Confirmed Signing with Link: [VAN] Tucker Poolman signs with the Canucks (4 years, $2.5M AAV)

[Regal]

Like I said, if you could get every player you try to sign to get on board with your idea of just "sign for league min bro 1 year only" Im sure every GM would be doing that but in FA almost every player has the leverage in talks. These are the guys that have to uproot their families or themselves to go to a different city and team. You have to remember the human aspect of all this. And please, enlighten me on who the Canucks should have picked up for league minimum short term? Because when I look at the FA board almost no one pops up. Unless of course you want strictly AHL reclamation projects and hopefully one of them is decent, like throwing darts at a board blindfolded. This whole conversation is over 1 mil anyways wtf are we arguing about lol.

If all that's available are the reclamation AHLers then that's all there is imo. This team isn't going to compete this season, so I don't see why it's necessary to overpay for a guy now. I would rather sign Schenn and try out Rathbone or Juolevi on their off-side at this point since both need ice time. It wouldn't be an issue for a year or two, if you have the cap, it's more locking into this guy for 4 years when he very easily could fall out of your top 6 in that time, especially since he's barely established himself as an NHLer as is. And yes, this is largely a small potatoes contract that isn't going to make or break the team, but it speaks to the fact that Benning hasn't learned anything from giving out these longer deals, and it's frustrating.

 

[Peter10]

Im not giving Benning the benefit of the doubt but there was probably multiple GMs offering Poolman a similar contract. Look at the contracts given out in league this year and basically every year in FA. These players have more leverage than you think. Not to mention we're talking about overpaying by like 1 mil. Honestly its sad to see people go into extreme detail of why its a bad contract when its literaly a 1 mil over payment. Or let me guess, he should've signed for league min? If only we could sign every single player for league min, but them someone would probably complain that a contract is 1 year too long.

Several other GMs try dumb things during UFAcy, so I must try to be the dumbest

 

[John Johnson]

If all that's available are the reclamation AHLers then that's all there is imo. This team isn't going to compete this season, so I don't see why it's necessary to overpay for a guy now. I would rather sign Schenn and try out Rathbone or Juolevi on their off-side at this point since both need ice time. It wouldn't be an issue for a year or two, if you have the cap, it's more locking into this guy for 4 years when he very easily could fall out of your top 6 in that time, especially since he's barely established himself as an NHLer as is. And yes, this is largely a small potatoes contract that isn't going to make or break the team, but it speaks to the fact that Benning hasn't learned anything from giving out these longer deals, and it's frustrating.

I see where you're coming from, I'm frustrated over Bennings tenure too. But it hasn't been all bad moves every time. Honestly though, with they way the Pacific division is looking, the Canucks are one of the better teams in that division on paper. Will they compete for the cup? Probably not, but stranger things have happened. Plus if we keep going with the rebuild or whatever people want then we basically waste a lot of players prime years waiting for prospects to develop. Sometimes you just have to see what you have as a team and make a play.

 

[bossram]

What a f***ing cesspool this thread is turning into. f*** Canucks fans.

Get out then? Just because you don't want to discuss a signing rationally doesn't mean everyone else has to display blind loyalty to Benning, who deserves absolutely no benefit of the doubt at this point.

When he does good things, we say so (I like the Petan, Sutter, and Schenn signings). When he makes bad moves, which is frequently, we say so too.

 

[John Johnson]

.

 

[sandwichbird2023]

Thing is though you are not filling your entire team with FAs. With RFAs there is more team leverage so you get better deals. FA is much different, remember that these players aren't robots and negotiate their contracts. Besides you people would complain if he overpayed the star players too be real.

Well we see how much Benning loves to overpay for UFA, and usually more than 1 mil per. That costed us a 9th overall pick to dump 3 of those contracts, the opportunity cost to re-sign Toffoli or Tanev last off season, and the potential opportunity cost to weaponize cap space. So yea, while we are not filling the roster with UFA signings, the overpayment is still significant.
You are right, these players aren't robots, but that is no excuse to have to overpay for EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! You are allowed to say "thanks, but no thanks." The ironic thing is the overpay on random UFA's, but then when their star players like Petterson and Hughes petitioning to bring back Toffoli and Tanev, they get ignored. Why?
I don't know what "you people" you are referring to, but I much rather not overpay ANYBODY. What is wrong with paying fair market value? So yea, you are right, I would be upset if he overpay the star players too. However, if the choice is to either overpay the star players or some random 4th liner (Beagle/Schaller/Eriksson) or bottom pairing Dman (Myers/Poolman/Gudbranson/Sbisa), then I much rather overpay the star players. I don't know why, after 17 years into the cap era, this is such a hard concept for some fans to wrap their head around? I really don't.

 

[sandwichbird2023]

Like I said, if you could get every player you try to sign to get on board with your idea of just "sign for league min bro 1 year only" Im sure every GM would be doing that but in FA almost every player has the leverage in talks. These are the guys that have to uproot their families or themselves to go to a different city and team. You have to remember the human aspect of all this. And please, enlighten me on who the Canucks should have picked up for league minimum short term? Because when I look at the FA board almost no one pops up. Unless of course you want strictly AHL reclamation projects and hopefully one of them is decent, like throwing darts at a board blindfolded. This whole conversation is over 1 mil anyways wtf are we arguing about lol.

