Saturday Mailbag: Whoops

So, this was supposed to go up yesterday. But we had lots of other things planned for you yesterday, like a roundtable full of Jeffs and a Canucks Victory! Now it’s Saturday, so while the rest of the staff brainstorms good ideas, I’ll give you answers that you probably won’t like? Deal? Deal.

I don’t think either of their picks are going to end up as high as they currently project to be. Columbus’ underlying numbers look good, and Anaheim is having catastrophically bad puck luck. The Ducks are probably most likely to rebound and are the better team on paper, so Columbus will likely be the higher pick, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they escaped the basement towards the end of the year. If they don’t, I could also see them holding on for another year or two before sacrificing a pick.

I don’t think you understand, my friend. Barts is a real good player. He does a real good job of clogging up the lane, blocking shots, and being dependable. Sure, Yannick might be able to help the Canucks on the powerplay, but without Barts, the team would just curl into a ball and refuse to play. That wouldn’t be a real good look.

Yes, though it depends on what they hire him as. If it’s as a head coach, as you’d expect in a situation like this, it would be a second round pick mid-season, or a third-round pick if they wait until the offseason.

It’s not the position you’re hired away from that matters, but where you head.

Jeremy Davis wrote a great piece about how the Canucks might have a division title shot, if only because the Pacific is hot garbage. It’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that they might feel confident enough in themselves to not go total fire-sale near the deadline, though I’d have to wager that short of a Presidents Trophy push, they’d have to foresight to recognize the long-term short-sightedness of not at least trading their pending UFAs.

Chris Higgins. I actually have nothing against him as a hockey player or as a person, but his abs have created an expectation among the population that is too high for 99% of men, including out of shape ones like myself.