Canucks Army Monday Mailbag: July 24th

Yeah, but what about Development Camp?

It’s William Nylander and Matthew Tkachuk who have the higher ceiling of the two groups, and I don’t think it’s particularly close.

I’m not entirely sure what prompted this question. The Montreal Canadiens haven’t had an especially poor summer by any stretch of the imagination. The Karl Alzner contract is among the worst signed in free agency, but other than that, it’s been an alright offseason. That’s more or less par for the course for Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin, who alternates great and awful decisions like clockwork.

The Habs prospect pool leaves a lot to be desired in the wake of Mikhail Sergachyov’s departure by trade. They’re a team that’s in full on contention mode, though. They can’t worry about the future while they have Carey Price and Max Pacioretty in the fold.

Nope.

Well, if either of the two loses their jobs, it’s probably Canucks general manager Jim Benning who walks the plank first. That’s just how the NHL hierarchy goes. It’s that, or Benning and Canucks president Trevor Linden going at the same time. And if the Canucks suffer another season like the last two, I set the over/under at the season’s end.

I suspect the Canucks will run Anders Nillson and Jacob Markstrom in tandem until one of the two distinguishes themselves from the other. At some point, I see Nilsson running away with the job. However long it takes for him to ascend to being the go-to goaltender will impact the split. Nilsson will probably get into the 45-50 game range; Markstrom gets his scraps.

Not happening.

The Canucks’ prospect pool is improving, and at a decent pace too. Their biggest problem is that they’ve so much ground to cover. Even after the combined haul of their trade deadline and the best draft of Benning’s tenure, the Canucks don’t have the best pool in their division — that’s disconcerting given just how bad they’ve been for as long as they’ve been bad. All the same, they’re creeping towards having a top ten prospect pool.

The reflex here for most would be to name Guillaume Brisebois. I’ve never been as big a fan of his game as most, though. Honestly, I see Jordan Subban as the player with the best chance of developing into a top four defenceman in the Canucks’ pool (who isn’t named Olli Juolevi). The kicker? I think Subban might be good enough to play on an NHL third pair already.

If Elias Pettersson can score at a pace comfortably past half a point per game, I’ll think it a step in the right direction.

Troy Stecher. He takes everything so seriously. There’s no way he’d let us lose.

I wouldn’t hesitate for a second if I thought Rasmus Dahlin was the best player in next year’s draft. Most of the mistakes made drafting defenceman in the top five speak more to how this league struggles to properly evaluate them than it does the state of volatility with that position.

I’m not a huge fan of the movement to shrink goalie gear. Some minor tweaks wouldn’t hurt the game, but I think it’s window dressing for addressing the real problem, which is that the game isn’t wide open enough. Goals don’t make hockey entertaining — it’s the pace of the game that matters the most to me.

Most ageing curves suggest Bo Horvat’s still a ways to go before he reaches his peak, and I tend to agree. That and I’m just terrified of putting any more limitations on Horvat’s ability.

I think that’s a fairly realistic outlook for the future of the Canucks at centre. It’s hard to judge if that’s a contending set of centres. There’s just so much that can happen between now and a “few years”. At this moment, I’d think the Canucks are in okay shape down the middle of their lineup.

Sam Gagner won’t change the fortunes of the Canucks next season. He’ll add a handful of goals above a replacement level player over the course of a season. I expect him to score about 15 goals and clock in at roughly 35 points. That would be an alright return on investment for the Canucks, too.

Thanks!

Oh, I don’t know about that. I’m not going to go into full detail, but I have a hard time with that figure. I disagree with a lot of what Benning’s done in these last few months, and what he hasn’t done for that matter.

Given Canucks head coach Travis Green is a first time NHL head coach, it’s hard to evaluate him. I’m optimistic about his likelihood of success at the NHL level, though. I don’t think highly of the job the Canucks front office has done, though I must admit, they’ve stepped it up in these last few months.

Regarding how progressive this front office is, I think they’re making progress. Linden cited analytics specifically when asked about their last draft. Most of their moves in free agency pass the analytics sniff test, too. They have a long, long way to go though.

That’s such a silly question. Of course hot dogs are sandwiches.

I take Benning at his word on this front. I could definitely foresee a scenario where Juolevi makes the team in camp and the Canucks have to trade Ben Hutton, as one example.

I don’t have a clue, and I don’t really care.

That depends entirely on how Erik Gudbranson plays next season (spoiler: probably not well). If Gudbranson struggles again next season and the Canucks can’t sign him to a reasonable contract, I see them trading him at the deadline.

I’m not what you’d call a fan anyway. I cover the team. I’ve had to put that on hold for the last little while. Even if I was, I lean heavily towards taking the million dollars.

At this rate, I think he’s going to sign short term for $4.5-million. Somewhere in that range.

It’s far too early to draw conclusions. I lean towards Dahlin at this juncture, for whatever that’s worth.

I’m not touching this with a ten-foot pole.

That hasn’t happened to me yet. I’ve talked with Luca Sbisa a bunch though and he’s always a gentleman, and a smart fella too. He really seems to get the game. I loved his answers to my questions. I haven’t spoken much to Gudbranson, but he seems like a really nice guy. Sharp as a tack, from what I can gather.

Only if it’s The Bulldog.