Weak. I'd offer them Burrows, Sestito, Weber, 2nd, Miller, Lack for Subban, Price and Galchenyuk.
- Nucker101

Way to hold on to your perceived value Mike.

Way to hold on to your perceived value Mike.
- golfingsince

I'd blackmail them by growing hideous facial hair with daily selfie updates of it sent to Bergevin's personal email until they finally accept.

We as fans can't get caught up in the fast start. There are streaks and slumps during a season even for the best teams. Don't let the fast start change your expectations. The fact of the matter is, the Canucks are exceeding anyone's expectations from the moment Trevor was hired and subsequently hired Benning and Willie. The team is well coached (Willie is at least in the conversation for Jack Adams as he is getting the most out of especially the bottom 6, guys who at the beginning of the year we thought were liabilities). The team is now run well. Who would have thought the fan base would be as pleased with the return for Kesler, when he put management over a barrel? Benning is drafting and bringing in free agents in an intellectual manner, eg, big players that will do well in the playoffs for years to come and players that coach Willie has worked with before. After 28 games, the majority of which were on the road, we're second in the pacific, I repeat, SECOND IN THE BIG BAD PACIFIC. The team skates hard, battles, is exciting, and looks like they're actually having some (frank)ing fun out there! Lets not go back to being the fanbase that roasts our players after a couple bad games. We're playing with the casino's money and the future looks a helluva lot more bright than it did at the end of last season.

COCONUTS GO!

Weak. I'd offer them Burrows, Sestito, Weber, 2nd, Miller, Lack for Subban, Price and Galchenyuk.
- Nucker101

I'm not trading Sestito.

I'll give them a "C+"

9th in Fenwick-Close.
12th in GF/60 at 5v5
25th in GA/60 at 5v5
16th in PP%
6th in PK%


Pretty much a middle of the pack type of team so far.
- Nucker101

You obviously forgot about the new hotdog menu. B-

We as fans can't get caught up in the fast start. There are streaks and slumps during a season even for the best teams. Don't let the fast start change your expectations. The fact of the matter is, the Canucks are exceeding anyone's expectations from the moment Trevor was hired and subsequently hired Benning and Willie. The team is well coached (Willie is at least in the conversation for Jack Adams as he is getting the most out of especially the bottom 6, guys who at the beginning of the year we thought were liabilities). The team is now run well. Who would have thought the fan base would be as pleased with the return for Kesler, when he put management over a barrel? Benning is drafting and bringing in free agents in an intellectual manner, eg, big players that will do well in the playoffs for years to come and players that coach Willie has worked with before. After 28 games, the majority of which were on the road, we're second in the pacific, I repeat, SECOND IN THE BIG BAD PACIFIC. The team skates hard, battles, is exciting, and looks like they're actually having some (frank)ing fun out there! Lets not go back to being the fanbase that roasts our players after a couple bad games. We're playing with the casino's money and the future looks a helluva lot more bright than it did at the end of last season.

COCONUTS GO!
- noisewater

This.
There are still some legitimate concerns.
Let's see how they are doing end of February. Then, maybe , we can get excited.

So happy that road trip is over.

Any news on Kassians return lately? How about Hammer?

How many more years of Bieksa?

I picked C as well. The fact that we cannot name any player on the current roster that we would be confident enough to put on the Second PP unit outside of Bonino speaks volumes of the lack of depth. PP is for creative players not crash and bang type.
Goaltending has been really mediocre so far with some glimpses of brilliance. The D looks shaky at best. I don't think Hammer makes a big difference other then taking Weber out of the lineup. I have a huge issue with KB's play regressing YoY. He needs a benching to get his mind straight.
I think Kassian needs a literal beat down to get motivated. He seems to play inspired when he is involved physically from the start of the game.
I love the hustle and grind of this team but we are severely missing some top end talent. I hope Virtanan and Shink develops to fill that role.

I'd blackmail them by growing hideous facial hair with daily selfie updates of it sent to Bergevin's personal email until they finally accept.
- Nucker101

I hope this was his actual strategy

Weak. I'd offer them Burrows, Sestito, Weber, 2nd, Miller, Lack for Subban, Price and Galchenyuk.
- Nucker101

Of course YOU would...

We as fans can't get caught up in the fast start. There are streaks and slumps during a season even for the best teams. Don't let the fast start change your expectations. The fact of the matter is, the Canucks are exceeding anyone's expectations from the moment Trevor was hired and subsequently hired Benning and Willie. The team is well coached (Willie is at least in the conversation for Jack Adams as he is getting the most out of especially the bottom 6, guys who at the beginning of the year we thought were liabilities). The team is now run well. Who would have thought the fan base would be as pleased with the return for Kesler, when he put management over a barrel? Benning is drafting and bringing in free agents in an intellectual manner, eg, big players that will do well in the playoffs for years to come and players that coach Willie has worked with before. After 28 games, the majority of which were on the road, we're second in the pacific, I repeat, SECOND IN THE BIG BAD PACIFIC. The team skates hard, battles, is exciting, and looks like they're actually having some (frank)ing fun out there! Lets not go back to being the fanbase that roasts our players after a couple bad games. We're playing with the casino's money and the future looks a helluva lot more bright than it did at the end of last season.

