CanucksArmy Monday Mailbag: February 12th

I don’t know if there are any specific rules in the CBA against this, but that has more to do with my not having read it front-to-back than anything. There is absolutely no way this would fly. Even if there weren’t specific rules against it in the CBA, it violates the entire spirit of the salary cap, and the league would come down hard on the Canucks.

Funny timing, this question. Of course, the Canucks just dismantled the Dallas Stars in their own building. That said, I get where you’re coming from, so I’ll answer it all the same.

Do you need to be concerned? I don’t even know what to say, really. This is just where this team is at and where it’s been for three consecutive seasons and four of the last five. I honestly look at this team, and they just seem demoralized. It’s like they’ve checked out on this season.

What’s especially striking is that Canucks general manager Jim Benning’s entire rebuild on the fly philosophy was about avoiding this situation. It’s damning as hell that he’s spent to the cap or close to it all these years and this is the end result.

I’ll be honest — I’m not sure yet. I lean towards no, but that’s because I want it to be a very exclusive club; only the best players get their place. Based on who’s already there though it’s hard to say no. I’ll say this much: Edler has been so, so unfairly maligned in this city.

I feel like the obvious answer is Marc Messier. Really, though, I just don’t have that much negative energy invested in players. I’ve never given this much thought. Any answer would just be a forced, meaningless one at that.

The pace of the game is the thing that sticks out to me the most. AHL hockey is just so, so slow and choppy. In the NHL, there’s far more speed and structure. It’s just slightly better right across the board.

Is Benning really that good an evaluator of amateur hockey talent? I think his record is a touch inflated on that front.

I think that Benning has a far better grip on what makes an NHL player than what makes an NHL player good, and that drives the difference. And his antiquated approach to roster construction means that the position that is changing the fastest, defence, is the one where he’s least capable of evaluating talent.

I don’t see this happening because I’ve never thought of Jake Virtanen as someone who plays like a power forward, and that goes even as far as his time in the CHL. As for his draft expectations, most of the scouts I’ve spoken to didn’t think he’d be that good; they unanimously think sixth-overall was a massive reach.

I wouldn’t give him any higher than a one percent chance of becoming anything even close to what Cam Neely was at the height of his career.

Who knows if Canucks head coach Travis Green gets even one more game if Benning is replaced as general manager? It wouldn’t be that unusual for the new GM to want his own pick for head coach. That said, I wouldn’t give up on Green if it were my call.

Yes.

28th.

Maybe? Here’s the thing: Philip Holm is already 26-years-old. It’s great that Holm is having an awesome first season in North America with the Utica Comets. That said, his success doesn’t mean quite as much given his advanced age. Regarding realistic expectations, let’s just hope that Holm turns into something like a third-pair or seventh defenceman.

Milan Lucic.

Adam Gaudette’s realistic ceiling is probably that of a high-end second-line centre. More realistically, he’ll become a middle-six forward with special teams utility on the penalty kill and power play alike, which is great in its own right.

That’s hard to say. The Stars have a lot invested in Julius Honka’s success. Based on the conversation I had with Taylor Baird from Defending Big D on Nation Network Radio powered by Shark Club, he appears to be winning Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock of late, too.

The Canucks desperately need players like Honka in their system — I’ll give you that much.

I don’t see the Canucks extending Alex Edler this summer. His play is dropping pretty steadily already, and he’s getting into his 30s with a history of back issues. Those players don’t get better with time.

As for a trade, that won’t happen because of Edler’s no-trade protection.

Is Canucks President Trevor Linden really letting Benning take the heat though? Every time Linden has a chance, he goes out of his way to highlight the difficulties of the job that Benning took on and praises his work endlessly. I’m not sure I agree with your assessment of the situation.

As for what Linden does, it seems like he has his hands in everything, whether that’s scouting, drafting, trading or contracts.

I really hate to let you down — it seems to be a regular theme with the questions you ask — but I’ve got nothing. The thing is, Brett McKenzie just doesn’t strike me as a guy with many interesting facts or anything that interesting that I’d know about. Sorry, buddy.

Because I am a bad, bad man. Sorry, buddy. I’ll get it back to you at some point over a couple of pops.

I don’t know if I ever considered Ben Hutton a part of the team’s youthful core. As much as I like Hutton’s game, he’s about a fourth or fifth defenceman, and those aren’t the type of players I usually describe as core members of their team.

I think the Canucks have to be open to either option. There is definitely a case for trading Hutton, as I outlined in an article for The Athletic Vancouver. There’s also reason to believe that there is more there. I guess it depends on what the Canucks can get for Hutton in a potential trade.

With a team this bad, the Canucks should be willing to entertain trades for almost all of their players. Only Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat should be off limits.

I would love for the Darren Archibald story to go on right to the end of the season and beyond. That would be so awesome. I don’t know how likely that is at this stage. He’s 28-years-old though and has 18 career games in the NHL. It would be quite the feat to become a regular NHL’er at this stage.

The one thing Archibald has going for him, and this is the wild card of it all, is that Green is a big fan of his game. That might give him a better shot than he might otherwise have with another team.

I don’t think I could effectively run a team at this stage in my life, no. I would love to apprentice in hockey ops and at some point get there, but I’d understand that we’re talking at least a decade-plus of working my way up the ladder before that’s even the most remote opportunity. And even at that, how the hell am I getting my foot in the door?