Former Canucks: Players & Management (Willie Desjardins fired by Kings, COO Victor De Bonis to SEA)

[Addison Rae]

Re-estalishing himself as a good goalie? When on earth has he been a good goalies, he was terrible with the Islanders and Oilers and far below average with us. But yeah the Canucks are the problem and a fluky couple game stretch proves you right.

Nillson is a terrible inconsistent goalie on a hot stretch, in terms of goaltending mechanics is extremely technically flawed and relies heavily on his size.

He is a below replacement level junk goalie, quit wasting your time.

 

[The Stig]

Andrew Raycroft actually didn't play all that badly for us (granted I sure as heck didn't want him as our starter)...(got him "free" via free agency).



Dany Saborin was never Canuck property under Gilligan. Maybe you're thinking of Labarbera? We had Lab for one season (and had 4 or 5 reasonable seasons as a backup after he left the Canucks). My memory is kind of hazy but I think he got Lab for a 7th round pick because one (or both) Luongo or Sanfrod was hurt.

I was 100% thinking of Labarbara. Thank you for the correction.

 

[The Stig]

Re-estalishing himself as a good goalie? When on earth has he been a good goalies, he was terrible with the Islanders and Oilers and far below average with us. But yeah the Canucks are the problem and a fluky couple game stretch proves you right.

Nillson is a terrible inconsistent goalie on a hot stretch, in terms of goaltending mechanics is extremely technically flawed and relies heavily on his size.

He is a below replacement level junk goalie, quit wasting your time.

This. Hes a dime a dozen fringe NHL goalie. He is Johan Hedberg.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

This. Hes a dime a dozen fringe NHL goalie. He is Johan Hedberg.

johan hedberg was a fantastic backup who when needed could give you stretches of capable starter work. nilsson is an inconsistent good/passable/mediocre starter and terrible backup.

 

[Zippgunn]

Good thing we unloaded him for a 7th and cleared our roster for somebody better. Ottawa says "thank you"...

 

[Addison Rae]

Good thing we unloaded him for a 7th and cleared our roster for somebody better. Ottawa says "thank you"...

If Micheal Mckenna clears waivers or Dim Jim has the foresight to sign a goaltender to a professional contract the situation with Dipeitro doesn’t occur.

Benning showed signs of improvement by moving Nillson for anything of value, he absolutely failed for not being able to bring in a free proffessional level goalie.

 

[Zippgunn]

If Micheal Mckenna clears waivers or Dim Jim has the foresight to sign a goaltender to a professional contract the situation with Dipeitro doesn’t occur.

Benning showed signs of improvement by moving Nillson for anything of value, he absolutely failed for not being able to bring in a free proffessional level goalie.

No he didn't he illustrated admirably that this team has no idea how to utilize goaltenders. We already had a goalie in our system who, once freed from the constraints of said system has proven to be just as good as Markstrom, perhaps even better. The failure was in the utilizing of said asset. We got almost nothing for an asset that we should have kept and utilized properly.

 

[Intangibos]

This sounds like a great interview already. Adrian Aucoin talks about Mogilny in this clip.

When I was very young I went to one of the Canucks family day things to get some photos and autographs from the players. Mogilny I guess had his own little area, maybe he didn't want to have to interact too much in English who knows, but his "handler" or whatever said I could take my stick in with me to get it signed and Mogilny said it was fine and was very accommodating so it made me pretty happy.

The other standouts were Messier doing the opposite before caving, playing the basketball arcade game thing with Cooke, and Crawford trying his hardest to get me to give more than 1 word responses to his questions while my mom and aunt laughed.

A+ Mogilny, Crawford
A Cooke
D- Messier

 

[strattonius]

No he didn't he illustrated admirably that this team has no idea how to utilize goaltenders. We already had a goalie in our system who, once freed from the constraints of said system has proven to be just as good as Markstrom, perhaps even better. The failure was in the utilizing of said asset. We got almost nothing for an asset that we should have kept and utilized properly.

Such a load of crap.

 

[strattonius]

Benning not finding a goalie for a month is a mistake. This shouldn't have happened agreed there.

Will never agree Nilsson is as good and capable as Markstrom. Hilarious really

 

[Motte and Bailey]

Good thing we unloaded him for a 7th and cleared our roster for somebody better. Ottawa says "thank you"...

The logic was to get Demko some NHL games which I can’t find a good argument against. We couldn’t have done that with Nillsson unless we were to carry 3 goalies and maybe Green wanted the spot for a skater. Were you for Demko getting buried in the AHL some more, Nilsson getting traded, or losing a skater to waivers/Utica to keep 3 goalies just in case? They had to pick 1 of those options and I don’t mind the decision even after how it turned out with Dipietro having a rough night.

