CanucksArmy Monday Mailbag: March 5th

If by the NHL you mean the SM-Liiga, then yes, Jussi Jokinen will play in the NHL next season.

The contract extension Erik Gudbranson signed should be an immovable anchor, but I’m not sure it is. If the Canucks had any appetite to move on from Gudbranson, I have no doubt they could do just that.

They’re not looking so good. If Elias Pettersson isn’t with the Canucks next season, which seems doubtful at this stage, he’ll be with the Utica Comets.

I can’t see why Brendan Leipsic wouldn’t make the team. In his short NHL sample that’s severely diluted due to bad luck, Leipsic’s scoring at about a 30 points per 82 games pace. Imagine what will happen for Leipsic when he starts to get a bounce or two from time to time. That’s well above replacement level production, so one has to think there’s, at the very least, room for Leipsic on the Canucks fourth line.

I’d say that Sven Baertschi moving at the draft is standing at about 50/50 odds. The Canucks have to move somebody out. Baertschi’s in line for a contract extension and has arbitration rights this summer, so that could prove an ugly and costly experience. It makes sense for a lot of reasons.

Whatever I heard at VANHAC, the Canucks did, too. They had Jonathan Wall in attendance, and he does a lot of their analytics and video work behind the scenes. The Canucks also did a lot to help put on the event and even let its attendees skate on the Rogers Arena ice this Sunday, so a big shoutout to them.

It would be hard to pick just one presentation from the many excellent ones through the weekend. It’s especially difficult because I couldn’t be there on Sunday and had to miss a big chunk of Saturday’s presentations because I was doing Nation Network Radio.

Here’s one that I think the Canucks could benefit from — Michael Shuckers keynote speech had a lot in there about the element of skill in influencing shootout results. Canucks head coach Travis Green doesn’t strike me as someone who invests a lot of his attention in the shootout, and sometimes that reflects in his shooter choices. Perhaps that’d convince him it’s not entirely random, and maybe that’d get the Canucks the extra point or two each season.

Disclaimer: I’m sure there’s a far better answer, but I just missed so much of the weekend, so I don’t have it.

Based on the scouting reports from the likes of TSN’s Craig Button and Hockey Prospect Radio’s Shane Malloy (among others), Jonathan Dahlen’s biggest wart is his skating. I haven’t watched him play a tonne, so I’m willing to take them at their word on that front.

The name of the game is offence for Dahlen, though, there don’t appear to be any significant concerns about his play in the defensive zone. And that bodes well for his NHL future, certainly.

I can’t think of any reason why Dahlen’s game wouldn’t translate to the NHL level. By all accounts, he does his best work from below the hashmarks, which suggests to me he’ll hold up well in the NHL. I’m not sure if Dahlen can make the jump next season, but he can’t be that far off.

My ultimate goal for year one is simple — I will do everything in my power to build the best possible asset base with the tools available to me. I’m not thinking two or three years ahead; try four or five. That means I’m going to strip this team to the foundation. If your name isn’t Brock Boeser or Bo Horvat, then you can’t be too comfortable about your job security. Then I’m going to weaponize the cap space I free up to its fullest potential, with about three-to-four years in the remaining term as a limit, depending on salary, etc.

Secondly, I would look into leveraging the muscle of my franchise’s financial might into developing one of the league’s best, most progressive research and development teams. The salary cap only applies on the ice, so I’m going to do everything possible to flex my market’s financial muscle to gain advantages off of it. That means an analytics and tracking department to rival the league’s best. In general, I want a sizeable hockey ops department replete with varying viewpoints and perspectives — no yes-men.

Lastly, I’m going to end the Canucks’ arrangement with the Utica Comets as soon as humanly possible. This would be extremely difficult. The Comets facilities and proximity to other AHL teams are obviously great qualities. Furthermore, that city has rallied behind the Comets to such an awesome extent, and that surely makes the experience a fun one for the Canucks’ prospects. I wouldn’t enjoy this divorce one bit. That said, I want the Canucks prospects as close to Vancouver as possible. I think the benefits for their development would be significant. To that end, the closeness between the farm and parent team would mean for excellent means of communication and allow the Canucks to keep close tabs on the future of their team. When the Canucks need a call-up, it will be far less of a hassle, too.

