2025-26 OOTS: Playoffs Edition

[Meds]

Well, whether you were motivated by draft position or jilted love, almost everyone here got what they wanted.

(A few neutral exceptions).

[Nuckertuzzi]

What'll piss us off will be if they can get Edvinsson out of Detroit for him

I don't know man, I really like Zeev. Barely 20, I think we're underrating his potential.

[Megaterio Llamas]

What'll piss us off will be if they can get Edvinsson out of Detroit for him

I don't know man, I really like Zeev. Barely 20, I think we're underrating his potential.

Yeah, I think I'd rather have Zeev than another Swede.

[Carl Yagro]

Oh, you don't think there's going to be more Swedes incoming now that there's only enough budget for continuity of agenda?

[Cousin Strawberry]

6'6 220 lb physical 2 way defensemen don't grow on trees like 6'185 lbers do

[Nuckertuzzi]

Smurfs doin' pretty well in these playoffs. Hughes, Marner, Hutson, Blake, Stankoven, Benson,....

[theman]

It’s a glorious morning. Canucks pick will be 24th unless Anaheim knock out Vegas.

[Megaterio Llamas]

The last time a big defenseman won the Norris Trophy was Victor Hedman in 2018.

Yeah, I still like Zeev.

[Cousin Strawberry]

To my red and itchy eyes Ze'ev is closer to becoming a Ghostbear 2/3 than a Quinn Hughes or that Cole guy in Montreal though. He has shown some razzle dazzle but so did the Ghostie at that age

[UWSaint]

To my red and itchy eyes Ze'ev is closer to becoming a Ghostbear 2/3 than a Quinn Hughes or that Cole guy in Montreal though. He has shown some razzle dazzle but so did the Ghostie at that age

I agree that Ghost is a very good comp for a Buium who doesn't develop defensively. That's a #1 PP QB, that's a guy you like when you are behind, and its a guy that you can't trust with big minutes, shelter in the third with a lead, etc.

But it is *so* early in his career. If he was born a 4 weeks later, he'd be U20 age this season. It is very unusual for any defenseman to look like a complete player at this age. Schaeffer's a comparative freak. Even with the up and downs of this season, have Levshunov, Yakemchuk, Parekh, Dickinson, Silayev--defensemen drafted above him--shown more to like or less to dislike? All but Silayev have seen NHL action, all have disappointed any fan base who thought they'd come fully developed. (Only Cole Hutson and Harrison Brunicke were drafted after Buium and seen NHL ice).

Don't get me wrong -- Buium's deficits were far greater than I imagined them to be. In all the years I've been following the Canucks, I can think of only one hyped defensemen who played a full season in draft year plus 1 -- Quinn Hughes. Hughes's deficits were in the same area of the game (physicality down low, angles + gap, half court d-zone positioning), though not as severe. Hughes was manhandled by power forwards his first two seasons; Buium was manhandled by "forwards" all year..... But Hughes didn't have the frame where "add man strength" was necessarily going to take care of that problem; Buium probably does.

As I posted in another thread, Buium entered this last season as between the second and fourth or fifth best defensive prospect in the world (Schaeffer the consensus #1). Everybody's list. This season didn't fulfill the most optimistic vision of what he could do now, but it also didn't show those projections were foolish. He's got every bit of the "future" as he had then. Though might turn out to be Ghost.... Which was also the case then.

[Cousin Strawberry]

I agree on it being way early but just wanted to temper expectations a tad. As a 20 year old he still has 4+ years of improvements to make before he will round into his potential

[Lancer]

We'll get our chance to see them draft a bigger body Dman in June. The top blueline prospects all have some beef or the frame to add beef until you hit Ryan Lin.

As others have said, the smurfs haven't done too bad this playoffs. That said, you look at the Minny-Colorado series and fair to say they would have man-handled any team that didn't have a fair amount of beefy trees in the lineup to compliment the smurfs.