Monday Mailbag Part 2: Parity, Brandon Sutter, and More Draft Talk

I’ll pair these questions together since they’re related. I think if anything Bouchard’s skating issues have been under-reported in the mainstream media. The concerns are justified, but so is the hype. The more I look into Bouchard’s season, the more it impresses me.

I think the salary cap really has improved the league’s parity. The days of big spenders hoarding all the star power for themselves are long gone, and that’s a good thing. However, I think the new lottery system actually negates a lot of the work the league has done to improve parity. Bad teams don’t have as clear a path to improvement like they did just a few years ago.

I’ll preface my answer by saying that the school year kicked my ass so I’m not as familiar with this year’s draft as I’d like to be. It’s always hard to predict where players will get taken and who will be available, but one name that intrigues me is Jakub Lauko. His profile is similar to Filip Chytil, the Czech first-rounder who came out of nowhere and played 9 games for the Rangers at 18 and had a stellar season in the AHL for the Hartford Wolf Pack. Lauko is a little shorter, a scored a little less, and was a little older than Chytil was when he started his Czech league season, but they’re still pretty comparable. It’s times like these I wish I had access to the pGPS machine. Either way, he’s one player I think would make a good second round pick.

I’ll have a piece out on this very subject in the near future. Without giving too much away, there were good and bad things about his first season as head coach, but my feelings towards him are more positive than negative.

Noah Dobson is the epitome of a two-way defender. I’m not sure if he’ll bring quite as much offense at the NHL level as some of his peers but he has maybe the highest defensive impact of any defender in the draft. I’d imagine it would take him at least two or three years of development before he’s ready to make the jump to the NHL.

As far as the second question is concerned, I wouldn’t be surprised to see all three gone by the trade deadline. If there’s a market for Hutton he will be the first to go, but I’m not convinced he has much trade value.

I don’t think it’s outlandish to expect at least one of a) a first round pick or b) an A-level prospect in return for Tanev, but his value is not what it was a year ago. Baertschi could maybe fetch a late first from the right team. Hutton’s value is minimal, which is why I would advise holding onto him for the time being.

I’m not sure how late in the draft he’ll go, but I was convinced Sean Durzi was worth a mid-round pick at last year’s draft, and wouldn’t you know it, he’s ranked 37th among North American Skaters by Central Scouting this year. I’d like to see the Canucks take a flier on him.

It’s always better to draft higher, but from a PR standpoint drafting 7th might not be so bad for the Canucks. As far as the second question goes, we can only hope.

The only player you mentioned that I think has any real trade value is Baertschi, so I’d go with him.

Considering the length and dollar value or his contract, I don’t think he’s too unfairly maligned. If Sutter was consistently able to come out ahead in goal differential in spite of being heavily outshot on a consistent basis, that would be enough to give me pause. But his GF% has been about as randomly distributed as you’d expect from a bottom-six player. Sutter had a fairly good season, but he was also the beneficiary of some pretty fluky goals courtesy of Derek Dorsett. He’s not completely devoid of value and if he only played 13-14 minutes a night and his salary were about half of what it is I think he’d mostly go unnoticed. Unfortunately the Canucks signed up for the criticism Sutter has received given all the circumstances under which he was acquired. I do give full credit to Travis Green for putting him in a more suitable role than the team’s previous coaching staff did.