WWYDW: Adam Gaudette

With Nikolay Goldobin now under contract for another year, the Canucks’ forward group for next season is beginning to take shape… and it’s looking awfully crowded.

Many fans had hoped recent NCAA standout Adam Gaudette might get the chance to earn a full-time gig with the big club this season, but with the preseason looming and Brandon Sutter and Jay Beagle not looking like they’re going anywhere anytime soon, that’s looking less and less likely to happen.

 

Last week I asked: How would you handle Nikolay Goldobin? Where would you like to see him play next season?

I would like to see Goldy regain his confidence in the KHL. I think his game may be more suited to the homelands. There isn’t room on the current roster for his lacklustre defensive efforts and missed shots. I feel like I’ve never witnessed him win a board battle.

I like the guy because it sounds like he truly wants to play for the Canucks. That being said we have a lot of forwards this year. Give him some quality playing time to hopefully up his value and trade him. Hopefully as a sweetener for Sutter or Eriksson.

I say sign him at, say, $1.25 million for one or two years. Then give him a chance.

Green likely has a fair idea what he’s going to do with Horvat, Pettersson, Boeser, Miller, and Beagle. The rest of the forwards are a huge question mark. So throw them all into the same bucket and let them fight it out. The trick for Green is to forget the past, and not carry over any biases or expectations. Go with what he actually sees this September, and build the best team from that.

And if by December Goldobin has once more fallen through the cracks, make a trade.

Goldy should be on the ice for training camp but it shall be very thin ice indeed. It’s not like he’s 35 y.o. nor has an absurd Loui contract. IMO this is his last shot at making this club and there is still time for him albeit not a lot. Maybe guys like Goldobin look/play better on better teams and, conversely, not so good on lesser clubs. Don’t give up on him quite yet though that idea is rapidly approaching.

At some point you have to give up on waiting for a player to meet his potential. Goldobin turns 24 this October. Like many smaller offensively minded players he can perform reasonably well with gifted line mates. Unfortunately for Goldobin there are a lot of players just like him and several who perform even better with those high quality line mates. Sign him cheap, give him a look in pre-season and if he isn’t one of the best 9 wingers healthy at the end of pre-season waive him.

I believe Goldobin is a very good top 6 forward, just not in the NHL.

I guess I’d kind of like to see him get one more chance??? At this point I don’t see him having any trade value. He most certainly wouldn’t move the needle on a Eriksson trade and barely at all with Sutter.

He seems to be the type of late first rounder that pretty much establishes and defines the percentages on failure. That roughly 20 to 25 % chance of getting a top 6 forward in those draft positions. He’s the other 80%. He’s basically exactly the player which should be expected from a pick in the 20’s. Literally. Got his 100 or so NHL games, which again fits the majority of picks in that range. Picks in that range do have a 60ish% chance of being “4th line or worse”, but his game does not translate to a bottom six role so….. Soon he’ll be out of the league, and a footnote in canucks history.

Hopefully he proves me wrong, but I wouldn’t bet on it.