Welcome back to WDYTT, the only hockey column on the internet that trades in back-talk.

Speaking of trading back and forth, that’s what the Vancouver Canucks and the Chicago Blackhawks have been doing lately. It used to be that seemingly every other Canucks trade was with the Florida Panthers, but the Blackhawks have usurped that role in recent years.

Well, maybe not “every other.” But over the past two years or so, four of the Canucks’ 16 trades have involved the Blackhawks. That’s a big portion.

And the most recent of those deals brought Lukas Reichel to Vancouver for the relatively low cost of the return of Chicago’s own 2027 fourth round pick.

The early returns on Reichel have been more promising than that price-tag might suggest.

His statline isn’t anything to write home about yet. Hopefully he’s picked up his first point as a Canuck by the time you read these words later in the week, but through two games, he’s pointless – and a -3. But that’s really besides the point. Reichel came in with questions about his ability to play centre, and has not only played exclusively there with the Canucks, but has looked good at both ends of the ice while doing so. He’s been all over the play, in a positive way. He’s been involved in a lot of scoring chances already that just haven’t been finished.

But enough about what we think of Reichel. This is more about what you think about Reichel.

This week, we’re asking:

Let it be known in the comment section.

You answered below!

So far, Kane is worse than I expected, but the season is young and teams will probably looking for players like him at the trade deadline.

I thought the team was capable of first place, which means playing over .600 hockey.

The team needs a win against Nashville to get back on track.

EP40 has been disappointing.

Hughes is overhandling the puck when he should be passing more.

Bains has been better than most expected. He’s steadily improving every game and made a lot of under-the-radar good plays against Pittsburgh last night. The entire Calder cup line has been excellent – arguably our best line this season.

Hughes has struggled quite a bit, which is a surprise given how consistently good he is every year. He’s still amazing every night, it looks like he’s trying to do too much and it’s backfiring.

Bains has been better than expected. Huggy has been somewhat tentative to begin the season and is not playing up to his potential, though I thought the Capitals game was his best so far.

Lankinen has not played like a $5 million dollar goalie. He has had one great game, but has been blown out in other games.

Arshdeep Bains has been my underdog favorite for a few years now, so it’s nice to see him succeeding at the NHL level. I think the chemistry he has with Karlsson and Sasson is also key to his current success.

Prior to the potentially career-ending hit, Chytil was exceeding my expectations both in terms of points and how engaged he was willing to be given his history. He was basically a taller middle-six version of Sasson with slightly better handles and he was bringing it on a regular basis.

Falling below expectations could be a long list. We could talk about EP40 ad nauseum but I think it’s fair to say our “expectations” weren’t exactly high after 18 months of mediocrity. Most of the defense and both of the goalies have done their job, even if Hughes hasn’t been the gamebreaker we’re used to (hard to be with nobody to pass to up front). Other than management, only Kane and Drew O’Connor have fallen well below what I expected them to be. DOC’s a bigger Mikheyev who has zero impact on almost every single shift, which might be better than primarily having a negative impact both on the ice and in the press like Kane. You can whine and complain about compensation for EP40 all you want (and you’d be justified), but that’s far from the only problem. Kane and DOC account for $7.5m and provide nothing of value. There isn’t a single thing either of them do that the Abby call-ups haven’t been able to do just as well or better and for a lower cap hit.

Better than expected: Filip Chytil, Tyler Myers, Brock Boeser, Connor Garland, Kiefer Sherwood, Arshdeep Bains, and Max Sasson.

Worse than expected: Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek, Marcus Pettersson, Elias Pettersson, Jake DeBrusk, Drew O’Connor, Aatu Raty, PO Joseph, and Evander Kane.

My impressed pick is the Abby line…but only as the fourth. The disappointments thus far has to be DOC and the early injuries…

Exceeding expectations would have to be the Abbotsford trio. Disappointing? That’s a tough one, because there has to be a certain level of expectation for disappointment to happen. And they’ve played about where I expected.

I expected they’d be an unpredictable team – sometimes looking great and sometimes looking more like the Dawson Creek Canucks than the Vancouver variety. And that’s pretty much what they’ve been. So I’ll leave the disappointing category to others.

Folks’ answers to this question should be all over the place based on how they expected players to do. For me, the most pleasant surprise has been Bains. He hasn’t been spectacular, but I had low expectations. Garland has been better than expected. Didn’t know what to expect from Kane, but a bit disappointed so far. Didn’t expect O’Connor to be great, but better than shown so far.

Demko has been great, not sure that I am surprised though. Thatcher finally has had a summer that he was healthy going into and was able to train properly and not be rehabbing. Garland is what he always has been, a hard working player with a no-quit motor that has a high hockey IQ, that can go into a corner or along the boards and come away with the puck as well as drive play.

O’Connor has been a bit of a disappointment, along with Evander. What is kind of surprising, is after all of the talk from the regular negative crowd on here about what a great leader and play driver JT Miller is, that after eight games he is tied with EP40 with four points. And Elias has played one less game while laying down in front of heaters from the blue line, and killing penalties…where is all your exaggeration and hyperbole now?

Cootes, but he’s in the WHL now. For me, Demko has been better than I expected. He was Mister Positive last year, but his on-ice performance was not good. Lankinen, on the other hand, has been worse than expected. Canucks spent a pretty penny on this guy and lost Silovs because of it.

Honorable mention: Lekkerimäki had looked really dangerous before his injury.

Honorable mention: Pettersson, worst forward on my hockey pools. Still hoping he can turn things around.

I think Demko has been better than expected, coming off a long injury and right back to stellar is an incredible feat in my opinion.

Worse than expected is unfortunately Pettersson. He talks the talk but he does not walk the $11.6 million walk. For that kind of money, he should be the guy carrying you on his back to win, he does a lot of stuff right defensively, but that’s not what you pay $11.6 million for. You pay 11.6 for a game changing goal scorer who is always a threat almost every shift. Your top paid guy should be setting the tone for the culture of the franchise, as well.