Confirmed with Link: (June 26th, 2018) Canucks re-sign D Derrick Pouliot to 1-year Deal ($1.1M AAV)

[ChilliBilly]

No need to waste money in Free Agency, just waste money on Pouliot instead...

How about the team not waste money, period?

That would be fine if they signed FAs to a one year deal .... sadly we have a habit of picking up players and signing them to 3 year deals paying an extra million or so. I certainly would have been happy to just see how the prospects do, wait for waivers and pick up the equivalent of poohy ... however that would not save much money ...

Agreed that they probably overpaid him $200K or so, but who cares ....

 

[drax0s]

Disagree. he is serviceable 6/7 D man. We have 10 or so players that are borderline NHL/AHL tweeners. He is one of them. No need to waste money on free agency replacing them this year. This is a year for the kids to shine if they can.

This 100%. Yes, we could pay an additional $2.5-3.5 million with 3-4 years and get a much better vet defenseman in free agency. Yes, then we're an incrementally better team but that free agent very likely nudges out one of our prospects (i.e. Hughes, Chatfield, Sautner, etc) from seeing any ice time. If Pouliot shows he belongs on this roster and has figured it out - we have a 24 year old defenseman who may yet turn into something useful. If he doesn't - he loses his spot to someone like Hughes, Woo, Brisebois, Sautner or Chatfield and that's good too.

It's kind of win-win (with a whole lot of losing this year).

 

[racerjoe]

I'd take him over Gudbranson but to me he's the worst player on that list.

It just absolutely boggles my mind how, after the few years we've had, those 5 players who were the biggest liabilities on our roster are all back, and 3 of them have shiny new contracts with big raises. It's completely insane.

It's basically impossible to lose your job with Jim Benning as GM. No accountability whatsoever.

Thats not true... just ask Gilman, you get fired for being too competent. Like Hamhuis who wasn't fired but not brought back.

 

[Melvin]

This 100%. Yes, we could pay an additional $2.5-3.5 million with 3-4 years and get a much better vet defenseman in free agency. Yes, then we're an incrementally better team but that free agent very likely nudges out one of our prospects (i.e. Hughes, Chatfield, Sautner, etc) from seeing any ice time. If Pouliot shows he belongs on this roster and has figured it out - we have a 24 year old defenseman who may yet turn into something useful. If he doesn't - he loses his spot to someone like Hughes, Woo, Brisebois, Sautner or Chatfield and that's good too.

It's kind of win-win (with a whole lot of losing this year).

It remains to be seen if that actually happens though. Pouliot played almost every single game last season despite being a complete dumpster fire in some games. I am not convinced his junior coach will sit him in favor of younger pkayers

 

[drax0s]

It remains to be seen if that actually happens though. Pouliot played almost every single game last season despite being a complete dumpster fire in some games. I am not convinced his junior coach will sit him in favor of younger pkayers

Maybe? They did it last year with Wiercioch and Burmistrov if I recall correctly.

Still - isn't that a different problem if it happens? Not sure how that relates to the signing in any way unless your argument is "we should've let him walk and just gifted one of the kids a roster spot whether they deserve it or not"?

 

[Melvin]

Maybe? They did it last year with Wiercioch and Burmistrov if I recall correctly.

Still - isn't that a different problem if it happens? Not sure how that relates to the signing in any way unless your argument is "we should've let him walk and just gifted one of the kids a roster spot whether they deserve it or not"?

Sometimes coaches need their toys taken away them. We did eventually take Vey away from willie even if it took a season too long.

We are not gifting anything to anyone, except Pouliot and Granlund.

 

[drax0s]

Sometimes coaches need their toys taken away them. We did eventually take Vey away from willie even if it took a season too long.

We are not gifting anything to anyone, except Pouliot and Granlund.

Okay, so what do you think should've happened? Let Pouliot walk and....? Sign a FA? Gift roster spots to prospects? Twiddle thumbs?

 

[Melvin]

Okay, so what do you think should've happened? Let Pouliot walk and....? Sign a FA? Gift roster spots to prospects? Twiddle thumbs?

We have Hutton, Stecher, juolevi, Hughes and biega already competing for jobs without even including saunter, mceneny, Brisebois and whoever else could surprise. Nobody needs to be gifted anything. Except Pouliot will almost guaranteed be gifted a spot above any of those players regardless of how they play.

 

[MS]

Sometimes coaches need their toys taken away them. We did eventually take Vey away from willie even if it took a season too long.

We are not gifting anything to anyone, except Pouliot and Granlund.

