Assessing the Pacific

[Blob Mckenzie]

Vancouver could easily drop to tier 3 in the pacific if Demko continues to battle injuries, Petey remains to be the scooter boy and god forbid Hughes gets injured.

pretty sure if you dump the top 3 players or 30ish million into injuries, any team will drop to tear 3

Not necessarily. As Jannik Hansen says, Vancouver has one foundational player - Hughes, and that’s it. We are too thin up top to withstand a hit to the top end.

Ok Foghorn Gunt Horn. I think you've been hit on the top of your head too many times. Your analysis is putrid to say the least. If that's the type of meagre effort you plan to put forth for the coming season, you need to give your skullet a shake.,

[Lancer]

Vancouver could easily drop to tier 3 in the pacific if Demko continues to battle injuries, Petey remains to be the scooter boy and god forbid Hughes gets injured.

pretty sure if you dump the top 3 players or 30ish million into injuries, any team will drop to tear 3

Not necessarily. As Jannik Hansen says, Vancouver has one foundational player - Hughes, and that’s it. We are too thin up top to withstand a hit to the top end.

Ok Foghorn Gunt Horn. I think you've been hit on the top of your head too many times. Your analysis is putrid to say the least. If that's the type of meagre effort you plan to put forth for the coming season, you need to give your skullet a shake.,

It's good to seeing you bringing out the classic material.

[Chef Boi RD]

The Sicilian Roberto Macchenzzi may need a pilgrimage back to the holy land of Sicily to find his centre. He’s lost and angry and blames all ills of life on The Genius Jimbro Benning otherwise known as - Elms, to him.

[Chef Boi RD]

The Nucks will float somewhere in the mushy middle this season. Dog fight it out for a wildcard position with 6 other mushy middle teams in the western conference. Meanwhile either, San Jose adds McKenna to Celebrini, Smith, Eklund, Misa, Dickinson or Chicago will add McKenna to Bedard, Nazar, Frolund, Levshunov. While we add a prospect picked around 12th overall again. You can see the future now. I love the mushy middle, the payoffs are average.

[UWSaint]

The Nucks will float somewhere in the mushy middle this season. Dog fight it out for a wildcard position with 6 other mushy middle teams in the western conference. Meanwhile either, San Jose adds McKenna to Celebrini, Smith, Eklund, Misa, Dickinson or Chicago will add McKenna to Bedard, Nazar, Frolund, Levshunov. While we add a prospect picked around 12th overall again. You can see the future now. I love the mushy middle, the payoffs are average.

dateline post draft 2019....

With Cozens, the Sabres are going to be unstoppable. Look at their youth! Eichel, Reinhardt, Dahlin, Ristolaennen, all young. And don't sleep on Thompson -- the Blues won't regret getting a cup, but he's a blue chipper. Olofsson -- diamond in the rough, he's been so good. And even Middelstadt is showing a little bit of life.

Meanwhile, what are the Panthers doing? A few years ago they won the Atlantic, kind of a surprise, but now they just float around as a bubble team. They had all those high draft picks, now they are resigned to picking in the teens. To be sure Barkov has turned into a player, but Eklblad is the Eric Johnson of first overalls. Its not that he's a bad player, but he's not a game changer. They blew it drafting Crouse--got next to nothing for it (just the sweetener to offload Bolland), and I'm not really a believer in Tippett. And what do they do with that in the teens pick in this, what might just be the deepest draft in a long time? They draft Spencer Knight. With that big contract to Bobrovsky? They passed on York, who will be that PP QB they need, Caufield, who despite his size is a UWSniper and I guarantee will be a big time scorer, and Peyton Krebs who is going to be the steal of the draft. I know he got injured, but its a freak thing, the Achilles, and players recover from that. He should have gone in the top 10. Mark my words.

Florida's destined for years on the bubble.

[Lancer]

The Nucks will float somewhere in the mushy middle this season. Dog fight it out for a wildcard position with 6 other mushy middle teams in the western conference. Meanwhile either, San Jose adds McKenna to Celebrini, Smith, Eklund, Misa, Dickinson or Chicago will add McKenna to Bedard, Nazar, Frolund, Levshunov. While we add a prospect picked around 12th overall again. You can see the future now. I love the mushy middle, the payoffs are average.

dateline post draft 2019....

With Cozens, the Sabres are going to be unstoppable. Look at their youth! Eichel, Reinhardt, Dahlin, Ristolaennen, all young. And don't sleep on Thompson -- the Blues won't regret getting a cup, but he's a blue chipper. Olofsson -- diamond in the rough, he's been so good. And even Middelstadt is showing a little bit of life.

Meanwhile, what are the Panthers doing? A few years ago they won the Atlantic, kind of a surprise, but now they just float around as a bubble team. They had all those high draft picks, now they are resigned to picking in the teens. To be sure Barkov has turned into a player, but Eklblad is the Eric Johnson of first overalls. Its not that he's a bad player, but he's not a game changer. They blew it drafting Crouse--got next to nothing for it (just the sweetener to offload Bolland), and I'm not really a believer in Tippett. And what do they do with that in the teens pick in this, what might just be the deepest draft in a long time? They draft Spencer Knight. With that big contract to Bobrovsky? They passed on York, who will be that PP QB they need, Caufield, who despite his size is a UWSniper and I guarantee will be a big time scorer, and Peyton Krebs who is going to be the steal of the draft. I know he got injured, but its a freak thing, the Achilles, and players recover from that. He should have gone in the top 10. Mark my words.

