GDT: Canucks free agent frenzy

[StringerBell]

I believe he signed with a team in the KHL already?

Ahh okay. That explains why no one's mentioned his name then

 

[canuck4life16]

Ahh okay. That explains why no one's mentioned his name then

we could sign Vinny proposal......another player torts coach....he can pass the puck and might work with Kesler..... he should be cheap!

 

[JayBeautiful]

Cheap-as players I'd have some interest in :

Nick Holden
Erik Nystrom
Ryan Whitney (if his value has fallen far enough)
Lennart Petrell
Ryan Jones
Jack Skille
Dustin Penner (yeah, not joking there)
Brad Richardson
Tom Gilbert
Brandon Yip
Marek Zidlicky
Ty Wishart
Guillaume Latendresse
Kyle Chipchura
Benoit Pouliot
Mike Kostka
Ryan O'Byrne

_________

The goal should be to get some contributing players for under $1 million. How well we can harvest the dregs of the league will be huge. If guys won't sign cheap, don't want them. Mix of guys in there that I've listed - some established players (Penner, Gilbert) due for huge paycuts after bad years, some middling players who had an off year, some young players who might be able to step up.

Mike Kostka is a guy I find really interesting, was elite in the AHL last year, and then started the year playing ridiculous minutes for Toronto and looked really good. Then he fell off a cliff late in the year. But he certainly showed potential, and looked like a guy who could handle 3rd pairing minutes pretty well.

I'd add Matt Pelech and Colton Gillies to that list

 

[CP]

Looking at that list, i'd rather they sign 1 pretty good player for 4 million and let 3 rookies play, than sign 4 one million dollar scrubs that likely won't be effective.

 

[canuck4life16]

Looking at that list, i'd rather they sign 1 pretty good player for 4 million and let 3 rookies play, than sign 4 one million dollar scrubs that likely won't be effective.

which 4 million player do you propose?

 

[denkiteki]

The most I see happening is probably a 3rd line center signing and maybe a few defenseman signings for depth along with 4th liners. Nothing big I think Gillis has a year or two till he is finished. Cullen or Gordon would be interesting. Seriously I don't see this team really moving anywhere this year unless we pull off some good deals. I think we should have sucked this year but whatever we got 9th overall. I think we should try and get to the top 6 in the draft and then if we have a pick with enough junior experience and is NHL ready we will have a sick young team.

Sedin-Sedin-Burrows
Higgins-Kesler-Kassian
Shinkaruk-Horvat-Jensen
(Pick)-Guance-Hansen

Booth traded or bought out.

Glad you're not managing the team... having raw rookies who should be playing in Jr. hockey and for Team Canada make the team...

The line-up doesn't even make sense if we were rebuilding since we would be burning a year on their ELCs when clearly they can't be ready and who really has 4 rookies (2 of which just picked) on the roster?

Also Booth can't be bought out due to the simple fact he's hurt. He can't be traded due to the fact he was hurt and at this point has extremely low (negative) value, to a point where no team would touch him unless you include a huge package of prospects/picks due to both health and performance concerns and a pretty big contract.

Other note, if you're planning for the future, Sedins are UFA after 2 more seasons and not sure they want to stick through a rebuild when they haven't won before. Not saying they would leave if we were contending but if we are going for a full rebuild, they might consider leaving. That's also the timetable when our prospects might be ready. You also excluded our most ready prospect/prospects more likely to make the team in JS. Weise also has a QO so he'll be back and Sestito has a 2 year contract.

 

[dwarf]

Yeah Gillies or Nystrom definitely would be upgrades on our bottom 6.

 

[tc 23]

Let teams use their compliance buyout cap space to overpay for the Weisses, Bozaks, Hortons, and Ryders. When the cap goes up next year, we can make our big move. Only signings I'm hoping for are better bottom 6 guys than we've had in the past.

