AtLossForWords
2-26-08, 11:05 PM
The tile of this thread I hope will not reflect the content. It's obvious to all of us that the Canucks are not deadline day winners, but some of us may be considering them losers, however this is not necessarily the case.
Firstly there is no one in the world who is happier than I am to see Matt Cooke go away. He had an undefined role on this team, if I remember correctly not only has he failed to score this season, but he's been useless defensively too as a minus player.
Our return Matt Pettinger is nothing great, but he might be an upgrade over Cooke in the way of hockey sense. Pettinger is not better defensively at a minus 11, but this is a guy who has been playing on a very bad defensive team with very inconsistent goaltending. I honestly don't know much more about Pettinger, but he's young and in his last two seasons he had 20 and 16 goals. There's something to be said about that. We can't be so optimistic that everyone will turnout like Taylor Pyatt has when they put on our colors (which change quite often here), but Matt Pettinger is likely to be a younger upgrade over Matt Cooke who really just dropped out of a role on this team.
Now for the negative pessimist, the Canucks lost big time on helping their team significantly. They lost out on the only man they were in the hunt for, and that was Brad Richards. This team was a first line center away from competing for a Stanley Cup not necessarily this season, but maybe next season or later. They failed to pull out a deal for Jokinen, Hossa, or Sundin (who wasn't necessarily in their power to get).
Inside the Northwest Division there was really very little movement. The Flames and Wild both drew nothing cards from the deadline deck as well. However Colorado was a huge winner pulling out Foote, Forsberg, and Salei. The Avs notched a top line center and two quality NHL defenseman. You could say the Avalanche are the team to beat in the Northwest with a solid blueline core and a lineup of centers that include Sakic, Forsberg, Stastny, and Arnason, but they aren't in first place in this division let alone a playoff spot. However as far as deadline day goes, they helped their team for this year the most.
You can't judge success at the deadline only in comparison to your division, you have to look at it in terms of your conference. The Sharks notched Brian Campbell who will greatly help their powerplay and the puck from their blueline to their opposition's net. A good defensive team just found a way to score more goals.
The Dallas Stars were the lucky ones who grabbed Brad Richards. With Richards in the fold the Stars can ice Richards, Ribiero, and Modano as their top three centermen. I don't think anyone is going to be lining up to play Dallas in the playoffs, not when you combine those three centers with sets of pretty solid wingers and a very stingy Marty Turco behind a rugged blueline group.
The Canucks sad to say are not the best team in the Western Conference. They just do not have enough scoring. They can't ice the same quality of centers, their blueline is not only not the best, it's not better than any other contenders from Detroit down to Dallas and West to San Jose or Anaheim.
That being said if you really don't think you have a shot at a Cup, what do you do? You sell like hell and gear up for next year, but Nonis did not do that either. He sat on his god damn hands. He didn't find a taker for Naslund, make a true sale for Cooke, or find a taker for Miller or Ritchie. Granted returns for those players would not have been great, but they won't do us any good this year, because with them we're not any better than any Western Conference juggernaughts, we're not even on an even footing.
However you can't call a team a loser if they didn't hurt their chances for next year, a lot of us would be a lot more disappointed if a player like Ryan Kesler, Mason Raymond, or Alexander Edler when for a rental like Hossa or Sundin who would have stayed for a couple months, choked in the playoffs and busted out of town over the summer.
The asking prices for Brad Richards was high, Dallas didn't give up prospects like Bourdon, Schnieder, and Grabner who barely sniffed the NHL. They gave up a promising backup goaltender who will be the number one guy in Tamps for sure. They gave up a solid checking center in Jeff Halpern, and they gave up a scoring shootout specialist in Jussi Jokinen. They gave up guys that contributed regularly to their NHL team, and Vancouver wouldn't be any better with Ryan Kesler, Mason Raymond, or Alexander Edler. Any team that would've have sent anything worthwhile to us would've wanted one of those three.
The Canucks are not losers this deadline, because in the end we are all happier that Ryan Kesler, Alexander Edler, and Mason Raymond will be wearing blue and green tomorrow and for awhile. To get something great you have to give up some things that are good, while the Canucks had packages to offer, they were the best package.
