So much for Holtby bringing a stable veteran prescence lol.


To be fair though he has been burned by teammates at least a few times.

D-men getting sticks on pucks deflecting them, partially blocking shots, screening the goalie and so forth.

Those kind of things happen more often with a new goalie behind the pipes. With Demko the veterans know his habits more.


Demko has just been god tier.

Agree with this 100%

https://twitter.com/khl_eng/status/1374041106338492416?s=19


podkolzin with a power move

Our D is obviously atrocious but he hasn't been good enough, especially not when you consider his salary.

Could have kept Tanev or Toffoli instead and just brought in a league minimum backup to provide about the same level of play.

Based on advanced stats, I knew Holtby would be a shit signing cuz he always struggled with the way canucks system plays. However they definitely needed some vet starter in case Demko didn't work out this year. He didn't seem starter material early on, but same with rest of the team. Crawford was the only goalie that would've fit with the system, as he was most similar to demko/markstrom making high danger saves like np. Although I didn't like him as a goalie, and he's donezos

some fans got their wish with both Sutter and Beagle out and playing "cheaper" & "faster" guys lol
result?
graovac zero on the dot
gaudette rekt on the dot
still hemmed in their own zone
one of best face off team in the league ended with 46% against jets.

Horvat is also hurt, maybe the wish gone a lil too far haha
Petey, horvat, sutter, beagle, basically the team's main center are all out, ouch.

oooof

hopefully aquaman stops tweeting injuries! he jinxd it!

This post was edited by Secksii on Mar 22 2021 11:15pm

that's the thing, though. we can pick scrubs off the waiver wire and call ups, instead of giving them money and term in UFA. and use the 10-15M saved to retain our actual talent. Vesey looking better than anyone in our bottom 6 already aside from Motte.

This post was edited by Hizkuntza on Mar 23 2021 04:37pm

when Sutter was acquired, he was literally expected to play 2c behind Sedin as Horvat was a 3C rookie, which a lot of people thought that was his absolute max ceiling. Sutter wasn't expected to be a 3c/4c right off the bat. That's how shitty the team were and needed a rebuild after 2011 but Aquaman had other ideas.

when Beagle, Roussel were signed, they were expected to fill the bottom 6 roles as the Canucks didn't have the depth to play the unready prospects to fill that roster space, sure they could've continued to pick up scraps from waivers, here is the list of waivers for that year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018%E2%80%9319_NHL_transactions#Waivers
highly doubt any of those players on the waiver wire could've outplayed beagle and roussell that year.
It's natural for these players turn into terrible contracts when your team is starting to become competitive and acquiring more talent through drafts. Continuously picking up scraps from waiver wire and using the saved money to overpay through FA for a single talent isn't building a team, but staying mediocore imo. No FA will want to go to a team with revolving bottom 6 players every year, unless they're handsomely paid to go through that shit show. There's also a risk that the actual overpaid talent used from saved cap space doesn't drop off and cash it in like Eriksson did either and become an anchor meme player.

if Benning did not get 1C and 1D from a 5thOA/7thOA pick, the team would be even more shit, and no one to really knock down the Sutters/Beagle down the depth chart. Hell, even right now, the bottom 6 randos can't even outplay Sutter/Beagle which is quite fucking sad lol

This post was edited by Secksii on Mar 23 2021 05:05pm

I mean it's just a masterclass in how to not run a team long term. Maybe pass up on the UFAs to be a bit shittier one year so you draft better and have a better foundation instead of trying to take shortcuts and all-in when you're far from ready. No one in their right mind thought Sutter was an actual top 6 center, but Benning simply believed so and not only overpaid to acquire him but then overpaid in the contract irrespective of reality. The point of the saved money isn't to piss into other UFAs who can go anywhere, it's to retain your talented players that make you a winner. The players that we lost at the beginning of UFA takes several drafts and many years to fully replace.

Compare the situation to the Hawks, who after falling into mediocrity with their unmovable old core, they've only gone big in UFA to deal with gaping holes (e.g. Lehner) but otherwise sticking to cheap short-term deals (e.g. Janmark, Soderberg) that won't bite them in the ass if they don't work out. They've also made a lot of lateral trades that have worked out in a big way (e.g. Kubalik for a low pick, Schmaltz for Strome) instead of pissing picks to wish "NHL-ready prospects" into existence (Vey, Clenndening, yadda yadda). It's the difference between acknowledging the team isn't ready to compete even though the core can't be blown up, and pretending the old bones can still make a run for the Cup like Benning believed. Who knows how much of that came from Aquaman, but at worst he's a meathead who can't think a day ahead and at best he's a meatpuppet for equally shortsighted owners.

This post was edited by Hizkuntza on Mar 23 2021 07:58pm

That's what minority of the fans wanted if I remember correctly, however majority was pushing for Benning to make a big move and sign either Lucic, Neal or Eriksson. It also didn't help when aquaman didn't wanna do a full rebuild after 2011 when Gillis wanted to, and basically forced Benning and linden to retool on the fly while the sedins were still playing. I think linden and Benning finally got the green light to rebuild once they were gone, since they finally started using the word "rebuild" lol. However linden probably wanted to do it the right way and patiently, while aquaman had other ideas. Benning is his yes man, so I can see why linden rage quit, while Benning is still around.

As for saved money being used to retain talented players, there was none back then. Most of the core were either alrdy locked up or retiring/traded away. If you look at the roster, it's literally horvat and boeser but then they were signed to good contracts. So the only option to utilize the saved money would be signing talented players through FA but the risk is it can turn into Eriksson, or just sign bunch of depth players. He did the later, but I agree the term was long and overpaid, but when ur team lacks prospects to fill the roster and ur team is trash the only way to attract players through fa is term and money.

Hawks were a good team though, and their prospects were full of decent players opposed to what Gillis left Benning. It's much easier to fill and make lateral moves to constantly re tool their roster on a better team, Benning had to do both. Find a way to fill the pool and keep em developing and find players that can fill roster spots. He figured 3yrs would be an average time for the prospects to develop and eventually replace them, but I don't think he expected to hit home runs with not only Petey with a 5oa but also Hughes with 7oa considerably speeding up the rebuild. That's 2 roster spots filled immediately as 1d and 1c back to back after only a year from getting the greenlight to rebuild after sedins retired. That's rare af, especially when it's not back to back lotto wins. Also, Kane is still playing well and is active, so is most of their older core, and their prospects like debrincat, dach, kubalik, etc. Became roster players. Canucks didn't have the same luxury while sedins were around cuz again not much prospects turned out like hawks did while the sedins were around. I think it was just Hutton, gaunce, mccaan, virtnanen.. So depressing

Aqua needs to stop interferring with the team, and actually hire someone to be the president of hockey operations, so they can have a clear direction and just yolo go with the plan. I feel like it's too much for Benning to handle everything, including the draft and he's leaving a lot of things to the last minute. It would be nice if someone more stern and with a good plan joined the org

This post was edited by Secksii on Mar 24 2021 07:08am