 

[MS]

Looking at that list, i'd rather they sign 1 pretty good player for 4 million and let 3 rookies play, than sign 4 one million dollar scrubs that likely won't be effective.

a) we don't have 3 rookies that can play.

b) rookies, in many cases, are actually more expensive than veterans. Gaunce's cap hit is over $1 million.

c) yeah, that's the point of making good $1 million signings. Maybe it gives you the flexibility to do something more.

 

[timw33]

Cheap-as players I'd have some interest in :

Nick Holden
Erik Nystrom
Ryan Whitney (if his value has fallen far enough)
Lennart Petrell
Ryan Jones
Jack Skille
Dustin Penner (yeah, not joking there)
Brad Richardson
Tom Gilbert
Brandon Yip
Marek Zidlicky
Ty Wishart
Guillaume Latendresse
Kyle Chipchura
Benoit Pouliot
Mike Kostka
Ryan O'Byrne

_________

The goal should be to get some contributing players for under $1 million. How well we can harvest the dregs of the league will be huge. If guys won't sign cheap, don't want them. Mix of guys in there that I've listed - some established players (Penner, Gilbert) due for huge paycuts after bad years, some middling players who had an off year, some young players who might be able to step up.

Mike Kostka is a guy I find really interesting, was elite in the AHL last year, and then started the year playing ridiculous minutes for Toronto and looked really good. Then he fell off a cliff late in the year. But he certainly showed potential, and looked like a guy who could handle 3rd pairing minutes pretty well.

Yep, can't even think about going after the high or even mid-level UFAs, it's all about searching through the bargain bin for a deal.

 

[Numbers]

New rule in CBA lets teams sign players on 35+ contracts even if it pushes them over the cap by letting them apply to cap overages to bonus cushion (7.5% of cap). This means players like Igninla could be signed and cap overages would be accessed the following season.

 

[Addison Rae]

Peter Mueller is a guy I wouldn't mind bringing in as a Raymond replacement. He's been pretty bad the last couple year but the potential is there. If we can get him for around 1/1.5 million I'd be happy to bring him in.

 

[y2kcanucks]

Let teams use their compliance buyout cap space to overpay for the Weisses, Bozaks, Hortons, and Ryders. When the cap goes up next year, we can make our big move. Only signings I'm hoping for are better bottom 6 guys than we've had in the past.

I hate this line of thought. The team has been stale and played like crap for years now, is in desperate need of a shot in the arm in our top 6, yet people still hope we don't do a damn thing to fix something that's blatantly broken??

 

[WinterEmpire]

New rule in CBA lets teams sign players on 35+ contracts even if it pushes them over the cap by letting them apply to cap overages to bonus cushion (7.5% of cap). This means players like Igninla could be signed and cap overages would be accessed the following season.

Woah, this is new to me. This rule hasn't been talked about very often has it? Very nice information to have

 

[nameless1]

Peter Mueller is a guy I wouldn't mind bringing in as a Raymond replacement. He's been pretty bad the last couple year but the potential is there. If we can get him for around 1/1.5 million I'd be happy to bring him in.

2 years ago...
I would agree.
Not anymore.
The guy cannot stay healthy...
And I think there will be teams who will give him a 2.5 million 1 year deal.

 

[y2kcanucks]

New rule in CBA lets teams sign players on 35+ contracts even if it pushes them over the cap by letting them apply to cap overages to bonus cushion (7.5% of cap). This means players like Igninla could be signed and cap overages would be accessed the following season.

It's not a new rule. This was in the old CBA too, except the bonus cushion was only 5%.

 

[canuck4life16]

2 years ago...
I would agree.
Not anymore.
The guy cannot stay healthy...
And I think there will be teams who will give him a 2.5 million 1 year deal.

leafs.......

 

[mrmyheadhurts]

Not expecting the Canucks to do much of anything. Possibly a few depth players but with the cap going down, unless a trade is made, there simply isn't any room. At least not for any top 6 guys.

 

[y2kcanucks]

Not expecting the Canucks to do much of anything. Possibly a few depth players but with the cap going down, unless a trade is made, there simply isn't any room.

