Player Discussion Brendan Gaunce (Canucks will not extend qualifying offer - Dhaliwal)

[Fire Benning]

I will die on the hill that he was a better option that a lot of the bottom six players they heavily used.

He will be a good 4C on a team with strong center depth.

 

[I am toxic]

He was 26th overall and has played 117 NHL games so far. Pretty liberal use of the term 'bust' since he never had lofty expectations to begin with. That draft year was also garbage, look at the players selected around Gaunce, outside of Skjei and Pearson there's a whole lot of 'meh':

1	24	Boston	Malcolm Subban	G	Belleville Bulls [OHL]	34	0	0	0	4	2018-19
1	25	St. Louis	Jordan Schmaltz	D	Green Bay Gamblers [USHL]	42	0	5	5	12	2018-19
1	26	Vancouver	Brendan Gaunce	C	Belleville Bulls [OHL]	117	6	9	15	45	2018-19
1	27	Phoenix	Henrik Samuelsson	C	Edmonton Oil Kings [WHL]	3	0	0	0	2	2014-15
1	28	NY Rangers	Brady Skjei	D	U.S. National Development Team [USHL]	224	12	66	78	107	2018-19
1	29	New Jersey	Stefan Matteau	C	U.S. National Development Team [USHL]	64	3	4	7	27	2017-18
1	30	Los Angeles	Tanner Pearson	L	Barrie Colts [OHL]	367	78	80	158	94	2018-19
Round 2
Round	Num.	Drafted By	Player	Pos	Drafted From	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	Last Season
2	31	Columbus	Oscar Dansk	G	Brynas IF Gavle [SEL]	4	0	0	0	0	2017-18
2	32	Edmonton	Mitch Moroz	L	Edmonton Oil Kings [WHL]
2	33	Montreal	Sebastian Collberg	R	Frolunda HC [SEL]
2	34	NY Islanders	Ville Pokka	D	Karpat [SM-liiga]
2	35	Toronto	Matt Finn	D	Guelph Storm [OHL]

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Gaunce was liked because he seemed like a good kid, had good positional play and defensive awareness, and seemed very determined to improve. I hope he gets another crack at the NHL when injuries arise.

Exactly. Well said.

 

[I am toxic]

 

[MS]

I will die on the hill that he was a better option that a lot of the bottom six players they heavily used.

He will be a good 4C on a team with strong center depth.

He should be going into his 3rd full season as a cheap, effective NHL regular. It’s idiotic.

Best of luck to him elsewhere.

 

[DonnyNucker]

I will die on the hill that he was a better option that a lot of the bottom six players they heavily used.

He will be a good 4C on a team with strong center depth.

You are willing to die defending your stance that Gaunce is better than some of the scraps the Canucks employ? Powerful stuff. Gaunce touched a lot of Canuck fans

 

[Hit the post]

You are willing to die defending your stance that Gaunce is better than some of the scraps the Canucks employ? Powerful stuff. Gaunce touched a lot of Canuck fans

That says more about the quality of **** that Barney Fife has assembled on the team more than the so-called "quality" of Gaunce that one can make a legitimate argument in his favor.

It's like saying Dave Nonis is a better GM than Jim Benning; it doesn't mean the former is/was a good GM. Just reflective on how "good" Benning is.

 

[DonnyNucker]

That says more about the quality of **** that Barney Fife has assembled on the team more than the so-called "quality" of Gaunce that one can make a legitimate argument in his favor.

Absolutely. I just find it hilarious anyone cares about Gaunce. I’m thrilled he is gone so I don’t have to hear about him anymore. The fact he has a thread makes me depressed to be a Canucks fan

 

[Jay Cee]

Bye bye!

 

[Hollywood Burrows]

zero doubt in my mind that next season he'll be a regular NHL player and out-perform beagle.

 

[Hit the post]

zero doubt in my mind that next season he'll be a regular NHL player and out-perform beagle.

He'll be nothing special probably. Only thing in his favor is/will be his cheap contract on a likely one year deal. Object lesson for handing out some term & dollars to complete garbage like Schaller.

 

[TruGr1t]

Management hates cheap, under-paid players that can add utility to a line-up. So this makes sense.

This will probably be followed up with a ~$3M AAV, multi-year deal to Granlund.

 

[604]

Stupid. Solid bubble guy who is good in the AHL and not a disaster if he gets called up to the NHL.

Lose him on waivers rather than for not extending a QO.

 

[I in the Eye]

He should be an example to others of a successful AHL graduation. Do what is asked, work hard, be patient, produce... but alas, Gaunce's culture carrying is wasted here. Wish him the best as a 4th liner in an astute organization.

 

[DonnyNucker]

He should be an example to others of a successful AHL graduation. Do what is asked, work hard, be patient, produce... but alas, Gaunce's culture carrying is wasted here. Wish him the best as a 4th liner in an astute organization.

Funny that he has cleared waivers multiple times but you guys think he is going to have a stellar career with an “astute” organization. He is done as an NHL player

 

[StreetHawk]

Funny that he has cleared waivers multiple times but you guys think he is going to have a stellar career with an “astute” organization. He is done as an NHL player

Likely a two way deal with some other team. Get a fresh start.

If his Utica coach in green won’t give him a shot here he’s done with the Canucks. Best of luck to him.

 

[Bitz and Bites]

He should be an example to others of a successful AHL graduation. Do what is asked, work hard, be patient, produce... but alas, Gaunce's culture carrying is wasted here. Wish him the best as a 4th liner in an astute organization.

Yeah,he’ll likely end up signed by a team with an internal cap who have to make smart decisions with their payroll.
Arizona or Anaheim are likely destinations,maybe Carolina if he goes east.

Hope he finds a good spot wherever he ends up.

 

[Hockeyphysio]

I am happy for Gaunce. He was not giving a shot at all this year, despite being one of Utica's best players and the futile players we trotted out on the Canucks night after night.

 

[TryamkinPleaseReturn]

Excellent. Benning's 7 year master plan is almost complete.

He only needs to find a way to get rid of Hutton, Horvat, Markstrom and Tanev.

 

[vancityluongo]

Happy for Gaunce tbh.

Could see AV bringing him in as a fourth liner for Philly. They never had any meaningful overlap in their time on the Canucks, but AV probably followed his career somewhat.

 

[Fire Benning]

“bUt hE pASsED tHrOuGh WAiVeRS”

so did Markstrom once upon a time

 

[wonton15]

This is absolutely a bad move if we are planning to keep trash like Schaller Granlund etc.

 

[Megaterio Llamas]

 

[MS]

You are willing to die defending your stance that Gaunce is better than some of the scraps the Canucks employ? Powerful stuff. Gaunce touched a lot of Canuck fans

It’s no different than how a few of us - for years - took endless amounts of crap for saying that Biega was better than Sbisa/Pouliot/Gudbranson and the like. And now pretty much everyone agrees on that because he got an opportunity.

Difference is that Biega won over the dinosaurs here by getting in a fight when a Sedin was hit (contract extension almost immediately) and got more opportunity behind our permanently injured defense than Gaunce did behind a forward group loaded with pet Benning acquisitions like Schaller who Gaunce easily outplayed but was given no opportunity to displace.

 

[VanillaCoke]

This team is so f***ed.

 

[MS]

It should also be noted that - even if you think Gaunce sucks as an NHLer and belonged in Utica - he was unequivocally Utica’s best all-around forward and releasing this player they could have qualified creates yet another hole needing to be filled in their painfully thin forward group.

The team’s 2nd best forward Tanner Kero is also an UFA. Things might get worse before they get better down there.