With the talent in the top six plus Hughes there is enough offense to score enough goals within that group.

All bottom 6 forwards and depth defensemen should be taught defense first. If those players can't close out games they should be shipped off. There is no sense to have below average defensive players on the 3rd/4th lines imo.

Let the big names score the goals and coach the others to play sound defensive hockey. I agree that the cowardly play shown when we have a lead in the third is pathetic.

A simple trap system could have slown down the Pens rush and closed out the game. It was so predictable what would happen; which made it all the more frustrating. If the viewer can see how obvious it is how can the coach not pick it up?

Green and the rest of the coaching staff, along with input from veterans should be stressing defensive hockey from the bottom 6 and depth d-men.

This post was edited by Killingyouall on Nov 28 2019 08:31pm

Terrible contracts can be shipped out at a steep price.... How much would you be willing to give up? Teams will be available to trade with if we are willing to be exploited for past mistakes.

Seeing Eriksson as the highest paid forward really stings....

Ideally we would need to rid ourselves of bad contracts and bulk up the team while Petey and Hughes are still on Elc's.

That would be our best chance to make a good run. However boat anchor contracts will prevent that from happening unless we pay a steep price. Even then this team still has lots to work on.

Furthermore look how much money is tied up on players who are frequently injured as well.... Maybe they are half decent when in the lineup but you don't get any reliability out of them.

This post was edited by Killingyouall on Nov 28 2019 08:47pm

Edler, Pearson and Sutter will all be off the books by the time we re-sign Pettersson and Hughes. But we need to re-sign Markstrom and Tanev for next season, and both will get a pay raise. Then we'll have Eriksson, Ferland, Myers, Roussel and Beagle who will all be hard if not impossible to move a few years from now. And... we have the last year of Luongo's recapture penalty! Combine all of these factors and... we will have $25M tied up in either grinders or deadweight at the point where we need to retain our best players.

We might end up losing one of, if not both Markstrom and Tanev to enable the big extensions to come. Demko could replace Markstrom in the future but we have no up and coming backup. And no one can fill Tanev's void in the organization.

This post was edited by Hizkuntza on Nov 28 2019 09:05pm

A bleak outline of what is likely to happen down the road. Sadly I agree.

Someone will be lost due to a long list of shit contracts, or bad contracts will have to be moved at the expense of prospects or draft picks.

Generally speaking, chasing free agents backfires. Analytics show they are usually not worth the money. Of course you have to buy high because there will be numerous bidders desperate to improve their team in a very competitive league.

Combine that with the scarcity of UFA'S due to teams wanting to preserve their assets through locking down players long term before they can hit the UFA market you are not left with much value on the open market.

The players you listed are free agents... and guess what they are all overpaid. That is the trend throughout the league.

You need to build from within. Clearly the organization. has yet to realize this. The best performers on the better contracts are the ones drafted and brought up within.

This post was edited by Killingyouall on Nov 28 2019 09:18pm

What's frustrating is that Benning just keeps doing it. Everyone knew Myers would be overpaid today, and probably an anchor down the road. hard to blame the player because he does try out there, but he's worth maybe 2/3 of his payday at best. And the exact shit had already happened with Eriksson. The grinder signings in isolation don't look terrible... but laying them out on the table shows the death-by-a-thousand cuts they do to ya. And the list of dumbass something-for-nothing trades is staggering - Pedan? Vey? Dorsett? Pouliot? A 2nd, two 3rds and a 4th for guys who were never NHL level (even signed Dorsett to a shit contract). He added a LOT to get the MUCH worse player - Gudbranson cost not only McCann but also an early 2nd and a 4th! What the fuck? He again ADDED to swap Bonino and Sutter - even though Bonino was the better player AND was signed to a much better contract! Even the list of trades that are fair value is small ffs - Miller, sure good trade but it cost us. Bae served us decently, but again it cost us a 2nd. Kesler, had to be done. Likewise with Bieksa and Garrison. Even the Hansen and Burrows trades that looked like winners for a bit fizzled. In retrospect, the only meaningful trades that don't look like fuckups outside of Miller was dumping existing players.

