WOW!
W-O-W!
W------OOOOOO---------W!!!!!!
That's just wow. This team needs a big shake-up and Virtanen won't be it, though he and few others wouldn't be missed if there is anything to be gained from it. They need a whole new outlook and only new faces in the coaching staff bringing a new system and better evaluation of the players and how they are deployed can do that. Then add new management with specific goals and a plan for how they can be met. Then the players are held to the standards necessary to meet the goals so the big plan can come to fruition. That plan is always the Stanley Cup.
New personnel at all three levels (management, coaches, and players) is the only way that ultimate goal can be achieved by the Canucks. They are SOL in all 3 areas with things as they stand at the moment. There is a core and it's smaller than many think, but the dead weight is too much to ask the core to even try to carry.
The complementary parts are supposed to support and help the core meet the ultimate goal, not drag it down or hold it back. Those pieces may easily change as new picks and prospects and the occasional magical free agent gained at a steal price because nobody would have guessed how he would gel with a certain line or D-partner replace them. Thus, it is imperative that you don't hand out long term contracts at any amount to the peripheral players. You keep fiddling with that group with the hope that you find the perfect mix.
However, one new toy in the lineup every season as Benning has done for 7 seasons running will never get you there. You have to add a depth group of prospects with actual NHL promise and when it's revealed the promise isn't there you immediately move on from there . Trades and UFAs get you guys to hold down a spot until the perfect fits fall in. You fill in slots 2 or 3 at a time every season . You don't make trades for the big missing part or two until all the other pieces are in place and then you drop the hammer and go for it.
The window for the final drive is usually a short 2-4 year span and then it's gone and you have to reload and start again. That's why the ones you see get there rarely repeat and even those that do end up in dire straits soon after, witness Chicago, LA, and Detroit. Some make that quick reload and get another like Chicago or LA. Others make a longer reload but still get there like Pittsburgh or are often knocking at the door like Boston, but it's really hard to get there and all the pieces have to fall into place at the same time.
Vancouver is not in this company as it stands and Pods and Tryamkin won't put them there either. Better? Maybe. Cup winners nope. Benning's moves this past off season has pushed the Canucks windows much farther than it might have been and his anchor contracts prevent the active roster movement necessary to keep juggling to find the right mix.
The D has to be completely rebuilt. Hughes is it for when their window will open. Schmidt might still fill a role, but it's questionable. Myers at his current level of play does not help a Stanley cup team. He would not have replaced a single top 6 Tampa D-man last season. Edler will be long gone. Juolevi and every other D-man they are using right now are not Stanley Cup D-men. Rathbone is the only unknown newbie. Benning in 7 years has not done a thing to build a depth group of prospect defenders.
Most of the Cup teams have players they have groomed on the farm. Tampa was a perfect example. A large number of the Lightning were home grown and many played in AHL Syracuse. The only Vancouver Stanley Cup possibility to have grown on the farm is Demko. MacEwen is one of those prospects I said you bring on as cheap place holders until the right pieces are found. He's it. Bailey is maybe a 4th line replacement for the cap robbers who was acquired from an NHL team who gave up on him in his 4th season and traded him to Philly who ended up sending him to AHL Lehigh Valley and he was signed the following year by the Canucks as a free agent. This year 6 for him. Stanley Cup material? Not hardly. Holds down a place until the better player is slotted in.
Who is on the farm now? Maybe Kole Lind. Not sure he make the top 6, but he scores and can skate. maybe he's one of those surprises that all of a sudden just fits in. He's it for now. Lockwood and Woo are rookies. You never know, but they are already in trouble with a 32 game season as their first development year. Rathbone and Michaelis aren't getting any better either sitting in the Vancouver cab. Losing a year of serious development is not good for any prospect. How about the picks this coming summer? Canadian Jrs are a mess. The Europeans are playing. They can be selected ,but need to be brought to North America to get this prospect thing in full swing not scattered throughout Europe instead of playing with their future mates in North America on the smaller rinks. Hogs and Petey have turned out great playing here right away. The not ready for the NHL need to be making the same advances in the AHL. No one has any idea other than stat watching and getting a scout's report that these guys are actually North America ready in terms of physicality, defensive play, skill sets to function in small rinks. We have seen Europeans fail to make a favorable impression and have returned to Europe. They need to be drafted only if they are willing to get their asses over here and start their progression. This I'll come if i can play in the NHL otherwise I go back home is BS and hockey blackmail. They have proved nothing and there is no reason they should control things.
The Canucks need big changes and sooner than later. Hughes, Petey, Bo, Boeser, Hogs, Demko (if he proves to be the one) and maybe Miller and Schmidt are the core. That's a lot of open roster spots to be filled. I'll even let you cling to the belief that Motte and Lind can cut it. That's highly questionable but maybe. That decision will have to be made pretty quick because maybe has to become absolutely or you have to move on from them. It's still a massive climb to fill in the rest of those spots to make this team Stanley Cup worthy in the core's prime.