COCONUTS GO!
- noisewater

I appreciate the optimism and have long thought that this fanbase is probably one of the more negative ones in the NHL, but there's probably a good reason for that...constant let-downs. The numbers still suggest that this team isn't a legit top 10 team or "elite" and with an ageing core we're basically at a point now where the core is still good enough to keep this team competitive and are basically buying time for the younger players to develop and eventually get integrated into the lineup(hopefully most of the current higher round picks in the system are in the lineup in the near future). Rushing prospects who aren't ready to be anything more than role/depth players or in the NHL at all while they're still developing is the wrong way to go.

Everyone talks about Detroit, but I'd even look at a team like Tampa recently. They let their young guys all play together in the AHL on a stacked AHL team with young talent and they develop and play in a winning environment. And now they're seeing the benefits of this with guys lie Johnson, Kucherov, Palat, Killorn at the NHL level.

I still don't have a whole lot of faith in the Canucks scouts(especially the guys who have been scouting the QMJHL and WHL in recent years). And even this past draft with Benning had some redflags for me, the wasted late round picks on guys like Pettit and Stewart who are junior grinders/depth players, those guys have virtually a 0% chance of becoming NHL players. Smarter teams like DET, TB, LA will instead draft a player who is at least point-producer on his junior team and and hope he can overcome the reason for being ranked so low(skating, size, etc.). It's all about increasing your odds by every little percentage possible, that's how you build a team through the draft.

The positives are that Benning brought in a couple of his own guys to hopefully improve the scouting and I hope that next year we see a more methodical approach during the later rounds of the draft. But so far Benning's acquisitions(outside of Miller) have all met or exceeding expectations. He does seem to put more faith into scouting a player rather than just looking at the numbers like Gillis(IMO the best method is a balance of both).

By far the best thing Linden/Benning have done is hire Willie Desjardins. As you mentioned, this guy just seems like the type of coach who gets the most out of his players. His system is really good IMO, but sadly due to lack of team speed and ability to create off of the rush there's some holes being exposed. But I think we'll see a roster that suits his style better as each year passes(the Sedins won't be those guys who thrive in an up-tempo system, but until they retire Benning can still work to make sure the other 3 lines can do so, while the Sedins do their own thing).

I'm not trading Sestito.
- Scooby_Doo

Of course YOU would...
- PetrolSexual

I appreciate the optimism and have long thought that this fanbase is probably one of the more negative ones in the NHL, but there's probably a good reason for that...constant let-downs. The numbers still suggest that this team isn't a legit top 10 team or "elite" and with an ageing core we're basically at a point now where the core is still good enough to keep this team competitive and are basically buying time for the younger players to develop and eventually get integrated into the lineup(hopefully most of the current higher round picks in the system are in the lineup in the near future). Rushing prospects who aren't ready to be anything more than role/depth players or in the NHL at all while they're still developing is the wrong way to go.
- Nucker101

I appreciate the optimism and have long thought that this fanbase is probably one of the more negative ones in the NHL, but there's probably a good reason for that...constant let-downs. The numbers still suggest that this team isn't a legit top 10 team or "elite" and with an ageing core we're basically at a point now where the core is still good enough to keep this team competitive and are basically buying time for the younger players to develop and eventually get integrated into the lineup(hopefully most of the current higher round picks in the system are in the lineup in the near future). Rushing prospects who aren't ready to be anything more than role/depth players or in the NHL at all while they're still developing is the wrong way to go.

Everyone talks about Detroit, but I'd even look at a team like Tampa recently. They let their young guys all play together in the AHL on a stacked AHL team with young talent and they develop and play in a winning environment. And now they're seeing the benefits of this with guys lie Johnson, Kucherov, Palat, Killorn at the NHL level.

I still don't have a whole lot of faith in the Canucks scouts(especially the guys who have been scouting the QMJHL and WHL in recent years). And even this past draft with Benning had some redflags for me, the wasted late round picks on guys like Pettit and Stewart who are junior grinders/depth players, those guys have virtually a 0% chance of becoming NHL players. Smarter teams like DET, TB, LA will instead draft a player who is at least point-producer on his junior team and and hope he can overcome the reason for being ranked so low(skating, size, etc.). It's all about increasing your odds by every little percentage possible, that's how you build a team through the draft.

The positives are that Benning brought in a couple of his own guys to hopefully improve the scouting and I hope that next year we see a more methodical approach during the later rounds of the draft. But so far Benning's acquisitions(outside of Miller) have all met or exceeding expectations. He does seem to put more faith into scouting a player rather than just looking at the numbers like Gillis(IMO the best method is a balance of both).

