As of right now how do you think the regular season will go?

[Cogburn]

I think we will squeak, sneak or streak into the playoffs this year. 7th or 8th. We make a splash in the first round, but don't end up moving ahead.

70 point seasons from the Sedins, Vrbata and Bonino do about 50, Edler does 45+, and we get some tremendous goaltending from both Lack and Miller, and I think Horvat won't last the 9 game trial this year.

I think that balances the negative and positive view points enough to be considered "realistic".

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

People keep saying Dallas and Colorado may take a step back but IMO Nashville will actually be a better team this year as well (and better than the Canucks).

They finished ahead of Vancouver and that was with Rinne missing a large portion of the season.

Coupled with his return, a crazy good (and young) defense, additions of Neal, Jokinen and Roy upfront to give them more than they had along with Lavy behind the bench.

Just cannot see the Canucks beating out one of:

Anaheim
LA
St.Louis
Chicago
San Jose
Columbus
Dallas
Colorado
Arizona
Nashville

 

[MS]

Which is why I'd do anything possible to find a taker for Sbisa now and find a way to get Barberio from Tampa, since there is a log jam on defense and he requires waivers to get down to the AHL.

Czikas is also a player I expressed interest in early this summer.

I also think it's unfair to compare any of the Lightning system to the rest of the league. That place is like an NHLer factory of late.

Sbisa would clear waivers without any trouble. We're stuck with him for the season.

But yeah, Barberio would have been a perfect addition either as part of the Garrison deal or if he could have been picked up now with the waiver squeeze. Talented PMD stuck in a deep system, looked impressive last year in #6/7 minutes.

Instead we have Sbisa who is just the complete wrong fit for everything this team needed and everything Desjardins wants to do in terms of style of play.

 

[y2kcanucks]

In 2011-12, the players aged 22 and under who scored over 0.9 points/game in the AHL were :

Cory Conacher - NHL regular
Tyler Johnson - NHL regular, Calder finalist last year
Kyle Palmeiri - NHL regular
Gustav Nyquist - emerging NHL star

So, in that season, 100% of guys who were big minor-league scorers at a young age quickly made the jump to the NHL. And 3/4 are really good NHL players.

This continues if you lower the threshold to 0.8 points/game and 40+ games :

Jonathan Marchessault - OK, this guy hasn't done anything but is absolutely tiny.
Peter Holland - NHL player for most of last year
Mark Barbario - NHL player
Tomas Tatar - NHL regular, 40 points last year for Detroit
Casey Cizikas - NHL regular
Cam Atkinson - NHL regular, 20 goals last year
Nazem Kadri - NHL regular

6/7 were NHL players last year, and 4/7 are quite good NHL players.

So you're pretty much completely wrong on this. The success rate of guys aged 22 and under who score at a high rate in the NHL is exceptionally good, provided they aren't incredibly small. And your cherry picking of flops was pretty disingenuous.

So I'm pretty much completely wrong on this because I didn't lower the bar from PPG to 0.80 PPG? Thanks for the laugh.

 

[y2kcanucks]

I could find 3 on one team in the last 2 years in Kucherov, T. Johnson and Palat that were major league point producers at the AHL level - all 3 look to have very bright futures in the NHL.

Are you trying to pretend you did a random sampling? - it's too transparent. Again, how did you find 27 and 28 year olds in Brock Trotter and Chris Bourque without finding any NHL players in the last 5 years?

Something stinks here.

I used a larger sample size than 17 ****ing games (Kucherov), nor did I lower the bar as much as you have for Palat. But hey, continue to move the goal posts. I've come to accept that from you over the years.

 

[Tinhorn1]

So I'm pretty much completely wrong on this because I didn't lower the bar from PPG to 0.80 PPG? Thanks for the laugh.

What are you doing? The methodology he uses gives a far more accurate picture than your hand-picked seven-player selection sprinkled with losers. Oh, wait, yes, I see what you're doing.

