We were excited to talk about a couple of Vancouver Canucks games.
Who’s hot, who’s not, and all that other fun stuff.
Instead, we didn’t get a hockey game since our last mailbag and are back with some questions about trades, prospects, and other things surrounding this team.
We appreciate the questions that we receive every week and this week shows a good crop from fans who didn’t get to see their team play a game this week.
Let’s open up the mailbag and see what the wonderful people of Canucks’ Twitter have asked this week.
We’ve seen the Canucks attempt to “go for it” with their trade deadline moves recently and though Tyler Toffoli brought some offence to the top-six, he didn’t get the team over the hump. The Canucks cannot be buyers at this deadline and need to begin rebuilding their prospect pipeline and filling the cupboards.
This team’s current prospect group has the chance to resemble Mike Gillis’ all-in prospect group if the team trades away any more picks. They need to add picks to the team and rebuild their pipeline. It may be time to take a step back before taking two steps forward. A swapping of players for futures is what this team needs. As much as I’d like to see this Canucks team push for a playoff spot and potentially have a chance at a run, they need a quick jolt to their prospect pool. Once a jolt and some regularity in first-round picks begin to happen, this team can not worry as much about additions from outside of their organization.
According to SportsClubStats, the Canucks have a 4.8% of making the playoffs right now. I don’t know if I truly believe these projection websites that much as it feels like there’s always a point in the season where a team has a one percent chance of making the playoffs and that just seems unreal. If the Canucks have a 50% chance of making the playoffs, they should still be sellers.
Tyler Motte may return a decently high draft pick. Maybe something in the third-round range.
Jaroslav Halak should be interesting and depending on his bonus situation, he could return a mid-round pick.
Brad Hunt may net a late-round pick for a team that wants to add some depth to their defence for the playoffs.
There are certainly multiple avenues to add picks for the Canucks at this deadline and with expiring contracts and a team that doesn’t look like it will be winning the Stanley Cup this season, it feels like gaining draft picks is a good idea.
As a fourth-line forward, Phil Di Giuseppe deserves a shot very soon. The same can be said for Sheldon Rempal, who has been the best driver of offence for the Abbotsford Canucks this season.
I’d love to see Jack Rathbone get some time with Bruce Boudreau and see what Rathbone can do under Boudreau’s fast-paced system. He is another player who will be up soon.
Justin Bailey has incredible wheels and though we’ve seen him a bit at the NHL level already, it would be interesting to see him play under Boudreau. Bailey has also improved his penalty killing in the last few games with Abbotsford and he is attacking the opposition while shorthanded in a way that Boudreau demands of his players.
Long-term, Danila Klimovich is the most exciting NHL prospect. He won’t get near the NHL any time soon but he does have some skills that look like they may be able to develop into dangerous NHL traits.
Long-long-term, keep an eye on Arturs Silovs. The 20-year-old has the look of an NHL goalie in his game and once he gets with Ian Clark, it will do wonders for his raw talent. The streets know and Silovs and he’s one to watch.
1. I checked in on Brady Keeper this past Sunday night and was told that they hope he will be returning to the team soon. It will be a long rehab with the team but he will likely report with Vancouver before getting into AHL action for rehab. He is still a ways away from playing in a game but positive news from the organization is what I heard on Sunday.
2. Rathbone should be playing games in the NHL this week but with his injury situation, he will need a few weeks to get his feet under him.
We hope to see him with Vancouver in early-mid February.
3. I don’t think Lukas Jasek will be back with the Canucks organization. If you’re looking for a European who is excited to make the move to North America and work his way up through the AHL, I’d look at Linus Karlsson.
Brock Boeser gets a chance to get a bit more healthy after dealing with COVID.
J.T. Miller was able to heal up and build anger up to the point of explosion and we may see that in one of the two games against the Florida teams.
Quinn Hughes and Tyler Myers were able to get some much-needed rest days as they were both playing a ton of minutes before the weird break we have seen.
We’ve seen a player who looks like a leader when he is playing well. Now that he isn’t playing great, I think it’s showing that he isn’t one to pout. There is frustration but he is trying to work out of it and not letting his team down a ton in the process. Pettersson indeed needs to give so much more offensively but he isn’t showing his frustration and that’s a good sign from a leader in the room–especially as the team is winning.
Pettersson has the potential to be captain material but he hasn’t made any progress towards that role with how he’s played this season.
As much as we all hope that Mikey DiPietro would be ready to be an NHL backup for next season, he may take another year of development due to the loss of the 2020-21 season.
He has been off to an awful start to this season and needs to get back on track before a true plan is established with him.
I doubt the current management group has much of a plan for Mikey DiPietro — I’d assume that’s more of an Ian Clark thing.
Thanks for stopping by on another Monday Mailbag here at CanucksArmy. We sure hope there are some games to talk about next Monday and by all accounts of the insiders in this sport, we have nothing to worry about!
Let’s have some fun watching Canucks hockey again this week and enjoy debating in the comments section.
As always, thanks for the great questions on Twitter and we will see you next Monday.