Home > 2018 > 04/04 > CanucksArmy Monday Mailbag: Lukas Jasek, The Sedins, Rasmus Dahlin and… Kevin Connauton?
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Photo Credit: Matthew Henderson

CanucksArmy Monday Mailbag: Lukas Jasek, The Sedins, Rasmus Dahlin and… Kevin Connauton?

| J.D. Burke

From what I can gather, teams in the Extraliiga have to ice a certain number of players under the age of 20 on their roster. So my guess is that HC Ocerlari Trinec kept Lukas Jasek around to hit that quota, and the coach never had any inclination to go above and beyond that. I think he played something like seven minutes a game on the rare occasion that he’d actually play.

Apparently the Canucks are interested in Tyler Bozak

I’d love to do something along those lines, but Ryan Biech and I being on opposite sides of the radio aisle means it’d be difficult to put together. We’ll see what we can do.

The parameters for this question are a bit vague. We don’t know the draft order yet, much less the CanucksArmy draft board. I’ll try to answer it all the same. For this thought experiment, I’ve run the NHL Draft Lottery simulator to create a board. Let’s do this.

  1. Rasmus Dahlin – Arizona Coyotes
  2. Ottawa Senators – Andrei Svechnikov
  3. Buffalo Sabres – Filip Zadina
  4. Montreal Canadiens – Quinn Hughes
  5. Vancouver Canucks – Oliver Wahlstrom
  6. Detroit Red Wings – Adam Boqvist
  7. Edmonton Oilers – Brady Tkachuk
  8. New York Islanders – Jesperi Kotkaniemi
  9. Chicago Blackhawks – Noah Dobson
  10. New York Rangers – Ty Smith

I have a hard time seeing Troy Stecher get any less than $3-million annually on his next contract.

The league, whether it’s scouts or draft analysts, all think highly of Thatcher Demko. He’s one of the best goaltending prospects in the game. Adam Gaudette, on the other hand, is in almost every system in one form or another. The major difference is that most teams can’t find a player of this quality with their fifth-round pick.

That’s not take away from Gaudette or even the Canucks. He’s a fine prospect. But Gaudette is not going to save the Canucks rebuild, and people need to be realistic with their expectations.

Walter White and it’s not even close.

Kevin Connauton is fine, I guess, for a third-pair defenceman. He’s not someone worth losing sleep over though. I’m not sure who you sit on the Canucks’ blue line when everyone is healthy for a Connauton anyway. Maybe Erik Gudbranson?

Let’s go with sixth on the Canucks depth chart.

Yeah, that’s not crazy on your part. Darren Archibald playing over 15 minutes a game is, indeed, a bit rich.

I’m not sure if I’m willing to let him off the hook for exhaustion playing that much, though. It’s probably a bit higher than he should play, and what he’s used to, even, but there are people who would kill for that opportunity. If he can’t be even remotely effective because of that, he’s probably not an NHL’er.

I’m sure the Canucks will sign Archibald to a two-way deal at the end of the season — that’s what I would bet on, anyway.

If they didn’t, I’d rather they just aim for having a hyper-modern fourth line. Given the way the Canucks have operated this season, I think it’s far more likely they try and find an old-school style pugilist though.

Utica Comets general manager Ryan Johnson strikes me as someone who might work in the role of Director of Player Personnel.

As for Utica Comets head coach Trent Cull, yes, I would imagine that Canucks general manager Jim Benning and Canucks president Trevor Linden played a large role in making that happen.

Brandon Sutter’s great on faceoffs, for whatever that’s worth — not a whole lot. Oh, also a really good penalty killer.

Ignorance, immaturity and more than a dash of insecurity.

Matthew Weis is an interesting one, although I suspect his draft analytics are hurt substantially by his short stature, at just 5-foot-10.

No.

Probably Kevin Woodley. Or Gregory Balloch. One of the two.

This question is kind of difficult to answer at present, for a lot of reasons. I’ll tentatively answer that with Noah Dobson for now, though. I like his game; I like his game a lot.

