Ethan Bear coming back eventually?

[IBatch]

6 hours ago, aGENT said:

Because he can either replace Myers on the 3rd pair for cheap when/if we move him, or be a cheap stop gap to play with Hughes, have everyone on their strong side, and have arguably the best D we've had in years.

 

Short of trading for Pesce, we're just not going to be able to put together a better defense than:

 

Hughes, Bear

Cole, Hronek

Soucy, Myers

 

... THIS year. Even if he's definitely no one's idea of Hughes' ideal long term partner.

Basically everyone on the strong size and no AHL D.   That's for sure a lot better than we've had in a very long time.  

[IBatch]

1 minute ago, Alflives said:

Myers is fine as a puck mover on a third pairing. He struggles when asked to play over his head. He won the Calder and then when asked to take on more struggled exactly what is happening with Slo Mo. he too won the Calder then got asked to do more when we stole Hronek and struggled. Guys need to play a role that is best for their talent. Myers and Slo Mo are third pairing D. If they are playing more minutes then they should their teams will struggle. And that’s exactly what’s happened. 

Ideally, yes, Myers is better suited on the third pairing now, although his first couple seasons he did the best we could hope for given who else we had, was a serviceable 5th, and was in WNP too when Trouba or Byfuglien went down, which seemed to be every season (and also probably why he's always played second pairing minutes).     Burke was right to like the signing for us,  JB just couldn't keep adding top four D's.   OEL first game, 3 points lol.   Sure would be nice to have those two as the third pairing, but not at 13.35.     Soucy/Myers would be a great third pairing.   That's a playoff D adding Bear.   As the attrition starts, we will need to start with one too if we hope to win any rounds. 

[Alflives]

2 minutes ago, IBatch said:

Ideally, yes, Myers is better suited on the third pairing now, although his first couple seasons he did the best we could hope for given who else we had, was a serviceable 5th, and was in WNP too when Trouba or Byfuglien went down, which seemed to be every season (and also probably why he's always played second pairing minutes).     Burke was right to like the signing for us,  JB just couldn't keep adding top four D's.   OEL first game, 3 points lol.   Sure would be nice to have those two as the third pairing, but not at 13.35.     Soucy/Myers would be a great third pairing.   That's a playoff D adding Bear.   As the attrition starts, we will need to start with one too if we hope to win any rounds. 

Yup. Guys need to play a role for their talent. They can move up the lineup and cover when injuries happen. Myers and Soucy are an excellent third Pairing. And they can move up to cover when injuries happen. 
Teams that have too many guys playing in roles above their heads are going to highly likely be losers. 
 

[IBatch]

3 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Yup. Guys need to play a role for their talent. They can move up the lineup and cover when injuries happen. Myers and Soucy are an excellent third Pairing. And they can move up to cover when injuries happen. 
Teams that have too many guys playing in roles above their heads are going to highly likely be losers. 
 

Personally, I'd love to watch Soucy and Myers in the playoffs smashing everything. 

[sashimi]

He better come back. They are way too thin on RD.

[sashimi]

13 hours ago, D.B Cooper said:

I thought we were trying to improve???

Why go back to someone who was just OK?

Great fella, sure. But he is nothing special and we don’t really need him. 

Have you seen the RD depth chart? It's not pretty.

 

They need Bear.

[aGENT]

5 hours ago, IBatch said:

Basically everyone on the strong size and no AHL D.   That's for sure a lot better than we've had in a very long time.  

And complementary pairs, and appropriate roles. Add that to an actual system/puck support and...

[Gawdzukes]

1 hour ago, sashimi said:

Have you seen the RD depth chart? It's not pretty.

 

They need Bear.

 

Bear sucks. I agree with @D.B Cooper. Why shoot for mediocre. There must be some other player we can play besides a guy that can't even hold a hockey stick right now, and struggles on every team he plays on, including ours.

 

If we sign him it better not be for more than a year. He sucks at defence in his own end, clearing the net, and battles behind the net. Not a player on a winning hockey team as we've seen already. If we're desperate or the year is already over when he's healthy sure give him 3 or 4 months to putter around. I think there is a vast delusion going on with Bear simply because he looked better than nothing at times.

 

If we need Bear our Goose is cooked already. No one even knows when or if he'll be healthy after surgery. That does not seem like a solid plan.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Gawdzukes

[Sativika]

I'd be okay with Bear's return if it comes to that. We still need RD's and he fits the bill. Yea, yea, I know. He ain't a RD superstar, but he was not bad for us. Under Tocchet's tutelage though, he could excel. Though I wouldn't know if he's a Tocchet type player though. Ah it's all moot anyways. Dude's not even able to play for a bit yet.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Sativika

[Nucker67]

I think the Canucks can do better

[Jaimito]

I liked him. Solid bottom pair. 

[canuck73_3]

2 hours ago, Gawdzukes said:

 

Bear sucks. I agree with @D.B Cooper. Why shoot for mediocre. There must be some other player we can play besides a guy that can't even hold a hockey stick right now, and struggles on every team he plays on, including ours.

 

If we sign him it better not be for more than a year. He sucks at defence in his own end, clearing the net, and battles behind the net. Not a player on a winning hockey team as we've seen already. If we're desperate or the year is already over when he's healthy sure give him 3 or 4 months to putter around. I think there is a vast delusion going on with Bear simply because he looked better than nothing at times.

 

If we need Bear our Goose is cooked already. No one even knows when or if he'll be healthy after surgery. That does not seem like a solid plan.

Show me a player better than Bear available for free, mid season. 

[King Heffy]

There will likely be injuries and he is a more than serviceable replacement.  Most of the guys in Abbotsford are lefties.

[IBatch]

1 hour ago, King Heffy said:

There will likely be injuries and he is a more than serviceable replacement.  Most of the guys in Abbotsford are lefties.

