Player Discussion Hronek, Zadorov, Cole, Myers — Who to keep?

[DL44]

Hronek should be the priority. Hanifin contract # looks like ballpark.
After that, I'm loving Big Z's contribution in the grit department. Gives us an edge. Same with Myers.
Cole... has been decent, but has fallen off hard. I would turn him over to make room for another dman.


Still want nothing to with Tanev. Still hasn't been healthy when his teams needed him most.

 

[logan5]

Boeser should be on this list as well. Lekk and Hoglander make him expendable for cap reasons. A 40 goal scorer at 6.5 should get a good return.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

Boeser should be on this list as well. Lekk and Hoglander make him expendable for cap reasons. A 40 goal scorer at 6.5 should get a good return.

This is Hoglander's first solid season while Lekk has barely played AHL games. Neither one of them comes anywhere close to replacing Boeser. A team wanting to be competitive doesn't trade a 40 goal scorer. If Lekk is slow to develop, we're basically screwed.

 

[logan5]

This is Hoglander's first solid season while Lekk has barely played AHL games. Neither one of them comes anywhere close to replacing Boeser. A team wanting to be competitive doesn't trade a 40 goal scorer. If Lekk is slow to develop, we're basically screwed.

Hoglander comes close with his better all around game. Boeser is not likely to score 40 again, so 30 is more realistic next year, vs Hog 25 or so, plus his tenacious puck pursuit and board work - he;s a major pain to play against. A player like Hog is more valuable in the play-offs.

 

[Kryten]

Hronek and Zadorov, Friedman can stay too. Myers and Cole Helllllll NO, not even at league minimum

 

[Snatcher Demko]

I'd love to bring Zadorov back even if it costs Mikheyev as a buyout. Ideally both Hronek and Zadorov.

Hronek has been great and a decent #2 basically but you wonder if Tanev can be a stopgap there until Willander is ready a couple of years out. I just don't want to overpay Hronek - I think he's worth $6.75 x 8 at most.

Fact, is you can't win anything without size and nastiness in the playoffs. Either you are the aggressor or you are the loser.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

Hoglander comes close with his better all around game. Boeser is not likely to score 40 again, so 30 is more realistic next year, vs Hog 25 or so, plus his tenacious puck pursuit and board work - he;s a major pain to play against. A player like Hog is more valuable in the play-offs.

This is assuming Hoglander continues at this pace. His shooting percentage is noticeably high. In fact, it matches Boeser. So you can't really argue Boeser will drop back down to 30 goals but Hog won't drop as well. Nearly 20% is not sustainable over several seasons.

He's good but has zero playoff experience. You're putting a lot of assumptions on him. It just isn't realistic for a team looking to be competitive each season to gamble away their 35-40 goal scorer on the hopes a young player who just got going will replace him.

It's why we didn't trade Kuzmenko. Yes, he wound up falling off but if we dumped him in the off season and he put up the numbers he has in Calgary right now, we'd look like idiots.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

As for the specific players:

I think we have to bring back Hronek unless he remains firm at 8M+. Despite his rather massive tumble in the second half, there's no one in FA remotely comparable to what he offers. He's only 26 and defensemen have a tendency to be on the late bloomer side. I just think we'll miss what he offers a lot more than trying to go the committee route.

Zadorov, much like Hronek, really comes down to salary. If he's set on a huge payday then we have to move on. He's simply not worth 5.5M. Even 5M is pushing it, and gives mean slight Myers vibes. A better player but comparable inconsistencies that hold him back.

I'm fine with Myers at 2M-ish but no higher. Same with Cole (1.5-2M though). Both have played well this season, especially Cole. They just need to have a set position, and in Cole's case, a rotation with whoever our 7th is.

If I had to guess, Hronek and Myers will stay while Zadorov gets overpaid in FA and Cole gets term elsewhere.

 

[lawrence]

Hronek is Hughes best partner. We have to keep that guy no matter what, well not for 8 million. Our management has to use Hanifan's ball part as the negotation grounds.

