Markus Granlund, a pleasant surprise this season?

[sting101]

I dont know how anyone who watches the games closely could say he's been anything less than an excellent middle 6 player so far. But oh well I guess some people would rather go down swinging than admit that dismissing this player as a useless plug was wrong.

Here's a player that has done nothing but give Travis Green and his team solid play and versatility but people want to crack on him and call out his lack of physical traits?

Started pretty good last year too so let's see how it goes. Definitely a year to establish himself or be expendable. So far he's succeeding and has been great....its a long season.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Yup.

He's had a really nice last 5-6 games and is moving his feet and competing with some purpose.

The first 12 games of the season he had 1 point that wasn't into an EN and was the same old invisible soft slow ghost we saw last year.

Seems to have taken the opportunity created by the Sutter injury to heart and upped his compete level. Will see if he keeps it up. I have my doubts, based on past history.

This is a fair assessment. I also liked BloatedGuppy’s post from the T&R forum not too long ago - called him a Swiss Army knife with no one particularly sharp blade, if I’m remembering right.

 

[Melvin]

I dont know how anyone who watches the games closely could say he's been anything less than an excellent middle 6 player so far. But oh well I guess some people would rather go down swinging than admit that dismissing this player as a useless plug was wrong.

Here's a player that has done nothing but give Travis Green and his team solid play and versatility but people want to crack on him and call out his lack of physical traits?

Started pretty good last year too so let's see how it goes. Definitely a year to establish himself or be expendable. So far he's succeeding and has been great....its a long season.

He's had spurts of good play before. And every time he does, we get posts like this one. And then he disappears for 30 games.

 

[MS]

This is a fair assessment. I also liked BloatedGuppy’s post from the T&R forum not too long ago - called him a Swiss Army knife with no one particularly sharp blade, if I’m remembering right.

Yup.

I've said much the same thing before. He's extremely versatile ... but is kinda mediocre or below-average at everything he's versatile at. Can play top-6 or bottom-6, special teams, wing or center ... all well enough to get by in an injury pinch but not well enough to not be a guy you'd want to replace on a healthy roster.

Have also said before that as much as I'd get rid of him here, if I was the GM of a contending team I'd give him a cheap deal as a 12th-13th forward because of that versatility.

 

[JanBulisPiggyBack]

He is basically another Hansen, whom everybody loved to death.

Good third liner who could play up the and down the line up when needed, works hard each night but doesn’t have the talent to be anything more than that.

Strange how people here hate Granlund because he cost us shinkaruk

 

[MS]

He is basically another Hansen, whom everybody loved to death.

Good third liner who could play up the and down the line up when needed, works hard each night but doesn’t have the talent to be anything more than that.

Strange how people here hate Granlund because he cost us shinkaruk

Granlund's performance in the last 5 games might be comparable to Hansen.

Granlund's performance in the previous 100 games isn't even on the same planet as Hansen, and it's an absolutely ludicrous comparison to make.

People don't hate him because of Shinkaruk. People don't like him because of 2+ years of slow, soft, insipid, invisible play.

 

[Nomobo]

Granlund's performance in the last 5 games might be comparable to Hansen.

Granlund's performance in the previous 100 games isn't even on the same planet as Hansen, and it's an absolutely ludicrous comparison to make.

People don't hate him because of Shinkaruk. People don't like him because of 2+ years of slow, soft, insipid, invisible play.

 

[y2kcanucks]

He is basically another Hansen, whom everybody loved to death.

Good third liner who could play up the and down the line up when needed, works hard each night but doesn’t have the talent to be anything more than that.

Strange how people here hate Granlund because he cost us shinkaruk

Except Hansen was actually good on the ice, Granlund isn't.

I think people don't like Granlund because he's not good at anything. Like others have said, he's versatile, but he doesn't excel at anything so is he really all that good?

 

[Diamonddog01]

What thing I do like about Granlund is that at least he actually produces when moved up to the top 6 - which seems to be rare with our depth forwards. Not a world beater by any means, but there is some value there.

 

[sting101]

I don't agree with 2 years of poor play.