Yes.

I have no clue, but I’ll try not to be too harsh on Flames general manager Brad Treliving for the Travis Hamonic deal if for no other reason than I don’t want to be a hypocrite — I liked it a lot at the time. In fairness to Treliving, he also comes out looking pretty good overall on the Mike Smith trade, which most people hated at the time.

Make sure you look for legs and aerate it.

I think Canucks head coach Travis Green deserves a tonne of credit. Nikolay Goldobin is genuinely playing better hockey at both ends of the rink than he was even a few months ago — that’s on the coach. I wrote about it for The Athletic Vancouver the other day.

The extra ice-time doesn’t hurt, but again, Green deserves a lot of credit for trusting Goldobin in that role. There aren’t many coaches in the league that would have been so willing.

Hughes should be gone by eight.

I lean towards the latter of those two options, unfortunately.

No, not one bit. It was never a question of whether Bo Horvat could develop into a player capable of bringing $5.5-million in value annually with his play. The question was whether the Canucks could have had Horvat bring value that exceeded his contract at the maximum allowable number. When I looked at the comparables from the summer, my answer then was no. And it still is.

If Tanner MacMaster keeps scoring at this pace (five points in eight games) with the Utica Comets, one would have to think so, no?

I don’t know why the Canucks haven’t signed Matt Brassard yet, but I’m not too worried. They have time.

I suppose it’s possible that Oliver Wahlstrom’s stats are a touch inflated by Jack Hughes’ presence, but he’s still a special player.

The thing to remember is that it takes a lot of talent to keep up with great players. I remember people weren’t as keen on Jack Roslovic as they perhaps should have been because of the talent he played with, and that’s looking a little bit silly in retrospect. It’s valuable context, but don’t lose the forest for the tree.

Yes, Canucks assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner is responsible for the defence. No, I’m not ready to see him get fired for one bad season with very little talent at his disposal.

Hughes, Boqvist, Dobson, Ty Smith and Evan Bouchard are all worth top-ten consideration.

I suspect that Sven Baertschi will come in at close to $4-million annually with at least four years of term. I don’t have any reason to believe the Canucks aren’t interested in Baertschi, so I’m going to go with a maybe on the second question.

If the Canucks aren’t interested, I’d like to think they can get a low first round pick or a high second round pick for him.

Nope.

The Canucks made Ashton Sautner their final recall of the season, so that’s a no, unfortunately. Jonathan Dahlen could still go to the Utica Comets for their playoff run, though.

Yes. The Canucks likelihood of getting Rasmus Dahlin drops 25% in this scenario.

I think that this is mostly true, yes. I’m still not sure how I square that with the Vegas Golden Knights’ success, though.

I’m not sure if there are any lessons to learn from the New York Islanders, specifically. They’re such dissimilar teams in dissimilar situations. Trying to apply what the Islanders did well or what they didn’t do well seems like a fruitless exercise.

As for New York Islanders general manager Garth Snow, he’s someone I’ve long struggled to understand. His moves seem to range from awesome to downright terrible with very little in between. The one mistake Snow seems to repeat like clockwork is overpaying for depth players, and I think that impacts the Isles ability to make the best of their internal budget.

SEE ALSO

74 Comments |

  • Pingback: Blog: CanucksArmy Monday Mailbag: Lukas Jasek, The Sedins, Rasmus Dahlin and… Kevin Connauton? | Gawcha

  • Brandon Sutter’s great on faceoffs, for whatever that’s worth — not a whole lot. Oh, also a really good penalty killer.

    Brandon Sutter…

    o Has an astounding 76% defensive-zone start percentage, the most of any heavily played centre in the league.
    o Is regularly matched up against the best opposition lines.
    o Has an even-strength goal differential of zero, despite mediocre defense and goaltending behind him.

    In short, Sutter is thrown out on the ice in the very worst situations, and holds the opposition even. That is near miraculous. He deserves more respect.