It's hilarious when people are ok with gifting roster spots to proven bad veterans with nothing to contribute but get all up in arms about the notion of leaving roster spots open for young promising players to step into.

 

[Melvin]

It's hilarious when people are ok with gifting roster spots to proven bad veterans with nothing to contribute but get all up in arms about the notion of leaving roster spots open for young promising players to step into.

We saw the same logic last season when the team signed gagner. The idea that it provides "healthy competition" is completely undermined by the fact that Gagner was never going to lose his spot to anyone regardless, as we saw.

 

[VanJack]

It's hilarious when people are ok with gifting roster spots to proven bad veterans with nothing to contribute but get all up in arms about the notion of leaving roster spots open for young promising players to step into.

I agree. If people are all bent out of shape about 'gifting roster spots' to players, then they'd have to me more upset about Del Zotto and Gudbranson. They're guaranteed to be in the opening night lineup, and their underlying stats last season were worse than Pouliot's. And last time I looked, their contacts are taking up a combined $6m a season under the cap, compared to Pouliot's $1.1m.

 

[Jimbo57]

This is your rebuttal? Sbisa? Yeah, he also sucked here. And jesus, did you actually watch him or Pouliot play this last year? Or any other years? WTF, this isn't some theoretical logic problem. Pouliot sucked, and he was in over his head because he's no bloody good at the NHL level, just like pretty much every pro acquisition Dear Leader's brought in here over the last four years. He's a bad player and he makes a bad team worse. We have to stop the insanity at some point and stop trading for and keeping bad players if we ever want to watch a half decent team.

And freaking Sbisa?! Amazing. He literally caused the game-tying and game-winning goals against in a Stanley Cup elimination game. Defending that guy is where you go when you've completely given up on the idea praise and criticism is performance-based.

I think Pouliot can be a decent bottom pairing guy . He was put in over his head on an injury ravaged D. Its a one year contract and it is amusing how the same group of characters get all wound up over a low contract to a bottom pair d man. For a fourth rounder and Pedan? Yeah, I was expecting a top 4 d man too. sure. I like the fact that they gamble on a kid like this, seeing how they had a pathetic prospect pool of D men left by the glorious leader Gillis they probably thought they can take a chance with a kid of his pedigree by uniting him with an old coach. Its a filler contract where at the very worst he is cannon fodder while the guys they have long term plans for are evaluated and can develop. I expect him to improve on his play and numbers this year while he plays behind the top 4.

Sbisa isnt going to be an elite d man, but the fact that he was given an A to wear in Vegas, and played a substantial number of game on a Vegas D unit that went to the finals tells me that he isnt as bad as you make him out to be. Vegas picked like 12 or 13 d men in the expansion draft and decided to hold on to him for some odd reason. I could care less about who you are pinning blame on for Vegas losing the final game or the cup. There was a plethora of mistakes made throughout the series ,including the final game, which is the reason why Washington railroaded them in 5.

 

[drax0s]

We have Hutton, Stecher, juolevi, Hughes and biega already competing for jobs without even including saunter, mceneny, Brisebois and whoever else could surprise. Nobody needs to be gifted anything. Except Pouliot will almost guaranteed be gifted a spot above any of those players regardless of how they play.

So to clarify your ideal plan here: Go into preseason with Edler/Tanev/Gudbranson/Stecher/MDZ/Biega with an open spot guaranteed to go to one of the kids and if if they fail to impress and aren't ready you either scramble to sign a free agent or rush a prospect into the NHL?

With Pouliot here our defense core is Edler/Tanev/Gudbranson as gimmes (Guddy is the only spot I'll agree is "gifted" for whatever reason..). Stecher likely keeps his. The last 3 spots are MDZ/Biega/Pouliot's and those are kind of up for grabs. If Juolevi, Hughes and Brisebois come in and they outplay those 3 - those spots are theirs and MDZ/Biega/Pouliot get waived.

 

[CanaFan]

I think Pouliot can be a decent bottom pairing guy . He was put in over his head on an injury ravaged D. Its a one year contract and it is amusing how the same group of characters get all wound up over a low contract to a bottom pair d man. For a fourth rounder and Pedan? Yeah, I was expecting a top 4 d man too. sure. I like the fact that they gamble on a kid like this, seeing how they had a pathetic prospect pool of D men left by the glorious leader Gillis they probably thought they can take a chance with a kid of his pedigree by uniting him with an old coach. Its a filler contract where at the very worst he is cannon fodder while the guys they have long term plans for are evaluated and can develop. I expect him to improve on his play and numbers this year while he plays behind the top 4.

