Canucks have asked about Jonathon Blum

[Guardian452]

Garrison better be getting a lot of powerplay time... just saying.

He's not a right-handed shooter. One of the problems with the Canucks power play the last 2 seasons was they were using 4 or 5 left-handed shooters most of the time. It made it much easier to shut-down the shooting lanes. The Canucks power-play was most effective when they had 2 right-hander shooters - Kesler & Salo.

Ideally, the power-play units would look something like

1st: Sedin-Sedin-Kesler, Garrison + RH pointman with a cannon
2nd: Burrows-Schroeder-Higgins/Kassian, Edler + Bieksa

 

[nuckfan insk]

He's not a right-handed shooter. One of the problems with the Canucks power play the last 2 seasons was they were using 4 or 5 left-handed shooters most of the time. It made it much easier to shut-down the shooting lanes. The Canucks power-play was most effective when they had 2 right-hander shooters - Kesler & Salo.

Ideally, the power-play units would look something like

1st: Sedin-Sedin-Kesler, Garrison + RH pointman with a cannon
2nd: Burrows-Schroeder-Higgins/Kassian, Edler + Bieksa

so ????????? we gonna sign him or not ?

 

[Ryp37]

yea just what we need another soft twig on the blue line

 

[John Bender*]

yea just what we need another soft twig on the blue line

Soft twig? You mean like Garrison, Hamhuis, Edler and Bieksa?

 

[Ryp37]

Soft twig? You mean like Garrison, Hamhuis, Edler and Bieksa?

guy's an ahl'er

 

[jigsaw99]

guy's an ahl'er

so was Bieska and Garrison when they were Blum's age.

 

[denkiteki]

He's not a right-handed shooter. One of the problems with the Canucks power play the last 2 seasons was they were using 4 or 5 left-handed shooters most of the time. It made it much easier to shut-down the shooting lanes. The Canucks power-play was most effective when they had 2 right-hander shooters - Kesler & Salo.

Ideally, the power-play units would look something like

1st: Sedin-Sedin-Kesler, Garrison + RH pointman with a cannon
2nd: Burrows-Schroeder-Higgins/Kassian, Edler + Bieksa

We don't need a cannon for the first unit... Garrison already provides that. What we really need is a PP QB... someone like Campbell (just an example, not suggesting more Florida players!). Prefer a RHD who happens to be a PP QB as well but of course there aren't many of those nor could we really afford one. Salo kinda fit this role when he was here as he was a very smart passer who also happens to have a cannon.

But given our cap situation, anyone we sign probably isn't any better than Bieksa for that role unless we want to try having Hank/Dan back there (think that was experimented a bit last season and Torts i believe often do run 4 forwards on the PP).

The other issue appears to be the big body in front of the net... Kesler does it well but he's also the best sniper we have for the slot and was hurt most of last season. If Kassian finally develops an offensive game, he might get 1st unit time.. again a lot of this depends on coaching and what the coach believes... tho i doubt our PP can be any worst than last year and changes need to be made rather its personal (as in switching up since we don't really have the cap to make any changes and most of our core have NTC so its not like we could just trade everyone away and rebuild the team) or system.

Basically a possible first unit would be:
Sedins (one of them @ the point), Kesler, Elder (since he's actually suppose to be our best offensive dman), Kassian

2nd unit (shouldn't get more than 30s)
KB3 + Garrison, Burrows, Higgins, Schroeder

 

[BoHorvatFan]

Soft twig? You mean like Garrison, Hamhuis, Edler and Bieksa?

That is actually a pretty soft group, lots of stick checking going on there.

And then the softest of them all, Tanev and a kid straight from the OHL Corado.

Compared to basically every other team our defence is very soft. Terrible in front of the net as the Sharks proved, and our D don't hit at all so we won't be wearing anyone down or intimidating any forwards. Ehrhoff had more hits than any Canuck D last year and I don't think anyone is calling him anything close to a tough guy.

In before someone posts the 3 or 4 big Edler hits over the last 5 years.

 

[denkiteki]

That is actually a pretty soft group, lots of stick checking going on there.

And then the softest of them all, Tanev and a kid straight from the OHL Corado.

Compared to basically every other team our defence is very soft. Terrible in front of the net as the Sharks proved, and our D don't hit at all so we won't be wearing anyone down or intimidating any forwards. Ehrhoff had more hits than any Canuck D last year and I don't think anyone is calling him anything close to a tough guy.

In before someone posts the 3 or 4 big Edler hits over the last 5 years.