Ian Cole is gone.

Keep zadarov.

Keep myers but at around 2 million.

 

[Nuck Bonino]

Im in the Zadorov + Hronek camp

 

[David71]

no to cole and myers. cheaper options. zadarov if he asks for more than 5+ let him walk. but i do like his nastiness to his game. makes forwards dont want to go to his end of the rink when hes out there. hes gonna lower the boom. hronek if he wants 8+not worth it trade him.

 

[LordBacon]

I only intend to keep Horny and Big Sad.
That being said, they’re asking for a f*** ton of money.
Might end up letting Zaddy go and trading Hronek if things dont go as planned.

 

[Jyrki]

Hronek is an obligatory re-signing, the only question is whether he can be a bit cost-controlled with term or if he'll be at $7M+. Only way he doesn't stay is if he really doesn't want to play here longterm, in which case we'd be in heaps of trouble.

Zadarov is the would-be-nice-if-we-could one. He adds quite a lot of value but if you pay too much you lose out on depth and he's not really a guy that's going to drive offense, he can give that illusion sometimes with a highlight reel play here and there but he's not doing it systematically. He's also an underrated penalty taker and along with Myers one of the reasons why we tend to get into penalty trouble against the grain. Gonna trust Allvin to make the right call, though.

Cole is a hard tell, great veteran presence who can play on his offside, doing good this season on the net but not sure how much more he has on the tank. We don't really have anyone in the org that could take his spot and it's always a gamble to look for a replacement in UFA without having to give term, so I think the first option is to retain Cole at maybe a lower caphit due to age. But he could theoretically be replaced by a guy like Dillion in UFA. Not a huge loss if Cole walks but he does need replacement.

Myers... I have no trouble admitting this season was probably his best. He's had quite a few good stretches and he does bring value side from his size/reach, outside of Hughes/Hronek he's the only other defenseman who can actually skate the puck out into the other end of the rink consistently. But f***ing hell, the moment the game gets a bit fast or loose the chaos giraffe rears its head and you can count on him making boneheaded decisions all over the place. Maybe this playoffs will prove me wrong but to me you just can't commit significant cap to a guy who has a high chance of being a liability under pressure. You try to retain him just because we have no one else at RHD who can fill his spot for now but you have to walk away if he doesn't take a big paycut in a 1-2 years deal and let Allvin cook.

 

[Rick Rocket]

I think Zadorov is a pretty big fan of our coaching staff. He's stated that they have helped improve his game and doesn't believe he's reached his potential. Hopefully he also likes his teammates, this playoff run and the city of Vancouver. I'm optimistic he stays without a big overpay.

 

[LordBacon]

Seriously let Myers go ffs.

 

[LemonSauceD]

There aren’t many playoff teams that would be able to afford Zadorov at $5M cap. With his comments about wanting to win and be on a winning team, I highly doubt he’ll just walk out and sign a $5M+ contract with a crappy team. He likes the players, the coaching staff, will experience playoff hockey in a starved market, and has a clear and important role as the teams protector.

He’s on record saying he’s looking for term on his next contract, my bet is he wants at least a 5 year contract. As I’ve said before, if you can bring down the cap by giving him an extra year or two, I’m more than fine with that. I think he’ll resign to a fair contract, something like $4.5M x 5 or $4.0M x 6. We don’t have any significant cap commitments to anyone beyond after next season except Miller, Pettersson, Hughes, Garland and Demko. And if you need to trade Zadorov, there will always be takers for his type. And if you want to create extra cap, you can buyout Mikheyev.

I would much rather sign a 29 year old prime defenseman that can be a mainstay, above average 5th, serviceable 4th defenseman than a 34 year old Dillon who is past his prime and is likely to decline in the very near future.

 

[kanucks25]

I'd keep Hronek but it'd have to be a very fair deal if not team-friendly. I don't think you can pay a D-man over 7M if he has yet to prove throughout pretty much his entire career that he can carry a contender level top-4 pairing.