I'm hoping a trade is made. This team needs a shakeup. People are really really fooling themselves if they actually believe that bringing back the same team under a new coach will change much. It'll change a few things but this team is not a legitimate contender. Tortorella is a good coach, but I will bet anyone any sum of money that Tortorella scores 0 goals for us all season and playoffs.

 

[MS]

I hate this line of thought. The team has been stale and played like crap for years now, is in desperate need of a shot in the arm in our top 6, yet people still hope we don't do a damn thing to fix something that's blatantly broken??

This is what happens when the cap drops by $5 million and 10 of your 11 most expensive players are on NTCs. There isn't a lot we can do about it, unless we can find a way to get rid of Booth.

You can criticise the way we got into this situation, but from where we're at now, adding a high-priced forward is nearly impossible.

 

[Canucks LB]

Why not go with 4 projects, around 1.25m

 

[y2kcanucks]

This is what happens when the cap drops by $5 million and 10 of your 11 most expensive players are on NTCs. There isn't a lot we can do about it, unless we can find a way to get rid of Booth.

You can criticise the way we got into this situation, but from where we're at now, adding a high-priced forward is nearly impossible.

Agreed, and I guess I'm holding out hope that Gillis makes a trade. If he has to push out someone with a NTC then so be it. But this team needs changes.

 

[tc 23]

I hate this line of thought. The team has been stale and played like crap for years now, is in desperate need of a shot in the arm in our top 6, yet people still hope we don't do a damn thing to fix something that's blatantly broken??

We have nearly the same top 6 as we did during our cup run except Booth replacing Raymond and possibly Kassian replacing Higgins. The biggest problem IMO is just getting the team to show up, work hard, and play good hockey instead of dogging it, hoping to turn on a switch. I'd love to acquire top 6 help for this team but it's just not realistic this year. The free agent crop this year isn't exciting. The only ones I'd love to get would be Horton or Jagr and both are demanding huge pay cheques that we cannot afford. With possible top 6 spots open, I'd rather us see what Torts can do with our team and to give Kassian an extended look in our top 6 (and possibly Jensen too when Booth is injured) before signing an aging UFA winger for 5m+ long term, handcuffing us when our prospects are ready to make the jump. If both Kassian and Jensen disappoint, we'll have more flexibility next year to make a big splash (especially if Booth is healthy enough to be traded or bought out if he disappoints again).

 

[Chubros]

Why ? He's got 17 goals, 15 assists in 68 games while being injured often. He's just under a half point per game.

Because he's a loser and injured often.

For a team needing secondary scoring, that seems pretty damn stupid.

Everyone demanded Kesler be put with a big power forward that had the speed to keep up before. What magical player is going to replace him ?

He doesn't help much in giving us secondary scoring. The reason he has more goals than assists is that he has zero vision - he literally has his head down the entire time he has the puck (and also probably a major contributing factor to him getting injured so often). Booth may have averaged close to a half a game, but you can be sure that his inability to pass lowered his teammates' totals.

Who could replace him? Any player with the magical ability of having a pulse.

Remember Bieksa when he was injured often a couple years ago ? He's fine now and Booth will get out of it.

And this isn't a video game. You can just click a couple buttons and acquire top six players. People act as if there's a surplus of top six players in the NHL.

Unfortunately, the only thing David Booth has in common with a top 6 NHLer is his pay. His play is that of a 4th liner.

I wish we weren't allowed to suggest to drop a player without a reasonable, realistic replacement named.

An additional $4.25 million in cap space would be gold right now. With the cap crunch, a lot of the teams that are traditionally big spenders don't have a lot of cap space to play with. There are probably at least a half dozen options better than Booth.

Unfortunately, Booth is so useless that he can't even get healthy enough to get bought out. He should have been given the Gomez treatment and been made to sit out last year.

 

[Addison Rae]

2 years ago...
I would agree.
Not anymore.
The guy cannot stay healthy...
And I think there will be teams who will give him a 2.5 million 1 year deal.

Maybe as a reclamation project? Mueller hasn't been qualified the last two years I seriously doubt he gets 2.5, if he did I'd laugh hysterically at that team.