 

[Hit the post]

The logic was to get Demko some NHL games which I can’t find a good argument against. We couldn’t have done that with Nillsson unless we were to carry 3 goalies and maybe Green wanted the spot for a skater. Were you for Demko getting buried in the AHL some more, Nilsson getting traded, or losing a skater to waivers/Utica to keep 3 goalies just in case? They had to pick 1 of those options and I don’t mind the decision even after how it turned out with Dipietro having a rough night.

Problem is he only left Bernie burried in the AHL right now (for close to a MONTH actually) as a callup

 

[moog35]

No he didn't he illustrated admirably that this team has no idea how to utilize goaltenders. We already had a goalie in our system who, once freed from the constraints of said system has proven to be just as good as Markstrom, perhaps even better. The failure was in the utilizing of said asset. We got almost nothing for an asset that we should have kept and utilized properly.

Nilsson is not even close to being as good as Markstrom

 

[Zippgunn]

Nilsson is not even close to being as good as Markstrom

Despite Markstrom's excellent play recently Nilsson has played even better than him since the trade despite playing for a far worse team. So... no, at least not right now.

 

[Addison Rae]

Despite Markstrom's excellent play recently Nilsson has played even better than him since the trade despite playing for a far worse team. So... no, at least not right now.

Markstron significantly outplayed him on the same team, with a harder workload.

Just stop.

 

[Intangibos]

The logic was to get Demko some NHL games

Why? He played 16 games this year in the AHL. What he needed was to get as many games as possible, not a few games here and there while mostly sitting on the bench watching Markstrom try to carry this team to the playoffs.

 

[Zippgunn]

Markstron significantly outplayed him on the same team, with a harder workload.

Just stop.

Wrong again. Nilsson barely had a workload at all and when he did he mostly played top teams. Remind me again what Marky's record is against Tampa this year...

 

[Addison Rae]

Wrong again. Nilsson barely had a workload at all and when he did he mostly played top teams. Remind me again what Marky's record is against Tampa this year...

Nillson played ~40 games for the Canucks with a sub .900 sp%, way below league average. Markstrom has played 120 games for the Canucks with a ~.912 SP%.

But yeah I'm the wrong one in this debate. Come on man, give it rest.

 

[Zippgunn]

Re-estalishing himself as a good goalie? When on earth has he been a good goalies, he was terrible with the Islanders and Oilers and far below average with us. But yeah the Canucks are the problem and a fluky couple game stretch proves you right.

Nillson is a terrible inconsistent goalie on a hot stretch, in terms of goaltending mechanics is extremely technically flawed and relies heavily on his size.

He is a below replacement level junk goalie, quit wasting your time.

Really? TERRIBLE with the Islanders? So in 23 games with a bad team he was .500 with a sv% over .900 and that's terrible in your book? 26 games 210-12 with a .901 sv% for the dreadful Oilers is TERRIBLE? 26 games with the equally hopeless Sabres and he was .500 with a .923 sv% is probably "terrible" in your book as well I would assume. Remember all these games were as a rarely played backup so these are not "terrible" stats at all in fact they are pretty decent especially when you factor in the quality of the teams he played for. Only with the Canucks has he had weak numbers and the fact that he played all of 12 games before the trade (8 of them on the road) and failed to get good results and yet has played 10 since then (where his GAA instantly dropped by almost a full goal and his sv% went up by 45 points) suggests to me that your opinion of this player contains a certain amount of personal animosity that I frankly find perplexing. He's nowhere near as bad as you or the legion of haters here want to believe and trading him was foolhardy and completely unnecessary. He has almost instantly bounced back with an even worse team than ours and is currently challenging Anderson for their #1 job and has almost certainly assured that he has an NHL job somewhere next season (probably in Ottawa). So I simply don't get the hate. Did he steal your girlfriend or something?

 

[Zippgunn]

Nillson played ~40 games for the Canucks with a sub .900 sp%, way below league average. Markstrom has played 120 games for the Canucks with a ~.912 SP%.

But yeah I'm the wrong one in this debate. Come on man, give it rest.

Nilsson is making you look like a fool, quit while you're ahead. Marky is in his 9th NHL season; this is the first one where he's posted a winning record. It's almost like he's on a hot streak or something...

 

[Addison Rae]

Imagine thinking a .900%, insanely below average save percent is not terrible.

I’m the fool right, which is why all my posts are getting liked by other members and yours are getting laughed at.

 

[StreetHawk]

Nilsson is making you look like a fool, quit while you're ahead. Marky is in his 9th NHL season; this is the first one where he's posted a winning record. It's almost like he's on a hot streak or something...

