Hockey Widow wrote: HW's quote
I totally agree with you that it's ideal to keep both but a very difficult task. I am hoping that's the management's top priority to massage the number and see what's available.
For the forwards I think having the two goalies will make Canucks an even more attractive place for FA to sign a little less to play for the cup. I personally think Mason Raymond still can be brought back on a 2nd or 3rd line basis for much cheaper (struggles a lot this year but I like to think he is still recovering), probably at the price of a 3rd liner or 4th liner plus he is familiar with the system. Though Manny is expensive for what he does but faceoff specialist during PK is crucial, especially when our offense is not clicking.
On D I actually also feel that our current D is solid, not great, but with two great goalies I think that's alright. I am one of the few that's against signing one stud D like Weber since it will cripple our ability to have a better overall team. Using Weber, which many wants, at $7-7.5 million, that's nearly enough for resigning Cory and keeping Ballard. I much prefer that than having Weber. Again, just a thought.
Cory and Lu shares the load.
It's very similar to what we have this year but I think the problem this year has been that a lot of players are still adjusting to each other due to being new, conditioning, recovering from injuries and AV favoritism and the likes, ie Booth, Ballard, Kesler, Raymond, Tanev, MAG, Kassaian. So hopefully we can allow everyone to gel and try one more time with the same core. I definitely don't think we need to blow everything up but a coaching change might be required since AV is becoming predictable to other teams. So assuming Cory signs for around 2 yrs at 3 each and cap doesn't go up (which I think it will) we have around $6 million to sign 2 top 9 forward, 1 3rd pairing d, and a few pluggers or a couple space for prospects to play. I think that's very doable.