    • So zero respect for Sutter even though he has 10 points in his past 10 games and seems to finally be figuring it out in a Canucks jersey. Also zero respect for Connauton even though he has 10 goals in his past 30 games and is one of the key reasons for the resurgence of the Dogs. I think KC could possibly be a good signing as he’s a UFA this summer, if we can get him for a reasonable price.

    • Sutter also, last I checked, had the highest on ice save percentage of any player on the Canucks, and the highest such number of his career.

      He’s getting caved in on shots against and is getting extremely lucky with the goaltending behind him.

      • It might be luck, or he might be keeping shots out of the “home plate” zone in front of the Canucks net, forcing the opposition to take lower-percentage shots.

        You’re not going to stop the best players in the league from shooting. You might, however, stop them from shooting right in front of your own net.

        • That’s extremely unlikely. It’s extremely rare for a player to affect on ice shooting percentage, and Sutter has never shown an ability to do this before. It’s much more likely that he’s just been lucky, and the goalies behind him have gotten lucky and saved a couple extra goals above average when he’s been on the ice, than he has developed a magical and extremely rare new skill at age 29.

          • That’s extremely unlikely. It’s extremely rare for a player to affect on ice shooting percentage, and Sutter has never shown an ability to do this before.

            Here are Sutter’s five-on-five on-ice save percentages over his eleven-year career:

            93.0 93.2 94.3 94.3 93.7 93.1 94.1 95.4 92.0 94.7

            Over these years, the even-strength save percentage is just over 92% (so far as I can tell — correct me if I’m wrong).

            That means that Sutter has been “lucky” 10 out of 11 of those years.

          • You have to compare his on-ice save percentage to the average of the goalie he’s playing in front of, not the NHL as a whole. He’s not playing in front of every goalie in the NHL.

            https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/s/suttebr03.html

            Sutter’s posting the second-highest PDO of his career (ahead only of 2010/2011 with the Canes) at 102.6, suggesting he’s getting very lucky. His on-ice save percentage is a full percent higher than his career average, and significantly higher than most of the rest of the Canucks. Last year Sutter’s on-ice save percentage was .912% (according to hockey-reference, not sure where your slightly-inflated numbers came from). Why was he missing his supposed shot-quality-suppression skill last year (especially considering he was playing in front of a better goaltending tandem)? The year before that it was .924% – more or less what you’d expect it to be.

            Aren’t you scolding someone below for wishful thinking?

          • For reference, compare Sutter to Kyle Brodziak, a centre with a similar career length, who plays a similar role, and who up to this season get even more crushing defensive-zone assignments. Notice how his on ice save percentage fluctuates just as wildly as Sutter’s does – one season he’s posting almost 94%, the next season he’s down to 90%, then he’s back up to 92%: https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/b/brodzky01.html

            These guys are on the ice for only around 25-30 goals against per season. That’s enough that only one or two extra goals saved or allowed causes a massive swing in that on ice save percentage number. In 2014, Brodziak was on the ice for 34 goals against and his oiSV% was 94% – sterling! The next season he was on the ice for 37 goals against and his oiSV% dropped to 90% – boo Brodziak sucks now!

            Same with Sutter. In Pittsburgh in 2015 he was on the ice for *one* more goal than he was in 2014, and it moved his oiSV% from 92% to 93%. And you think this is a repeatable skill (despite the fact that no one is able to repeat it?) Give me a break.

    • He’d likely get it if:

      1. He kept his mouth shut,
      2. Wasn’t over-paid,
      3. Kept his mouth shut,
      4. Hadn’t been labelled a “Foundational Player” by another guy who doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut,
      5. Played with passion and skill when the games actually mattered.

      • o I don’t mind him mouthing off sometimes. At least he freakin’ cares.
        o Don’t blame Sutter for how Benning described him. Take it out on Benning.
        o If he’s overpaid, it’s not horrifically. There are worse examples on the team. At any rate, you can’t blame Sutter for agreeing to a generous Canucks offer. Take it out on Benning.

