Nonis: 2006 Olympic Panic

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Southern_Canuck
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Nonis: 2006 Olympic Panic

Post by Southern_Canuck »

Remember the 2006 trade deadline?

Cloutier was done with a leg/groin inury early, Jovanovski was out for most of the season with an abdominal tear, and the Olympics resulted in Salo getting a shoulder injury and Ohlund injuring his ribs.

Nonis made a bunch of much-maligned trades at the deadline - but I was wondering if any of those picks resulted in NHL players...?

Well he kept the 1st round pick (14): (draft was in Vancouver) - Michael Grabner

2nd round (38): Nonis had acquired the NYI pick in 2005 for Sopel, but traded it for Keith Carney at the deadline. Pick ended up being Bryce Swan - 25 years old, and no NHL games
2nd round (46): Nonis traded for Mika Noronen - pick was Jhonas Enroth - 53 NHL games as Miller backup

Milan Lucic went 50th

3rd round (77): Nonis traded for Eric Weinrich - pick was Vladimir Zharkov - 82 NHL games, back to KHL
4th round (107): Nonis traded for Sean Brown - pick was Tyler Miller - 26 years old, no NHL games
5th round (137): Nonis had already traded this pick for goaltending help earlier in the season: Maxime Ouellet - pick was Tomas Zaborsky - 25 years old, no NHL games and playing in KHL

Only Enroth has made any sort of mark at the NHL level - however, the Canucks would have had a chance at drafting Lucic (assuming they were interested) if the had kept at least one of the 2nd round picks.

S_C
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Jovocop
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Re: Nonis: 2006 Olympic Panic

Post by Jovocop »

It is very hard to figure out what could have or should have done. Those players who have played zero NHL games might have a chance with the Canucks or None might have picked other players. At the end of the day, the truth is the players that Nonis traded for did not bring back any value. They did not help the Canucks in any meaningful way. I considered those trades were losses for the Canucks.
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Todd Bersnoozi
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Re: Nonis: 2006 Olympic Panic

Post by Todd Bersnoozi »

Thanx for the post SC. I was trying to remember exactly what happened that year as I know we had the WCE and the Sedin/Carter lines going. I think we had Linden and Cooke along with a young Kes, Burr and Bieksa breaking in as well. Up front, this team was pretty sweet. I know our defence was decimated with injuries and Clouts was questionable, but couldn't remember why. I knew Jovo was banged up a bit and u bringing up the olympics with Ohlund and Salo getting injured refreshed my memory. Of all the teams that allowed their players to participate in the olympics, Nonis definately paid the biggest price by losing 2 of his top D-men in Salo and Ohlund. Along with having Jovo out, it just killed him. If that team could of stayed healthy, it had the potential to be a serious dark horse team that could surprise a lot of ppl and make a nice run. That was why Nonis was desperate to make the playoffs and he was willing to trade alot of his picks just to try to get them in. Unfortunately, it wasn't enuff. If I were him, I probably would of done the same thing.

He treated his picks like toilet paper in acquiring the likes of Carney, Noranen and Weinrich. I'm glad none of those picks directly resulted in a top player. It would make Nonis look super bad. Yeah, but if he could of landed Lucic with one of those 2nd rounders, it would of been SWEET! Imagine getting Grabner and Lucic in one year. :|

The year after, Carter and Jovo signed deals elsewhere. He lost Bert in the Lou deal and brings in Willie. The team wasn't really built to run and gun anymore and had the ingredients of more of a tight defensive checking team. The team had to be more defensive until they could bring in/develop better offensive players. He lets go of long time high flying offensive minded Coach Crawford and brings in AV's defensive system. Thus, we get a couple years of defensive minded hockey in Vancouver. In time as the young players with the Canucks develops, Gillis comes in at just about the right time to bring in a more offensive/possession brand of hockey cuz he has the players that could play that style successfully now. Had to slip that in there. *hehe*
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Meds
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Re: Nonis: 2006 Olympic Panic

Post by Meds »

Nonis made the same mistake that several other GM's made. He tried building a pre-lockout team in a post-lockout world. The league had just missed an entire season and came back vowing to increase offense and do away with the clutch and grab play that was the signature of the dead puck era. So Nonis jumps into the driver's seat and brings in a bunch of offensively stunted players who excel at grinding it out in the defensive zone. They were all first team all-stars when it came to clutching and grabbing and taking penalties because they were too slow and used to a different game.

Sutter did the same thing with Calgary, the difference was that Aquaman fired Nonis a lot sooner than Calgary's ownership finally pulled the trigger.
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