I hope this answer was somewhat satisfying. It was a nebulous question, and I did my best to answer it with the details I deemed most important.

I haven’t invested much (any) time in looking into this, so I can’t say for certain. In general, injuries are random and mostly attributable to bad luck though so I feel like there probably isn’t much of a connection.

No way in hell would I make that deal unless the Blackhawks ate the full 50% allowable of Brent Seabrook’s salary.

Blogs: volcels

Mainstream media: incels

I’m not sure if I do, frankly. I don’t usually put fans into segments, other than those who think long-term and those who think short-term — i.e. #TeamTank and #TeamTreadmill. The most interesting take I often hear is that other teams don’t want to trade draft picks to the Canucks out of fear that super-scout and general manager Jim Benning can do so much more with them than the average general manager.

Nope, and to take it a step further, my issue with the Jake Virtanen pick had nothing to do with which round the Canucks made it. If the Canucks drafted Virtanen at 16th, even, I would’ve been okay with it. It’s just that sixth overall was a bit rich.

Maybe?

I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was working, then made my way home stopping only at the liquor store on the way to pick up drinks for what I assumed would be a night of merriment and fun — in my mind, there was no way I’d be working the next day, let’s put it that way. I caught the game at my parent’s place with a couple of friends (I had just turned 20). The game finished, and I shaved off my playoff beard and drank some more and played video games. I was at work the next day.

Is it cheap if I just answer with “all of the above?” I sincerely see so many superior skills in Elias Pettersson’s game. His vision, edges, shot, etc. are all fantastic. I can’t see any way that they don’t translate at the NHL level.

There isn’t any, but that’s because there are too many moving parts to conduct an exercise of this kind properly. My opinion? The Canucks group of prospects, great as it may be, isn’t even close.

It won’t. Sven Baertschi doesn’t have the injury-prone label attached to him yet and this injury isn’t goin to do it. This seems especially true because he’ll have ample time to rehab it and make a full recovery. No issue here.

I’m sure they’re not thrilled about it, but that’s just the way it goes, and since they’re all consummate professionals, I’m sure they’re handling it just fine.

There are rare cases in which a player has a bad Corsi or shot share, but is still helping their team, and one way to look at that is by using a metric like expected goals, which takes shot quality into account. Another way is with WAR (wins above replacement) though that’s not available to us anymore now that the Colorado Avalanche have hired Dawson Sprigings.

You can find expected goal metrics on Corsica.Hockey, for example. Another stat that might interest you is the high-danger scoring chance data or even the scoring chance data that they keep at a website like www.NaturalStatTrick.com.

I could see a scenario where Evan Bouchard is available to the Canucks at seventh overall if that’s where they land after the draft. I’m not sure that’s who I would draft, but it seems like a reasonable pick on the face. I’ll tell you this much, based on how things are shaking out rankings-wise, I’d prefer a player like Noah Dobson in that spot.

By all accounts, the Canucks are as open as they’ve ever been to trading a player like Chris Tanev. I’m not going to give a no or a yes for an answer, but it seems possible — I’ll say that much.

I’ve been asked this like 45 times this season, and I still don’t have a clue.

I’m not sure, as I haven’t spoken to all 30 of the league’s non-Canucks general managers.

I can’t say I agree with your assessment of the Jets rebuild. They’ve mined assets at the trade deadline almost any time the opportunity has presented itself, and that’s part of why they have such an abundance of prospects. That, and they draft exceptionally well. They might not have traded everything away, but they did enough and then helped themselves further by making savvy decisions at the draft.

I’m down with the Canucks creating a third-jersey like this one, with green as the primary colour. Bring it on.

If the Canucks aren’t picking first overall and the team with that pick is willing to move Rasmus Dahlin for the Canucks first pick and Chris Tanev, I’d make that trade in a heartbeat. Hell, I might sweeten the pot so that I could sleep at night after thieving a generational talent on the blue line.

It’s possible those two things overlap, so I can’t say at this point what I’d do in that spot.

Unless I’m missing something, this isn’t a question.

It wouldn’t hurt.

I’d do away with the draft lottery and just have it function like the NFL’s system, where the draft is in reverse order of the standings.