Canucks News N Notes 2020-2021

[theman]

The cheap backup for Demko in 1-2 years is Dipietro. Hopefully not for another 2 years as I think he needs all the time he can get developing in the minors.

Could be even better. After this season I doubt the Canucks goaltending will cost anymore than 5 million in total.

Just looking at it now, after this season, the Canucks really are in a much better position cap wise.

[Mickey107]

Still need some sand paper on the backend. Someone that can make accountability into fear. Crush our forwards and I'll crush yours harder.
That's not slow, aging, chubby, Benn. The heart is there but too many carbs and not enough protein.
Actually, we need a guy like that up front too that is not named Roussel.
Not thinking of all out goon hockey like the days of yore and definitely not a paid tough guy that can't do anything else.
Something lake a modern day Jovanovski, that's all.

Wonder if Jake Virtanen "will" get the chance to be one of these type players. Wonder if he ever can play up to his potential. Times moving along.

[Curmudgeon]

Still hoping the Canucks make a play for Cernak. LTIR Ferland, sending both Erksson and Baertschi down, maybe Sutter too, and cash could be there. Offer Rafferty straight up before tendering an offer.

Back to Schmidt and the comings and goings, as much as I think it's a clear upgrade and better than re-upping Tanev at what the Flames paid out, Tanev was a fine player and loyal soldier who sacrificed bigly for this team and there's a fine line between acknowledging the upgrade and denigrating the loyal soldier who rightfully moved on in the best interest of himself and coincidentally the Canucks. People here get it but it will be interesting to see if others cross that line on social media or other fan boards. Hopefully that's not the case.

[Lancer]

Good pickup by Benning. Wish Schmidt was 27 instead of 29 considering his contract and age of the core, but the acquisition cost is pretty sweet. Like UWS pointed out, I don't think Benning wanted to be hemmed-in by term and NMCs - which is what Markstrom and Tanev wanted in the end. With that, and a flat cap, in mind this was about as good a deal as he could have gotten to fill a top-4 hole.

People bitching about Benning letting Toffoli go after what he gave up in trade need to recall that that trade was made before COVID kicked the league out of whack. Without the pandemic, the flat cap and internal revenue struggles, I have little doubt that Benning would have been happy to re-sign Toffoli at a similar deal to what he got in Montreal. Toffoli is a COVID casualty for the club.

While I'm not expecting anything dramatic from the youngsters likely to fill in the rest of the cracks in the roster, I anticipate that they'll fill those depth holes sufficiently that the team won't take too much of a step backwards.

I suspect we've seen the big drama for the team this offseason, barring the Virtanen arbitration and Gaudette signing.

Toffoli was a casualty of the lousy contracts on the books and the luongo re-capture penalty. In retrospect it was an expensive rental and a waste of assets. Toffoli is the type of player a team adds when you're trying to win a cup, but the Canucks traded for him to help just make the playoffs. We can say now with clarity it was another dumb Benning move. Full stop.

No COVID, no flat cap. No flat cap, no cap pressure - even with the dead cap space. No cap pressure, Benning signs Toffoli - even at that price and term.

Losing Toffoli after what he was able to do in the top-6 hurts, but at the time of acquisition wasn't a dumb move - especially considering how far the club made it.

What are you, some woke history revisionist??

[UWSaint]

Next season with Sutter, Pearson, Edler, Benn and Baertschi coming off that is roughly $19.5M (if my math is right) - QH and EP will go from $2M combined to $16M+ combined. They still have to replace the 5 that are leaving.

I know JB can do it but we should expect to see a cheap 4th line consisting of players make league minimum.

First, you don't need to replace Baertschi. He's not in the lineup now.

Second, not overspending on a fourth line would be an improvement, wouldn't it?

Third, the next couple of seasons will see a flood of RFAs who don't get QOs because of the flat cap. These players are going to be going for $1M or less. Guys like Wallmark will be available and be as valuable as Sutter; there are lots of bottom pair/7 defensmen who will be avalable who will be as good as Benn. And for those two spots, you will be using the ELC money to pay for them.

That leaves two spots -- a top 6 wing and a top 4 or top 6 D (depending on whether a youngster exceeds expectations). The estimate of $8 million per Pettersson and Hughes would leave $4.5 million. Of course, that is an estimate -- the AAV can be lower (if the Canucks want to focus on the next 5 seasons and pay less now and risk a huge contract or leaving as UFAs) or higher (if the Canucks want to lock up and focus on years 4-8). It also depends on the ability to move another salary or have a retirement.