  • O man – JD I stopped reading the article after your ridiculous comment about B Sutter & face-offs; understand you’re not a Sutter fan, nor am I especially, but when you make statements that reveal nothing but ignorance “for whatever that’s worth”, there is simply no reason to continue reading the rest of the article. Are you truly so out of touch as to think faceoffs don’t matter, or were you trying to be flippant & failed? Hard to take you seriously when you make statements like this. Really disappointing to see so little growth at CA; absolutely none of the writers seem to have any interest in improving their craft, just more & more graphs/charts & new arbitrary metrics that reveal little in the way of new insights. Hint: writing about a subject includes the craft of writing – & knowing something about the subject. Statement about faceoffs is something a kid of 8-9 would say – if they didn’t play hockey.

    • There’s no correlation *at all* between winning faceoffs and winning hockey games, scoring goals, or even maintaining possession for more than a couple of seconds.

      There was a really fascinating discussion about this on the 31 Thoughts podcast a couple weeks back – Marek and Friedman were talking about how in many circumstances, teams will intentionally lose faceoffs (for example, in an offensive zone draw) because they can then push forward and recover the puck deep in the offensive zone – it’s actually more likely to lead to a scoring chance in many circumstances to lose the faceoff than to win it.

      Faceoffs simply do not matter nearly as much as good old hockey boys like to think – the evidence to support that position is overwhelming, and the evidence against it is nil.

      • This is commonly stated, but when a power play face off gains possession or allows a clear it effects the game. Likewise a goal coming from a face off win, which happens with some frequency. I can see how the neutral zone has little effect.

      • Goon – “Faceoffs simply do not matter nearly as much as good old hockey boys like to think – the evidence to support that position is overwhelming, and the evidence against it is nil.” You have some concrete evidence to support this statement? A couple of links to articles, reliable sources, or statistics to support your statement. Thanks.

  • You have to be kidding. Treliving and Burke should be fired. Treliving sold the flames future on a Hamonic who was struggling and not happy on the Island and requested a trade (warning sign). He took an all in approach with Smyth who is now showing his age. Treliving has given up the 1st,2nd this year for Hamonic alone and only pick in 3rd,4th,6th and 7th rounds this year good management? Next year they have a 1st,4th and 5th. Treliving also hired GG that he will have to fire to keep his job if he has one at the end of the season. I thought Linden and Benning where terrible but the flames look bad, not as bad as the Kernuckleheads as they will keep The 2 stooges.

      • Don’t kid yourself the Nuks won’t make the playoffs for a few years and have reverted back to the franchise they really are under this management and will be the new Sabres/Yotes of the NHL, you cannot even deny the fact.

          • Welcome to the abyss UK, the Nuckleheads will the leagues whipping boys for years to come,you might enjoy it.

        • LASKID… you were afraid to show your face (who could blame you) after your edmonton Impotent got hammered by the Ducks, Jackets, CANUCKS, flames and laid yet another goose egg against the Wild. Who’s sporting the longest losing streak in the league right now? The AHL worthy edmonton Impotent of course. I’d bet most edmonton Impotent fans would take Trevling over Pete any day, all day. PS, McDavid asks to be saved from the living hell of edmonton before any player refuses to sign in Vancouver.

      • Talbot is a backup and that’s a fact. Talbot has never really had a solid season without early problems or inconsistent tending. Chia signed a goalie that had to be signed as the Oiler’s did not have one. Talbot is a back up.

        • Its hilarious watching an Oil fan trying to stir it up on this site. Is there another franchise that’s more or a train-wreck than the Oilers over the past 15 years? Each year we think this is the year they’re going to take the big jump and they find new and creative ways to soil the sheets. Its gotten to the point that I’ve begun cheering for them because I feel sorry for them …

          • Don’t feel sorry for them dogbreath. edmonton is headed back to their rightful place, where they feel comfortable, where everyone including their fans expect them to be. If not in the basement, tumbling rapidly towards it. It’s like a law of nature. They’ve accepted it, embraced it, it’s the way of things.