Firstly there is no one in the world who is happier than I am to see Matt Cooke go away. He had an undefined role on this team, if I remember correctly not only has he failed to score this season, but he's been useless defensively too as a minus player.
Our return Matt Pettinger is nothing great, but he might be an upgrade over Cooke in the way of hockey sense. Pettinger is not better defensively at a minus 11, but this is a guy who has been playing on a very bad defensive team with very inconsistent goaltending. I honestly don't know much more about Pettinger, but he's young and in his last two seasons he had 20 and 16 goals. There's something to be said about that. We can't be so optimistic that everyone will turnout like Taylor Pyatt has when they put on our colors (which change quite often here), but Matt Pettinger is likely to be a younger upgrade over Matt Cooke who really just dropped out of a role on this team.
Now for the negative pessimist, the Canucks lost big time on helping their team significantly. They lost out on the only man they were in the hunt for, and that was Brad Richards. This team was a first line center away from competing for a Stanley Cup not necessarily this season, but maybe next season or later. They failed to pull out a deal for Jokinen, Hossa, or Sundin (who wasn't necessarily in their power to get).
Inside the Northwest Division there was really very little movement. The Flames and Wild both drew nothing cards from the deadline deck as well. However Colorado was a huge winner pulling out Foote, Forsberg, and Salei. The Avs notched a top line center and two quality NHL defenseman. You could say the Avalanche are the team to beat in the Northwest with a solid blueline core and a lineup of centers that include Sakic, Forsberg, Stastny, and Arnason, but they aren't in first place in this division let alone a playoff spot. However as far as deadline day goes, they helped their team for this year the most.
You can't judge success at the deadline only in comparison to your division, you have to look at it in terms of your conference. The Sharks notched Brian Campbell who will greatly help their powerplay and the puck from their blueline to their opposition's net. A good defensive team just found a way to score more goals.
The Dallas Stars were the lucky ones who grabbed Brad Richards. With Richards in the fold the Stars can ice Richards, Ribiero, and Modano as their top three centermen. I don't think anyone is going to be lining up to play Dallas in the playoffs, not when you combine those three centers with sets of pretty solid wingers and a very stingy Marty Turco behind a rugged blueline group.
The Canucks sad to say are not the best team in the Western Conference. They just do not have enough scoring. They can't ice the same quality of centers, their blueline is not only not the best, it's not better than any other contenders from Detroit down to Dallas and West to San Jose or Anaheim.
That being said if you really don't think you have a shot at a Cup, what do you do? You sell like hell and gear up for next year, but Nonis did not do that either. He sat on his god damn hands. He didn't find a taker for Naslund, make a true sale for Cooke, or find a taker for Miller or Ritchie. Granted returns for those players would not have been great, but they won't do us any good this year, because with them we're not any better than any Western Conference juggernaughts, we're not even on an even footing.
However you can't call a team a loser if they didn't hurt their chances for next year, a lot of us would be a lot more disappointed if a player like Ryan Kesler, Mason Raymond, or Alexander Edler when for a rental like Hossa or Sundin who would have stayed for a couple months, choked in the playoffs and busted out of town over the summer.
The asking prices for Brad Richards was high, Dallas didn't give up prospects like Bourdon, Schnieder, and Grabner who barely sniffed the NHL. They gave up a promising backup goaltender who will be the number one guy in Tamps for sure. They gave up a solid checking center in Jeff Halpern, and they gave up a scoring shootout specialist in Jussi Jokinen. They gave up guys that contributed regularly to their NHL team, and Vancouver wouldn't be any better with Ryan Kesler, Mason Raymond, or Alexander Edler. Any team that would've have sent anything worthwhile to us would've wanted one of those three.
The Canucks are not losers this deadline, because in the end we are all happier that Ryan Kesler, Alexander Edler, and Mason Raymond will be wearing blue and green tomorrow and for awhile. To get something great you have to give up some things that are good, while the Canucks had packages to offer, they were the best package.