PUCK ALERT – by Saint Pako

Free Agents 2010-2011.

With about 16 games left in the regular seasons, some teams are looking forward to the playoffs, but other teams are quickly looking forward to the beginning of free agency on July 1st.

There are some interesting players on the market this season, and I will focus on talking about a couple today.

Ilya Kovalchuk

First and foremost, Ilya Kovalchuk is perhaps the biggest name in the market this year. Failing to re-sign him in Atlanta, Don Waddell shipped the All-star left-winger to the Devils. Simply looking at the return going back to the Thrashers, I don’t think the Devils have any insurance Kovalchuk will sign back with New Jersey in the off-season. Don’t get me wrong, I think Bergfors and Oduya are decent players, but they aren’t even close in terms of value, even if you late first-rounder.

Ilya will demand a huge salary, that much is given. Somewhere between $8-million to $10-million per season, and perhaps a $6-million cap-hit, if he signs to a very very long contract. At this point in the league, there is only about eight teams which can afford him; nine if you want to slice it very thin, Colorado can officially afford him, but the space is very tight. Of course, the situation will be very different after the season, with UFAs leaving their teams, and teams will have more room in terms of cap-space.

In the cap-era, with the ceiling on salary (20% of the team’s total salary), the variations on the salary offered across teams is very small. Most if not all teams which are interested in signing him will give him the maximum, unless Ilya is willing to take a discount on a favored team. Imagine how this will look, if after all the good thing Kovalchuk has said about Atlanta, he signs with New York at a lower price. Of course, this is assuming the rumors of Waddell offering Kovalchuk the maximum salary is true.

If the salary is similar, and since he just only 26, most teams will offered at-least a 12-year contract to lower the cap-hit. At 38, Kovie can still be very productive, hence the NHL probably can’t challenge such an offer from any team.

So I guess it will be up to his personal preference which team he signs, since there won’t be any opportunity costs for signing with any team. After almost eight seasons in a bottom-feeding team, I am guessing he will choose a cup-contender, or at least a team with the best shot for a run at the cup.

Among the teams currently able to sign Kovalchuk, I am guessing Dallas and Nashville have the best shot at the cup in the near future. Dallas didn’t do much during the trade deadline, with Modano retiring and Turco out, the Stars will be a strong buyer in the free-agent pool. Nashville is currently bound for playoffs this season, and with their core pretty much intact, adding Kovalchuk will make them a serious contender.

I will also throw in the Islanders as well. Although they are having a disastrous season, their youth-core is very strong, and will be the next Chicago Blackhawks sooner rather than later. Plus, Kovalchuk can surely enjoy living in New York.

Patrick Marleau

Yes, rumor has it, that Doug Wilson is keen on re-signing Marleau, but no talks are allowed during the season.

Marleau is having a fantastic season, 40 goals and 30 assists in only 64 games!! Goal production-wise, this is his best season ever, since playing in the NHL. At this pace, Marleau should finish somewhere around 87 points, also another personal best.

His production, of course, is a direct result of playing on the best line in hockey right now, along-side Thorton and Heatley. Marleau is 31, and can probably play for 6 to 7 more years, so he still has some mileage in him.

On the surface, it does make a lot of sense to re-sign him, and keep the most lethal line-up intact. But this will all depend on their play-off performance this year. If the Sharks win the cup, then Wilson will surely let him walk, since the costs of his other players will rise after the cup.

If they exit early, Wilson will probably not risk signing a long-extension with Marleau, at $6.5-million per season, a repeat of his 07-08 season will be devastating. Relieving the 6.5 million will be a smart move, since the salary spread is lop-sided to the forwards in San Jose. The first-line alone costs $21-million, more than 1/3 of the teams’ total cap. Dan Boyle costs another $6.6-million, plus Nabokov, who Wilson still have to sign, costs another $5.4-million cap. So five players together costs 60% of the teams’ salary. I don’t need to stress how risky this is.

Of course the best argument is simply the fact that Thornton and Heatley are such talented players that they don’t need Marleau to play on their wing to be productive. One only need to see how productive Marleau is when his is placed on a line with Pavelski and Clowe, to understand his true value.