 

[MS]

So I'm pretty much completely wrong on this because I didn't lower the bar from PPG to 0.80 PPG? Thanks for the laugh.

Um, what?

Seriously?

"Lowering the bar" should work in your favour, not mine. And it was 100% at 0.9 points/game, if you didn't notice.

Scoring at a high level in the AHL at a young age is a terrific barometer of future NHL success no matter what threshold you use. It's cut-and-dried.

 

[Drop the Sopel]

I used a larger sample size than 17 ****ing games (Kucherov), nor did I lower the bar as much as you have for Palat. But hey, continue to move the goal posts. I've come to accept that from you over the years.

So you are going to sit there and pretend you randomly came across that group of guys and didn't find a single NHL player?

You must have miraculously overlooked everyone on MS's list, not to mention Eberle, Marchand, Pacioretty, B. Schenn, Giroux, Couture, Boedker and the other couple dozen guys that fit the criteria.

Palat- 52P, 56GP
Dalpe-57P, 61GP

I was moving the goalposts by putting Palat in, yet you listed Dalpe, even though he has an identical PPG? Hmmm.

 

[iFan]

Notice a lot of you guys really hyping Vey up... No doubt he has shown offensive upside but if he is as good as some of you make him out to be why was he traded in division for a 2nd rounder? I would've thought LA could've sent him East for at least that, if he's as good as some make him out to be LA should've gotten a lot more back. I dont know much about Vey, just what I've seen of him this training camp and when he scored on us last year but I don't get all this hype around him.

 

[Drop the Sopel]

Notice a lot of you guys really hyping Vey up... No doubt he has shown offensive upside but if he is as good as some of you make him out to be why was he traded in division for a 2nd rounder? I would've thought LA could've sent him East for at least that, if he's as good as some make him out to be LA should've gotten a lot more back. I dont know much about Vey, just what I've seen of him this training camp and when he scored on us last year but I don't get all this hype around him.

I don't understand how anyone could not be impressed by Vey up to this point. Can't remember the last Canuck rookie forward that looked this good in a pre-season...

Also don't see why he would have returned a 1st Rd pick from a team in the East. The guy didn't have the NHL track record to warrant that type of return. Mid 2nd seems about where his value should have been IMO - didn't buy into the notion we overpaid, as many seemed to think this offseason.

I would give the Canuck scouts about a 20% chance of finding a better player than Vey at 50th overall. I make that trade every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

 

[IntangiBo]

So I'm pretty much completely wrong on this because I didn't lower the bar from PPG to 0.80 PPG? Thanks for the laugh.

Should have stopped typing after 6 words.

 

[IntangiBo]

Notice a lot of you guys really hyping Vey up... No doubt he has shown offensive upside but if he is as good as some of you make him out to be why was he traded in division for a 2nd rounder? I would've thought LA could've sent him East for at least that, if he's as good as some make him out to be LA should've gotten a lot more back. I dont know much about Vey, just what I've seen of him this training camp and when he scored on us last year but I don't get all this hype around him.

Why would you have thought that?

 

[LiveeviL]

After some years with more or less legal excuses (those I believe in that is) I see this as a year when the team will be able to play up to potential. Perhaps a bit wishful, but the team has underperformed a lot of years now and after rain comes sunshine, all that jazz and... underperformance...

 

[shortshorts]

Why do you peoe feel the need to be right about everything?

If another poster proves you wrong why is it so hard to swallow on an anonymous forum.

It's funny to see people arguing their opinions by being purposely dense.

I've been wrong in the past and I've eaten crow, and I've been right (suck it Kesler haters) before and make people know about it.

Just an off topic comment.

 

[Biggest Canuck Fan]

In order for this team to make they playoffs they have to win 66% of their non divisional games, go .500 vs the california teams and go 4-2 vs the Flames and Oilers... If they do that they have a reasonable shot of the playoffs.

