Canucks Army Roundtable: S.O.S

7 years ago

You may have heard today is the beginning of the Free Agency Frenzy, and there’s a lot of teams across the league looking to improve themselves by spending a lot of money on players that they will regret signing 5 minutes after doing so. With that in mind, we went with a free agency themed topic this week. I didn’t want to do the basic “Who should the Canucks pursue?” question, because as you may have noticed our fantastic team of writers has tackled each and every option for the past few weeks.

The question instead focused on the teams in dire need of a new start. More after the jump!

This week’s question was: Which team do you think needs to make the biggest splash tomorrow and why?

Tyler Horsfall

The Edmonton Oilers. They just traded away Taylor Hall and got a brutal return on him. The optics of the trade are horrible, and now they have an increased amount of pressure to not only land a couple big free agents but to also land Milan Lucic.

Outside of Edmonton, the Detroit Red Wings are in need of a top 6 centre with the departure of Datsyuk, and that will not come cheap. Oh, and the Colorado Avalanche should probably be spending a decent chunk of change to sign both of their big ticket RFAs in Tyson Barrie and Nathan MacKinnon.

Dylan Kirkby

Detroit. With the departure of Datsyuk and the mediocre results the team’s had over the last couple years, Detroit needs to make a splash to do something more than limp into the playoffs and go out in the first round next season.

Taylor Perry

I agree with the general consensus regarding the Red Wings, but for the sake of discussion I will go out on a bit of a limb and say the New York Rangers – and not just because the Rangers have historically defined the term “free agent splash” over the last couple of decades. The Rangers regressed a bit last year, falling to third in the competitive Metropolitan Division, and had a very underwhelming playoff against the clearly superior Pittsburgh Penguins. The Eric Staal deadline gamble was unsuccessful, but it speaks to the notion that this is definitely a team with a “win-now” mindset. Even with Staal (presumably) and Dan Boyle (definitely) coming off the books, the Rangers have some young players who will likely command some hefty raises – Chris Kreider, J.T. Miller, and Kevin Hayes. With the championship window quickly closing and very little coming up the prospect pipeline, the Rangers could be a team forced to make big moves in free agency.

Always90Four

Because it hasn’t been said and this market is craving it, the Canucks. We don’t need to beat this with a stick but unless a big flash is made I believe many will balk at status quo. Not saying Lucic has to come but they have to hit hard on at least two guys and if a third comes by trade it puts them back in a position to be competitive. Summers in Vancouver tend to take awhile and if there is too much time to think of how this team will get better, the pitchforks come out early.

I’d love to see them make a run at Damon Severson over in NJ. Former Kelowna Rocket got some heavy time with the Devils PP and PK…and he’s reliable.

Jackson McDonald

From an actual “improve your team standpoint”, I’d say the Oilers. It’s been ten years of truly atrocious hockey and they have some great young pieces there, so now is the time to go out and supplement those young pieces with some free agents, preferably some that can do the heavy lifting on defence. They also definitely need to do something to take our minds off the Taylor Hall trade.

From a PR standpoint, I think there’s a case to be made for the Canucks. They couldn’t get a plug-and-play forward at the draft and they traded away some of the youth they could market to the fans in an attempt to make the playoffs. Now, if they don’t, that could significantly affect their bottom line.

I don’t think they’ll be much excitement for this season if the Canucks go into it with their current roster. With that in mind, I think they really need to land one of the big fish on July 1st. It may not be what’s best for the long-term health of the franchise, but I’d argue they’ve forgone any real attempt at rebuilding, so they’re going to have to push to ice a competitive team next year.

Matthew Henderson

Everyone here makes some great points, I especially like Jackson’s take on the Canucks. From a PR standpoint, this team needs someone to market and show that the moves they are making recently have some form of direction to them. I think the Minnesota Wild are an interesting team come free agency. They just cut ties with Thomas Vanek freeing them up a large amount of cap space to spend willingly, and their prospect pool is quite scarce so their window to win has to be now. Ryan Suter is a great defenseman, and the Wild can only hope Zach Parise can find his former form, but they need another piece to really put the stranglehold on another playoff berth. In the East, it has to be Toronto, who struck out on Stamkos and might be looking for something of a veteran presence to add to a very young Maple Leafs squad.