16/17 - would have easily scored 20 plus if he didn't get shut down with a wrist injury. had some bouts of weak soft play but also had a pretty hot hand and was a pleasant suprise. Inconsistent 23yr old on a poor team. Certainly the criticisms that he would regress were spot on as a 20% shooting percent wasn't sustainable and neither was a top6 role for a guy that isn't pushing people back. It pissed people off that Benning targetted him and the media as per usual overhyped his play based on his 19goals...but it still was somewhat of a breakout year for him.

17/18 - started out well. was actually pretty snakebitten for the first month when him Sutter and Dorsett were playing extremely well as a trio. Then about this time Dorsett was gone, Sutter got hurt shortly after and the teams and his wheels fell off....played way too many minutes and crumbled and ended with a devastating ankle injury that washed out the last 28 games and a chance to redeem himself after the trade deadline. Definitely a awful season but was overtasked and had a poor role on a poor team.

If i'm the GM i'm extremely happy to have him as my 7th winger on a decent contract. Can step into the top3 lines in a variety of roles and keep them ticking along. As i said lets see how it goes......he's been good so far.

 

[MS]

16-17 he was mostly crap but rode an absurdly lucky sh% and an absurd amount of icetime to numbers that looked sorta good on paper out of context but were actually lousy given his usage. He was good for the first couple weeks of the season but after that not at all.

Last year he was completely awful. Invisible night after night after night. A complete ghost.

 

[VanJack]

Let's face it...some posters are just irrational when it comes to Granlund...he seems to epitomize a Canucks team that's soft, plays small and produces next to nothing offensively.

But the guy is a versatile player who scored 19 goals a year ago; can play up and down the lineup; kills penalties in a pinch and can take faceoffs. And more importantly, he's only earning $1.4m a season on a one year contract but still qualifies as an RFA.

If people want to 'pile on' , how about Sutter ($4m a season and chronically hurt); Eriksson ($6m a season) or Gagner ($3m a season and in the minors)?

Granlund represents good value for his contract. And because of his cost-controlled one-year deal, he'd never clear waivers in a million years. No matter, the haters will keep piling on. Frankly nonsensical.

 

[Fire Benning]

Let's face it...some posters are just irrational when it comes to Granlund...he seems to epitomize a Canucks team that's soft, plays small and produces next to nothing offensively.

But the guy is a versatile player who scored 19 goals a year ago; can play up and down the lineup; kills penalties in a pinch and can take faceoffs. And more importantly, he's only earning $1.4m a season on a one year contract but still qualifies as an RFA.

If people want to 'pile on' , how about Sutter ($4m a season and chronically hurt); Eriksson ($6m a season) or Gagner ($3m a season and in the minors)?

Granlund represents good value for his contract. And because of his cost-controlled one-year deal, he'd never clear waivers in a million years. No matter, the haters will keep piling on. Frankly nonsensical.

Sutter is more of an asset at his contract than Granlund is.

 

[Melvin]

What's frustrating and actually a little bizarre is the way that every single time this player strings a half dozen good games together you've got all these people coming out of the woodwork to bleat about how they were "right all along" and expecting others to "eat crow" but it's like, nobody ever said he couldnt play well for a few games at a time. Most players can. Remember Motte last year? Or leipsic? The question has always been, can he play well enough for a long enough time that he actually has overall value over similar waiver wire players? That still remains to be seen. It's November. Chill.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Pre-conditioned bias is alive and well in this thread.

 

[Jyrki21]

What's frustrating and actually a little bizarre is the way that every single time this player strings a half dozen good games together you've got all these people coming out of the woodwork to bleat about how they were "right all along" and expecting others to "eat crow" but it's like, nobody ever said he couldnt play well for a few games at a time. Most players can. Remember Motte last year? Or leipsic? The question has always been, can he play well enough for a long enough time that he actually has overall value over similar waiver wire players? That still remains to be seen. It's November. Chill.

Granlund is the type of player I would get behind in most circumstances. Its his use by, and on behalf of, management as some sort of imagined massive 'W' that makes it hard to do so.

 

[Regal]

He's been decent recently but for the first 8-10 games of the season I legitimately forgot he played for the team.