        • lol the Coil won 5 Cups before most of the people here were alive. LAKRAP, hang on to whatever you can lol. I think you forgot to comment how the Coil have been one of the lamer teams in the NHL for the last 30+ years lol. You’re about as bright as a sack of dog crap…and probably smell worse too …lolz.

          • LASKID is trophy polishing because rocket polishing himself and wisecanuck is prolly dangerous with those teeth

    • You have to be kidding. Well, isn’t that irony. An Oilers fan who criticizes other team’s management. Like the Reinhart trade where Chiarelli gave up a 1st and 2nd for a guy that played only 29 games for Edmonton? Good management? A guy that traded all of his scoring wingers, including 2 No. 1 picks, to take “an all in approach with *Lucic* who is now showing his age” even before his first contract year is done? Can you explain how you can have Connor McDavid and still miss the playoffs by *20 points*? A team that has had *4* No.1 draft picks and 7 Top 10 picks since 2010 and had sub-20% of playoff odds by the end of October and 0% odds since January?

  • If you saw Benning’s interview last night, sounds like very good chance we’ll see Petterson in a Canucks jersey next season…he sounds very optimistic that he’ll make the team…he didn’t sound concerned at all with Petterson’s size.

    • JB also talked about signing some UFAs to help with the youngs guys, but I really don’t see space.

      Goldy Bo Brock
      Baer Granny Petterson
      Louie Sutter Gagner
      Leipsic Gaudette JV
      Gaunce Archie

      AHL
      Motte, Dahlen, Lind, Jonah, Boucher (waivers)

      • 14 players don’t make up a forward roster. A couple of them are always injured, even at the beginning of the year. You need maybe 16. Nor is it certain that Archibald will be re-signed.

        • I’d imagine that need for depth is why he listed 5 guys who could be capable of playing in this league.

          Benning said last night that they were going to get Dahlen into some games if his team lost Monday, so that’s a sign that Benning considers him NHL-ready or close to it. Motte and Boucher are already OK depth players.

          • People don’t appreciate how much depth is needed through the season. The Canucks played 24 different forwards this year.

            And to assume that Dahlen, Lind, and Gadjovich are ready to play in the NHL next season is a huge leap of faith.

            It reeks of wishful thinking, and that is not recommended.

      • It’s worth bringing back Jokinen as a depth forward for another year @ $1.1M, he’s woefully underrated. He’s clearly shown he still has scoring prowess (he’s a lifetime 0.59 PPG player and is 0.75PPG with the Canucks) and he’s a damn good face-off / possession player too. Since 2009, he’s posted a 54% face-off win percentage and never had a sub-50% face-off year. He’s averages only 330 face-offs per season but in 2011-2012, he took 833 and won 55%. He’s averaged 52-54% in the last 3 seasons. Since 2010, his Corsi has only increased from 50.0% to 54.8%. You don’t need to play him every night but when someone is injured or goes to the doghouse, Jokinen can easily fill any position in the line-up.

        • Unfortunately the guy is only playing well because if he doesn’t. He’s off to Europenext year. Once he gets a contract he will go back to his mediocre ways. There’s a reason he played on so many teams this year. He got lucky Green gave him a very good opportunity here in Vancouver. I’m tired of JB hiring mediocrity.

          • Prior to this year (starting with the tire fire in Edmonton) and last year (the tire fire that was Tom Rowe in Florida), Jokinen averaged 81 games per season over 3 seasons with Pittsburgh and Florida. He averaged 0.66 PPG which is 53 points per season. That makes him a Top 3 point scorer with the Canucks this year. He did that with Top 9 minutes (15-18 minutes). How is that mediocre?

      • Lots of potential in that lineup. Should be an exciting young team to watch the next couple of years.
        The future is bright. Just need a few more future pieces for the defense.

