[PGT]Round 2, Game 7 - Canucks vs Oilers - May 20th, 2024

[AnotherCanucksFan]

Crappy part is listening to 650 sportscasters talking about us losing Joshua and Zadorov and others because they played themselves out of Vancouver's budget.

 

Just when we have something to build on, we're already talking about breaking it apart. If we lose Joshua, then the dynamic duo of Garland and Joshua is lost in the mix as well. That line with Blueger saved us a bunch of games. To be honest, I'm not sure why we ever took Blueger off that line.

 

They also say that we shouldn't be worried about Pettersson and that he's an elite player, but frankly I just don't see him being a playoff player. I think he's not big or strong enough for the amount of hitting and rougher play. He was good for half of this year and then went on a steady decline until he basically flatlined in the most important games of the year. Imagine that Jake Guentzel is making about HALF of what Pettersson is going to make next year. Give me two Guentzels every day!

 

Upcoming expiring contracts

In 2024: Myers (33), Joshua (27), Lindholm (29), Zadorov (28), Hronek (26), Cole (34), DeSmith (32), Lafferty (28), Blueger (29), Friedman (28).

In 2025: Boeser (26), Suter (27), PDGuiseppe (30), Juulsen (26)

In 2026: Demko (28), Garland (27), Mikheyev (29), Soucy (29)

In 2027: Hughes (24)

https://www.spotrac.com/nhl/vancouver-canucks/overview/_/year/2023/sort/contract_free_agent_year/dir/asc

It's unfortunate, but some of the players are on the edge of aging out. Myers (33) and Cole (34)

 

Joshua and Zadorov will be the most valuable - but other teams will be upping their price. Lindholm had 10pts in 13 games, while Mikheyev had ZERO. 

 

DeSmith, Friedman, Lafferty, Blueger, and Cole will likely not be given contracts. Mikheyev needs to be traded. Blueger was good with Joshua and Garland, but they didn't keep him on that line at the end of the season or the playoffs ( I think that was a mistake )  Hronek is debatable as he had a poor showing in the playoffs ( may have been injured ).

 

 

Edited May 22 by AnotherCanucksFan

[Joe King]

30 minutes ago, I.AM.THE.WALRUS said:

Right… that’s why I’m like why?

 

why were they held back……….

 

why?

 

clearly when they were released to give ‘er shit they coulda tied it up… no problem… 

 

This is a game 7 MUST WIN scenario with ultra competitive dudes..

 

can’t help but believe they were told to hold back so the Coilers would advance 

I see what your saying. Maybe we get favourable treatment next year. Wink wink

 

[Alflives]

1 minute ago, AnotherCanucksFan said:

Crappy part is listening to 650 sportscasters talking about us losing Joshua and Zadorov and others because they played themselves out of Vancouver's budget.

 

Just when we have something to build on, we're already talking about breaking it apart. If we lose Joshua, then the dynamic duo of Garland and Joshua is lost in the mix as well. That line with Blueger saved us a bunch of games. To be honest, I'm not sure why we ever took Blueger off that line.

 

They also say that we shouldn't be worried about Pettersson and that he's an elite player, but frankly I just don't see him being a playoff player. I think he's not big or strong enough for the amount of hitting and rougher play. He was good for half of this year and then went on a steady decline until he basically flatlined in the most important games of the year. Imagine that Jake Guentzel is making about HALF of what Pettersson is going to make next year. Give me two Guentzels every day!

 

Upcoming expiring contracts

In 2024: Myers (33), Joshua (27), Lindholm (29), Zadorov (28), Hronek (26), Cole (34), DeSmith (32), Lafferty (28), Blueger (29), Friedman (28).

In 2025: Boeser (26), Suter (27), PDGuiseppe (30), Juulsen (26)

In 2026: Demko (28), Garland (27), Mikheyev (29), Soucy (29)

In 2027: Hughes (24)

 

It's unfortunate, but some of the players are on the edge of aging out. Myers (33) and Cole (34)

 

Joshua and Zadorov will be the most valuable - but other teams will be upping their price. Lindholm had 10pts in 13 games, while Mikheyev had ZERO. 

 

DeSmith, Friedman, Lafferty, Blueger, and Cole will likely not be given contracts. Mikheyev needs to be traded. Blueger was good with Joshua and Garland, but they didn't keep him on that line at the end of the season or the playoffs ( I think that was a mistake )  Hronek is debatable as he had a poor showing in the playoffs ( may have been injured ).

 

 

Hronek is an RFA. Those other guys who are UFAs can walk. But Hronek is ours for at least one more season and he will be at a great cap allocation. Cap room is king in today’s nhl. So letting guys walk as UFAs creates cap room to sign other players to do a similar job but for less. 

[Heretic]

Do all Oiler fans have short term memory loss?

One tried to troll me on Snet Face Book as I posted "Stars in 4!":

 

[higgyfan]

3 hours ago, Nucker67 said:

 

I appreciate your honesty with the harsher comments, which might not be popular, but I agree for the most part.

 

Petey has struggled big time since the all star break. It was his first "real" playoffs and if he was playing hurt, then I'll give the benefit. But if there was no injury, then it is very concerning.