That's kind of how these players go though isn't it? Some bottom 6 guys are the type that are noticeable most games but whose production comes and goes. Others, it's both their play and production that comes and goes. But ultimately these periods of production are needed over a long season. As long as they aren't hurting the team when they're off. Not a great asset by any means, but serviceable enough for now. The Hansen comparisons are way off though. Hansen was so much better

 

[JanBulisPiggyBack]

Hansen’s career high is 22 goals and 38 points
Granlunds career high is 19 and 32.

They aren’t that far apart, sure Hansen has a a couple seasons with 16 goals but that’s over a career, don’t be surprised if Granlund hits that this year if he stays healthy.

I’m not being a Benning Boy here but Granlund is decent, he’s one of our better players in the bottom six who might have the best value on the entire team. All the Granlund haters I would estimate also hate Benning and everything he does???

Historically a depth player who can chip in a few goals here and there are hailed as fan favourites, why is granlund so villianized

 

[valkynax]

Hansen’s career high is 22 goals and 38 points
Granlunds career high is 19 and 32.

They aren’t that far apart, sure Hansen has a a couple seasons with 16 goals but that’s over a career, don’t be surprised if Granlund hits that this year if he stays healthy.

I’m not being a Benning Boy here but Granlund is decent, he’s one of our better players in the bottom six who might have the best value on the entire team. All the Granlund haters I would estimate also hate Benning and everything he does???

Historically a depth player who can chip in a few goals here and there are hailed as fan favourites, why is granlund so villianized

From what we see in the last couple of years, as long as he's not shoved into top 6 he should be fine.

 

[PetterssonSimp]

He's the Emil Pettersson version of the Granlund brothers, but I've been happy with his play thus far. It's a team game, and he's contributed where he can. He won't ever be a star in this league, but not everyone can be.

Fedor Federov, Steve Kariya, and so on and so forth. Didn’t we have the lesser Pronger for a time as well? Always the lesser brother it seems

 

[DL44]

I see hyperbole is alive and well.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

He is basically another Hansen, whom everybody loved to death.

Good third liner who could play up the and down the line up when needed, works hard each night but doesn’t have the talent to be anything more than that.

Strange how people here hate Granlund because he cost us shinkaruk

Nobody gives a shit about Shinkaruk. Nobody mentioned him until you did. The only people who care about Shinkaruk are the Benning boosters who relentlessly trot out his name out as proof that Benning is capable of making a trade where the better player comes back, not that the better player is much good. It's only because they want to talk about the deal, not the player.

Hansen was a far, far better skater and forechecker than Granlund could even dream of being. He even brought edge to his game whereas Granlund is about as edgy as a doorknob. He's a soft, bland depth forward who can occasionally chip in points and yes, he almost hit 20 goals after being stapled to the Sedins' wing and given ridiculously high icetime. The next season once a better player in Boeser got that time instead of Granlund, his offensive numbers dove like we all said they would.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

I've liked his play most of the season.

Pre-conditioned bias is alive and well in this thread.

You have shown to be an extremely biased poster in the past. Why do you have such low tolerance for other peoples biases?

 

[DL44]

Granlund and Hansen aren't a good comparable..

Tyler Motte on the other hand looks like a reincarnation of the honey badger.

Hansen was a crowd favorite for being a scrappy, hard working player... he was also was a very frustrating player offensively till late in the his career here... where I guess experience finally started to kick in and finally translated to some reasonable offensive success with the twins. So many blown scoring chances. especially early in his career.. had no hands.

Granlund is obviously the smarter, more versatile, better defensively and on the PK than Hansen was at this age.. Hansen was faster and more in the battle.
We'll see where Granny ends up when he's 27-28-29... probably viewed in retrospect as the more valuable player.

But Hansen was the home grown, crowd favorite home badger.

 

[Fire Benning]

Hansen routinely put up 25+ point seasons where basically all of his production was 5v5.

Granlund's most notable season was putting up 32 points by getting every last drop of production out of him and ended up a -13 at even strength.

Not to mention stylistically, they're not that similar.