    • There are plenty of examples of lightweight players that exceed. Gaudreau, Panarin, Debrincat, Spurgeon, Point, and Keller are all under 170 lbs. Gaudreau came from the NCAA where there is no fighting and yet he’s dominating a larger, more physical league. Pettersson will do fine so long as the rest of the team doesn’t allow cheap shots by guys like Kadri and Marchand.

    • A scenario where both Gaudette and Pettersson are the team’s 3rd and 4th Centers…. I’m all in 🙂

      May see Pettersson paired up with Gagner and either Eriksson or Baertschi, if he’s still here.

      • If Pettersson isnt playing C in the SHL, dont assume hell come over here and play C in the NHL at 170 pounds, he will prob be playing the wing.

        • That’s why I got him paired up with Gagner, who can take up a lot of those duties as Pettersson grows into that role. Now, I would be all-in to upgrade that Center, assuming Canucks can swing it, which I doubt they will be able to.

          • Gaudette/Sutter have the bottom 6 C roles carved out, they will deff need an upgrade for our 2 line C. Maybe Grandlund? Cant have Sam Gagner playing as the 2 line C hes too much of a defensive liability.

          • Don’t think that Granny is a 2C. May need to bring in a temp solution. Maybe talk to the Stars about their cap issue with Spezza, or maybe a Plekanec. 1 yr temp solutions. I just don’t know if that can be worked out.

            I think they may just be forced to go with no 2nd line, in the traditional sense. Sutter would be the shutdown line, so he and Horvat would go up against the opponent’s top lines. Then Gaudette and the above Gagner/Pettersson line are two bottom 6 lines. And then say hello to bottom 5 finish.

  • We are back to hockey people being ignorant for not accepting “evidenced based analysis”. Every team has advanced stats people. They all keep their stats and process secret because most are proprietary, but if they don’t follow exactly what the JD thinks then they are ignorant or immature. Maybe the reason these writers are employed by teams is that their models don’t work or their methods have been “proven” ineffective. There is nothing evidenced based about analytics. It has value, but is not repetitive in nature as there are too many variables in play for any model to account for. They have value which is why every team uses them, but it’s pretty funny that JD calling them ignorant and immature.

    • The worst part of that was the question from Scott Rosenhek. He is a blogger from another site who fancies himself as some sort of stats expert. This was an embarrassing display of public butt kissing. Scott is seldom right but never uncertain and he has some warped hero worship thing for J.D.. I don’t know maybe he is sucking up for a job.

      Can we just dispense with this stupid concept of hockey men who don’t understand and won’t use analytics. The NHL is a highly competitive league and every team strives for every advantage they can find. The phrase was coined by some twit in the media justifying the Hall/Larson trade and it is just as stupid today as it was then. Only a moron would only use spreadsheets to scout with and only a different type of moron wouldn’t look at the numbers underlying player performance. Given players are human and highly subject to environmental conditions, scouting and analytics can never be expected to predict anything with a very high degree of accuracy.

  • JD says “Brandon Sutter’s great on faceoffs, for whatever that’s worth — not a whole lot.”

    Finally proof that this guy (and a few other statboi clowns here) have absolutely ZERO hockey IQ.

    ZERO.

    JD, this site sucks because of your (and a few others) lack of hockey knowledge. Your attitude sucks too.

    May I suggest becoming a ‘food blogger’ and letting knowledgeable people like Cory and Vanessa take over.

    • Says the guy who claims Sutter had a great game after he was on the ice for all 4 goals against. Including a 3 goal meltdown in the last 2 minutes.

      The constant whining and sucks too.

      May I suggest the jealous, dumb and ANGRY hypocrites use the door, it’s right over there.

      • Freud – re: Sutter. You made the same statement about Sutter being on the ice for all 4 goals by Columbus in “CA Post-Game – Tankbuster” article by JD Burke. I corrected you as follows – “Okay. Sutter’s + – was 0 for the game. 2 PPG and they do not affect + -. Sutter had one assist – on Archibald’s goal. So he had to be on the ice for one of the even strength goals by Columbus – actually 6 on 5. That would equal a + – of 0. Where do you get that he was on the ice for the other even strength goal. More “fake” news.”

