GDT: Canucks Season Ticket Holder Summit

[CAPiTA]

Hey all, I'm sure there are plenty of STH's on here who will be attending the Summer Summit event tomorrow. There will be a Q&A period as part of the event. Lets discuss the event and try to come up with some good questions we can ask to get Benning and Linden sweating and squirming.

Some examples (off the top of my head, but obviously not the most hard-hitting questions):

Are they done with moves this summer?
Why Virtanen over Ehlers and Nylander (ask them to address these players specifically)?
Why not tank? How do we expect to compete in the west without centre depth?

Lets hear some ideas, folks. Should be interesting tomorrow.

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[GCM]

Tanking is a crapshoot strategy, lame question but I guess it can't hurt to ask.

 

[y2kcanucks]

I shall be there.

 

[canuck4life16]

asking about tanking is stupid and won't happen

 

[y2kcanucks]

asking about tanking is stupid and won't happen

Agreed. They won't take that question seriously.

 

[Wildcarder]

I can answer the tanking question already...

a) It doesn't always work (re: Edmonton), why risk it?
b) Even if it does work, there's no guarantee how many years it will take
c) Developing a culture of losing hurts the team a lot more in the long term
d) Disrespectful to fans and season ticket holders
e) Disrespectful to the players on the roster

And of course...they'd lose too much money for it to be worthwhile.

 

[CherryToke]

I shall be there.

are you gonna ask them why they *****ed out on getting the first overall pick?

 

[Wildcarder]

I'm curious about the "meat & potatoes" comment and what that means for the overall direction of our team. Does that mean we stay away from pure skill players and only want players that have a physical edge to their game as well? Is that why we picked Virtanen over Ehlers or Nylander?

 

[CAPiTA]

Agreed. They won't take that question seriously.

I agree as well, but there must be some way to ask them...

For example, if they don't end up being a competitive team early on, and they're well out by December to February , what would the team's strategy be? Keep making a push to get back in the race? Or call up more kids and give the ones who made the team out of camp more ice time? Their answer would tell us if they're ok with losing if the season has already been lost.

 

[CAPiTA]

I'm curious about the "meat & potatoes" comment and what that means for the overall direction of our team. Does that mean we stay away from pure skill players and only want players that have a physical edge to their game as well? Is that why we picked Virtanen over Ehlers or Nylander?

I like this one. Good idea.

 

[Wilch]

Some thoughts for STH to use:

The Canucks had an off year last year, but sports a declining core with few young high impact players coming from the pipelines. You can say all you want about contending, but we need to turn our goal differential around from -30 to about +50, which is a 80 goal swing. That is tall task that just isn't going to happen short of a miracle.

The 2015 NHL entry draft will feature one of the deepest draft of the decade, including generational super star talents this franchise never had such as McDavid and Eichel.

Since our ownership and management has repeatedly stated that winning the cup is the final goal, should we not consider moving some of our assets for future considerations such as 2015 1sts and have an off year? We keep our key veterans on board to shelter and mentor our prospects, and use this coming year to reload, finding someone to carry on the legacy that was passed down from Linden and Bure to Naslund and Bertuzzi to the Sedins and Luongo...

Which wouldn't be an issue had this franchise been able to locate and develop diamonds in the rough like Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Giroux. "Drafting smart" and "money puck signings" is not an aswer that satsifies most fans, as it has yielded very little result for this franchise. Vancouver is a great city, but it has never been able to attract superstar talent via free agency. Our scouting and player development has also produced little results, creating the current predicament. Lastly, we have been unable to acquire any player of Bertuzzi or Luongo's ilk since those trades.

We are now at a crossroads, and most fans don't feel comfortable with this team taking the re-tool around our core in the form of the Calgary route circa 2008 and Toronto circa 2005, as it created an extended period of disappointment and poor results.

Almost all the cup winner in the cap era has top 5 picks in their core or has used top 5 picks to acquire core players.

This franchise wants a cup, not mediocrity and barely staying afloat between the 14th and 18th seed. Should this franchise not consider biting the bullet now rather than creating a pro-longed draught?

 

[Verviticus]

"we have a promising set of youth in the upcoming years and we can't tell players like daniel and henrik to play badly to fulfill the whims of a vocal minority of our fanbase"

think up better questions/concepts man

 

[Wilch]

"we have a promising set of youth in the upcoming years and we can't tell players like daniel and henrik to play badly to fulfill the whims of a vocal minority of our fanbase"

think up better questions/concepts man

Yeah, it's not easy.

It feels like any question around acquiring a high pick can be dodged around quite easily unless there's an extensive discussion.

 

[CherryToke]

the plan is to keep the core and compete for the playoffs every year... what if we finish in the bottom 10 again this season, new plan?

 

[alternate]

I'd be curious to hear how much if any of Gillis's unorthodox ideas were retained. Sleep doctors, personal chefs, etc.

And for Benning, we've heard about the Post-It line-ups on his wall, we've heard him talk about Vrbata with the twins, and Vey on the third, etc but those are usually decisions left to the head coach. Does Benning expect to have influence on line-up decisions, and if so, how much?

 

[WinterEmpire]

I'll be attending for the first time tomorrow, but I think questions had to be emailed in before hand. Oh well, it will be fun anyways.

 

[polarbearcub]

God I hope the questions are all email questions because I went last year and some of the questions were a joke. Ppl whining about the 2011 finals reffing... Torts laughing ... Then questions about hotdogs.

Me and my wife will be there.

 

[Canucks LB]

Ask about the ladd rumors I guess. Ask about "hockey deals" Ask about Hansen and burrows Waiving his NTC.

Ask about how we are going to score with 3 third lines and 1 first line.

 

[a Fool]

How soon can we expect 17 up in the rafters?

 

[thebigbea]

ask if vrbata will be wearing #17?

 

[NoShowWilly]

What's the plan for fixing the powerplay because it looks even less impressive on paper then it did last year.

The lack of a Right side QB looks like it is going to be an issue again.

 

[Spectrefire]

I can answer the tanking question already...

a) It doesn't always work (re: Edmonton), why risk it?
b) Even if it does work, there's no guarantee how many years it will take
c) Developing a culture of losing hurts the team a lot more in the long term
d) Disrespectful to fans and season ticket holders
e) Disrespectful to the players on the roster

And of course...they'd lose too much money for it to be worthwhile.

Not to mention, if the new draft lottery changes is fully passed, which there is a high likelihood of, then tanking becomes useless, as it should be.

 

[Ventana*]

At the very end of this retool, describe the perfect team that you'd like to see in front of you that has the ability to be a contender/bring a cup to Vancouver. The team that could beat the LA's, Anaheims, Chicagos, etc is what I would ask. Though, I'm not going.

 

[Archangel]

Since there has been such a large reduction in spending on players, will we see a reduction in ticket prices

 

[Orca Smash]

I'm curious about the "meat & potatoes" comment and what that means for the overall direction of our team. Does that mean we stay away from pure skill players and only want players that have a physical edge to their game as well? Is that why we picked Virtanen over Ehlers or Nylander?

I also like this, although the meat and potato comment caused way to much mass hysteria on here, it is still a good question for the direction or bennings vision of the team. Good question.

Probably not a popular question and one more suited for willie, but I would be curious who they foresee as the 3c taking on the tough matches come fall. I get conflicting reports on vey, i seen him when he played for the tigers, but have not seen him for a number of years, some kings fans thought he was good enough to eventually replace stoll as 3c, and some dont and think hes better on the wing. That position is a bit of a mystery to me.