Hit stat is really meaningless as "hits" depends completely on the home scorer. Some buildings have insane number of hits where everytime you touch someone its a hit while other buildings, a big hit could be not a hit. When Ehrhoff was here, most of the core was here as well (except Garrison) and i think you could easily argue he was the "softest" of the bunch yet his hit stat as you claim is higher than any Canuck D last year... once again disproving how useful and accurate the stat actually is.

KB3 was actually voted as one of the toughest players in the AHL before he got his chance in the NHL and is pretty tough. The difference now is he has become so valuable you don't actually want him to be the tough guy and be in the box... he actually scaled back due to AV making him scale back so that's an AV effect and it could change now given a new coach. Hamhuis is fine defensively and i don't think he was much of an issue. Don't think you many would consider Garrison soft either. Elder on the other hand seems to have a switch... he has the ability to dominate physically but you don't often see it. A different coach might bring out that side of his game (or as a 'nuck fan you have to hope it happens since he's here long term and based on upside/ability/contract, he's the teams #1 dman right now and near future).

Bringing up Tanev is meaningless if you're going to talk about SJS since he didn't even play against them. If he did, it probably would have made a difference as the defense was a lot better with him around. Remember defense is a UNIT not just a pairing... when someone gets hurt, other play out of position with players they are not used to or players they don't normally play against. You could have easily made the argument last year that whichever pairing Tanev was on, was generally the best pairing for the 'nucks.

Corrado is going to need to bulk up (same /w Tanev who needs to continue to bulk up). He should be better next year but like Tanev, he has very good positioning and is good enough defensively that generally he doesn't have big issues. That said, its not a lock he makes the team and if he makes the team, it likely means he would have beaten a few others to earn his spot so he probably deserves it and has some merits to be on the team. Honestly i would rather he doesn't make the team so we have depth in the minors that we could call up when (and its a question of when not if) multiple dmans get hurt during the season. Hopefully they'll all be healthy in the playoffs but there's probably a good chance one or more is hurt once the playoffs comes around. Insurance policy never hurts and i doubt the 'nucks can have anything better than Corrado in the minors (i.e. 8th/9th dman) due to anyone better probably needs to go through waivers and won't make it when we try to send them down.

 

[Free Edler]

so was Bieska and Garrison when they were Blum's age.

Bieksa and Garrison hadn't had multiple (failed) opportunities to be regular NHL'ers at that age. Once both Bieksa and Garrison made it to the NHL, they were more or less there for good. Not so much with Blum. He'd be another 'bad pro scouting' signing.

 

[denkiteki]

Bieksa and Garrison hadn't had multiple (failed) opportunities to be regular NHL'ers at that age. Once both Bieksa and Garrison made it to the NHL, they were more or less there for good. Not so much with Blum. He'd be another 'bad pro scouting' signing.

Difference is they got their chance later in their careers when they were more "developed"/season'd.

Blum on the other hand was over hyped and probably got his chances way too early when he wasn't ready. He was "pro" for 1.5 seasons before going on/off the roster. Dmans generally take longer to develop so its not abnormal for one to struggle at 21-24 then find their game @ 26/27. Not like we are tied with him for life if we sign him so it can't really be a bad signing, just a low risk signing that could be high reward or get a good AHL dman for 1 season on an NHL contract (that's either 2 way or just above league min/below 900k). Not a huge gamble.

Honestly can't be any worst than say Barker/Joslin signing last year and way better than Vandermeer (doubt anyone could be as bad as he was last year... ).

 

[CanucksOo]

Per News1130: "Agent Gerry Johannson says Canucks are out on John Blum but still poking around Marc Fistric".

 

[FOurteenS inCisOr]

That is actually a pretty soft group, lots of stick checking going on there.

And then the softest of them all, Tanev and a kid straight from the OHL Corado.

Compared to basically every other team our defence is very soft. Terrible in front of the net as the Sharks proved, and our D don't hit at all so we won't be wearing anyone down or intimidating any forwards. Ehrhoff had more hits than any Canuck D last year and I don't think anyone is calling him anything close to a tough guy.

In before someone posts the 3 or 4 big Edler hits over the last 5 years.

Ehrhoff- 38 hits (47gp)

*********

Edler- 77 hits (45gp)
Bieksa- 60 hits (36gp)
Hamhuis 47 hits (47gp)
Ballard 45 hits (36gp)
**********

No he didn't...

 

[Siludin]

Kesler should play the point and just drop down to the slot for his one-timer which is the only time he shoots it anyway.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

With the news that the Canucks are out on Blum, I'm shutting this down. Discussion about Fistric et al can go in either the Armchair or Free Agency threads.

Closed.