Monday Mailbag Part 2: Logos, Bad Contracts, and “Stealth Tanking”

Not much, I’d imagine. They’ll still have a good farm system, and if Quinn Hughes has another good season that should drum up some good will for the organization. They’ll also have the draft and the prospect of drafting a future cornerstone in front of the home town fans. That’s not nothing, but as far as the big club is concerned hope will be pretty scant if Elias Pettersson sputters out of the gate and Brock Boeser takes a step back.

I’m going to sound like a broken record answering questions about the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. It’s just too early to make even so much as an educated guess. Fifth overall seems high for Philip Broberg for my liking at this stage, but who knows?

I have no idea. It’s always been strange to me. For the optimists among us, the prospect of a sub-par management group is infinitely more preferable than meddling or incompetent ownership. And even if ownership is unfair or impatient, it doesn’t excuse poor decision-making in the process of executing their vision. No owner in the league is going to their general manager to demand they spend $12 million on Jay Beagle, regardless of how they feel about the team’s competitiveness.

I don’t know any of the players personally and haven’t spoken to them, so I can only speculate that most players just want to explore the widest possible variety of options and go with the one that’s best for them. The NCAA offers different opportunities and experiences than the CHL and vice-versa. For some players, the possibility of gaining an education might seem more palatable than sticking around in the CHL for two or three years playing against younger competition. In other cases, players might realize they’re only a year or two away from pro and would rather play closer to the city they’ll soon be living in. It’s tough to say. Both leagues offer different advantages and disadvantages, and players are allowed to change their minds.

Generally, I think the “stealth tank” is a myth. If you’re looking to tank but you don’t want to be open and up front about it, you sign players to cheap one or two-year deals. What you don’t do is sign a lot of veterans for significant money and term. For better or worse, Jim Benning wants the team to be competitive and thinks the signings will help the team achieve that goal.

It can be hard to predict the trade market. I’d have thought a player like Jeff Skinner could have fetched a better haul from the Sabres than what Carolina was able to get in return, for example. So it’s difficult to say what the price would be for Nurse, especially given the fact that Peter Chiarelli’s record has been spotty at best when it comes to player transactions. I’m inclined to believe the Canucks would be better off building through the draft and holding on to the assets they have than trying to find a shortcut, but obviously if it’s something they should explore if he’s available for the right price.

The best part of next season will be getting to watch Elias Pettersson on North American ice against pro competition. The Canucks haven’t had such a highly-touted rookie in their lineup since the Sedin twins, and keeping tabs on him will be interesting if nothing else. The worst part is going to be the likelihood that the team is unable to score for a good 30-40 minutes a night with both Brandon Sutter and Jay Beagle getting significant minutes at even-strength.

You’re correct, Nikolay Goldobin will require waivers next season. Unfortunately, I think this is a bit like the Frankie Corrado situation from a few years ago in that while there will certainly be teams interested in taking a chance on him if he ends up on waivers, there probably isn’t much interest on the trade market. Hopefully he can play well enough to earn a regular spot on the team and they won’t have to explore a trade. If there isn’t room for him, getting something back would be preferable to losing him for nothing.

Supposedly the Stars were reluctant to include Miro Heiskanen in a trade with the Senators for Erik Karlsson, so I’d assume the Canucks aren’t getting him regardless of what they give up or what they’re willing to take back. Taking on Jason Spezza’s contract would be a worthy option to explore, though.

I’d imagine it’s a decision made collectively between ownership, management, and whoever is in charge of graphic design and marketing. Generally, introducing a new third jersey or a change to the primary jerseys is a way of generating extra revenue.

Stranger things have happened, but I’d imagine Travis Green would be reluctant to put three mostly unproven youngsters on a line together. If Pettersson is as good as we think he is and Goldobin takes a step forward, it might work.

I think it was a couple years ago that Jason Botchford included an anecdote about Jim Benning’s attitude towards acquiring bad contracts. It was something to the effect of “why would I trade for a bad contract when I could just use my cap space on free agents?”. I don’t think the issue is that a deal hasn’t been presented to the Canucks. It’s more likely that that reluctance stems from something else. Perhaps they’re reluctant to spend money on players who won’t be on the active roster, or perhaps the deals haven’t been attractive enough to justify taking on dead weight. It’s a shame they haven’t been able to make such a deal thus far, they could use the additional assets.