can continue that tradition.

[on_the_edge]

Trust me, as a Wings fan I KNOW how great the Swedes, especially on D, can be. Great pick.

[paul]

Glad to see my Canucks active on the first day of Free Agency.

They just signed two defencemen: Carson Soucy for 3 years at $3.25 Million and Ian Cole for 1 year at $3 Million.

Soucy was an effective penalty killer with the Krakan last year and we DESPERATELY need help in that department. Might have overpaid for him a bit but not by an egregious amount. If Cole doesn't work out at least we can walk away from him after the season.

I am disappointed that they didn't extend a qualifying offer to Ethan Bear though. I kind of understand it because he's going to be out with an injury until December but his Cap hit wouldn't have been that high and I would have been willing to chance it that he returned to his previous form once he returned.

[paul]

Just found out ESPN is doing a 30 For 30 Film on the 2011 Stanley Cup riot here in Vancouver.


espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/2023/03/espn-films-announces-30-for-30-documentary-im-just-here-for-the-riot-on-2011-vancouver-stanley-cup-riot/


While this was definitely one of the darkest days in the city's history I hope they at least set the record straight that, contrary to popular belief, the entire population of Vancouver wasn't involved in the destruction and chaos. In fact most residents were flat-out disgusted by the actions of the few hundred idiots who decided to riot; a riot which was started by anarchists who were downtown for the sole purpose of starting s**t. The riot likely still would have happened even if the Canucks had won the Cup.

Should make for an interesting watch once it's released.

[on_the_edge]

Yea it sucks that it is about the riot, like that is something new in sports, but hopefully they shine a good light on your city as well. As someone that was born in Detroit and grew up in the metro area I know all too well about riots after a championship. Not sure if we were the first but we were first of the ones to get press when the Tigers won the 84 World Series. Of course, back then we were known for setting the city on fire on Devil's Night so a car being flipped over and a bit of excessive partying was not that big of a deal.

[TTX]

People use sports to act stupid. It's terrible.

[paul]

Only about a month left to go until the new NHL season.

On Thursday I booked my seats for the Canucks for this year. Instesd of buying one of the pre-set quarter season packs like I've done in the past this year I decided to go with the build-your-own flex pack they started offering last season. Since I've been working evenings the past 3 years this allows me to go to the games on my days off, Tuesday and Wednesday, and not have to book time off of work. I have to give my boss credit though for being flexible and accommodating with that in the past. I may even get adventurous and go watch the team on the road this season; maybe in Seattle or Las Vegas.

In my opinion making the playoffs this season is a MUST if the team wants to keep Elias Petterson around long term. His contract is up after this season and while he would only be an RFA without the opportunity to receive an offer sheet from another team there's nothing stopping him from simply accepting his one year qualifying offer from the Canucks and then walking as a UFA after next season. If he doesn't see a winning culture here by that time I suspect that's what he'll do and I wouldn't really blame him for that. He's publicly said that he loves the city and wants to stay here but like most pro athletes I'm sure that winning is the most important thing. His next contract will likely be north of 10 Million per season so he's definitely going to get paid regardless of where he ends up.

[paul]

Well, my day just got off to a GREAT start. I woke up in here in Rome, checked my phone and saw that my Canucks just finished off an 8-1 ass-whipping of the Edmonton Oilers back in Vancouver.

I was glad to see Brock Boeser get 4 of those goals as he's struggled to live up to his potential since his great rookie season. Injuries, personal family matters, lack of self-confidence and poor coaching have all been major contributors to this. Once Rick Tocchet took over as coach last year his play improved considerably and this was EXACTLY the start he needed to his season. Hopefully he can stay healthy for a whole season.🤞

Elias Petterson & JT Miller each had a goal and 3 assists and new captain Quinn Hughes had 3 assists so it was a good night for all of our top guns. Conor Garland and Dakota Joshua each added a goal meaning we got some scoring from the third and fourth lines as well which has been a problem in the past.

I'm a little concerned that Thatcher Demko didn't play the entire game in net and I'm hoping he didn't get injured. They may have just decided to put the back-up in to get him some reps since they had such a commanding lead. I will be keeping an eye on that.

I'm not going to overreact because it was just one game but the Canucks have gotten off to slow starts the past few years and dug themselves into a deep hole which has resulted in them playing catch-up in the playoff chase. This was PRECISELY the start they needed to the year and hopefully this is a positive sign of things to come.