Don’t forget how well Setoguchi played early on in the season, and you will agree that he is a great replacement on the top line, especially when you look at his $1.2-million price-tag.

The better Marleau plays, the bigger the discrepancies between how much he thinks he should make and how much Wilson can offer him.

When the season is over, do you think there is a team out there willing to offer more than $6.5-million for a 80+ point guy?? Do you think Marleau will take a significant pay-cut to stay in San Jose??

So, let’s just say Marleau is interested to sign with some other team, which team out there fits him?

I’d say if Marleau does leave, I think there’s a good chance he will end up in Colorado. The Avs didn’t expect their rebuilding process to mature so quickly, but with their young players playing so well, Colorado has a decent shot at the cup sooner than later. If they can sign a veteran player like Marleau, the team will suddenly become a strong contender. After-all, they have the cap-space to sign him with a raise.

Another team might surprise you, I think the Leafs will be interested in Marleau as well. Kovalchuk and Marleau are by far the best options for Burke, in terms of acquiring talent for his team. Kovalchuk’s style of play doesn’t really fit Burke’s plan, but Marleau on the other hand is a Burke-player. Coach Ron Wilson’s years with the Sharks may also be provide a pull to land Marleau in Toronto.

Although cap-wise, the Leafs can’t afford Marleau at this moment, but with the Defensive corp built with Kaberle, Phaneuf, Komisarek, Beauchemin, and Schenn, Burke won’t be re-signing Van Ryn and Exelby. Finger will probably be traded around the draft for a pick. With that, the Leafs will free up $7.2-million, enough to sign Marleau.

This will be smart too, since Burke gave up this year’s and next year’s first-rounder for Kessel, he will need to do something big in the off-season to make up for the embarrassments during the coming entry draft.

Ryan, Niedermeyer and 1st for Kovalchuk.

Hearing rumors that Anaheim is closing in on a deal to land Kovalchuk. I don’t know any of the specifics, but just thought that it is interesting what the Ducks did this week which allows them to make this trade.

I have been hearing a lot of other BS rumors, teams like Vancouver, Los Angeles or even Chicago doesn’t make sense at all. You don’t make these huge trade when your team in on a winning streak. More importantly, the teams trading for Kovie wants to sign him in the offseason. There’s no way any GM will want a $10M second-liner, and Kovie won’t signed to any team which doesn’t use him as a top unit. This rules out Vancouver.

Kings are winning a lot of games of late. The chemistry of Kopitar and Ryan Smyth is great, and you don’t swap your top LW to RW under these circumstances. Chicago rumors is even crazier, they’ve sign Hossa just to provide that extra scoring power, they don’t need any more, especially when it costs you at least $7M in cap space. To trade Hossa and his huge contract to Atlanta is even crazier, because there’s no guarantee on Kovie signing in Chicago.

On the other hand, the Ducks are really interesting. Just this week, Bob Murray traded away goaltender Giguere and his $6M contract to the Leafs, but picked up $8M back. A $4M Toskala and $4M Blake for $6M Giguere???!! With Giguere, the Ducks can at least rotate him with Hiller, but who’d want to take a risk with Toskala now??

Of course, Toskala’s contract expires next season, so he’s just a tactic for Murray to offload $2M salary. Blake, despite overpaid, his cap-hit will be dropped to 3M next season, and you can at least dress him, which is better than paying $6M for Giguere to sit at the bench.

But if you look closer, maybe it’s more than that. What if this is just a step to try to land Kovalchuk? We all know that Niedermeyer is worth nothing at this moment for the Ducks. The team is out of playoff picture, and Scott is 35 and an impending UFA.