And for sure he's a legit NHL player.   He's still a late tweener.   Upside isn't high, despite about to enter his best seasons.   But his floor isn't bad either.   To me he's not much more then a mild upgrade on Stetcher.    But at least he is an NHLer. 

Edited September 27, 2023 by IBatch

[King Heffy]

2 minutes ago, IBatch said:

And for sure he's a legit NHL player.   He's still a late tweener.   Upside isn't high, despite about to enter his best seasons.   But his floor isn't bad either.   To me he's not much more then a mild upgrade on Stetcher.    But at least he is an NHLer. 

If you can bring in a guy like that as a midseason injury replacement instead of an AHL call up, it's a good thing.  I don't think anyone is arguing he should be in the top 4 or anything like that 

Edited September 27, 2023 by King Heffy

[Gawdzukes]

2 hours ago, canuck73_3 said:

Show me a player better than Bear available for free, mid season. 

 

We won't know until we are there. It's before the season has even started right now. I would rather try anyone else available at that time myself, if it's even necessary, and think we have a better chance of success. If he's literally the only thing available then sure we can sign him if we need depth, for one year only though. I see it as nothing more than a flyer on a #7 dman who is small and poor defensively.

 

The thing that puzzles me about Bear is don't we need to play hockey and have a starting line-up long before he'd even be available? It seems to me if our season is already going well Bear is unnecessary.

 

Penciling an injured fringe player into your line-up months down the road doesn't bode well for the hopes of the team, and makes little sense to me. We need to play hockey games and win them in October. If our hopes are resting on Bear suddenly getting healthy and signing with us what are we doing in the meantime?

 

6 months recovery time from June 15th puts it at December 15. Probably doesn't play until January and even then he could take even longer to come back. I wouldn't be placing the hopes of the team on his shoulders if I was running the team.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Gawdzukes

[Jess]

Bear would be a great Myers replacement as a 3RD, but while we still have Myers, I don't see a point in pursuing him. Maybe if we we trade Myers at the deadline or maybe next year assuming Myers signs somewhere else.

[canuck73_3]

2 hours ago, Gawdzukes said:

 

We won't know until we are there. It's before the season has even started right now. I would rather try anyone else available at that time myself, if it's even necessary, and think we have a better chance of success. If he's literally the only thing available then sure we can sign him if we need depth, for one year only though. I see it as nothing more than a flyer on a #7 dman who is small and poor defensively.

 

The thing that puzzles me about Bear is don't we need to play hockey and have a starting line-up long before he'd even be available? It seems to me if our season is already going well Bear is unnecessary.

 

Penciling an injured fringe player into your line-up months down the road doesn't bode well for the hopes of the team, and makes little sense to me. We need to play hockey games and win them in October. If our hopes are resting on Bear suddenly getting healthy and signing with us what are we doing in the meantime?

 

6 months recovery time from June 15th puts it at December 15. Probably doesn't play until January and even then he could take even longer to come back. I wouldn't be placing the hopes of the team on his shoulders if I was running the team.

Trade Myers when Bear is ready, sign Bear to deal rest of the season, free Myers replacement for the year. Boom easy. 

[sashimi]

9 hours ago, Gawdzukes said:

 

Bear sucks. I agree with @D.B Cooper. Why shoot for mediocre. There must be some other player we can play besides a guy that can't even hold a hockey stick right now, and struggles on every team he plays on, including ours.

 

If we sign him it better not be for more than a year. He sucks at defence in his own end, clearing the net, and battles behind the net. Not a player on a winning hockey team as we've seen already. If we're desperate or the year is already over when he's healthy sure give him 3 or 4 months to putter around. I think there is a vast delusion going on with Bear simply because he looked better than nothing at times.

 

If we need Bear our Goose is cooked already. No one even knows when or if he'll be healthy after surgery. That does not seem like a solid plan.

He'd be the second best right handed defenseman on this roster immediately. 

 

He'll be healthy around Christmas / in the New Year. If Van can clear the cap space he'll likely be signed and play with Hughes. Sure, it would be awesome to have Dougie Hamilton or Rasmus Anderson to play with Quinn but that's not reality. The reality is Bear is currently the teams best option for the first pair RD spot by a mile.

 

Saying "Bear sucks" does nothing but prove to me you aren't good at objectively evaluating hockey players and have no problem hopping online and spouting off your uneducated opinions with no evidence to back them up.

[Gawdzukes]

1 minute ago, sashimi said:

He'd be the second best right handed defenseman on this roster immediately. 

 

He'll be healthy around Christmas / in the New Year. If Van can clear the cap space he'll likely be signed and play with Hughes. Sure, it would be awesome to have Dougie Hamilton or Rasmus Anderson to play with Quinn but that's not reality. The reality is Bear is currently the teams best option for the first pair RD spot by a mile.

 

Saying "Bear sucks" does nothing but prove to me you aren't good at objectively evaluating hockey players and have no problem hopping online and spouting off your uneducated opinions with no evidence to back them up.

 

The evidence is no team seems to want him too bad. Edmonton didn't. Carolina didn't even give him a single game to prove his worth last year before giving him away to us for a 5th round draft pick. That was after being benched the entire playoffs the season before. He's never had more than 21 points in a season and he didn't do much of anything to help us win last year either. I've been involved with hockey a long time and have a good track record of objectively rating hockey players. He's a fringe NHLer at 26 years of age.

We'll wait and see if he signs first and then we can see just how good he is ... again. Of course, he actually has to get healthy first, and I hope the team has a plan for the first 40 games of the season. That part somehow seems far more important than if and how Bear impacts the team in January. If he's available, we have the cap space, and he's an upgrade on what we are playing. Then sign him, not now.