Brian Burke's a Lucky Man in Anaheim

[*CanucksForLife*]

It's Luck. If he couldn't do all these signing with no salary cap, how can he do them with a cap? He's getting lucky that he's getting all these free agents at teh right time. One player leads to another. If you sign a big name, more big names will want to come and join your team until you turn into the Wings where you have all the all-stars.

[DavidPratt_]

Didn't Hansen a 9th round pick score last night ?. Mason was a 2nd round was he not as were Vincent and Ellis Plante. Koltsov is a 2nd round pick. You can't blame the the scout if the players don't sign He just identifies the talent

Delorme has done a solid job as Chief Scout since he replaced Mike Penney. Delorme has unearthed some decent talent where the Canucks' drafting position was a lot worse than when Penney was drafting (a lot higher).

One thing that does concern me is that Nonis traded a lot of early draft picks last season (Carney, Weinrich deals). In a salary-cap driven league, having cheap young talent around is crucial.

dp

[the Cunning Linguist]

Didn't Hansen a 9th round pick score last night ?. Mason was a 2nd round was he not as were Vincent and Ellis Plante. Koltsov is a 2nd round pick. You can't blame the the scout if the players don't sign He just identifies the talent

Delorme has done a solid job as Chief Scout since he replaced Mike Penney. Delorme has unearthed some decent talent where the Canucks' drafting position was a lot worse than when Penney was drafting (a lot higher).

One thing that does concern me is that Nonis traded a lot of early draft picks last season (Carney, Weinrich deals). In a salary-cap driven league, having cheap young talent around is crucial.

dp

Jannik Hansen, Daniel Rahimi, Alexander Edler... those guys were recommended by their Euro scout, Thomas Gradin. I don't think Delorme had much of a hand in that...

EDIT: http://hockeysfuture.com/article.php?sid=8927

Daniel Rahimi, D
82nd overall – Bjorkloven (Sweden)
6’3, 200
Birthdate: 04/28/1987

Two years ago, the Canucks turned heads on draft day by selecting a little-known defenseman from Northern Sweden. The Canucks did the same thing with the draft in GM Place, selecting an unknown defensive prospect from Sweden. While the team went for a big offensive blueliner last time, Swedish scout Thomas Gradin has found almost the polar opposite in Rahimi, a big, almost purely defensive, defenseman. The Canucks are very impressed with his leadership skills and said that they believe he has a chance at being a leader on the Swedish World Junior team. He is not a risky type of player, and the team felt that it was necessary to use a high pick on Rahimi, despite having limited viewing of him outside of Gradin and that he was eligible to be taken in last year’s draft.

Delorme on Rahimi: “Thomas Gradin was more of an influence on us taking him because he had seen this kid a lot more viewings than we did. I saw him once there in St. Petersburg and I was very happy to see the size and his mobility. He plays pretty much a pretty safe game. There’s nothing great in any one area, but he’s 6’3 and the chances are pretty good that he’s going to make the World Junior team next year for Sweden.â€￾

Swedish Scout Thomas Gradin: “He for sure has the upside to do that (be a top four defenseman). That’s sort of hard to tell though. As a kid, he’s not really a kid in that meaning, he’s a grown up person for being at that young age. You don’t really need to put a lot more muscle on this guy because he’s not a slim guy, but he skates well enough to play in this league, the new National Hockey League as they say. So the only thing that he might, that he will not do as of today is chip in on the PP. On the other hand you need to have the guys who play the penalty kill too. That’s how I see him anyhow today.â€￾

Alexander Edler
3rd Round - 91st Overall
Defence - 6’3" - 194lbs
Club: Jamtland (SWE Jr.)
Born: Ostersund, Sweden - 04/21/86

The Canucks didn't initially have a second round pick after trading the 61st spot to the Penguins for Johan Hedberg last August, but Thomas Gradin urged Nonis to trade up for the 91st slot to get a little-known defender playing in a third-tier league in Northern Sweden named Alexander Edler.

"Thomas saw him and had a gut feeling for him. And we have enough faith in our scouts to rely on their judgment."

According to Delorme, Gradin got a call last year from a friend who said, "You have to come and see this kid play." Gradin took a lengthy train ride north and spent four hours in a cramped arena waiting to see Edler. When he finally did get a look, Gradin wasn't disappointed.

"We rank prospects according to specific categories," says Delorme. "And this kid filled the offense category, the defense category, the powerplay, penalty kill and the compete category. Those are some pretty good credentials. There aren't that many kids in this draft who filled the categories like that."

The opportunity to pick Edler cost the Canucks their third round pick next year, but it proved a worthwhile move. The Detroit Red Wings were one of only four other teams to scout the 6-foot-3, 194-pound defender and it's likely they had Edler in their sights with the 97th pick.

Edler has agreed to play for MODO in the senior league next season.

[Fred]

Hey just like every other mnagment team, and we all fall in to a similar pattern. You can't watch every game from every league in every country, but dollars to doughnuts any perspective pick will have been watched and agreed to byD elorme. It's clearly naive to believe Delorme only covers vancouver and Burnaby. He travels to Europe frequently to watch the player recommeneded by HIS staff.

