Canucks Young Guns

[Blob Mckenzie]

Who cares about pooalot, he's not an enforcer.

Pittsburgh is delighted with $4M Gudbranson and they know a thing or two about playoffs.

Admit it, you would have loved the Guds at $2M.

I have been dying to post something similar about the Guds. I'm just too busy for the whining more likely than not to ensue. As bad as the Guds was on paper I'd trade 2x Tanner Pearson for him back. An a good team he is a real tangible asset.

Blaming EG for our shitty team defense is like blaming the janitor for sinking the titanic. With Travis Green giving a season pass to Pouliot I find it comical that everyone piled on EG as the reason for our troubles.

I have no problem if Gudbranson is making 1.5 -2 million which is what he should be paid. Playing 14-15 minutes on a deep team, he’d be a luxury. A team that had a legit top 4 where all the other guys could move the puck because that is something he is inept at doing,

This team needs to build a good core and add the secondary pieces later as you can afford them. Similar to the Sutter move the Gudbranson trade made no sense. Giving away solid assets for secondary pieces.

Once Letang is back Guddys icetime will be slashed back big time. Wow what do know a top team is carrying a weak player and he doesn’t look so horrible anymore. I hope he does well there because he could give them some physical pushback against Wilson.
He made no sense at that price point on this team where it’s at in its rebuild. They need to improve the defence and the overall talent level and speed. He does none of that.

[rikster]

Guds was a deterrent. He could well have been more of one but either he was reluctant to be or had a collar.
When the trade came down, my first impression was a sinking feeling and an Ah Fuck, Why? For what?......... Still is.
His mobility was in question and he seemed confused on his defensive positioning. Didn't seem too interested in an offensive side to his game
at all.
Not sure if his skating could have improved. I would guess yes, with the right help.
As for the rest of it, fear of doing the wrong thing and having his ice-time cut back comes to mind, at least mine.

I don't think in today's NHL a deterrent can be a single player...

The Oilers have complained all season long about McDavid being mugged and they have Lucic on their team...

And rather than deterrent I see it more that with some "protection" in the lineup the team as a whole will play a more physical and aggressive game...

When I watch Gudbranson play in Pittsburg, I notice right away how much bigger of a team they are than Vancouver is ...

Whether it be that they are in a fight for a playoff spot or maybe its because of the addition of Gudbranson and Bjugstad, but they seem to be playing a more aggressive game ...

Take care...

[Cousin Strawberry]

Niskanen is also hurt but I'm coming round with it being more to do with cap hit than having a place in the lineup. He ideally wouldve been on the bottom pair to be the most effective unless you're playing the dirtier teams.

What do people think of Pearsons game in van? I cant really tell what we have there. He has good wheels and is getting in on the net but looks pretty unsure of things. Whats that all about?

[Blob Mckenzie]

Pearson has good wheels? Yikes he moves like a glacier out there

[Cousin Strawberry]

I dont see that. He might not blaze but hes not sedining behind the play or anything.

[rikster]

He made no sense at that price point on this team where it’s at in its rebuild. They need to improve the defence and the overall talent level and speed. He does none of that

Why are you worried about the contract at this point in the teams evolution?

Rather than looking at the glass half empty, I see it as half full and am thankful that ownership is willing to spend even though the team is struggling...

And when it needs to worry about cap ceilings, the Gudbranson contract will not be an issue...

Never got the negativity around his play while the "favorites" seemed immune to the same degree of scrutiny...There seems to be a parrot on the loose in Vancouver and now those same "haters" are contorting themselves looking for excuses for his good play in Pittsburg...

If it is true that Benning caved to "some fans and media's" negativity towards him, that would be one of the few Benning moves that I have a big issue with...

Take care...

[Cherry Picker]

Guds was a deterrent. He could well have been more of one but either he was reluctant to be or had a collar.
When the trade came down, my first impression was a sinking feeling and an Ah Fuck, Why? For what?......... Still is.
His mobility was in question and he seemed confused on his defensive positioning. Didn't seem too interested in an offensive side to his game
at all.
Not sure if his skating could have improved. I would guess yes, with the right help.
As for the rest of it, fear of doing the wrong thing and having his ice-time cut back comes to mind, at least mine.

I don't think in today's NHL a deterrent can be a single player...

The Oilers have complained all season long about McDavid being mugged and they have Lucic on their team...

