Jeremy Hronek

Benning may have royally screwed up with Juolevi and Virtanen, but let's not forget about guys like McCann, Demko, and Hoglander. Jury is still out on Podkolzin, but still. Back to the topic, I wish Juolevi nothing but the best. Shame that injuries seems to have derailed him to the point of no return.

Sorry, my bad.

I know, I know, I was kidding (did you see my spoiler tag?). Was with some friends the day other and someone referred to Hirose as a 'Chinaman' which caused me to spit out my beer laughing (he also knows that Hirose was born and raised in Canada and is of Japanese descent). Was a bad joke but was meant to be harmless and for shits and gigs.

Nice to see the re-emergence of Boeser. I thought he actually looked good for us during the shortened 20/21 season. Here's another thing to keep in mind for Boeser. As a member of the Canucks, he might have history on his side. Boeser, 26, is now around the same age as the twins and Naslund when they skyrocketed to the next level. Maybe he can do the same.

Are Monica Lewinsky and Bill Vanderzam your other neighbours in this fictitious affluent neighbourhood of yours?

My gut feeling is that the Oilers will go on a major hot streak at some point this season and make things interesting. They have too much talent. Could be similar to the Canucks of 21/22 but with a happier ending. I think Calgary is done like dinner though. Can't see them making the playoffs this year and they'll certainly have their mouths full of urethras so to speak. I could Seattle picking things up and I can also see Anaheim plummeting at some point. I see the Canucks, Kings, and Oilers fighting for 2nd, 3rd, and WC. (I think the Nucks will eventually get an injury to 1-2 core players and will plateau a little bit as a result.......before picking it up again).

One thing I'll say: I know Linden is receiving a bit of heat for appearing to have bad-mouthed Benning (and there may be truth to this to some extent), but I think Sat Shah, Dan Riccio, Blake Price, and Matt Sekeres are more to blame for this. They are the ones that asked these questions to Linden and Linden simply answered their questions.

I would as well (i.e. trade Lekker or Podz), but Podkolzin probably doesn't have a whole lot of value right now. He's a D+4 player and still hasn't cracked our line-up. He has a lot of potential but I can't see other teams giving us a significant "win now" asset with Podkolzin being one the main pieces going the other way. I like the idea of keeping Lekkerimaki because we'll likely have to part ways with one of Boeser or Kuzmenko at some point.

I think 7.5 will likely be at or around the correct number. As good as he is, Hronek isn't a franchise defenseman. He's a #2 calibre d-man and so I think 7.5 should be a realistic target. Agreed that you need those ELC contracts to keep your cap controlled and so that's where I see guys like Raty, Podkolzin, Lekkerimaki, and Hirose coming in. For the forwards listed I hear, I could see 1-3 of those guys realistically stepping into our line-up next season. The only reason why I mention Willander here is because he's probably the only prospect that we have that could really bring in someone significant. I only many posters on here have mentioned guys like Podkolzin, but Podz doesn't have a whole lot of value right now and would probably be seen more as a reclamation project. Given where we are in the standings, our 2024 1st probably wouldn't have a lot of value as well and so even if you tried to package Podkolzin and a 2024 1st, the ROI probably isn't going to be as high as we'd like it to be. If the Canucks are looking to bring in a guy that could really move the needle AND move a contract (i.e. Beauvillier) in order to bring back a needle-moving piece, then Willander is probably your guy. Now - would I do this personally? Probably not. Playing Devil's Advocate however, there's certainly an argument to be made that the Canucks need to take some significant steps over these next 4 years. Petey and Hronek are RFA's at the end of this season, while Brock and Kuzmenko will be UFA's in two years. Demko will be a UFA in 3 years while Quinn will be in 4. Peak Miller will probably only be around for 3 seasons at most. Bottom line? We might need to make an aggressive push starting NOW. Agreed.........and so I'm going to ask you a question given the above. To what extent would bringing in a significant piece (i.e. a #2A/#3 calibre defenseman) help limit these high danger chances that you speak of? For example, let's say we bring in Rasmus Andersson. We play him with Hughes, and then Hronek goes to the 2nd pairing to play with Cole or Soucy (and then one of those guys move down to play with Myers, which then gets Friedman out of the line-up). Would said piece put us in the same weight class as a team like Vegas? @VegasCanuck

I like the idea. Zadorov does qualify as Top 4 calibre even if he's around the #4 calibre. He'd be what Tryamkin should have been for us.

4-3 Leafs. I love the Canucks and am proud the way they've played thus far but we're due for a loss.

I'm sure many women would agree with you.

McDavid to Buffalo for Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin.

