Waived: Booth Compliance Buyout (per Bob Mckenzie)

[Bleach Clean]

With 28 games left they were still 11 points off of home ice advantage. They were (barely) in 8th place at the time, but they already had a month of crap play behind them.

I too think the team will likely bounce back a bit next year, but I don't think we can just write off half a season of being the worst team in the league. There are much longer trends that are concerning with this team, primarily the fact that they've had a near league worst offense for about 200 games now. Once you consider that they've traded away the 2 goalies that helped them overachieve from 2011-2013 it's not hard to see why some aren't particularly bullish on the Canucks' ability to compete next season.

Goaltending has been a massive reason that the team has succeed in recent years and the guys they had in net are both gone. You give the 11-12 or 12-13 the type of save percentage they got last year and they'd have finished much farther down the standings with 15th and 20th best goal differentials respectively in those years.

Those goaltenders are both gone, but there was a case to be made to want Luongo gone. The debates on his effectiveness were happening mid-year. So how much has the team suffered really?

For the larger picture, I'm not sure what value there is treating trends as static, when we know the team is going to change? Meaning, the same team with worse goaltending = X, but the same team with worse goaltending = Y... when we know the "same team" will not exist.

Last year, they were 8th overall for a bit, then dropped to a bubble team, and then bottomed out. What is their real level? I don't know. I don't know what Lack is going to do. I don't know how they will supplement their offense. Therefore, I think this talk is much better suited to when we know what they end up doing.

For now, back to Booth...

 

[m9]

Glad to move on from Booth. People talk about how good he was with Richardson and Kassian, and that's fine. But remember how good Matthias was on LW with the same two guys? He was awesome. So was Booth that good, or were the other guys just playing great?

This move hopefully cements Matthias as our 3rd line LW, a spot he will be great in IMO.

 

[biturbo19]

You don't rebuild when you have the Sedins and a core of dmen...

Not only that, it's impossible to 'take a run for McDavid' when our core and defensive group is that strong (and all on NTCs). Our roster isn't even in the same stratosphere of suck as teams like Buffalo/Florida/Edmonton/Calgary and even if we don't sign UFAs, there's no way we'll compete for #1 overall.

Re-tooling and attempting to continue to be competitive is a far better option.

Exactly.

And this Booth buyout clears the way to get $4.2M extra worth of something more useful, in the pursuit of that re-tooling and supplementing what we have while continuing to compete. Be that a more effective scoring winger, a puck moving RHS PPQB defenceman, or maybe even put it towards a good goaltender to bolster what Lack brings to the table. It would honestly be hard to spend $4.2M less effectively at this point.

If Benning doesn't do a good job of stockpiling young assets and prospects along the way, there will be plenty of time for "tanking" when the Sedins + Hamhuis, Bieksa etc al retire or move on.

 

[Ryp37]

But you don't seem to be mentioning the fact the Canucks lost a very good, veteran goaltender and at the moment have a couple rookies between the pipes. Not to mention what the loss of Kesler could mean - this team is absolutely pitiful in the goalscoring department and they could be losing the only player on the roster that scored more than 17 goals last season. Never mind everything else Kesler provides, on a great contract.

Benning has his work cut out for him for this team to make the playoffs. As of today, they're worse than a coin-flip to make it IMO.

And you also don't seem to mention the Torts factor, there's no reason not to believe this team can miss the playoffs get a high pick and make the playoffs with a coach that actually knows his teams strengths/shows up for game day skates

 

[WhatTheNuck]

Makes no sense. If we're about to acquire a bad contract in the Kesler deal, that bad contract is probably the one we should be buying out, not Booth. (As albatross contracts go, 1 year at $4.5mil is not so bad.)

I never said it had to be a bad contract. Kesler for Neal and a late pick? Sign Statsny? LOL

 

[Sharpshooter]

Just heard Booth has been waived.

 

[Aphid Attraction]

This is personally how I would define an ineffective season:

2013-2014 CANUCKS 66 9 10 19

What player was effective in that season...

 

[Aphid Attraction]

A season where injuries and/or poor play mean the player delivered limited value to the team, especially relative to his contract.

He had a decent 20-game run with Kesler/Higgins in 11-12 but that doesn't salvage a season where he had 30 points in 62 games with poor defensive play, and then didn't score in the playoffs.

If the bar is relative to his contract... then I fully expect Booth to have a bounce back season next season... especially if he signs a sub 1 M contract...

No one scored in that tiny playoff run... and those simple stats do not put anything relative to context of the season...

No one will say he is worth what he is paid...

 

[Aphid Attraction]

Below average production. David Booth has been a below average player since his severe concussion in Florida.

What average are you using to call him below average?

All forwards?
Top 6 forwards?
2nd line forwards?

or

All forwards on his team?
Top 6 forwards on his team?
His line mates?

 

[Verviticus]

More Edler hyperbole lol.

edler is the worst hockey player in history

 

[Intoewsables]

Probably the right move, although I would've been fine with keeping him for one more year as well. He was a capable top-9 forward even though he made way too much money.