I like Gradin too but it's not his ass on the line when a slection is made, he knows it and Delorme knows it. What is quite evident is if Gradin was the walking genius you make him out to be both Burke and DN would have made him the head scout. I like Gradin probably more than most but lets be honest all the scouts looked at Ohlund the Sedins and every other European, not just Gradin. An organisiation with the money at risk simply owuld not permit that. The essential ability for a successful team of scouts is to pull it together, they don't shoot off and do their own thing, it would be coroprate suicide.

Burke appointed Delorme for good reason and DN concured

[DavidPratt_]

Hey just like every other mnagment team, and we all fall in to a similar pattern. You can't watch every game from every league in every country, but dollars to doughnuts any perspective pick will have been watched and agreed to byD elorme. It's clearly naive to believe Delorme only covers vancouver and Burnaby. He travels to Europe frequently to watch the player recommeneded by HIS staff.

Burke appointed Delorme for good reason and DN concured

Ron Delorme is absolutely fine as a Chief Scout. If you look at where the Canucks have drafted the past five years (outside of the lucky draft order where Bourdon was drafted) he has done a decent job. I wasn't a fan of Mason Raymond - too much of a long shot based on his size but I do believe that Vancouver needs to quit trading away early draft picks and they need to ensure that they have good coaching in Manitoba and even in Victoria to ensure that players develop well after they get drafted.

dp

[Fred]

I wasn't a fan of Mason Raymond

apparently Kevin Lowe went out of his way to compliment DN on the selection of this guy & when i spoke to Delorme he told me he wa basically a new age NHL type, skill oozing from every porse nad the ability to use at top speed. But yes he does need extra weight and I think we tend to look at ourselves and say, that shouldn't be a problem but for some it actually is

[DavidPratt_]

I wasn't a fan of Mason Raymond

apparently Kevin Lowe went out of his way to compliment DN on the selection of this guy & when i spoke to Delorme he told me he wa basically a new age NHL type, skill oozing from every porse nad the ability to use at top speed. But yes he does need extra weight and I think we tend to look at ourselves and say, that shouldn't be a problem but for some it actually is

He was more of a gamble pick. He really needs to fill out and add some muscle onto his frame because he'll get killed in the NHL. He's too skinny right now. Skill-wise, yes I agree.

dp

[SRsez]

not one but TWO excellent goalies in Giguere and Bryzgalov.

:roll:

That's a bit much. Giguere is excellence on par with Cloutier. Bryzgalov still remains to be seen.

Neither is on level with Luongo, much less Brodeur, who remains the standard for exellence.

[DavidPratt_]

not one but TWO excellent goalies in Giguere and Bryzgalov.

:roll:

That's a bit much. Giguere is excellence on par with Cloutier. Bryzgalov still remains to be seen.

Neither is on level with Luongo, much less Brodeur, who remains the standard for exellence.

I agree that neither one is a superstar, but come on! Who would you rather have? Cloutier/Auld (what Burke had in Vancouver) or Giguere/Bryzgalov??

dp

[*CanucksForLife*]

I agree that neither one is a superstar, but come on! Who would you rather have? Cloutier/Auld (what Burke had in Vancouver) or Giguere/Bryzgalov??

Prety obvious there. Giguere has been solid for the majority of his carrer and Bryzgalov is quite a young keeper that is still yet to buuild up but still an excellent backup.

[SRsez]

I agree that neither one is a superstar, but come on! Who would you rather have? Cloutier/Auld (what Burke had in Vancouver) or Giguere/Bryzgalov??

Prety obvious there. Giguere has been solid for the majority of his carrer and Bryzgalov is quite a young keeper that is still yet to buuild up but still an excellent backup.

No, it's not even close to "pretty obvious". Maybe "pretty obvious" to someone who obviously doesn't know very much.

As I pointed out, in a Cloutier/Giguere battle, it would appear that other than his uncanny ability to get hurt at precisely the wrong time, the winner would be Cloutier.

And Bryzgalov/Auld? I certainly wouldn't throw over a guy that's actually won 33 games in a season for a guy that's only played 33 games total, especially when Auld's younger, and their careers have taken place over the exact same time frame. One flukey playoff run doesn't prove a damned thing. They lost to Edmonton, remember?

So I guess the only logical answer to Dave's question is:Cloutier/Auld.

[Farhan Lalji]

I

Brian Burke: genius or very lucky guy in Anaheim?

dp

Combination of both. Yeah, Burke walked into a great situation, but he also created a lot of it. Getting Nieds and Pronger was a stroke of genius. The assets from the Sergei Fedorov trade also proved to be valuable.

As far as Brizgalov and Giguerre go, I'd actually consider moving Brizgalov at the trade deadline instead of Giguerre (if I was Burke).

-Brizgalov will probably have higher trade value
-Giguerre is a proven playoff perfomer. Think 200304.

To me, Brizgalov showed major signs of flakiness last season in the playoffs. Cherry pointed this out as well.

If the Ducks got a top line center or winger for Brizgalov, and Giguerre went back to his old form, the Ducks would be almost unbeatable come playoff time IMHO.