I think that it is pretty clear that the Canucks would benefit enormously from an ELC contract to take one of these spots, whether its defense or forward. The Canucks will have plenty of candidates that could step up; its possible that none will. But this isn't a problem with the current plan (which only can improve when bad contracts are eliminated). It is a reality for nearly every NHL team unless their construction is otherwise flawless and aided by "discounts". If you can't get contributions from controlled market salaries or great no-one-saw-that-coming signings, you don't have a marginal edge on anyone. For example, this season, Tampa's defense relied on Sergachev and Cernak, Cirelli was a real regular season contributor, and the Bolts were helped significantly by Coleman who was on a ridiculously good contract compared to his on ice value. Dallas needed Hintz and Gurianov to round out their forward corps, and got surprising productivity in the playoffs from Kiviranta. The Knights might be the exception, and outside of a redundant goalie situation, they've been constructed without fat in contracts and without significant underperformers. (That's good for them because until now, they really haven't had a realistic chance to improve through their picks because they still don't have a full contingency of mature drafted prospects -- that will take another year or two).

The Canucks aren't an exception to the rule -- they have plenty of fat in terms of bad contracts, buyouts, and the recapture penalty. The good news is that goes away more or less as these high value ELC's go away. But going forward, if the Canucks don't get something really good from one or two of Juolevi, Woo, Rathbone, Lind, Rafferty, Hoglander, Pod, etc., then it is quite likely that they won't make it to the highest level of Cup contention. But this is a reality for all teams is that you can only have so many salaries that are part of a core, and that if those salaries cover UFA periods or poorly negotiated, then they are going to need controlled market salaries or below market signings to provide value-plus.

[Mickey107]

Just finished listening to Nate Schmidt's press conference on 650am local radio. Was almost 30 min. Sure it will be available later. in a better format.

"He is a very dynamic individual" This will be a fun ride,
He's OK now but he was in denial for a while. It hurt.

Here's a twitter version of the chat;; https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1316101197107929089

A little better___ https://www.nhl.com/canucks/video/news- ... /c-6818235

A few parts;
from Nate Schmidt;

Brendan Batchelor@BatchHockey
“It’s been something I’ve been extremely comfortable with.” - Nate Schmidt played the right side as a left shot
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“You know that with Pietrangelo coming in, that there had to be something, something had to give.”
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“Vancouver’s been my favourite place to come visit on the road...always a buzz around the rink...passionate fan base”
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My future two minute pre-game interviews with Nate Schmidt will be one question. This guy can talk. --BB
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“Be rock solid, keep my feet moving, eat a couple of pucks for dinner.” - Nate Schmidt on what he has to do to succeed
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“He’s a good egg” - Nate Schmidt on Brock Boeser
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Nate Schmidt cites Vancouver’s “awesome” Christmas market as something he loves about the city. Says he buys his mom an ornament there every year.
1:02 PM · Oct 13, 2020

[Cornuck]

#Canucks sign defenceman Ashton Sautner to a one-year, two way contract.

The contract details were not released, but the deal is likely for the league minimum of $700K at the NHL level.

[Strangelove]

#Canucks sign defenceman Ashton Sautner to a one-year, two way contract.

The contract details were not released, but the deal is likely for the league minimum of $700K at the NHL level.

It's a shame Blobby isn't around to take a dump on Sautner.

[Cousin Strawberry]

Today I listened to hours of moaning and groaning from the calgary and edmonton radio stations about how lucky Van is to have stolen Schmidt. This is widely regarded as thievery and Jimmy is now considered one of the elite team builders in the same class as Sakic and Yzerman.

These are neutral hockey critics and notable analysts from around the NHL folks.

So no more bitching...

[Chef Boi RD]

Jimmy is now considered one of the elite team builders in the same class as Sakic and Yzerman.

This isn’t news to the likes of Doc and I. But then again we’ve always been 1-2 years ahead of everybody

[Chef Boi RD]

#Canucks sign defenceman Ashton Sautner to a one-year, two way contract.

The contract details were not released, but the deal is likely for the league minimum of $700K at the NHL level.

It's a shame Blobby isn't around to take a dump on Sautner.

Doyle has been taking a lot of shits lately and they are the size of bricks

[Topper]

Jimmy is now considered one of the elite team builders in the same class as Sakic and Yzerman.

This isn’t news to the likes of Doc and I. But then again we’ve always been 1-2 years ahead of everybody

I'm laughing at people who are now waking up to follow expiring contracts. Doc and I were discussing it when the Genius began his rebuildtool and everyone was arguing semantics

[Strangelove]

Though we know it's unlikely to ever happen... Jake's arbitration hearing is set for Oct. 28, according to Friedman.

[Strangelove]

Jimmy is now considered one of the elite team builders in the same class as Sakic and Yzerman.

This isn’t news to the likes of Doc and I. But then again we’ve always been 1-2 years ahead of everybody

I'm laughing at people who are now waking up to follow expiring contracts. Doc and I were discussing it when the Genius began his rebuildtool and everyone was arguing semantics

All this while the smell of dirty diapers wafted throughout this forum.

[Cousin Strawberry]

Though we know it's unlikely to ever happen... Jake's arbitration hearing is set for Oct. 28, according to Friedman.

What is the expectation with Jake? Signed for cheap or traded?