Sbisa isnt going to be an elite d man, but the fact that he was given an A to wear in Vegas, and played a substantial number of game on a Vegas D unit that went to the finals tells me that he isnt as bad as you make him out to be. Vegas picked like 12 or 13 d men in the expansion draft and decided to hold on to him for some odd reason. I could care less about who you are pinning blame on for Vegas losing the final game or the cup. There was a plethora of mistakes made throughout the series ,including the final game, which is the reason why Washington railroaded them in 5.

Who cares how he played in Vegas. He was terrible here for 3 years and Benning had no problem letting him go in expansion. Maybe being surrounded by better players in Vegas helped insulate Sbisa, who knows, but he certainly wasn't a good player here. Hell, even on Vegas he coughed up to huge goals in Game 5 so we all got to see the familiar Sbisa we all know and loathed.

 

[Jimbo57]

Who cares how he played in Vegas. He was terrible here for 3 years and Benning had no problem letting him go in expansion. Maybe being surrounded by better players in Vegas helped insulate Sbisa, who knows, but he certainly wasn't a good player here. Hell, even on Vegas he coughed up to huge goals in Game 5 so we all got to see the familiar Sbisa we all know and loathed.

And who cares what you think.

go figure, having better players around makes a player look better. Rocket science right there. Flames fans were calling Engelland a pylon and look how being on a good team that plays a good system helped him. Gosh...

Finally, why do you feel the need to get involved in almost every "conversation" i have with other people in here. I know its an open forum, but its kinda creepy that you seem to pop out no matter what time of day or night it is.

 

[CanaFan]

And who cares what you think.

go figure, having better players around makes a player look better. Rocket science right there. Flames fans were calling Engelland a pylon and look how being on a good team that plays a good system helped him. Gosh...

Finally, why do you feel the need to get involved in almost every "conversation" i have with other people in here. I know its an open forum, but its kinda creepy that you seem to pop out no matter what time of day or night it is.

I like jumping in when I see ... (choosing my words carefully here) ... bad thinking being passed off as legit arguments.

Sbisa was bad here. How he played in Vegas doesn't change that one bit.

 

[Jimbo57]

I like jumping in when I see ... (choosing my words carefully here) ... bad thinking being passed off as legit arguments.

Sbisa was bad here. How he played in Vegas doesn't change that one bit.

[MOD]

Not only was Sbisa bad here, practically the whole team was bad. I suspect that people with a little more hockey knowledge than you probably took the context he was playing in into consideration before deciding to hold on to him, out of all the d men they selected, and handing him an A.

 

[CanaFan]

[MOD]

Not only was Sbisa bad here, practically the whole team was bad. I suspect that people with a little more hockey knowledge than you probably took the context he was playing in into consideration before deciding to hold on to him, out of all the d men they selected, and handing him an A.

I don’t have time for lazy appeal to authority arguments. Sbisa was bad here. Period.

As for the rest, good players can exist on bad teams. Even ours. Chris Tanev, Brock Boeser, Bo Horvat.

Your excuses are running thin.

 

[Melvin]

So to clarify your ideal plan here: Go into preseason with Edler/Tanev/Gudbranson/Stecher/MDZ/Biega with an open spot guaranteed to go to one of the kids and if if they fail to impress and aren't ready you either scramble to sign a free agent or rush a prospect into the NHL?

With Pouliot here our defense core is Edler/Tanev/Gudbranson as gimmes (Guddy is the only spot I'll agree is "gifted" for whatever reason..). Stecher likely keeps his. The last 3 spots are MDZ/Biega/Pouliot's and those are kind of up for grabs. If Juolevi, Hughes and Brisebois come in and they outplay those 3 - those spots are theirs and MDZ/Biega/Pouliot get waived.

I'm not going to respond to you if you keep shoving this "gifting" nonsense into my mouth.

There are more than enough players to compete for a spot and adding trash like Pouliot doesn't help anything.

How have you settled upon a dichotomy of "gift a spot to a prospect" (Hutton is a prospect?) and "gift a spot to trash."

 

[MarkMM]

And who cares what you think.

go figure, having better players around makes a player look better. Rocket science right there. Flames fans were calling Engelland a pylon and look how being on a good team that plays a good system helped him. Gosh...

Finally, why do you feel the need to get involved in almost every "conversation" i have with other people in here. I know its an open forum, but its kinda creepy that you seem to pop out no matter what time of day or night it is.

Jebus, someone is sensitive.

