I'd rather Rick Tocchet get a crack to try to rebuild OEL. He was still #1 defenseman when they were together in ARZ. If Tocchet can get OEL to again like a legit #3… his salary will be more tolerable.
There's no easy way out of this because of the salary cap, particularly with it being flat for so long. When the cap was brought in, it was supposed to save GMs from themselves and prevent them from signing players to ridiculous contracts that just kept rising by the year. It obviously didn't work. What we're seeing now more and more is that if you had one good year, you're going to get big money, which means less and less left on the cap for everyone else. So you end up with a lot of aging, overpaid players and unless you can do what Tampa and Vegas did when they put expensive, impact players on LTIR until the playoffs, you might have some problems. That's one of the reasons why the Leafs have had no playoff success. Every competitive team now is ridiculously top-heavy. Top teams will have 3 or 4 elite players (some of them either in their prime or past it) if that making ridiculous sums of money and then the GM has to figure out how to reasonably fill out the roster on the cheap to stay cap compliant. The top teams now are in non-hockey markets where the fans don't care one way or the other, so management can spend years building a winner almost from the bottom up and when those young players are ready, they're still flush with cap space that they can use to fill out the roster. Then it's just a matter of putting guys on LTIR for most of the season and bringing them back for the playoffs. That's how you win now. Canadian teams and teams in markets where people care about hockey can't do that because the pressure is on to make the playoffs yesterday. You can't take your time and build a winner and that's what got this franchise into this mess in the first place. Trying to rush the retool.
One other advantage this version of the Canucks has is that management is not sworn to losing its mind on July 1st. The biggest mistakes have been made with off season personnel decisions.
I don't know why anyone thought this team would buy out a huge contract, when this owner has never bought out a big contract, or they wouldn't have traded Eriksson for OEL in the first place. Anyone thinking Tocchet can make OEL into a better player is ignoring about the circumstances of him coming to Vancouver. The big selling point on OEL was that all that was needed to rejuvenate his career was to get him away from Tocchet in Arizona.
It might go a long way to having this team have a better start if they joined the rest of the NHL and had a proper practice facility, when they're renting out their own rink all of the time. It was what Rutherford said would be done when he took over managing this team and it would go a long way towards the Canucks starting the season on time. Would the NHLPA even allow Tocchet to order his team to start training camp early? He's already talked about having practices on their time off and micromanaging them on their day's off, which I'm sure the NHLPA was listening to.
So basically the Canucks arn't committed to being a competitive team next season. "Good enough" is all they're aiming for. Canucks fans just got slapped in the face.
Without Myers and OEL we could afford two really good Defencemen, that's all we really need, our offence is fine. Ya, we need a 3c, but those are not too expensive. I would spend a 1st to get rid of OEL if we identify I really good D to replace him, the Canucks suck at drafting out of the top 10 anyway, so get rid of him, and bring in someone to replace Tanev.
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I'd rather Rick Tocchet get a crack to try to rebuild OEL. He was still #1 defenseman when they were together in ARZ. If Tocchet can get OEL to again like a legit #3… his salary will be more tolerable.
Change of Personnel in the Medical Department is obviously required, no question!
There's no easy way out of this because of the salary cap, particularly with it being flat for so long. When the cap was brought in, it was supposed to save GMs from themselves and prevent them from signing players to ridiculous contracts that just kept rising by the year. It obviously didn't work. What we're seeing now more and more is that if you had one good year, you're going to get big money, which means less and less left on the cap for everyone else. So you end up with a lot of aging, overpaid players and unless you can do what Tampa and Vegas did when they put expensive, impact players on LTIR until the playoffs, you might have some problems. That's one of the reasons why the Leafs have had no playoff success. Every competitive team now is ridiculously top-heavy. Top teams will have 3 or 4 elite players (some of them either in their prime or past it) if that making ridiculous sums of money and then the GM has to figure out how to reasonably fill out the roster on the cheap to stay cap compliant. The top teams now are in non-hockey markets where the fans don't care one way or the other, so management can spend years building a winner almost from the bottom up and when those young players are ready, they're still flush with cap space that they can use to fill out the roster. Then it's just a matter of putting guys on LTIR for most of the season and bringing them back for the playoffs. That's how you win now. Canadian teams and teams in markets where people care about hockey can't do that because the pressure is on to make the playoffs yesterday. You can't take your time and build a winner and that's what got this franchise into this mess in the first place. Trying to rush the retool.
The product isn't worth the price. A ticket to a Canucks game is one of the biggest rip offs around. I can't justify it anymore.
Hold on. The Aquilinis are property developers. Doesn’t this mean they can scrape together the land for a practice facility?
One other advantage this version of the Canucks has is that management is not sworn to losing its mind on July 1st. The biggest mistakes have been made with off season personnel decisions.
Benning set this team back decades !!!!
I would not be surprised to hear that OEL is on long term LTIR after accidentally falling down an elevator shaft.
I don't know why anyone thought this team would buy out a huge contract, when this owner has never bought out a big contract, or they wouldn't have traded Eriksson for OEL in the first place. Anyone thinking Tocchet can make OEL into a better player is ignoring about the circumstances of him coming to Vancouver. The big selling point on OEL was that all that was needed to rejuvenate his career was to get him away from Tocchet in Arizona.
It might go a long way to having this team have a better start if they joined the rest of the NHL and had a proper practice facility, when they're renting out their own rink all of the time. It was what Rutherford said would be done when he took over managing this team and it would go a long way towards the Canucks starting the season on time. Would the NHLPA even allow Tocchet to order his team to start training camp early? He's already talked about having practices on their time off and micromanaging them on their day's off, which I'm sure the NHLPA was listening to.
So basically the Canucks arn't committed to being a competitive team next season. "Good enough" is all they're aiming for. Canucks fans just got slapped in the face.
“Wherever you do your shopping.” You know, I really didn’t expect Iain MacIntyre to land the best joke of the day, but here we are.
Without Myers and OEL we could afford two really good Defencemen, that's all we really need, our offence is fine. Ya, we need a 3c, but those are not too expensive. I would spend a 1st to get rid of OEL if we identify I really good D to replace him, the Canucks suck at drafting out of the top 10 anyway, so get rid of him, and bring in someone to replace Tanev.