When it comes to trades at or near the deadline, Canucks' GM Dave Nonis' philosophy is much like the guy who held the job before him. Both Nonis and Burke often say that they are not willing to mortgage the future for a rental player.
I have to say I agree with this line of thought; unless the club has a real opportunity to win the cup with the addition of an elite player.
Are the Canucks in that position right now? Probably not. But with the goalie they have, you never know what might happen with a little help.
Mats Sundin is one of the big names that Canuck fans like to think their team has a chance at getting. But what would you be willing to give up to get him?
Well, you have to assume the Leafs are going to want (at least) a top prospect, a roster player and a first round draft pick. I think it's also fair to assume that Cliff Fletcher would shoot for the moon. Meaning he's be asking for either Luc Bourdon or Cory Schneider, Ryan Kesler or Alex Edler and a draft pick or two. My guess is that Nonis is okay with parting with Bourdon (given the emergence of Edler) or Schneider (who likely won't get much of a sniff with Luongo around). However, Vancouver's GM would probably loathe to deal away Kesler (if you're thin down the middle why give up a centre for another centre) or Edler (good young defencemen are very hard to find). So here's what I think Nonis would package to try to get the Leaf's captain: Bourdon or Schneider, Mason Raymond plus a first and a second round pick.
But that's just me.
Everyone and their dog has had an opinion as to whether or not the Sabres-Panthers game should have continued after the Zednik injury. Well, I spoke to Bryan Allen at length the day after the game and he said he didn't talk to one guy on his team who wanted to continue.
Put it this way: If you were at work and saw a co-worker who was also a good friend suffer a near fatal job related injury, would you want to finish up the last 10 minutes of your shift?
I didn't think so.
And if you were made to, how focused would you and could you be on the job at hand?
Finally, I think Bill Walton was bang on with his criticism of Shaq over the weekend.
Basically Walton is questioning O'Neal's heart and motivation. How can the Big Diesel suddenly be so gung-ho to train hard and get back in shape for the Suns when he was basically unable to do so with the Heat?
This reeks of the situation where a guy has a girlfriend who is starting to get a little hefty. So the guy tries to get his girl to become a little more physically active in order to get fit. The weeks go by, the girl continues to lift more snacks than weights, and the pounds pile on. Sooner or later the relationship ends (for whatever reason). Then, as soon as the breakup happens, the girl starts running and going to the gym just to spite her ex. And a few months later the girl looks better than ever.
I never understood that.
At least the Heat found themselves two younger, fitter girls, who don't cost as much to take out.
Holy Hell Murph you gotta write about the Nucks more im tired of reading Sens articles. Anyway I wouldn't part with any of our top prospects... we are finally seeing some quality prospects in the system and we allready want to trade them away? The only player I want that will be available for a reasonable price is Micheal Ryder because he would work well with the Sedins and would probably stick with the organization if offerd a 2-3 year deal. I wanted Stillman but hes gone now so lets pick up Ryder.
Good read there Murph. Nice to hear Shaq's keeping up his image of most selfish NBA player ever. Remember this guy's better than Kobe...
So how much longer do we have to wait for these pathetic GMs to make a move to make us a REAL contender??I have been waiting since I was 7 years old and now im 35 like cmon !! do something already.Its time to stop being pretenders!!(besides 94 which was the best stanley cup playoffs in many many years)
well well your right murph this is what i cant figure out i watch sportsnet everynight at 10 im a 100 percent that the gm murry and head coach padok said that they got stillman and comodore becasue they felt they were lacking offence now if i compare there top 6 forwards to ours even if there all healthy there top 3 produce more offence then all 6 of ours the sedins are good but not top line players specailly not in the playoff there just not strong enough and probably never will to play top line naslund i dont think has ever had it i think he just had a couple lucky yrs with bert takin all the battles for him morrison is to much of a streaky player and he doesnt produce that big of points so i think my point is there that if ottawa thinks they dont have enough offence this means we have almost none but i guess thats ok will just blame it on the best goalie in the league like we have done for yrs makin vancouver the goalie grave yard of the league so nonis start gettin serious no pretending this yr lets get luongo some help so we dont have to win by one goal or in a shootout wich we have no goal scores for anyways PLEASE!!!!!!
That has to be the king of all run on sentences Hockey Hero. That aside, I don't think Sundin would put them over the top so giving up anything substantial for a rental would be foolish. Kesler is starting to look like the next coming of Peca, great defensilvely, can score a bit and is a general pain to play against so you can't get rid of him. Edler is already a very solid defenseman and will only get better so I wouldn't trade him either. That leaves the farm and picks which won't be enough to get a deal done.
I'm a Leaf fan, and I also live in Winnipeg so I get to see the Canucks prospects fairly often with the Moose.
I don't think the Leafs would really want Cory Schneider. Luc Bourdon would be a much better choice; he's a good young defenseman who could add to the Leaf blueline, and besides, we have our own blue chip goalie in Pogge, and Toskala is signed for a couple of years.
If I were Leaf GM and considering your deal, I would choose the Bourdon, Mason Raymond, and 1st and 2nd pick deal. I would only take Schneider if I were confident that I could then move him for an immediate roster improvement in the very near future that might be a better fit than Bourdon.
Okay, before I begin, I want to emphasize that I am a Canucks fan and have been for my entire life (although I have come to cheer for the Sens having lived back east for a few years).