        You were wrong then and you are still wrong now. So much for your credibility.

      • JD – why don’t you ball up and reply with your real ID instead of always using this contrived ‘fraud’ troll?
        Thanks for proving all my points, once again.

  • Last Oil Cup for the City of Champions was 1990, wasn’t it? That was 28 years ago. Oil were amazing in the early 1980’s. They killed the Canucks routinely. But that was almost 35-40 years ago. Bragging about Oiler Stanley Cups is like Leaf fans bragging about all their Stanley Cups. Keep doing it if that’s all you’ve got.

    • I’ll believe the Hutton trade when I see it. He’s been devalued to a 7th defenseman on a lousy defensive team. What’s that worth? Not only that, he’s a 7th defenseman on a lousy team making $2.8mil/yr. Needing to be qualified next year at $2.8mil to retain his rights. What’s the best the Nucks could hope for in that scenario, a 5th or 6th as long as they take on half the salary.
      I’m thinking their only option might be to keep him

      • This is the issue.

        Hutton will be difficult to trade. The Canucks will have to retain salary, and then try to unload him. Unfortunately, few teams will want to qualify him at a price of $2.8M so he is a project with a limited up side that will cost you $2.8M if you want him beyond next season. The 4th or 5th rounder may have been available in the off-season, it ain’t now. “catch a falling knife” sorta thing.

        The Canucks, and Green in particular, did not “devalued” Hutton; Hutton devalued Hutton. The reality is the “higher value” Hutton was based on perceived reality and upside (a fallacy that some here apparently hold on to). With every shift, Hutton’s potential decreased, and his actual was on display; and it wasn’t pretty.

        CanucksArmy, and their “preferred” players. They are defended and excuses abound: “Gudbranson’s fault; Green’s fault”. If there is fault, is starts and ends at the player. Play better and it is not an issue. Getting in proper physical condition for an NHL defender would be a start.

        Get yer top-4 shutdown d-man here!

    • The team has to address the LHD situation. Edler, Del Zotto, Pouliot, Hutton and Juolevi are all left d men, as are Sautner and McEneny. Pouliot can play the left side, but they like him better on the left side. Guddy, Tanev, Stecher and Biega are the RHD, with no top prospects playing that side. Most d men don’t play well on their opposite side. It affects their stick position and ability to keep players wide off the rush and whether they are making most of their passes on their forehand vs backhand. I like Hutton most of the time, but keeping Hutton and trading Guddy instead isn’t an option.

      • I figure that Hutton is good as gone (not that I like it), and can imagine that if Juolevi impresses over the summer and in TC, they will move MDZ. That would result in the following pairings:

        Edler-Stecher
        Juolevi-Tanev
        Pouliot-Guddy
        Sautner-Biega

        Now, we could have a scenario where it’s Tanev that is traded, in which case MDZ would stay, and Pouliot would shift to RD. A small possibility exists that a Tanev trade returns a younger Dman who claims a roster spot. Then I’m not sure what happens with MDZ.

        McEneny would be coming back from major surgery and rehabilitation, so he would spend next year in Utica. I do not see any real possibility that he is under thread of being picked up when waived.

        • I wouldn`t pencil in Juolevi for next season but maybe two or three years after, especially if the reports of conditioning are accurate. He was a kid having fun but then he started getting told what he had to do, first by his coach, then by his agent, then the scouts, then Canuck management and lastly by Salo. His lack of conditioning is a response of being tired of it all. Will he grow up and adapt – maybe.

  • Couple comments on your article.

    Emergency goalie for Canucks is 1 of 3 UBC goalies. They rotate.

    Argument against the tank is pretty simple. The damage intentionally losing does to the psyche of players & credibility of the organization to future UFA’s isn’t worth the paltry 2-4% increase in odds. You clearly don’t have the cognitive ability to look past numbers and see the big picture (forest through the trees) so I don’t expect you to agree. Also, anyone actively cheering for the Sedins to lose their final game at home is not a fan.