Canucks 2011 Offseason

[italian_stallion21]

Since this is where the SCF thread is headed now, figured I'd direct everything here.

 

[johnnybluenose]

Here's my summary of the current state of affairs as to who is under contract and who isn't and the implications for the salary cap on the Nucks. CLICK HERE!

For discussion on Impending UFA's targets, here's an excellent tool at Cap geek. It's a sortable UFA listing.

here's a total FA listing

Again, to reiterate the post I linked to in the SCF thread, here's my initial thoughts.
This season's cap was 59.4 Mill
Next years cap is rumored to be as high as 63 million, but various reports have the number the NHLPA voting to approve is 62.2 Million. Floor at 46.2 Million if the 62.2 ceiling comes to pass.

Players under contract for 2011/12, (I'm posting the top NHL roster of the depth chart, not AHL'ers etc)
Luongo - 5.333
Schneider - .900

Rome .800
Edler 3.25
Ballard 4.2
Hamhuis 4.5

H Sedin 6.1
D Sedin 6.1
Kesler 5.0
Raymond 2.55
Samuelsson 2.5
Malhotra 2.5
Burrows 2.0

RFA's and 2010/11 cap hits
Lappierre .900
Hansen .825
Bolduc .500

UFA's and 2010/11 cap hits
Higgins 1.6
Glass .625
Rypein .550
Tambellini .500
Torres 1.0
Bieksa 3.75
Salo 3.5
Ehrhoff 3.1
Alberts 1.05


Likely to play on NHL team next year with 2-ways:
Tanev .900
Hodgson 1.667

I'd say reup the following guys at following money, any more money is stupid imho.
RFA's:
Hansen @ 1.0
Lapierre @ 1.0

brings your cap to 50.30 and now you have a 13th forward as CoHo bumps down the depth chart.

Trade Ballard, even if you can get a bag of pucks for him or simply waive him. brings your cap to 46.10
Salo retires or goes elsewhere, certainly Gillis won't resign him.
Resign Higgins @ 2.0, cap @ 48.10
Resign Glass @ .750, cap @ 48.85
Resign Torres @ 1.0, cap @ 49.85
Resign Bieksa @ 4.5 (hit not money ) cap @ 54.35

now you have this
sedin - sedin - burrows
raymond - kesler - higgins
samuelsson - malhotra - hansen
glass - lapierre - torres
hodgson
hamhuis - bieksa
edler - ______
tanev - rome
_______
Luongo
Schneids.

essentially you have 7.85 Schmill to resign Ehrhoff or another top 4 defenseman and another utility defenseman... I don't want Alberts back imho.

7.85 plus any carryover LTIR Cap relief with all of the key components in place, I'm pretty comfortable with our prospects for next year...

 

[italian_stallion21]

I would LOVE another 2nd line winger for Kes to play with, especially with not knowing how Raymond will recover, plus he was awful in the playoffs.

 

[johnnybluenose]

further to that, anyone playing armchair GM needs to take a cold drink of reality and realize Luongo is going nowhere.

Mike Milbury and Mike Keenan are no longer employed in the NHL, thus nobody is taking Luongo's contract, as appetizing as a 5.3 million dollar cap hit is for a perennial Vezina candidate...although Vokoun is a UFA and FLA needs a tendy now.

It would absolutely STUN me to not see Luongo playing 60 games again next year for the Canucks. he completely revamped his playing style for this season and still ended up as a Vezina candidate and went to game 7 of a Stanley Cup finals. he has shown you CAN teach "an old dog" new tricks. The only thing I shudder to think is that you can't teach someone to galvanize an epic sized ego and need to be validated by fans, media, and opponents.

Would I like to see a change at the GK position? Sure, but it's 99.9% not going to happen.

 

[italian_stallion21]

Took a look through the UFA's and RFA's for this year, and there's nothing appealing in the UFA category. RFA's on the otherhand have some big name help there. Although it looks like he's sign in WIN, I still would love to see Andew Ladd in a Canucks uni. Same with Stamko's, think he'll move? Obviously Shea Weber would look great, but I'm not too sure on how the RFA rules work when it comes down to signing them.

 

[johnnybluenose]

I would LOVE another 2nd line winger for Kes to play with, especially with not knowing how Raymond will recover, plus he was awful in the playoffs.

I too would like this, I think Higgins or Raymond need to play beside Kesler, not both, and samuelsson has shown signs of breaking down, an inability to skate with Kesler and Raymond... a quikc glance at the UFA list shows the following players available with last years cap hit...




...that's right. There are none. When you sort by Forwards you go from Simon Gagne and Brad Richards to nobody under 35 years old till you hit the likes of Handzus, Ryder, and Marco Strum...all are no better than any combination of Raymond/Samuelsson/Higgins.

We don't have the assets to go after a player of Evander Kane, Milan Lucic, Andrew Ladd, Zach Parise's calibre...

Since Hodgson is in a logjam on the depth chart and supposedly not a favorite of either AV or MG, perhaps he could be packaged up along with Corey Schneider and sent somewhere... but I can't see the Winnepeg team wanting to give up on an Evander Kane type player when they have Pavelec in net with Chris Mason to back him up.

 

[italian_stallion21]

I was thinking when perusing the RFA list how awesome Andrew Ladd would look on the 2nd line. That would be a beastly top 6, especially if Higgins plays like he did in the playoffs, pre-broken foot.