And rather than deterrent I see it more that with some "protection" in the lineup the team as a whole will play a more physical and aggressive game...

When I watch Gudbranson play in Pittsburg, I notice right away how much bigger of a team they are than Vancouver is ...

Whether it be that they are in a fight for a playoff spot or maybe its because of the addition of Gudbranson and Bjugstad, but they seem to be playing a more aggressive game ...

Take care...

I don't care about this "new NHL" BS, you will always need a guy who might just snap at any given moment and lay a beat down on someone. That just keep other teams from pinning their ears back and running all the skill players, as we saw last game. You can see how the 4th line in Vegas just toyed with the Canucks. That's why I wanted Reeves signed as a FA last summer. The Canucks need to find someone to take that job over this summer or at least give MacEwen a spot in the line-up with limited minutes and run him out there 5 minutes a game against other 4th lines if he can't keep up defensively right away. You can drop Granlund, Eriksson, Goldobin, Spooner, and Schaller to find him a spot. I still think pairing Gudbranson with a speedster like Hughes would have made a lot of Gudbranson's warts disappear. Pairing him with average at best skaters like Edler, Hutton, or Pouliot was a recipe for trouble.

[Blob Mckenzie]

He made no sense at that price point on this team where it’s at in its rebuild. They need to improve the defence and the overall talent level and speed. He does none of that

Why are you worried about the contract at this point in the teams evolution?

Rather than looking at the glass half empty, I see it as half full and am thankful that ownership is willing to spend even though the team is struggling...

And when it needs to worry about cap ceilings, the Gudbranson contract will not be an issue...

Never got the negativity around his play while the "favorites" seemed immune to the same degree of scrutiny...There seems to be a parrot on the loose in Vancouver and now those same "haters" are contorting themselves looking for excuses for his good play in Pittsburg...

If it is true that Benning caved to "some fans and media's" negativity towards him, that would be one of the few Benning moves that I have a big issue with...

Take care...

A lovely story. When you add up the contracts of Eriksson, Sutter, Gudbranson, Beagle, Spooner, Pearson of dead cap space that could probably be replaced with 8-10 million worth of players . Leaving Elmer with 15 million to spend on a good player or two. Not to mention the couple extra picks he could have just kept.

Cap management is part of being a decent manager. I can’t imagine Aquilini is thrilled with some of these millstone contracts. Getting actual good players stead of junk collecting could speed up the rebuild.

Who cares about “favourites” and “haters”. Everyone has their own of both. Hell there were people on this board saying Luca Sbisa was a good top 4 d man. Gudbranson seems like a decent guy. He’s a poor fit here with the current construction of the team

[Mickey107]

He made no sense at that price point on this team where it’s at in its rebuild. They need to improve the defence and the overall talent level and speed. He does none of that

Why are you worried about the contract at this point in the teams evolution?

Rather than looking at the glass half empty, I see it as half full and am thankful that ownership is willing to spend even though the team is struggling...

And when it needs to worry about cap ceilings, the Gudbranson contract will not be an issue...

Never got the negativity around his play while the "favorites" seemed immune to the same degree of scrutiny...There seems to be a parrot on the loose in Vancouver and now those same "haters" are contorting themselves looking for excuses for his good play in Pittsburg...

If it is true that Benning caved to "some fans and media's" negativity towards him, that would be one of the few Benning moves that I have a big issue with...

Take care...

Who's The Boss;



The size is indicative of my opinion at this point.

[Ronning's Ghost]

It's not usually about "exacting retribution".

Most players wouldn't dare drop the gloves with Mr Gudbranson.

That doesn't mean the so-called "deterrent factor" isn't a thing.

Sure it didn't deter that particular player on that particular play

... but it remains "a factor".

Teams size up other teams and when they see a certain level of pussiness they take more liberties.

When they see a reasonable level of assholishness, they tend to take less liberties.

Guds was a deterrent. He could well have been more of one but either he was reluctant to be or had a collar.

I don't think in today's NHL a deterrent can be a single player...

The Oilers have complained all season long about McDavid being mugged and they have Lucic on their team...

And rather than deterrent I see it more that with some "protection" in the lineup the team as a whole will play a more physical and aggressive game...

I don't care about this "new NHL" BS, you will always need a guy who might just snap at any given moment and lay a beat down on someone. That just keep other teams from pinning their ears back and running all the skill players, as we saw last game.