If you're retaining Cole or signing Dillon, it can only be one or the other and it should only be a 1-year deal so you can reevaluate next summer.

Myers as well would have to be a 1-year deal and would also have to depend on what other options are out there.

I don't know if we can afford Zad's next contract, but if you let him go and are left with Soucy and Cole/Dillion as your 2/3, that has the potential to go south with one injury or a drop-off in play from one of them.

A top-4 RD is still a glaring need for this team and hopefully can addressed in the summer.

 

[mriswith]

The UFA's this summer look like better deals than what our group reportedly wants so I'd dump literally all of them at their expected prices if we had our pick of the UFA crop at their expected prices and go into next season with a RD trio of Roy/Demelo/Carrier.

But if we can't get the key UFA's signed then we're forced to extend what we have to fill the gaps. We need to add another top 4d as is, we can't afford to go into next season with any additional holes.

Myers needs to go no matter what though. I don't care how many small stretches of games he puts together where he isn't making glaring errors, the best we get from him still isn't that good, even when people think he's playing well he still makes a lot of small mistakes, every pairing that he's on is significantly worse than the sum of its parts, and we have 5 years of evidence to know that we will never consistently get the "not awful" version of Myers. The fanbase has been stockholm syndromed by him.

 

[IComeInPeace]

I’m on record as wanting to re-sign Hronek…

…but if he’s looking to score a contract approaching 8 million/year (is it Serravelli that reported that?), I’d move on from him.

But, what would Hronek’s trade value be at that point?

I’m a big fan of Ian Cole’s but I think at this point in time he’s no longer a 3 million/year player but can either probably still get that elsewhere, or he will look to sign in a no income state to recoup some of the difference in lost income.

I know it’s not necessarily a popular opinion around here, but Tyler Myers at around the 3 million plus mark would be a great re-sign.

I love Zadorov, but I don’t know if you can make the money work to still make sense for us. He’s probably getting paid like a top 4 d-man with term this off-season: I don’t think that’s wise. I’d prefer to trust our pro scouting team to target a cheaper/lesser known guy.

 

[geebster]

All depends on asking prices. If Hronek won't budge from 8 you move him, if you can't get Zadorov for around 4 you don't re sign. Cole and Myers I wouldn't bring back. Cole is a maybe if he's dirt cheap but I'd rather just sign a younger guy to fill in.

I think Hronek ultimately signs closer to 7.25 and then Zadorov tests free agency cause he thinks he can get 5 (which his production just doesn't justify).

 

[AlainVigneaultsGum]

Bring back Hronek and Z. Let Cole walk. If you can bring back the giraffe for cheap, that'd be worth looking into.

 

[PavelBure10]

Also add me in for bringing back Hronek and Zadorov. I'd consider Myers back for cheap, cheap but at the rumored 4 million no thank you. I'd even consider Cole at a lesser role. Honestly would be interested in trying out Brendan Dillion in replacement for Myers. Gives the Canucks another defenseman who can clear the crease and intimate the opposition. Would also like to see the Canucks try and get Alexandre Carrier. Very good skater who can be used on the PK, also think he has some untapped potential.

 

[JT Milker]

i like zadorov at like 4m for 2-3 years but i doubt he would be interested

the other three can go. hronek isn't someone i think is a good long term investment and myers and cole you can do better on the free agent market

You’re really going to die on the Hronek hill huh.

 

[LemonSauceD]

I prefer Edmundson over Dillon

 

[strattonius]

Hronek 7.25
Zadorov 4 25

They're key players, even if we arent getting some crazy team friendly discount. I hear the anti-Zad crowd woth his minutes and demands but feel his abilities just cant walk.

Myers and Cole are easily replaceable. Sounds like Dillon might have interest signing here, then let Juulsen take more minutes. Voila

There's also this giant pool of UFA d-men that we can pluck from. A ton of opportunities but the aforementioned Hronek and Zadorov can't be adequately replaced by UFAs.