 

[johnnybluenose]

Ladd is a winner. He has won the Cup with both the Hawks and the Canes. He's a Vancity guy, but he's supposedly a huge hater of Kesler and vice versa.

just sayin.

 

[italian_stallion21]

Shorts from Gillis's presser so far: Hamhuis getting hernia surgery, may not be ready for the start of the season.
He'd like Cory to be here for 5 or 6 more years - not sure how that works, as I would think he's going to want to be a starter at some point in the next half decade.
He'd love to have Sami back next year - gotta be at a reduced rate, can't have the same $ tied up and injured all the time.
"The better team on that ice won the series." -- Mike Gillis. But his point is, the Canucks didn't have their best team on the ice.
Injuries: bieksa bruised MCL, Kesler hip, Edler broken fingers, Hamhuis abdominal tear, Higgins foot injury, Ehrhoff shoulder, Henrik back

 

[italian_stallion21]

Ladd is a winner. He has won the Cup with both the Hawks and the Canes. He's a Vancity guy, but he's supposedly a huge hater of Kesler and vice versa.

just sayin.

I believe we've all heard that, but we've seen hated rivals become best friends before. Look at Ulf Samuelsson. Everybody in the league hated that guy, but was loved by every team he was on. I'm sure they could hug it out.

 

[STD]

Listening to Bieska comments on the radio and it sounds like he wants to come back and he went on to say everybody that wants to play here are willing to take a discount. He said it is similar to Detroit. Also he said his landlord kicked him out and he wasn't to pleased about it made a joke that they should send the rioters over to his house. That probably won't be well recieved.

 

[johnnybluenose]

NHLPA exercises option to raise salary cap

So the Cap will be approx 64 Mill and the floor will be approx 48 Mill.

 

[italian_stallion21]

What did everyone think of the Canucks draft? Going to be honest, outside of Jensen (who dropped a lot to fall in our laps) I don't know much about any of our picks. Jensen looks good on YouTube, and statistically speaking put up the same numbers as #2 pick Gabriel Landeskog. Same size and speed too, but I hear Jensen doesn't have a defensive game at this point which of course Landeskog does. I like that we went with a big body that can skate, hopefully he'll be able to be a top 6 guy in the future. For a 29th pick I'm happy with it.

 

[italian_stallion21]

Did a little more reading, and we drafted big this year, of the size measurements given by the paper (the last 3 picks didn't have them) our smallest guy was Jensen at 6'2, 202 lbs.

 

[johnnybluenose]

5th rounder is 6'1 190
6th rounder is 6' 185
7th was 6'1 186

Joey Kenward: Busy draft day on day two - Vancouver Canucks - Features

 

[italian_stallion21]

Twins, Basil, twins!

Vancouver's only selection in the 6th round (180th) was Pathrik Westerholm from Malmo of the Swedish Jr. League. A 6'0", 185lbs centre, Westerholm scored eight goals and 13 assists in 34 games this year. He was rated 37th on the final rankings of European skaters by NHL Central Scouting. For what it's worth, he has a twin brother who he plays with. Ponthus Westerholm was undrafted this year, but in 33 games he had 16 goals and 39 assists. Don't be surprised to see the Canucks bring him to training camp in the fall.

“Pathrik is a smart play-making centre with the ability to score,” adds Gilman. “We felt that if we got Pathrik drafted that we’d have a lock on his brother.

Odd that we draft the twin with 21 points, and leave the one with 55 points on the table.

 

[italian_stallion21]

Bieksa agrees to terms on new deal with Canucks

Best news all day!

Also added from TSN, apparently it's 5 years at $4.6M with a NTC.

 

[Mr Base]

One possitve move is to have Bieksa back. 5 should also be done soon. But the giggest move was to draft a Qubeck kid with size. Boston kicked the crap out of us. We need two more guys that can throw panches and play as second or third line players.
They drafted more kids with skill, that alone will not bring the cup here.
Few guys will be gone on a fee agent day. I hope they get a guy or two shore the size in our D. Bieksa alone can not do it.
I trouly hope GM has learned a lesson or two.

 

[STD]

Write him a letter I am sure he'll understand.

 

[johnnybluenose]

Freebase gets only one thing right, Juice has reportedly signed a 5 year 23 million dollar extension, cap hit of 4.6 Schmill.
1. Bieksa was/is the smallest current top 7 dman on the Nucks Roster at all of '61 198lbs, Ehrhoff is 6'2- 203, Alberts is 6'5 220, Rome is 6'1 220, Edler is 6'3 215, Salo is 6'3 220, Tanev is 6'2 190. You can't say that they need more size. The ability to "throw panches" perhaps.
2. Quebeck kid? really? We got a 6'5 200 lber that reportedly can't skate late in the third round. Not many of the C's in the NHL you see today originate in the late third round/fourth round of the draft. (FYI: The 5 guys currently contracted to the Canucks on their roster at the C position are all first rounders except Lapierre who was a second rounder. (Sedin 3rd overall, Kesler 23rd overall, Malhotra 7th overall, Hodgson 10th overall)
3. Boston beat us because the refs refused to blow their whistles in the spirit of "Letting the players play the game" We don't need to be goonier, we needed to stay healthier.
4. I don't know what "fee agent" day is, but if you meant Free Agent day, the Nucks have no "impact" players left to resign that are UFA's except Ehrhoff, and if we got to pay more than Hamhuis for him I'd ask him to kindly not let the door hit him on the way out.

Base....either the pharmacy was closed or it was 2 for 1 day.