Now that I have established my loyalties, this is NOT the Canucks' year. Murph is correct in that Luongo could catch fire and take them all the way. If so, great. However, I don't see that happening given they would have to get through one of Detroit, Anaheim (odds on favourite to repeat) and SJ.
Here's what I would do if I was in the Big Chair.
1. Trade Sami Salo and use the cash to extend Ohlund. Game in and game out, Ohlund has been the Canucks best defenseman. They don't need to tie up $10M in salary on defense when they have Edler, Bieksa and Bourdon (assuming he pans out) in the system. Salo is injury prone and would be the most attractive at the deadline for his big shot on the powerplay.
2. Let Naslund and Morrison become unrestricted free agents. This takes $9M off the books (although Morrison's might actually be gone now due to long term injury exemptions). Moreover, it would give Nonis the flexibility to retool his second and third lines. Currently, the Nucks have a fourth liners playing on the second line. They need more scoring depth. Kesler would be more effective playing a third line centre role (a la Mike Peca in his prime) than trying to be a second line centre. The money saved from letting some veterans go (as hard as it may be) would enable the Canucks to pick up some pieces for their second line during the offseason. Naslund and Morrison could be re-signed if they really wanted, but it would have to be a huge discount to compare with other UFAs and RFAs that will be on the market. If you're going to give up draft picks (e.g., RFA offer sheet), at least put yourself in the position to sign the player for the long term.
3. Wait until next year's trade deadline and make a splash to bring in one or two players to put them over the top. The Nucks have Luongo for another two seasons. Next year is when everything should come together for the team. There is no point giving up two players and two draft picks for a player like Sundin who will most assuredly bolt for Toronto on July 1st. That's just plain silly and it would hurt the long term success of the Canucks. Hossa would also look good playing with the Sedins, but he'll cost an average of 8.5M per season which would prevent Nonis from doing anything else in the off season.
So, there you have it. This is my basic blueprint to bring the Cup to Vancouver in 2009. Clear some cap room, sign some upper-middle scorers to add depth on the second line and add players at next year's deadline for a true Cup run!
I agree with many of the points above, however I would put some caution. You cannot expect Hossa and the Sedins to fix the problem. We need an entire line outside of the Sedins and presumably Pyatt in regular play. The problem you have is that we're not going to be the only players after Hossa. Between the cap space growing, Cooke/Morrison/Naslund contracts expiring, I would argue that we can sign Hossa plus 2 more UFA's to create a line to add that dimension to our team.
Then next year's trade deadline, presumably Bourdon will be better (or not) and we can trade him and/or Salo for additional forward depth to make a playoff run.
Trading for Sundin now does not give us enough impact to make a run. He alone can help the PP, but we won't have 2 lines as Naslund+Sundin cannot do it alone.
Imagine a line with RJ Umberger, Hossa and Fedetenko for example.
I agree Anon. I obviously wasn't clear. I wasn't advocating a trade for Hossa, as tempting as that may be. If anything, I think a deadline deal this year would be short-sighted.
This year still has the Canucks selling out despite the teams results. There's lots of energy in Gm place when Oh Canada is sang in the Spring...forget next year, there is still plenty of success coming this year. Pick up a healthy Centre to pot a few shoot-out goals in the last 20 games, grab the last spot and eliminate the penalties against Detroit and who knows? Give me double overtime games and a series win and i'm happy this year. Miss the playoffs and everything goes out to the Georgia strait. Injuries are coming for the other Western Conference teams. It goes in cycles. When we get back the solid D and place ourselves in a position whereas two goals against become the norm again, then what we need to do is work on specialty teams to extend this season. I want to see cars honking their horns again this spring nevermind next year don't you?
As a leaf fan i would truely love to see Sundin(if traded) end up in Vancouver or Calgary helping them win the cup rather then southern american city. I really think a line he can help your secondary scoring and get naslund firing again. You can have two number one lines. Now i know many people out there hate Gill but i really think he can come along with Sundin to give you a very strong PK presence and another healthy body on the blue line. He is great on the PK and clearing out bodies in front of the net and pair him with Mitchell and they should make a good shut down pairing.
Forget Sundin, we'd be crazy to give up good assets for a rental player!!! Get Jokinen out of Florida for Kesler-Salo or Bieksa-Schneider and a 1st round pick. Jokinen is signed for one more year and he'd look great on a line with Naslund and Micheal Ryder!!!
Well obviously the whole Sundin thing aint happening. I would prefer Brad Richards anyway - he still has a few years left on his contract and would make a great centre for Nazzy or whoever else we end up with in the offseason if Nazzy doesn't come back.
By the way, I was just reading your blog from October about Kesler - I have to laugh at all the idiots who called for the offer sheet to not be matched. Kes now has 16 goals (3rd on the team, however Mo would probably be ahead of him) and is 5th in points with 28. Add that to his stellar defensive play and that 1.75 mil is not looking too bad right now...
Dan, two trades that might work for the nucks'.
all these talks about centers they don't need centers with Sedin, Morrison, and Kesler. and they are stronger then most of the NHL at the Left side with Daniel(5th among LW) and Markus(16th among LW).
but they do need help in the top 6 on the right side there are a few choices out there. not to sure on how active Florida wants to be but I think Horton would be a good fit with the twins, he's a right handed shot with good hands and size and young enough to be in the future plans.
I think all canuck fans would love to see Hossa in blue and green I don't think we would be able to keep him and probably would have to give up way to much up. But with Toronto having issues trying to clear house Nik Antropov might be someone without having to give up to much.