CanucksArmy Monday Mailbag: January 29th

I’m the wrong guy to ask about anything All-Star Game related. I honestly couldn’t care less about it.

That said, Brock Boeser is the greatest thing to happen to Vancouver in years and is by all accounts an amazing person, so I’m happy that he enjoyed himself and earned a bunch of coin this weekend along with MVP honours. That part was cool to follow from afar.

I would hope not.

It’s way too early to tell. If Brock Boeser were to keep up this scoring pace though it’s hard to imagine a scenario where he gets anything less than $7-million a season on a long-term contract extension.

If I had my druthers, a fighting penalty would be a game misconduct and come with an automatic suspension. That’s more or less in line with how any other professional sports league would handle a fight.

If I were the general manager of the Canucks, well, that’d be pretty neat! I’d look at moving out Michael Del Zotto, Nic Dowd and Sam Gagner. I’d also explore my options with Sven Baertschi, whose counting stats suggest he might be in line for a raise that his underlying numbers can’t support. Basically, if Baertschi’s contract demands are a bit rich or if the trade market will yield something worthwhile, then I’d be compelled to do something.

And yes, I would make these moves in concert with Thomas Vanek and Erik Gudbranson deals.

John Tavares would have absolutely no desire to sign with Vancouver whatsoever. It’s not happening.

I feel like the stoic, mild-mannered and supremely humble Brock Boeser actually would drive something like a Honda.

I’m just guessing here, but I feel like, in general, we as a community underestimated the ways in which the Vegas Golden Knights’ depth would cover for their lack of star power. Whether we used statistical models or our own intuitions here, it seems that we had a sizeable blind spot. And perhaps that answer lends itself to your questioning the ability of the publically available models being suitable for expansion teams.

Yes.

In all seriousness, I’d say organizational direction. And before the comments section goes off on me and tries to apportion the blame on ownership, consider how poorly the Canucks followed through on their mandate, regardless of whether it was a fool’s errand to begin with or not.

A team that spends as the Canucks have shouldn’t do as poorly as they have in Jim Benning’s tenure. It honestly defies logic.

I don’t see the All-Star Game having any impact on Boeser’s Calder Trophy candidacy. It shouldn’t.

As for the question about Mat Barzal playing with better teammates, it might come into consideration if he and Boeser are neck-and-neck at the end of the year in scoring. It could be something that sways the balance one way or the other. Then again, the Canucks lack of team success, rightly or wrongly, could also work against Boeser, so there’s that to consider too.

I’m going to have my people reach out to their people and see what we can arrange.

The pedant (and person with an Irish background) in me wants to read this as: who would win if Philadelphia Eagles fans showed up in a bar full of Irish patriot fans, as in Irish people with a fan-like affection for patriots in the motherland.

In that case, you never bet against the Irish. Hell, in any case, never bet against an Irish person in a fight. A good way to lose money.

It all depends on what the Canucks can get for the trouble of moving back from that second overall pick. On the one hand, I think the Canucks aren’t at a stage in their nominal rebuild where they can be picky about where they get top end talent. This team could still very desperately use an Andrei Svechnikov or Filip Zadina. On the other hand, their prospect pool on defence is just so dire, so I wonder if there could be a justification for going this route, especially if the Canucks get good value for the move from two.

The St. Louis Blues under Doug Armstrong have done a great job of managing the books. The Nashville Predators under Dave Poile certainly qualify. Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff takes a lot of heat for not being more active, but then again, how many bad contracts are on their books? Not many.

Just spending a couple minutes on CapFriendly, those teams struck me as ones without any terrible, onerous contracts from hell. There were so many other examples though of teams with maybe just one or two bad contracts and otherwise excellent financial health. It’s not that uncommon.

If the Canucks can get Paul Stastny on a relatively cheap deal, that wouldn’t be such a half-bad idea. Especially in light of the fact that his relatively advanced age — Stastny is 32 — will mean he’s not getting more than two or three years.

I’ve always had a fondness for Valtteri Filppula’s game, as someone who can play in the middle-six and generate okay-ish results. And again, his age means he’s not getting a long-term deal.

Or, if the Canucks really want to shake up this rebuild, they pray nightly to the deity of their choice and hope that Calgary Flames centre Mikael Backlund actually makes it to unrestricted free agency and they sign him to bolster their centre depth.

The Canucks will have options aplenty this summer if they feel the need to add another stopgap centre.

Just fold the entire damn league. Everyone can become an XFL fan. I’d rather that than see another generational talent wasted on that team.

I’d make this trade without even a moment’s hesitation, and I say this as someone who really thinks the world of Boeser both on and off the ice. Auston Matthews is just that good.

I mean, sure, you do you, man.

That’s never going to happen. John Tavares has highlighted his desire to win a Stanley Cup as his guiding principle for where he signs as a free agent. That disqualifies the Canucks immediately.