Confirmed with Link: Canucks re-sign F Linden Vey to a 1-Year, $1m Deal

[VC]

Again, this isn't true.

He was being spoonfed 13-15 minutes/game pretty much every night from December 1 until late March, and was absolutely useless.

Later in the season, his final 40 games, 21 of them were sub 13 minutes which is basically was every other night.

 

[biturbo19]

Again, this isn't true.

He was being spoonfed 13-15 minutes/game pretty much every night from December 1 until late March, and was absolutely useless.

Vey's demise was pretty much the exact inverse of the timeline on Weber's great rise to prominence. That was Vey's "gift PP spot" that ended up in Weber's grasp.

That's what really hurt Vey the most. Going from that, to...hardly anything on the PP.

And that while his "total minutes" changed little until very late...5v5 his top linemates were guys like Dorsett, Matthias, Higgins, Richardson, as the "gift opportunity" turned to...playing 3rd/4th line minutes.


But really, if you think he's that "useless", what's the point of haggling over a $200k when he's still $800k overpaid? It sounds more like your issue isn't that Vey wasn't squeezed for every last penny...it's more that he was qualified at all.

 

[arttk]

Again though, you're muddling two distinct situations.

When Vey was being giving those scoring role opportunities consistently, and riding that #1PP Unit wave...he was producing. He was on pretty much the same pace as Bonino at the beginning of the year, from what i recall.

The fact he wasn't producing later in the season, is pretty clearly tied to the drop-off in quality of opportunity. He wasn't playing on any PP at that point, and was playing a lot of minutes with jumbled linemates when he was in the lineup and not sitting out. It wasn't consistent "2nd line and #1PP time" when he wasn't producing later in the year.

Obviously you want a guy who can produce like he did in his hot start, regardless of opportunity. And Vey did a very poor job of producing outside of good opportunity. But that's not a $1M depth/niche/utility/spare player, that's a promising young top-9 forward.

I think it's easier if I just list out the TOI since dec along with total pts

Not sure how you can say he didn't get any minutes. I think he got plenty of minutes in Dec, Jan and Feb. I think his minutes really came down in march, but if you look overall, he barely produced anything.

He got 12 points in the first 2 months and then 12 points from Dec - end of season. It's not like his minutes dropped from the 1st 2 months, actually looking at the game logs, its pretty consistent until March.

Dec

14:38 0
14:49 0
17:18 1
12:54 0
13:55 0
14:18 0
14:16 0
15:50 0
14:42 1
9:15 0
9:29 0

Jan

11:42 0
14:31 1
13:03 0
14:11 1
12:30 0
13:54 0
14:15 0
13:01 0
14:17 0
12:48 1

Feb

14:25 0
15:41 0
17:07 0
12:55 1
15:14 0
15:16 1
11:29 1
14:39 1
12:35 0
10:47 0
13:05 0
11:20 0
10:15 0
14:23 0

Mar

9:14
16:56 1
11:39 0
13:38 0
13:36 0
13:54 0
10:48 0
11:34 0
11:13 0
13:06 0
8:53 0
11:44 0
9:32 1

Apr

10:45 0
9:08 0
8:52 0
13:21 0
13:45 1

 

[MS]

The nature of being a bottom-6 forward is that you're going to have to play with different players and be versatile. Vey was not. He got 13-15 minutes every night for months on end and did nothing.

Has nothing to do with how I feel about the player. I liked Stanton a lot and would have done the same with him. You use your leverage on your bottom-end players. To suggest otherwise is ... bizarre.

I don't know how they do contracts. I'm criticizing management as a whole.

 

[biturbo19]

I think it's easier if I just list out the TOI since dec along with total pts

Not sure how you can say he didn't get any minutes. I think he got plenty of minutes in Dec, Jan and Feb. I think his minutes really came down in march, but if you look overall, he barely produced anything.

I never said he didn't get any minutes, or that they changed overall. It's about the quality of minutes, linemates, PP opportunities.

His production certainly tailed off beyond his hot start, but it completely fell off a cliff once he was relegated to "depth duty" in and out of lineup, spot duty on the PP due to injuries/whether or not Weber was in the lineup, that kind of stuff.

That's what "different situations" means. It means different situations, not "less minutes".

 

[arttk]

I never said he didn't get any minutes, or that they changed overall. It's about the quality of minutes, linemates, PP opportunities.

His production certainly tailed off beyond his hot start, but it completely fell off a cliff once he was relegated to "depth duty" in and out of lineup, spot duty on the PP due to injuries/whether or not Weber was in the lineup, that kind of stuff.

That's what "different situations" means. It means different situations, not "less minutes".

The only thing that changed after Nov was the PP got cold and once that happened his point production literally died.

He was the injury replacement for Bonino, he was the replacement for Richardson. He didn't deliver when he was with Vrbata and Higgins and he didn't deliver when he was with Matthias or whoever.
He just didn't deliver with anyone after the PP cooled down.

 

[biturbo19]

The nature of being a bottom-6 forward is that you're going to have to play with different players and be versatile. Vey was not. He got 13-15 minutes every night for months on end and did nothing.

Has nothing to do with how I feel about the player. I liked Stanton a lot and would have done the same with him. You use your leverage on your bottom-end players. To suggest otherwise is ... bizarre.

I don't know how they do contracts. I'm criticizing management as a whole.

Fair enough. And Vey was as you said, a real non-factor late in the season. He doesn't seem to have an ability to make hay with grinders and grunts. That's a serious problem. And one as i said, that is pretty common to "fringe playmaker" types. They're just too reliant on others around them to put the puck in the net and read what they're doing when they go east-west with a play. Vey is clearly never going to be a "traditional bottom-6 player".