You should realize that Nilsson was never going to get a shot to carry the mail here. Nothing he did aside from a strong start last season has done anything to change the organizations mind about him.

He wasn’t playing well enough here so he got moved. In the end it’s better for him to get moved. Staying here he was trending to be out of the nhl next season. Now with this nice runhe can secure a solid backup role next season at a good salary.

Justin Schultz was never going to become the D he is now remaining in Edm. He should be thankful PC sent him to pitt. Sometimes you just don’t end up in the right environment.

 

[Zippgunn]

You should realize that Nilsson was never going to get a shot to carry the mail here. Nothing he did aside from a strong start last season has done anything to change the organizations mind about him.

He wasn’t playing well enough here so he got moved. In the end it’s better for him to get moved. Staying here he was trending to be out of the nhl next season. Now with this nice runhe can secure a solid backup role next season at a good salary.

Justin Schultz was never going to become the D he is now remaining in Edm. He should be thankful PC sent him to pitt. Sometimes you just don’t end up in the right environment.

I agree. This debacle is equal parts terrible coaching and terrible management. I've been something of an apologist for Benning up till now but this has soured me on him in a big way. Green I have never been a fan of. Funny though, seems like almost everyone here wants to cut him slack despite repeated failures and refusals to see the obvious (like Pouliot is a terrible player)...

 

[StreetHawk]

I agree. This debacle is equal parts terrible coaching and terrible management. I've been something of an apologist for Benning up till now but this has soured me on him in a big way. Green I have never been a fan of. Funny though, seems like almost everyone here wants to cut him slack despite repeated failures and refusals to see the obvious (like Pouliot is a terrible player)...

I support the premise of getting Demko NHL action this season. This is a development year IMO. The fact that the other western teams have taken a step back shouldn’t change that.

I didn’t like that Demko came up and sat for 8/9 games since the call up before he tweaked his knee. If you planned on bringing him up after 15 games in the A, then trey should have had Clark go down there for a week to 10 days and work with Demko. So that way he only needs to sit for 2 games before getting in some action. I can tolerate losing McKenna to waivers if Demko was playing but he wasn’t which makes you question how far in advance they truly made the decision to bring Demko up. Was it a planned move or a reaction after the NJ game or something. Did something go down at that point?

Pouliot, I would guess that Green and then organization are hoping to find their version or Schultz, someone who might be able to turn around a stunted development to live up to their potential. It’s not happening really. But there are no alternatives. Anyone in the A truly kicking the door down on the left side?

Benning and Green have a very important TDL and summer coming up. After next season both are down to 1 year left on their contracts. Doubtful they go into that final year as a lame duck. Either fish or cut bait. So, they need to meet whatever expectations the owners have for them.

Because of that, I really do wonder what moves they actually do make to give a couple of younger players like gaudette and others a legit shot. Who are they prepared to go down with?

 

[MS]

The logic was to get Demko some NHL games which I can’t find a good argument against. We couldn’t have done that with Nillsson unless we were to carry 3 goalies and maybe Green wanted the spot for a skater. Were you for Demko getting buried in the AHL some more, Nilsson getting traded, or losing a skater to waivers/Utica to keep 3 goalies just in case? They had to pick 1 of those options and I don’t mind the decision even after how it turned out with Dipietro having a rough night.

In a vacuum, calling up Demko was fine.

But here are the problems with how they did it :

1) Bachman was already out for the season so we were down on goaltending depth.

2) We didn’t get Ottawa to waive McKenna before trading him to make sure we were covering our asses. This is doubly stupid because Benning had JUST SEEN THIS HAPPEN in the Leivo deal which was supposed to be for Leipsic, but Toronto made us waive Leipsic first and when he was claimed the deal had to be changed.

3) We tried waiving McKenna at a time where 2 other teams were in a goaltending crisis with injuries and looking for any warm body. Not surprisingly, he was claimed.

4) For some reason, we decided to call up Demko at a point where we had only 7 or 8 games in the next month. Demko was clearly only going to get 1 game in January, so what exactly was the point? Why not wait, keep McKenna around, waive McKenna a month later when he’ll clear and call up Demko ahead of a busy February?

5) After losing McKenna and being down to 2 goalies in the organization, Benning DOES NOTHING FOR 5 WEEKS.

6) Demko gets hurt, we’re forced to do an emergency recall of a teenager ... and still does nothing for another week.

Finally, after getting completely embarrassed, something is finally done.

If you can’t see that the mismanagement here goes way beyond, ‘oh, they tried to get Demko some games and then there was an injury’ I really don’t know what to tell you.