 

Petey's (and soon to be Hughes') salary (and OEL's $4.766 penalty 17 months from now) might prevent the Canucks from putting together a proper contender. Look at TOR, can't afford a better D core and goaltender, thanks to their big 4.

 

I would be sad, but not opposed to, trading Petey for the right return to improve this playoff team. 

 

Continuing with the Swedes, Lindholm was really good in these playoffs, excellent centreman and pk. I hope we can keep him. 

 

 

 

A good GM thinks out of the box and can anticipate cap expenditures well in advance.

The Canucks have a great management staff that are very good at manipulating the cap.

 

1.  The OEL 4.7mx2yr cap hit ends 2026-7 and drops to 2.12 the following year, which is the

     first year of Quinn's new contract.

2.  The Cap increases to $95m next season (up 4.3m).

3.  Potential rookies with ECL and lower salaries in the upcoming years.

     - Silovs will be first to replace higher paid (Demko -5m)

     -In the next 2-4yrs, other rookies will replace higher priced players (Podz, Raty, D-Petey,

       Willander, Mynio, Kudryavtsev and more as time goes by.  A couple of rookies each season

       along with smart trades/UFA signings, will create a massive savings on the cap.

4.  The Cap will continue to increase as more teams are created and the NHL profits increase.

5.  In another year, EPs 13.2% of the salary cap won't look bad, due to the cap increases,

     which will cause all newer contract signings to go up; especially for the star players.

 

I think the team will manage the Salary Cap better than they ever have, so far.

 

 

Edited May 22 by higgyfan

[AnotherCanucksFan]

16 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Hronek is an RFA. Those other guys who are UFAs can walk. But Hronek is ours for at least one more season and he will be at a great cap allocation. Cap room is king in today’s nhl. So letting guys walk as UFAs creates cap room to sign other players to do a similar job but for less. 

I understand about UFAs, but Zadorov and Joshua to me would be hard to replace. I thought Garland and Joshua had amazing chemistry that is hard to find. I'd much rather build on the chemistry of the Joshua / Garland duo than try to find another linemate for Garland that may / may not work ( which essentially costs us a line )

[higgyfan]

18 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Hronek is an RFA. Those other guys who are UFAs can walk. But Hronek is ours for at least one more season and he will be at a great cap allocation. Cap room is king in today’s nhl. So letting guys walk as UFAs creates cap room to sign other players to do a similar job but for less. 

 

 

It's not just the cap dump, though, Alf.  Look at the return PA got on the Bo trade.  If they have

to trade Hronek (if he want too much $), then the team will get a good return for him.

 

[Alflives]

1 minute ago, AnotherCanucksFan said:

I understand about UFAs, but Zadorov and Joshua to me would be hard to replace. I thought Garland and Joshua had amazing chemistry that is hard to find. I'd much rather build on the chemistry of the Joshua / Garland duo than try to find another linemate for Garland that may / may not work ( which essentially costs us a line )

Zadorov is a bottom pairing D. Joshua is a bottom six winger. They will both be replaced. We have very good management now. Benning, the moran, is gone. 

[Alflives]

Just now, higgyfan said:

 

 

It's not just the cap dump, though, Alf.  Look at the return PA got on the Bo trade.  If they have

to trade Hronek (if he want too much $), then the team will get a good return for him.

 

True. Like with Horfat Wallet if Hronek will not accept a fair value contract then JR will move him for a fantastic return. JR knows what it takes to win the Cup. We need our star goalie, our superstar centre, and our phenom Dman. The rest are supporting cast. If we don’t have the three key pieces healthy and playing we aren’t winning the Cup regardless of how well the supporting cast plays. This was evidenced in these playoffs. 

[IBatch]

8 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Zadorov is a bottom pairing D. Joshua is a bottom six winger. They will both be replaced. We have very good management now. Benning, the moran, is gone. 

Didn't Zadarov prove his value though?    It's not like he's asking the moon.    Scored more goals than any other D.   And if we are going to support our C, we can't expect to do that with the types we had before Allvin came in.    
 

As for Joshua, we needed one more like him.   Not less.   Suter, Bluegar, Lafferty, Aman, those are the bottom six guys, Mikheyev too (what a moran) Middle six, we had Hogs, Joshua and Garland. 

Edited May 22 by IBatch

[higgyfan]

1 minute ago, Alflives said:

True. Like with Horfat Wallet if Hronek will not accept a fair value contract then JR will move him for a fantastic return. JR knows what it takes to win the Cup. We need our star goalie, our superstar centre, and our phenom Dman. The rest are supporting cast. If we don’t have the three key pieces healthy and playing we aren’t winning the Cup regardless of how well the supporting cast plays. This was evidenced in these playoffs. 

 

As the team starts to fill up with rookies, there will always be affordable upgrades to the original core.

[RJCF96]

22 minutes ago, Heretic said:

Do all Oiler fans have short term memory loss?

One tried to troll me on Snet Face Book as I posted "Stars in 4!":

 

They got swept in the first round by the Jets in 2021 as well.