Florida's destined for years on the bubble.

A good bit of perspective.

Some things people miss about how Florida built its team are their FA signings and trades since then. They signed Verhaeghe - who, at the time, had all of 13 points in 52 games in the NHL to a $1m/yr two-year deal. They traded for Reinhart and Bennett - former 1st rounders who had soured on their management - to deals that look to us now as bargains. That said, while both players still showed promise, neither of these top-4 picks appeared as 'the answer' to their club's fortunes that their draft positions would lead people to expect. Perhaps the acquisition costs reflect that. Then there's the Tkachuk trade: steep price but evidently worth it. Let's not forget their waiver acquisition of Forsling. This, while Bobrovsky looked very mortal in the first few years of his 7-year $10m/yr deal in Florida which had some pundits questioning management's wisdom.

Either way, Zito has proven opportunistic and shrewd in his deals that may have looked "win-now" or risky at the time. Look at the Marchand trade; does Florida win the Cup without him? Florida's pro scouts have earned their keep and more, but Zito had the stones to be decisive and make the deal.

Of all of those trades, the Tkachuk trade is the only one I don't see Vancouver being able to pull off - they just don't have that kind of trade capital in terms of players and still field a better team. The others? Nothing Allvin and Co. couldn't replicate if the opportunity presents itself. Hell, the McTavish and Rossi situations could qualify. Buffalo may present an opportunity for another fleecing as well. They'll likely entail costs which would make us all gulp, but I wager what devout Florida fans were out there gulped too at some of Zito's deals.

Mushy middle is never a great place for a team to be, but it's not a given that the only way out is down in order to draft higher. It boils down to management rolling the dice and making a bet on either FAs, trade acquisitions or waiver claims based on their pro scouts' advice. More importantly, they have to hit on as many of those bets as possible.

Drafting ain't everything.

[Chef Boi RD]

My beef with Allvin and Rutherford is in their assessment of the team they inherited, or lack thereof. Their misjudging of the teams personnel, the chemistry, it has set the organization back considerably, they get a fail in this department. Good hindsight is what you hope from a GM and President, especially with how the two came advertised. Ideally they would have concluded early, that both Miller and Pettersson should be moved, and moved at their peak value to maximize return. Instead, they gifted the two problem children with giant contracts. They are paid the big bucks to not misjudge the personnel, make the trades at the right times instead of making forced trades when controversies and scandals are plaguing the room because you let it fester to long, not getting ahead of it. So then they were forced to try and move struggling troubled players out at devalued rates while the other teams (vultures) know the situation, know the position of weakness they are in.

They have been a disaster in this department. We could’ve gotten so much more for both Pettersson (or better offers) and a better return on Miller before that All/Star game, when the rift between the two was known to management. Poor assessment. Damage control without the world knowing you were in damage control could’ve been avoided. No team is gonna throw you a lifeline here. Tocchet moving on only brought to light the Mickey Mouse club being ran here. To me the whole fiasco falls on management’s shoulders, squarely.

I thought Rutherford was supposed to be cagey, seasoned, wise. So far here he has only proved himself to be a dingbat

[Blob Mckenzie]

Nice of the Dude to completely dodge UW's post. He should have been a politician. No accountability at all for the nonsense he spewed.

[Chef Boi RD]

Nice of the Dude to completely dodge UW's post. He should have been a politician. No accountability at all for the nonsense he spewed.

Doyle, how much you bench pressing these days down at Club 16?

[Meds]

Nice of the Dude to completely dodge UW's post. He should have been a politician. No accountability at all for the nonsense he spewed.

Doyle, how much you bench pressing these days down at Club 16?

Dodge # 2.

[Chef Boi RD]

Nice of the Dude to completely dodge UW's post. He should have been a politician. No accountability at all for the nonsense he spewed.

Doyle, how much you bench pressing these days down at Club 16?

Dodge # 2.

It was a legitimate question

[Chef Boi RD]

Drafting isn’t everything, very true. I was merely pointing out that recognizing when to pull triggers on trades can mean all the difference in the world. There were opportunities to make trades to clean up a known dressing room problem long before the problem got out of hand and becoming public.

[5thhorseman]

Drafting isn’t everything, very true. I was merely pointing out that recognizing when to pull triggers on trades can mean all the difference in the world. There were opportunities to make trades to clean up a known dressing room problem long before the problem got out of hand and becoming public.

Looks to me like they took a gamble on resolving the locker room issues with a payoff being strong down the middle with Petterson/Miller. Combine that with our strong D and goaltending, would we be Tier 1 then?

Instead, we are judging them with the benefit of hindsight. Is that really fair Dude?

[Chef Boi RD]

But isn’t hindsight part of their job?

[Blob Mckenzie]

Dodge #3