What's especially concerning to me is that a bunch of toxic media members, along with many fans at HF Canucks and twitter, are trying to discredit e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g that Jim Benning did. Their basic argument is this: -Juolevi + Virtanen = Benning's fault -Pettersson + Hughes + Demko + Hoglander + *insert decent prospect here* = Judd Bracket and/or someone else's idea. ((they'll refrain from commenting on Podkolzin because we don't know if he's a bust or victory at this point)). It's childish and ridiculous but that's exactly what's going on unfortunately. It's also of no coincidence that Miller was hated last by the aforementioned during Benning's tenure here but is now miraculously loved since Alvin put his stamp on the team. Ridiculous politics.

-Pettersson -Hughes -Boeser -Demko -Miller -Hoglander -Myers -Garland Although I'm pretty sure many bone smokers at HF Canucks will probably give Judd Brackett and/or Thomas Drance credit for drafting and/or trading for the above players, lol.

I'm starting to think that this is the best Canucks team that we've ever had outside of 2010-2012 and 1992-1994. We'll have to see how this team does if/when the inevitable injury occurs to one or more of our core players but holy fuck. This team is about as real as John Goodman's breasts from what I'm seeing.

Alright boys, My bid to pull an all-nighter and watch the Nucks/Sens game with you guys has come to an end. Body shutting down (3:23 AM my time). When I wake up, the game will be over and I hope the Nucks will have laid the beat down to the Sens. Also hope Trevor Linden gets AIDS (kidding.......sort of). Alright guys, cheers.

I'll eventually comment on this post when I have time. You have a lot of good thoughts and I'll eventually respond to this.

I absolutely love Alvin and am glad that he's been moved to the forefront since the Boudreau firing (and subsequent fan backlash towards Jim Rutherford). I am of the belief that Rutherford was the guy running things up until the Boudreau firing (with Alvin playing the role of Wahlin Smithers to JR's Mr. Burns at that time). But 2023? Almost all of this has been Alvin and the guy has been absolute fire for us.

Agreed 100% here. The officiating in that 2012 Kings series and 2013 Sharks series was quite disturbing to say the very least. 2009, 2010, and even 2011 against the Hawks + 2011 against the Bruins was just terrible officiating in my opinion. I'm of the belief that if Mike Gillis hadn't made the poor officiating public back in 2011 against the Hawks, the refs probably would have helped gift wrap that series to Chicago (Gillis went public during that series with his complaints and got fined an undisclosed amount). You then look at that Boston series from Game 3 onwards. That style of hockey hadn't been seen in the league since the New Jersey-Anaheim series of 2003........so almost a full 8 years. Boston were allowed to goon it up and it caught the Canucks off guard. Ironically enough, in that phantom "game 8" that took place on January 7th 2012, Boston tried to play the exact same way and got handed a slew of penalties and misconducts (which is what should have happened during the finals). While our series against the Flames in 2015 wasn't quite as biased, Ferland was still basically allowed to take charging, roughing, and boarding penalties against us (which was then touted as "good ol' old school hockey,"). Not sure what it was but the refs and the league really hated that Gillis era core. (I say 'Gillis' core because I thought the reffing against Anaheim in 2007 + reffing against Vegas in 2020 was fair and so it's not like I just through tantrums after losses)

My personal take on the situation is the Benning liked Pettersson but preferred the defensemen that went earlier (Makar, Heiskanen) https://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/draft-notebook-if-makar-was-available-canucks-could-have-been-sweating I think the 'Cody Glass' shit was a smear campaign started by Thomas Drance followers.

I hear you brother. My personal interpretation of the situation is that Gillis wanted to start the rebuild as early as the Summer of 2012 (after our loss to the Kings) where we'd get to sell of our core players (peak value) for elite prospects and picks but Aqua said no. It's too bad because that would have been an excellent idea imo. After our four game sweep to the Sharks in 2013, everyone knew that we needed to rebuild and our players' values had diminished in value. Gillis went to ownership again with the same plea but was met with rejection. When Benning took over in 2014, our aging core players' had greatly diminished values and were signed to shit contracts............not thanks to Gillis, but thanks to Aqua man. Benning's hands were basically tied in many ways when he took over this team. An aging core + very little prospects in the cupboards.

I think both Alvin and Benning deserve credit for the current Canucks team. Pettersson, Hughes, Demko, Hoglander, Garland, Boeser, and Miller were all brought in by the Benning regime whereas guys like Hronek, Kuzmenko, Mikeheyev, PDG, Suter, Bluegar, Soucy, Cole, DeSmith, etc. are all current regime players. There is no such thing as "A Benning loyalist" (at least I don't think?). We are Canucks loyalists. I supported Benning and initially predicted that our coming out party would be the 21/22 season (this core's version of 2008-2009). I was off by two years. I'm human. I make mistakes. But am now enjoying the ride. Let all of the 2014-2019 shit go to rest. Go Canucks Go.