 

I firmly believes, that if we had a healthy Demko for the entire playoff, we could've won the series 4-0 as well (more likely a 4-1 result).

 

As good as Silovs is, Demko is just leagues above him in terms of overall play.

 

The team also plays more aggressive forecheck 2-1-2 style instead of a more conservative 1-2-2 system when Demko is in net.

 

With an aggressive 2-1-2 attack and Demko as a rock in net, Canucks could've been up 2-0 after the first 2 games while chasing Skinner out of his net, the Oilers could internally implode from then on.

[CurtFraser24]

6 hours ago, Maniwaki Mauler said:

Trade Demko now that he's worth a lot and sign Silov (keep Desmith he's good too) has more than proven himself. Sign Z, trade Petey for whatever and you got a way better team. 

Trade the Vezinz finalist??????????     Keep the rookie with the save % of .891 (regular season) and .898 (playoffs)??????????

[IBatch]

3 minutes ago, higgyfan said:

 

As the team starts to fill up with rookies, there will always be affordable upgrades to the original core.

Affordable yes, decent not at all a given. 

[AnotherCanucksFan]

5 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Zadorov is a bottom pairing D. Joshua is a bottom six winger. They will both be replaced. We have very good management now. Benning, the moran, is gone. 

Zadorov had 8pts / +3 in the playoffs, the most of any Canuck Dmen other than Hughes who had 10pts / +1. I think if he is traded that he'll be hard to replace given his size, toughness, and his shot.

[Rip The Mesh]

Possible the Abbotsford may need a new coach, but it's not confirmed. at the 6;50,mark

 

 

[IBatch]

1 minute ago, AnotherCanucksFan said:

Zadorov had 8pts / +3 in the playoffs, the most of any Canuck Dmen other than Hughes who had 10pts / +1. I think if he is traded that he'll be hard to replace given his size, toughness, and his shot.

If we didn't trade for Zadorov we were toast.   Don't at all want to go back to a smurf level D-core. 

[Kinsella]

2 hours ago, Hangry-Canuck said:

All this negative Petey talk is getting to me. The kid is 25 yrs old... not even in his prime and yall are complaining that he didn't have a good playoffs? Get a hold of your selves. The kid is going to be great and he's going to be our star for years to come. That look back at the crowd at the end of game 7 speaks volumes.  He's only going to get better from here on out. 

n/m

Edited May 22 by Kinsella

[higgyfan]

1 minute ago, IBatch said:

Affordable yes, decent not at all a given. 

 

Of course.  They do have a small group of promising prospects.  Given the success of Joshua at 28yrs,

there may be hope for others that aren't as polished.  After all, most agree that the team development

program is extensive and thorough.  Light years away from the Benning days.

[higgyfan]

5 minutes ago, IBatch said:

If we didn't trade for Zadorov we were toast.   Don't at all want to go back to a smurf level D-core. 

Agreed.  I also suspect that Zad was an influence in how Myers upped his game in the playoffs.

[Alflives]

15 minutes ago, IBatch said:

Didn't Zadarov prove his value though?    It's not like he's asking the moon.    Scored more goals than any other D.   And if we are going to support our C, we can't expect to do that with the types we had before Allvin came in.    
 

As for Joshua, we needed one more like him.   Not less.   Suter, Bluegar, Lafferty, Aman, those are the bottom six guys, Mikheyev too (what a moran) Middle six, we had Hogs, Joshua and Garland. 

Hughes and Soucy will play more minutes than Zadorov. Big Z is going to get a lot of money thrown at him July 1. We aren’t going to pay our bottom pairing D big money. Joshua is easily replaced. 

[Alflives]

12 minutes ago, AnotherCanucksFan said:

Zadorov had 8pts / +3 in the playoffs, the most of any Canuck Dmen other than Hughes who had 10pts / +1. I think if he is traded that he'll be hard to replace given his size, toughness, and his shot.

Z is a UFA July 1. He will not be traded. He will go to the highest bidder and that will not be us. He’s not a top four D on our club. 

[Hangry-Canuck]

4 minutes ago, Kinsella said:

Sorry, but last I checked 24 was the most prolific year for superstars. By that metric he is over the hill. This is my memory of an analysis of Lemieux/ Gretzky /Yzerman types.

Gretzky and Yzerman comparison? That's wild considering how much the game has changed since the 90's. Give me current player comparisons. 

[higgyfan]

5 minutes ago, Kinsella said:

Sorry, but last I checked 24 was the most prolific year for superstars. By that metric he is over the hill. This is my memory of an analysis of Lemieux/ Gretzky /Yzerman types.

 

Pete isn't at the same level as those guys.  Nowhere close. 

[I.AM.THE.WALRUS]

1 hour ago, CanuckDownUnder said:

 

Hopefully the lesson has been learned by the players too - this is what it takes to be successful in the playoffs. Playing that level all the time isn't sustainable, but they can really be dangerous when they play that way but can't wait until it is almost beyond hope to start.

We started coming on when it was 2-0 but then the Edmonton Divers got another break from that dive that happened and of course they got a power-play and then they score… the NHL gifted them so many calls that were dives… The thing was fixed…