 

[petrishriekandgo]

Benning/Linden won't let us miss... if we're close I see some additions/subtractions at the trade deadline to put us over the top.

 

[bossram]

We're a fringe playoff team. So that's pretty much the worst place to be in the League. Great.

Chicago, St. Louis, LA, Anaheim and San Jose you have to think are pretty much locks. That's five spots. Dallas and Minnesota look really good and are a lot stronger now. That's one spot we can battle the likes of Colorado/Phoenix/Nashville/Edmonton for. Certainly doable, but its not a great place to be. Either we make it and get smashed in the first round, or miss out on a top pick in a fantastic draft.

 

[Huggy]

Man handled by sj la phx ana min col and dal compete with chi stl and alberta

miss playoffs with edmonton and flames draft 3-9

hannafin, strome, barzal, or rantanen and our team looks stupid in a few years.

shinkaruk barzal virtanen
jensen horvat vey
gaunce mccann kassian
cassels oreilly fox

dw about the d

 

[Aphid Attraction]

Notice a lot of you guys really hyping Vey up... No doubt he has shown offensive upside but if he is as good as some of you make him out to be why was he traded in division for a 2nd rounder? I would've thought LA could've sent him East for at least that, if he's as good as some make him out to be LA should've gotten a lot more back. I dont know much about Vey, just what I've seen of him this training camp and when he scored on us last year but I don't get all this hype around him.

If he is playing well, then what does it matter what he was traded for? He is allowed to out preform his perceived value, and he has stared to... If Schroeder ever played this well posters would be crying for him to be in the 2C role to start the season...

I also feel the same way about some of the offensive plays Weber makes, If he was a Canuck draft pick, people would love his offence

 

[Wilch]

Sbisa would clear waivers without any trouble. We're stuck with him for the season.

But yeah, Barberio would have been a perfect addition either as part of the Garrison deal or if he could have been picked up now with the waiver squeeze. Talented PMD stuck in a deep system, looked impressive last year in #6/7 minutes.

Instead we have Sbisa who is just the complete wrong fit for everything this team needed and everything Desjardins wants to do in terms of style of play.

I will retract every criticism I had for Benning if he has the balls to waive Sbisa and acquire Barberio before the start of the season.

 

[Bougieman]

I will retract every criticism I had for Benning if he has the balls to waive Sbisa and acquire Barberio before the start of the season.

Oh, ok. Cool. Good thing it's not gonna take one extremely specific, narrowly defined thing involving players that barely make the roster to get you on board, or anything.

 

[Wilch]

Oh, ok. Cool. Good thing it's not gonna take one extremely specific, narrowly defined thing to get you on board, or anything.

Right, because I stated it's the only thing that will change my opinion on Benning.

"No Jim, even if you manage to trade Sbisa, Burrows and Hansen to Pittsburgh for Crosby, Maatta and their next three 1st round picks, I will still think you're an idiot."

 

[Pip]

I will retract every criticism I had for Benning if he has the balls to waive Sbisa and acquire Barberio before the start of the season.

I really don't see any GM waiving a player they just got in a trade before he even plays one real game for us. Especially after talking him up as an asset

 

[Wilch]

I really don't see any GM waiving a player they just got in a trade before he even plays one real game for us. Especially after talking him up as an asset

I don't expect Benning to do it.

That's why something like that would garner my respect.

I'm tired of seeing GMs being overly concerned with optics rather than making the right decisions.

If Sbisa keeps up this level of play and Benning elects to keep him on board for a season or more, he's essentially sweeping this problem under the rug.

Gillis may have been slow to pull the trigger with regards to the Ehrhoff-Ballard saga, but I admire him for kicking Sturm to the curb as soon as he realizes Sturm is a useless pylon.

 

[Barney Gumble]

Benning/Linden won't let us miss... if we're close I see some additions/subtractions at the trade deadline to put us over the top.

Probably correct but I hope they don't. I want them to make the playoffs but not at the expense of rentals. Might as well have Nonis still as GM.