That comes with the job, its the profession they choice, and its one of many many many reasons they already get paid millions to play hockey. So you want to pay them a premium ON TOP OF the millions they are already earning? If there is no salary cap I can careless, its not my money. But there is a cap so every dollar matters.
Today is NOT a good day to sign anybody because there are many GM's losing their minds on the first day of UFA. This happens every single year. Smart GMs wait out the frenzy and pick up the non-big name players at good value.
The whole conversation is NOT over 1 mil, it is over 1-1.5m PER YEAR for FOUR years. It is about tying up cap space for long term over a bottom pairing player. It is about the philosophy of overpaying replacement level players over and over. It is about the opportunity costs that is associated with it, as well as the tangible cost of dumping these contracts down the road (like we just did with the 9th overall pick a few days ago). It is about a GM who made the same mistake in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019 and now 2021, and is clearly not learning from them. If you think this is an isolated bad contract on a 1 mil overpayment, you clearly have not pay attention for the last SEVEN YEARS.

 

[MMC]

 

[Buresflyingelbow]

Unfortunately he's going to Travis Green

Brad Shaw

 

[Buresflyingelbow]

I’ll reserve judgement on this player until I see him play. 2.5 million is not that much so hopefully he has some potential and Brad Shaw recommended him.

 

[AHLdepth]

Ive loosely speculated this elsewhere, but is there any chance that Brad Shaw wants to revamp our defensive system, and his specifically mentioned a few guys that he sees some underrated potential in?

 

[cc]

Ive loosely speculated this elsewhere, but is there any chance that Brad Shaw wants to revamp our defensive system, and his specifically mentioned a few guys that he sees some underrated potential in?

I feel like this is all Benning. He had remarked earlier that he wanted to focus more on acquiring bigger defensive minded RD players to balance out the younger LD players like Hughes, Rathbone, Juolevi. I suspect that he believes pairing them with this type is going to unleash their offensive potential.

 

[not a troll]

I'd hate to see what Bennings personal finances are like if this is how he spends someone else's millions.

 

[Henkka]

Horrible signing. What a hell Vancouver is thinking? Always it looks that a worse defenceman is going from Winnipeg to Canucks.

And Jets got the best defenceman of all VAN-WPG moves in Schmidt for a bargain.

 

[sipowicz]

Anyone offer condolences to Nucks fans for the team signing Pooman!

 

[thefutures]

Horrible signing. What a hell Vancouver is thinking? Always it looks that a worse defenceman is going from Winnipeg to Canucks.

And Jets got the best defenceman of all VAN-WPG moves in Schmidt for a bargain.

Atleast it's not 6m this time lol

 

[nucksauce]

I'm amazed that so many fellow Canuck fans have elite pro scouting capabilites and great foresight when it comes to depth signing UFA's a few of you should quit your jobs and get into hockey operations full-time.

 

[sipowicz]

I love it. Poolman is Tanev lite, huge fan of him. A little long at 4 years but AAV is good.

No Pooman is terribad, glad the Jets finally dumped him!


Gonna miss his patented pass up the ice to no one and his bank it off the boards to the opposite team, oh and his lost in his own end with no clue or care!

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

Poolman isn't bad, but the Canucks system is going to tare him apart. But at best I see him working very well with Hughes.

Canucks are likely going to have butter for defence this upcoming season.

 

[sipowicz]

Delete

 

[not a troll]

I'm amazed that so many fellow Canuck fans have elite pro scouting capabilites and great foresight when it comes to depth signing UFA's a few of you should quit your jobs and get into hockey operations full-time.

Aquilini should absolutely do that then he wouldn't have had to buy out the contracts of Virtanen and Holtby only a year later.

 

[JAK]

Arm Chair GMs have it so good.

Yet, no one can name a depth signing they wish Benning had signed instead of Poolman.

 

[Turin]

Arm Chair GMs have it so good.

Yet, no one can name a depth signing they wish Benning had signed instead of Poolman.

If the options are sign nobody vs sign Poolman for 4 years, you sign nobody.

 

[JAK]

If the options are sign nobody vs sign Poolman for 4 years, you sign nobody.

Cody Ceci got 4 years $3.25 from Oilers.

 

[Zhamnov5GoalGame]

Tucker is a big body that shields the puck well but doesn't play all that physical. He skates decently and on the 3rd pair looks pretty good. When pressed into extended play in the top 4 he starts to look quite bad. He would need to take another step in his game to be worth this much AAV.

If the team has an ELC in their top 4 then this contract doesn't matter as much but Tucker needs a decent partner to look decent himself. If he's expected to carry a pair then that's asking for trouble. His mistakes and inability to effectively clear the move the puck under pressure just caved in the metrics for Morrissey. When Josh played with DeMelo or Pionk he looks great. When he played with Tucker he couldn't make up for the errors and it dragged them both down and the Jets with them.

Prior to the Jets trades I thought there was a small chance Tucker would be the 3RD or press box D for the Jets. Given what has transpired I'm glad we have other options.

Best of luck to Poolman.