Don't have a huge issue with Pouiliot being re-signed but just wondering again why it's any more than the minimum needed to qualify. Not the end of the world, but reminiscent of when Sbisa was so bad that at best he should have been qualified but Benning & co. gave him a raise and term.

Also in isolation wouldn't have an issue with Pouliot for the 4th and Pedan...but again, he was waiver wire material. If that was the only unnecessary pick traded away we could look away from it, but it's not.

You can whine, bitch and moan all you want about #ButGillis as your defence for the inane things Benning does, but even with the admitted depletion of our prospect cupboard under Gillis the context is that he sold the farm during the most successful run in franchise history and took us within a game of the Cup.

Benning? He's inexplicably spent to the cap that delivered basement dwelling performance, had a net loss of draft picks, and handed out NTC's as much as Gillis did, but instead of getting hometown discounts with NTC's, Benning is giving NTC's to players with term and above value salaries.

I know, I know, as you always say...

#ButGillis

Meanwhile...

 

[Get North]

No need to waste money in Free Agency, just waste money on Pouliot instead...

How about the team not waste money, period?

What do you suggest we should do? If we go into next season with this defence minus Pouliot, our 4th LD is either Juolevi/Brisebois/McEneny/Sautner. None of those guys look ready and if they are, they are competing against Pouliot and Hutton for ice-time. If they can't out play those guys, then they aren't ready for the NHL as far as I am considered. Pouliot is bad, but he's a good measurement for management if they want to see how young LDs match up.

If a LD goes down and we don't have Pouliot, that throws a rookie in the line-up that isn't ready for the NHL. 1M isn't a lot of money.

 

[biturbo19]

We saw the same logic last season when the team signed gagner. The idea that it provides "healthy competition" is completely undermined by the fact that Gagner was never going to lose his spot to anyone regardless, as we saw.

The idea of "competition" with a guy on a multi-year $3M+ contract is a bit different than a guy like Pouliot on a 1-year $1.1M deal that caries a marginal $200k penalty if buried in the minors. That said, because it's one of Travis Green's favourite misfit toys...the idea of Pouliot having to actually improve and earn some NHL icetime is probably a pipe dream.

 

[Melvin]

The idea of "competition" with a guy on a multi-year $3M+ contract is a bit different than a guy like Pouliot on a 1-year $1.1M deal that caries a marginal $200k penalty if buried in the minors. That said, because it's one of Travis Green's favourite misfit toys...the idea of Pouliot having to actually improve and earn some NHL icetime is probably a pipe dream.

Right sure. The reasons are different but the result is the same.

 

[Jay Cee]

We have Hutton, Stecher, juolevi, Hughes and biega already competing for jobs without even including saunter, mceneny, Brisebois and whoever else could surprise. Nobody needs to be gifted anything. Except Pouliot will almost guaranteed be gifted a spot above any of those players regardless of how they play.

I disagree. The deal he has would be owner's loss in the worst case. In team terms he would be a 200k hit on the cap worst case. That is if he wasn't claimed on waivers though- I think he would be.

I don't think we are committing to him at all over certain players, to the contrary I think he is insurance if we can't.

 

[drax0s]

I'm not going to respond to you if you keep shoving this "gifting" nonsense into my mouth.

Easy now. What's with the hostility. For the record I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "shoving this gifting nonsense into your mouth"? You mentioned gifting a roster spot in this post and I was just responding to it? Are you upset about the use of quotation marks or something?

There are more than enough players to compete for a spot and adding trash like Pouliot doesn't help anything.

How have you settled upon a dichotomy of "gift a spot to a prospect" (Hutton is a prospect?) and "gift a spot to trash."

Maybe I'm reading into it, but it seems like the Canucks want their prospects to "win" their spots on the roster. They don't just want to have an empty slot that has to be filled that they toss whatever prospect into that plays best. That kind of implies that they want a full roster to force prospects win those spots by outplaying people in preseason. I can kind of understand that since it ensures you're not forced to play a prospect who's not ready just because you have no other option.

Edler/Tanev/Gudbranson (for some reason) have pretty secure slots. Stecher likely as well. Biega, MDZ are on the cusp. That's 6 skaters with 2 slots kind of up in the air. I had actually forgotten about Hutton. He was kind of in Green's doghouse last year. Maybe his spot isn't secure either and he has earn his spot too? I dunno.

Also to clarify - I don't actually want Pouliot on the opening night roster. I want 2 of our defensemen to be outplayed by prospects and lose their spots. I expect that'll be Pouliot and MDZ.