Which makes me go back to the point about only watching games irl when scalpers are desperate. If Benning hangs on until the next draft, fun fact! He will be the second longest-serving Canucks GM after Pat Quinn! I shit you not! He's lasted longer than Nonis already and will outlast Burke and Gillis if he survives the season! All he's delivered for nearly six years has been a 4-2 loss to the Flames and he might outlive GM's that actually accomplished things, even though his successor will have to rebuild with empty cupboards! The franchise is rotten to the core thanks to the Aquilinis - why manage the team when the worker-abusing, housing-speculating suits running the show only see the Canucks as a real estate investment? The team's performance no longer means anything to ownership. Tragically, our skilled and classy stars will keep putting butts on the seats but they will never get enough support to make a run for it under this management.

/rant

i dont think tanev will get a huge pay raise, if we even decide to have him back. Stecher seems like a good replacement for Tanev imo.
I think seattle will take markstrom or demko, i hope they don't. However if markstrom keeps up his #1 godlike tier form, then i dont see how seattle would skip him.

Best thing Benning has done is shipping off the players he overpaid for in the first place. That hurts to say..... One thing I can not complain about is the drafting in recent years. Players have been scooped up when other teams passed on them. How much of an influence Benning had on these selections is up for debate.

There have been some misses, but overall I feel the organization is doing well in this aspect.

I just don't get the trend of Benning and other managers have of chasing free agents. There is a long history of these signings having a very low success rate. If you look at the success of teams that have won in this era you can clearly see that their teams were built up from within with rental players added to put them over the top.

If the price was right for these rental types they could resign them or not give up much assets to aquire them. Again, sound asset managements comes into play in these decisions.

The thing is we don't know the degree of meddling the Aquiilin's have in all of of this. For all we know they could be pushing these signings against the will of management. I think this is why Trevor Linden left in the first place. Imo he was not willing to put up with it while Benning is just a yes man.

Keep in mind that how long a manager keeps their job is not solely based on performance and good decision making. If you are willing to kiss ass you can stay at the helm for longer.... Maybe that is the case with Benning but all we can do is speculate.

This post was edited by Killingyouall on Nov 29 2019 08:02am

Yeah, but you gotta scoop em correctly too, can't skip either. Like if Benning didn't skip on fucking Tkachuk.... fastest & best GM drafter in NHL history without getting any given #1 OA picks imo. (tkachuk,boeser,petey,hughes) HOLY FUCK!
insane core would be there, and another GM like Gillis that can utilize the already set core and make them into serious contenders would have been awesome.
Oh well, Benning's doing an alright job. 3 of those guys havent even reached their prime yet. I like his Beagle signing. It shows how bad the team is without Sutter AND Beagle.
Pittsburgh game is a perfect example of having their presence missed. Their first goal was caused by Gaudette losing faceoffs against Malkin, and Malkin missed the initial drop & still managed to win it lol.

This post was edited by Secksii on Nov 29 2019 08:47am

This is a good point. It exposes the lack of defensive capability in the bottom six when those guys are out of the lineup. Throw in some injuries on the back team and we are looking pretty weak in that aspect.

It brings me back to what I was thinking earlier. Green and the rest of the coaching staff needs to develop a better system for playing with the lead.

If players in the bottom six cant close out a game they should be shipped off. Simple as that.

At this point I don't know how much of it is individual ability versus coaching strategy/capability. In time I think that will be revealed more clearly.

Right now I think Green needs to step it up. He has been out coached too many times this year. I know he is not working with as much as a lot of other teams but there is no excuse to lose in an almost carbon copy scenario twice in such a short time.

This post was edited by Killingyouall on Nov 29 2019 08:41pm

Third time is the charm!

Canucks were able to close out a game in the third.

Hell I was just happy to see them not sit back and wait for bad things to happen.

They pressed the play and did not turtle in a cowardly fashion.

I am not sure how much of this is the players wanting to show they can be better or Green putting a better system in place.

At this point I don't care. We did not choke and managed to close out a game.


The only negative is it was stated Edler left the game with an upper body injury. Lets hope it is just precautionary.

This post was edited by Killingyouall on Dec 1 2019 12:24am