Papa’s Got A Brand New (Year’s Day Mail)bag

New year, same old mailbag. I’m sorry to be tardy to the party, but this weekend was one of the most hectic of my entire adult life and there just wasn’t a spare moment to answer your questions.

Onwards, to 2019 and beyond!

It’s still early to draw any strong conclusions, but so far the Canucks are getting exactly what they paid for this summer. Believe it or not, I’ve generally been a big fan of Roussel since he established himself as a full-time NHLer 4-5 years ago. His underlying numbers have always been strong across the board, he’s underrated offensively, and his pesky, shit-disturber style of play is a genuine asset when it doesn’t cost you in other areas of the game.

The issue with that contract always came down to committing four years to player with a history of concussions who was coming off his worst season in five years. That was a valid concern, but at this point, I have to concede that he looks like he’s at least a couple years away from slowing down and might be able to maintain the level of play we’ve seen so far for the duration of his contract. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s probable, and it looked like a bad bet at the time, but it certainly seems more and more possible with each passing game.

If you dig deep into how the Canucks have been winning games, all the red flags are there. Even if you think Jacob Markstrom is turning a corner, I don’t think anyone believes he can be the best goaltender in the league, which is exactly what he’s been over the past month. No team in the league has played more than the 42 games the Canucks have appeared in, which goes a long way towards explaining why they’re currently three points out of a wild card spot despite being a bottom-ten team in points percentage. They’re also 26th overall in shot share, which is less than ideal, to say the least.  As teams evolve and take shot shares into greater consideration, Corsi becomes less of a market inefficiency and thus less predictive of future success than it was a few seasons ago, but it’s still hard to win games when only five teams are getting outshot worse than you are.

There are good signs, too. This team can actually produce offence on a consistent basis now and in that respect they’re at least a marginal improvement on the teams of years past. That being said, I think the success we’ve seen over the past month is more of a look into what the team could be in a few years than an accurate reflection of where they’re at right now.

I have no idea. Theoretically, one could get the mouthguard back in place if a big hit is coming, but you also run the risk of choking on the damn thing if something goes wrong. A better question is why even have one in the first place if you’re gonna just chew on it? Those things are gross, I would want it as far away from me as possible if it’s not in use.

You can probably get away with having one guy on your back end who’s not a great skater if the other areas of his game are strong enough, but if your defense as a whole is relatively immobile that’s going to cost you. In Bouchard’s case, I think the big question marks are how much he can improve his skating, which isn’t anywhere near good enough at this stage, and whether or not the other elements of his game are good enough to make up for poor skating if he can’t make huge improvements.

It’s harder to teach what Bouchard brings to the game than it is to improve his skating, so I still think he was probably worth the risk where the Oilers took him, even if I might have preferred someone like Ty Smith or Noah Dobson.

I do. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that if the Canucks somehow manage to make the playoffs, he will win the Jack Adams.

I wouldn’t bet on it. The coaching position is notoriously difficult to evaluate, and is perhaps more results-based than any other job in the league so it’s hard to speculate as to what the team might look like with a different bench boss; but the difference in how the team played in its last year under Willie Desjardins versus how they looked last season with similar rosters speaks for itself.

He’s that good. If you get the chance to select him, you don’t pass it up. Instead, you can start looking at other forwards that could maybe be made available for the right price.

Sutter has a full no-trade clause, so moving him this season would prove very difficult. A team would have to come along and not only make an offer that would interest the Canucks, but also be an attractive enough destination for Sutter to be willing to waive his NTC to go there. Gaudette has played well enough to make Sutter expendable in the long-term, but it’s going to be hard to make it work in the immediate future. I think he’ll get traded eventually, but it won’t happen until after July 1st, when his full NTC expires and becomes a limited NTC. Gaudette looked comfortable, but didn’t exactly force their hands, so I think they’ll be patient when it comes to making a trade to accommodate his return.

To be completely honest, I haven’t been able to watch as much of the WJHC as I normally would. The holiday season is a hectic time for all of us, doubly so for me because I also went through the process of moving over the month of December as well. When I have been able to sit down and watch the U.S. team, Tyler Madden has stood out the most, largely because he’s found his way onto the scoresheet consistently through the preliminary round. Hughes hasn’t stood out quite as much, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing on team as strong as theirs. He’s looked comfortable transitioning the puck and leads all defensemen with a whopping 18 shots on goal over 4 preliminary games, so I expect he’ll be finding his way onto the scoresheet with more frequency in the near future.

Since Tim Schaller has been in the press box for the past couple of weeks, the only player that really makes sense is Markus Granlund. Everyone else is more or less doing what’s been asked of them, and Granlund has been noticeably bad on the penalty kill. I’m not convinced he’s bringing anything to the lineup that can’t be replaced.

My best guess is the team didn’t want to lose anyone for nothing, and since he can technically play the middle they made the choice to put him in as the 3C so they could send Gaudette down. I don’t think he’d be playing centre with any regularity if they had other options. They just happen to be in kind of a tough spot at the moment with players coming back from injury and not a lot of roster space. Personally, I’d prefer to see Sam Gagner play spot duty on the third line, but Granlund is a fair bit younger so I can see the justification. I’d hold off on getting too upset about it until the team has its full compliment of centres back.