Vancouver Depth

[clearwatercanuck]

Hi, I've been watching the Canucks moves this summer and am generally happy in what has been done so far, however I am concerned with the defense still. We need another d man that can move the puck out of the zone quickly without making costly turnovers. Just wondering if there is anyone left that we can afford? I'm also now concerned about our goaltending situation. With the new NHL rules, goaltenders are not as protected as before, so injuries are more prevalent. Hopefully Luongo is protected by his D. Also I noticed that Andrew Cassels is still a UFA, wonder what kind of price he's demanding. He's still a solid two way forward and would be great on the PP. Also, Linden is the best PK I've seen in a while, he should be used just for that.

Adios for now!

Graham

[jchockey]

I think DN is banking on Krajicek and Bourdon to move the puck. I'm not too confident with them either, which is why I suggested Tanabe in another thread, but at the same time in the salary cap NHL sometimes you really have to bank on your fringe players to make an impact. The Ducks would not have gotten so far the past season had it not been for Francois Beauchemin and Dustin Penner stepping it up. However, Krajicek, Bourdon, and Yannick Tremblay should be enough to hold the fort down for the time being.

An injury to your #1 goalie is always a concern, but Luongo has not had any previous injury troubles and seemed to do fine playing 70+ games in Florida. A possible solution for this problem is making Cory Schneider our backup this year and hope he learns enough in time before (if and when) Luongo goes down. The NW division is a lot tougher than the SE, but Luongo should not have trouble playing as much as Kiprusoff.

Andrew Cassels has retired. He is listed as an UFA but I don't think he'd be drawing interest anytime soon. He's old and slow. He's no use to any team (I hope) anymore. I can't see any team signing him for more than 600k, if he does sign.

Linden is not the PKer he once was. He's no longer my first choice on the PK. When the Sedins played the PK last year they did an outstanding job and I think they could be our first PK unit. I don't see Linden averaging more than 10-12 minutes per game, even with regular shifts on the checking lines and PK.

[Nucksfan10]

The canucks got rid of cassels a while ago and his numbers somewhat ok, his injuries were one reason they wouldn't take him back. Everyone thought amonte was gonna be good for calgary but his back problems still nagged at him, buyer beware. At least we know what we are dealing with at this point. OH and a quick funny note, a lady came into my store....I work at Jersey City in surrey, and she was sorta shocked and said this...."Did pavel bure sign a one year deal with the canucks? My husband heard on 1040 that he was going to sign." I had to politely tell her that no, he won't be gracing a canucks uni again and that his knees are shot and van would never take him back anyways. I told her it was probably a joke or something. Funny story, i dunno.

[MarkMM]

Agree with jchockey about the defense. Yeah, it's making me nervous, but Krajicek and Bourdon both have the ability, it's a risk with rookies like Bourdon but from what I saw at the WJC and some junior games (and remember that he almost made the team out of camp last year) he can do it, and do it well. Ohlund also can be mobile, Salo's not a bad skater, so we're not bad off. If Edler comes along well, perhaps he can be brought up.

If Luongo gets hurt, we're in big trouble, especially without Noronen (who had starter upside), but that's the same with any franchise team. We just put our best player at our most important position, that's the key to our improvement, but that also makes us especially dependent, no way around it. If New Jersey lost Brodeur, or Colorado Roy during their run...

Linden I actually think will come back better in all aspects of his game, just because he's a year closer to retirement with something to prove, a fresh start with a coach who won't pigeon-hole him and no NHLPA nonsense to worry about. That said, I hope he gets a bit of a break on that so that he can be used in more 5 on 5 and get that rhythm back. We have the emergence of the Sedins as PK'ers, Chouinard can also do it, Kesler a year more experienced, and maybe Pyatt/Bulis can, they're both defensively responsible.

[kingofrockstars]

Taking a chance with Cassels would almost certainly end up like the Weinrich experiment.