How physical deterrence does or does not work in today's NHL might make an interesting thread on its own. Maybe something to bring up again in the summer, when there is no NHL hockey being played, and most of our focus will be on the kinds of changes management needs to make to the roster.

For now, though, I will observe that however much deterrence Gudbranson may (or may not) have brought to bear while he was here, it was not enough to prevent Pettersson from being injured before on two previous penalties. If there was not enough deterrence to prevent it before, then the fact that Pettersson has also been targeted with a dangerous foul once since Gudbranson has left does not seem to me to be necessarily attributable to a drop in effective deterrence levels. There might not be enough season left to detect a trend.

[2Fingers]

It's not usually about "exacting retribution".

Most players wouldn't dare drop the gloves with Mr Gudbranson.

That doesn't mean the so-called "deterrent factor" isn't a thing.

Sure it didn't deter that particular player on that particular play

... but it remains "a factor".

Teams size up other teams and when they see a certain level of pussiness they take more liberties.

When they see a reasonable level of assholishness, they tend to take less liberties.

Guds was a deterrent. He could well have been more of one but either he was reluctant to be or had a collar.

I don't think in today's NHL a deterrent can be a single player...

The Oilers have complained all season long about McDavid being mugged and they have Lucic on their team...

And rather than deterrent I see it more that with some "protection" in the lineup the team as a whole will play a more physical and aggressive game...

I don't care about this "new NHL" BS, you will always need a guy who might just snap at any given moment and lay a beat down on someone. That just keep other teams from pinning their ears back and running all the skill players, as we saw last game.

How physical deterrence does or does not work in today's NHL might make an interesting thread on its own. Maybe something to bring up again in the summer, when there is no NHL hockey being played, and most of our focus will be on the kinds of changes management needs to make to the roster.

For now, though, I will observe that however much deterrence Gudbranson may (or may not) have brought to bear while he was here, it was not enough to prevent Pettersson from being injured before on two previous penalties. If there was not enough deterrence to prevent it before, then the fact that Pettersson has also been targeted with a dangerous foul once since Gudbranson has left does not seem to me to be necessarily attributable to a drop in effective deterrence levels. There might not be enough season left to detect a trend.

Maybe we have too many soft Europeans on the team.

[rikster]

A lovely story. When you add up the contracts of Eriksson, Sutter, Gudbranson, Beagle, Spooner, Pearson of dead cap space that could probably be replaced with 8-10 million worth of players . Leaving Elmer with 15 million to spend on a good player or two. Not to mention the couple extra picks he could have just kept

Give us some examples of those players you want to spend the wad on....

The teams approach to rebuilding is always going to have players who might have more intangible value than on ice value and some fans will critique their contracts based only on what they do on the ice...

There were very few ready prospects when Benning arrived, the number of veteran contracts handed out reflects this...

We are now starting to see more of the kids in the lineup and some of those veterans are or will be moved or buried....

A good example is the leaves who not that long ago had 5 or 6 contracts buried and still have 3 contracts buried or bought out as they rebuilt their organization and went from expensive free agents to kids....

Buying players via UFA is always overpayment, look no further than Eriksson's UFA class and you find that his was one of the best of a bunch of bad contracts....

The notion that buying 2 players at $7.5 each via UFA will result in value contracts is a lovely story, but goes against years and years of proof that that rarely, if ever happens...

Take care...

[Blob Mckenzie]

I’ll take my chances in UFA rather than pissing away valuable assets for guys like Sutter when you already had Richardson and Bonino. They were better, cheaper players than Sutter and you keep the assets. The draft picks pissed away in 2015, 2015 and 2016 could be playing by now. Sutter, Vey and Gudbranson etc added fuck all. Schenn looks no worse than Gudbranson at 20 % of the cost. Eriksson, Gagner, Schaller were all awful signings. Beagle looks like another head scratcher.

A lovely story indeed

I keep getting goaded into these “debates” with the Benning fan club. Round and round we go. You won’t see my point and I sure as hell won’t see yours

[Blob Mckenzie]

Another thread derailed.


Will Zach MacEwan get another look this year? Not sure what they don’t yet know about Eriksson or Granlund

[rikster]

Another thread derailed.


Will Zach MacEwan get another look this year? Not sure what they don’t yet know about Eriksson or Granlund

I hope so and think they should...

Take care...