By far the best thing Linden/Benning have done is hire Willie Desjardins. As you mentioned, this guy just seems like the type of coach who gets the most out of his players. His system is really good IMO, but sadly due to lack of team speed and ability to create off of the rush there's some holes being exposed. But I think we'll see a roster that suits his style better as each year passes(the Sedins won't be those guys who thrive in an up-tempo system, but until they retire Benning can still work to make sure the other 3 lines can do so, while the Sedins do their own thing).
- Nucker101

I'll give Jimbo a pass on the late rounds of this draft. He didn't have the longest time to get to know the players already in the system and assess needs. I love that neither Willie nor Benning want anything to do with "the spotlight", they just want to do their jobs. And I agree with you in that the team will be built more around Willie's system in the upcoming seasons. There is most definitely significant room for improvement, all I'm saying is, compared to the tire fire of a team that we had to endure in the second half of last season, this team is fun to watch again and has a glimmer of a bright(er) future.

- bloatedmosquito

You think we're the only team with constant let downs for the fans?!?!? 29 teams are let down every year..... its the Vancouver way to complain about (frank)ing everything. The weather, the canucks etc etc etc

I see Vantel picked D.
- golfingsince

Wrong

They need a decent size, under 30 D, who plays NHL minutes and can QB the PP. The price is high but they are out there.

He only allows "studs" to play on his team #teamscooby


BTW - you wanna trade me Marleau or what?
- LeftCoaster

Man, I've become the center of the universe when I comes to trading.

I'll absolutely consider it. Just want all these initial trades to go through so I can get my bearings straight.

I cant look at my roster right now and even remotely remember who I have and who will be gone tomorrow.

Like I told Nucker, I'll absolutely discuss trades but dont want any proposals til tomorow

Man, I've become the center of the universe when I comes to trading.

I'll absolutely consider it. Just want all these initial trades to go through so I can get my bearings straight.

I cant look at my roster right now and even remotely remember who I have and who will be gone tomorrow.

Like I told Nucker, I'll absolutely discuss trades but wont respond to anything until tomorrow.
- vancity787

This is how I felt during the draft
Had to write it all down

By far the best thing Linden/Benning have done is hire Willie Desjardins. As you mentioned, this guy just seems like the type of coach who gets the most out of his players. His system is really good IMO, but sadly due to lack of team speed and ability to create off of the rush there's some holes being exposed. But I think we'll see a roster that suits his style better as each year passes(the Sedins won't be those guys who thrive in an up-tempo system, but until they retire Benning can still work to make sure the other 3 lines can do so, while the Sedins do their own thing).
- Nucker101

I'm starting to think that any canuck coach has to realize the travel schedule has a huge effect on these players and needs to be addressed appropriately. Too many times (no matter what version) I've seen this team falter purely on the reason of player exhaustion. It's not poor systems or lack of talent that causes these stretches of poor play. It always seems to be fatigue.

Has to be the toughest schedule in the NHL (maybe 2nd behind edmonton).

I know it's not acceptable to rest players but the NBA does it all the time and nobody thinks less of them. Saw a broadcast that mentioned canucks visiting the Spurs management group to see how they manage their veteran players and how they have kept them so healthy. I believe the answer was sitting players only to rest them not because of injury or poor play.
I think the canucks are doomed never to get to the promise land because they will never have a healthy roster to compete to their fullest.

This is how I felt during the draft
Had to write it all down
- bezz44

This was my TDL week. I am happy with my team now. It will be two years for most to develop but I got some good pieces like Monahan Nino Ho-sang Siverberg for future scoring

I picked C. Still an injury or two away from disaster IMO.
- golfingsince

I didn't vote, don't like the choices. So far, A+, they have exceeded every expectation that any of us had for them. But, as you (and Nucker) point out, they are this close from falling off the cliff. A grade doesn't do them justice at this point.

I'm starting to think that any canuck coach has to realize the travel schedule has a huge effect on these players and needs to be addressed appropriately. Too many times (no matter what version) I've seen this team falter purely on the reason of player exhaustion. It's not poor systems or lack of talent that causes these stretches of poor play. It always seems to be fatigue.

Has to be the toughest schedule in the NHL (maybe 2nd behind edmonton).

I know it's not acceptable to rest players but the NBA does it all the time and nobody thinks less of them. Saw a broadcast that mentioned canucks visiting the Spurs management group to see how they manage their veteran players and how they have kept them so healthy. I believe the answer was sitting players only to rest them not because of injury or poor play.
I think the canucks are doomed never to get to the promise land because they will never have a healthy roster to compete to their fullest.
- bloatedmosquito

I think the parity in this league makes that a very difficult thing to do. Every game is going to make a difference and if you are giving your best players the night off and end up losing points, you may not end up in the playoffs at all.

This was my TDL week. I am happy with my team now. It will be two years for most to develop but I got some good pieces like Monahan Nino Ho-sang Siverberg for future scoring
- VANTEL

I am really upset Lefty didn't give me a chance to beat the offer for Monahan
Guy is a beast