CC96
Serious Offender
He could cycle pretty well with Ray Whitney, and has good puck possession (he had really good fancy stats this year, apparently. I think he'll be a great fit for the twins.
News Article: The whole story on Vrbata
- Thread starter The Feckless Puck
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He could cycle pretty well with Ray Whitney, and has good puck possession (he had really good fancy stats this year, apparently. I think he'll be a great fit for the twins.
kihekah19*
Registered User
Craig Button was talking about him not being a good fit with the twins and I while I agree with him often, I think he's out of his head on this one. The Sedins will open up time and space for him and he can finish - plain & simple.
Heard Button also and I agree with you, he's wrong. Vrby is a great fit with the twins and may have 40 goals this year playing with those two.
Nona Di Giuseppe
Registered User
I'm more surprised to hear that anyone agrees with Button often than I am to hear him say he doesn't imagine Vrbata fitting well with Sedins.
Should be interesting to see how it pans out. Canucks took a big step back last year, but had a lot of variables contributing to it!
The Canucks problem last season is that they had zero depth to take the pressure off the Sedins. The way to beat the canucks was simply, shut down the Sedins and watch the other three lines struggle to hit the broad side of a barn. It was that bad and that simple to beat the Canucks last season. Mike Gillis (the right players) and Tortorella (not understanding how to assess the talents he had on his roster) didn't get this and they paid for it with their jobs (rightly so).
I think this is a great signing because Vrbata would be a perfect second line forward IF the Canucks can put the right players around him to compliment his talents.
Before the Sedins became first liners this is exactly what they did they were second and third liners (take the pressure off the first line and give opposing coaches fits for game plans). The Canucks simply did not get this last season.
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letowskie
Registered User
I hope he does.
We need to be less miserly in treating our important players that have been loyal to the organization.
TheLegend
Megathread Gadfly
Exactly how was Vrbata treated so miserly? You do not know how much the Coyotes were able to afford.
Or do you really think Vrbata is worth $5M a year?? Given that his offensive output depends entirely upon having a line mate who can feed him pucks??? I don't think he is, and I say that wishing he was still a Coyote.
He was willing to take less than $3m, even from an organization that didn't even offer him a contract prior to free agency. The whole situation was handled poorly.
DesertDawg
Registered User
Why do you keep posting this? Where does it say that he was willing to take less than $3mil? And that the organization didn't negotiate before free agency? My understanding was that Vrbata didn't want to be distracted during the season and put re-signing on hold until the season ended.
He took the money, that is obvious! The Coyotes offered the same modified NTC that the Canucks gave him! I also believe that if MR waived his NMC to go to Calgary, the Coyotes would have been able to re-sign Vrbata!
Everyone is assuming this happened and that happened and so on. I guess we have to look at DM's track record and trust that what he did was right. Last year when Vrbata went MIA for much of the season, most of us were very critical of his performance, but now we are blaming DM for not signing him. How soon we forget.
TheLegend
Megathread Gadfly
Bingo....!!
All we know for sure is... Vrby would have taken less than the $5M/yr Vancouver offered.. But it also meant a locking him into 4 year deal with NTC/NMC for the entire contract.
I too believe the Ribeiro situation completely turned Maloney off to offering future NTCs or NMCs to anyone. Maloney did finally offer Vrby a limited NMC (I'm assuming for the latter 1 or 2 only)... but that essentially boiled it down to comparing the money between the two offers.
rt
The Kinder, Gentler Version
RemoAZ
Let it burn
The simple fact is he got over paid. You can't blame him for taking the cash. He seems like a really good guy and I'm happy for him. We're already stuck paying our big FA signing from last year not to play here. We couldn't afford to over pay for a streaky, soft scorer that did very little in the playoffs. If we could have got him at 3 to 3.5, that would have been a solid signing. $5 mil on our team means he has to be a top line guy. That isn't Vrbata. After listening to Maloney, you'd hope all those Vrbata minutes go to Domi or some young scorer we could land in a trade. That's not looking like it's going to happen at this point. I guess we'll see.
KG
Registered User
- Sep 23, 2010
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A soft, streaky scorer who was reliable defensively and with only 10 guys ahead of him in the whole league with more GPG.
But ok guys, keep trying to rationalize losing Vrbata.
Losing Vrbata's production is the worst blow this team has taken since I started watching them, anyways.
Perhaps the only thing worse has been losing Ottawa Turris.
But ok guys, keep trying to rationalize losing Vrbata.
Losing Vrbata's production is the worst blow this team has taken since I started watching them, anyways.
Perhaps the only thing worse has been losing Ottawa Turris.
KG
Registered User
- Sep 23, 2010
- 4,872
- 744
DesertDawg
Registered User
It gives an opportunity for some one else to cease the moment. Who that player, or players, are any ones guess.
Yeah, totally made the playoffs those years.
Not sure we were totally making the playoffs with him the first time too.
I'll take things the Coyotes front office has said for the past 4 seasons for $400, Alex.
The Nuge
Some say…
I don't think anyone is saying losing him doesn't matter, but a 50 point forward doesn't make or break your team. There are guys that could likely fill in for him
awfulwaffle
Registered User
Ok people, he's no longer a Coyote. Best of luck to him in Vancouver. Fact is, he was a streaky scorer, and we had nobody to pair with him successfully like Whitney did. Hell, probably never will. Sad to see him go, but it's part of the business.