That said...either you think there's some potential for him to find a different "offensive niche" as a PP specialist forward and "utility guy" who can play C/W and either waste minutes in the bottom-6 if needed, or pitch in some Apples as a top-6 filler, and you give the guy another year to see what he can do with more strength, or you just move on...the haggling over $100-200k is what seems like an incredibly minor nitpicky detail to me.

 

[MS]

I never said he didn't get any minutes, or that they changed overall. It's about the quality of minutes, linemates, PP opportunities.

His production certainly tailed off beyond his hot start, but it completely fell off a cliff once he was relegated to "depth duty" in and out of lineup, spot duty on the PP due to injuries/whether or not Weber was in the lineup, that kind of stuff.

That's what "different situations" means. It means different situations, not "less minutes".

Anyone can produce in PP minutes with the Sedins.

He was given top-9 minutes for the better part of 50 games and recorded 1 primary assist. He's supposed to be an offensive playmaker who ca provide offence from down the lineup. He failed miserably.

 

[arttk]

Anyone can produce in PP minutes with the Sedins.

He was given top-9 minutes for the better part of 50 games and recorded 1 primary assist. He's supposed to be an offensive playmaker who ca provide offence from down the lineup. He failed miserably.

To put things in perspective, we gave Hodgson similar but actually not as good treatment and he was doing .5PPG.

 

[biturbo19]

The only thing that changed after Nov was the PP got cold and once that happened his point production literally died.

He was the injury replacement for Bonino, he was the replacement for Richardson. He didn't deliver when he was with Vrbata and Higgins and he didn't deliver when he was with Matthias or whoever.
He just didn't deliver with anyone after the PP cooled down.

Quick tally shows Vey was:

~.42ppg through to the end of 2014 calendar year.

~.395ppg through the month of January.

~0.21ppg from Feb to End of Year (which includes a bit of top PP opportunity before it tailed off sometime in that eastern swing and become completely intermittent, Weber "the guy").


If he'd carried on @ ~0.4ppg through the whole season, things would look a lot better on the whole. But that was right around where Weber became the hero of the day and the PP time went his way, Vey started shuttling in and out of the lineup as a real "depth guy" and injury replacement, intermittent PP time. Generally relegated to a true "back seat" role.

But he didn't just fall off the face of the earth post-November, or even post-December. His January was right on pace with his season to that point, production-wise.

It was Feb-March-April where things went into a tailspin for him statistically. Coinciding roughly with a reduced role.

 

[MS]

Quick tally shows Vey was:

~.42ppg through to the end of 2014 calendar year.

~.395ppg through the month of January.

~0.21ppg from Feb to End of Year (which includes a bit of top PP opportunity before it tailed off sometime in that eastern swing and become completely intermittent, Weber "the guy").


If he'd carried on @ ~0.4ppg through the whole season, things would look a lot better on the whole. But that was right around where Weber became the hero of the day and the PP time went his way, Vey started shuttling in and out of the lineup as a real "depth guy" and injury replacement, intermittent PP time. Generally relegated to a true "back seat" role.

But he didn't just fall off the face of the earth post-November, or even post-December. His January was right on pace with his season to that point, production-wise.

It was Feb-March-April where things went into a tailspin for him statistically. Coinciding roughly with a reduced role.

Say what?

He was 1-4-5 in 24 games between the start of December and early Feb with lots of icetime.

Then he had a blip of 4 points in 5 games.

Then he had 3 points in another 24 game stretch to close out the year.

 

[biturbo19]

Say what?

He was 1-4-5 in 24 games between the start of December and early Feb with lots of icetime.

Then he had a blip of 4 points in 5 games.

Then he had 3 points in another 24 game stretch to close out the year.

whoops, yeah. .3ppg in the month of January.

Made a 1pt mistake there somehow, if a scoring play had ricocheted off his useless ass in that month, it would've jived.

Stand by my point though, really not "completely useless" during that time.

It was post January sometime that the real "off a cliff" thing happened.

And in the end, he still produced some points. I'm not saying he's a great player, or even a good one. But there's...something at least. And really, i just don't care if he's making $800k or $1M. If he doesn't improve next season, he's gone. That's really all there is to it. And $200k at most in cap space really doesn't matter to me this year...keep the player/agent happy when $200k is a "big win" for them. Save the ballbusting for the $multimillion deals, and the players you could care less if they stay or go.

 

[me2]

I'm still looking for an explanation why was given $1m instead of just being qualified. Anyone?

 

[beachcomber]

Good lord. Another soft, small forward. We have enough of them already.

 

[Jack Tripper]

I'm still looking for an explanation why was given $1m instead of just being qualified. Anyone?

if you're a benning guy then you don't have to worry about negotiating leverage

 

[Wisp]

If he can't cut it this year, cut him.

He had three years of being a pro to acquire NHL strength and skating and couldn't cut it as more than a replacement level player.

if he can't do it after one more summer, time to call it.

 

[Horse McHindu]

Like many on here, I'm not really a fan of Linden Vey. To me, he reads like a poor man's Kyle Wellwood. However, to Vey's credit, he has a far better work ethic than Welly, and so I'm willing to see what Linden Vey can prove this year. He's soft as butter, but he has decent offensive instincts.

If he doesn't take a leap this year, I think we should cut him.

 

[Megaterio Llamas]

A million bucks is a lot of dough. Good for him, he seems like a nice guy and I'm sure it did Benning's heart good to enrich a good ol' Sakatchewan boy too. Nice story.

I do wish he had NHL ability though, he looks like a career AHLer to me.

 

[Tobi Wan Kenobi]

If Vey can gain a step and get a little stronger I think he can become a second line centre. He just needs more room to work with. When he has room he can make some nice plays and has pretty good finish around the net. He just needs another gear for separation and a little strength for protecting the puck. We'll see what kind of summer he has.