 

[nekyvGkOPaiWICTscLl6]

Few things here.

This only makes sense if Benning opts to use that cap space and as far as I am aware, we weren't going to be spending to the cap this year.

 

[timw33]

Few things here.

This only makes sense if Benning opts to use that cap space and as far as I am aware, we weren't going to be spending to the cap this year.

At least it will be an option this summer with an extra $4.2MM

 

[luongo321]

Best news I've heard all day. He actually started to play better near the end of the year, but that only happened when the team was complete crap and there was no pressure on him.

 

[Iridescent*]

At least it will be an option this summer with an extra $4.2MM

Bingo.

One thing this team has not had in a very long time is cap flexibility. In fact, we've used loopholes to be over the cap thanks to cap wizard Gilman for many years now.

A new GM is coming in, he's going to want flexibility and room to maneuver. Buying out Booth doesn't mean that Benning is making a trade or signing a free agent, it just means that he'd like to have the option to do so if a situation presented itself.

 

[Hardyvan123]

What do you consider wisely? Im guessing it may end up just being cap flexibility and a roster spot maybe for someone like jensen instead or depending what comes back with a kesler trade.

I could take or leave booth honestly for one final year.

Pretty much this.

booth wasn't part of our future and assuming some prospects are ready and some guys are coming back in a Kesler/Edler trade our top 6 didn't need Booth and our bottom 6 isn't our weak point.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

This is just David Booth's attitude.

He's really an always happy eternal optimist.

If you told him "Just joking! You're staying and starting on the fourth line!" , he was would authentically and legitimately happy and looking forward to it.

i also have always imagined hanging out with david booth to be like hanging out with a puppy.

 

[luongo321]

So we really officially loose out on this Florida trade. So far we've bought out both Ballard and Booth.... Let's hope our two latest Florida acquisitions go our way! (Possibly a third!)

Fast forward 1 year: Canucks buyout Reinhart.

 

[Win One Before I Die]

So sick of the David Booth hate. Wait until he signs with a contender and everyone is calling for Linden's head for buying him out. THEN WHO WILL HAVE THE LAST LAUGH?!

 

[Shareefruck]

So sick of the David Booth hate. Wait until he signs with a contender and everyone is calling for Linden's head for buying him out. THEN WHO WILL HAVE THE LAST LAUGH?!

So sick of your David Booth love. Wait until he signs with a contender, single-handedly ruins their chances, and you'll be groveling at Linden's feet for wisely buying him out. THEN WHO WILL HAVE THE LAST LAUGH?!

See? Anyone can do that.

 

[Win One Before I Die]

So sick of your David Booth love. Wait until he signs with a contender, single-handedly ruins their chances, and you'll be groveling at Linden's feet for wisely buying him out. THEN WHO WILL HAVE THE LAST LAUGH?!

See? Anyone can do that.

Why do you have to kick me while I am down? The only player I ever cared about is no longer on the Canucks. You have no idea the feels I feel.

 

[Drop the Sopel]

And you also don't seem to mention the Torts factor, there's no reason not to believe this team can miss the playoffs get a high pick and make the playoffs with a coach that actually knows his teams strengths/shows up for game day skates

I'm happy Torts was fired, but let's not forget he was the coach that had this team playing excellent, air-tight hockey for the 1st 30-40 games of the season. He couldn't squeeze scoring out of the group, then again, neither could AV in the last 100 games. I just can't put this all on Tortorella after seeing the team's awful offensive output for the going on 2 and a half years.

If Benning has a good offseason, and everything goes smooth next year, I believe the Canucks could compete for one of the last 2-3 playoff spots. Definitely would bet against them making it however.

Look at the Sharks for example. They wiped their ass with the Canucks for the last couple years and their GM says they're re-building because they're not close to competing with the best in the West. They finished with a +76 goal differential over the lowly Canucks, yet still believe a re-build is the best course of action to reach the ultimate goal, the Stanley cup.

And this is one of the big reasons why we could see a 30 year gap between Canadian teams winning the Stanley cup. Winning the cup is a secondary goal in Canadian markets.

 

[Virtanen2Horvat]

edler is the worst hockey player in history

Your forgetting AHLberts.

 

[biturbo19]

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Booth turn in a rare "mostly healthy" season with 15g+ at a bargain $1M sort of deal with a bottom-feeder team a la Mason Raymond leading to a bunch of "waaaaaaah why did we let him go" cries.

But it's absolutely the right thing to do for this team right now.

 

[ddawg1950]

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Booth turn in a rare "mostly healthy" season with 15g+ at a bargain $1M sort of deal with a bottom-feeder team a la Mason Raymond leading to a bunch of "waaaaaaah why did we let him go" cries.

But it's absolutely the right thing to do for this team right now.

Actually think you've nailed it.

I can see Toronto picking him up on the cheap.

But he really was done here.