If you do this:

Atlanta Thrashers
Bobby Ryan ($1.92M impending RFA)
Scott Niedermeyer ($6M impedning UFA)
1st rounder 2010

Anaheim Ducks
Ilya Kovalchuk ($6.4M impending UFA)

What you get is a somewhat balance shift of cap space, with $1.5M extra for Atlanta which they can easily absorb. The Ducks get the best player, and a natural LW to play with Getzlaf and Perry, Oouuuugh that’s scary… Lose a high pick and Ryan. Kovalchuk might not sign back, but with the off-loaded salary in the Giguere trade (saved $3M in 2010) and Niedermeyer ($6M in 2010), Anaheim can offer Ilya the maxmium pay, a luxury not a lot of teams have. Ryan is RFA, so they need to negotiate with him anyways, and possible match other people’s offer sheet, so trading him away may not be all bad. The 1st rounder will be high, but the draft is only mediocre in 2010.

For Atlanta, they get a player which can immediately help their playoff drive. Bobby Ryan is having a breakout season, 24G 43Points in just 56 games. Ryan is young just 23 year old, and he can play both wings. Ryan is RFA, and Atlanta has cap room to ensure they can sign him, even if it’s slightly overpaid. You also get a superstar defenseman in Niedermeyer who’s looking for a final shot at the cup. The 1st rounder from Ducks will be high, so that itself is attractive.

It works for the players too, Ryan is often logging 2nd-line time, although he’s used in special teams as well. In Atlanta, he will be the franchise face with tons of ice-time. Again Scott gets his last shot at the playoffs, and Kovalchuk will choose which teams he wants to play as it is the case since the beginning of this whole mess.

So what do you think?

Chirstmas Break.

(Photo Credits: faceoff.com)

Merry Christmas everyone!

As the last game between the Flames and Blues ended, so begins the two day Mandatory Christmas break for the NHL.

With an average of 37 games played, we are very close to the mid-way point of the season, and it has been a somewhat surprising few months in the NHL.

If the playoff starts today, teams like Detroit, Philadelphia, Vancouver, Anaheim, St. Louis, Minnesota and Carolina (usual contenders of the past few post-seasons) will not make it.

Some teams we never expect to play so well did, and some teams we thought would play great didn’t.

Perhaps the biggest surprise were the L.A. Kings, under the new coach of Terry Murray, were once top of the Western Conference, going into the 2-days break with 22 Wins in 37 Games. We saw the break-out of Anze Kopitar, once leading the scoring board by a great margin only to slowed down due to the absence of LW Ryan Smyth from injury.

The supposedly rebuilding Colorado Avalanche surprised a lot people, sitting atop the NW Division today, with 21 Wins in 39 Games. Tremendous plays of their two rookie centermen Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly as well as goaltender Craig Anderson were definitely part of the reason for their success.

The New Jersey Devils continue to impress everyone, leading the league with 55 points in 35 games, especially with their lack of superstars in their line-up. Of course, except for this player called Martin who broke two more All-time NHL goaltender records during this 35 games, may have played a factor in their success.

The NY Rangers stormed out of the gate this season running and gunning, with newly-acquired all-star Marian Gaborik leading the league in goals for a majority of the time. In fact, he still leads the scoring with 26 goals in 35 games. However, this may not be considered quite a surprise as this is exactly what happened last season, when the Rangers have a great first half only to cool off in the second half of the season. So, I guess the surprise here is that Gaborik only missed two games in the 37 outings for the Rangers.

We knew the Hurricanes were inconsistent last season, but we never thought they’d be this bad. Having only 9 wins in 37 games is…inexcusable. I know they did lose a lot of key players, including Eric Staal and Cam Ward for a significant portion of time.

The Flyers started the season great, but has since been on a free-fall, and now sits 27th overall. Good news is that they have Simon Gagne back, but the bad news is that they are now riding on their 3rd goaltender, Leighton – recently picked up via waiver from Carolina, since both Emery and Boucher are out with injuries.

Who would’ve thought that this will finally be the year where the Red Wings play poorly for a change. Of course the exit of Hossa, Samuelsson and Hudler greatly affected their fire-power, perhaps the injury to Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula and Niklas Kronwall and the under-performance from their aged stars of Lidstrom, Osgood, Rafalski, Datsyuk and Zetterberg, were more the reason for their recent failures. I guess somewhere Ken Holland is kicking himself for offering the cash to Franzen and letting Hossa walked.

Finally, the Canucks.

On paper, MG built a great team in the off-season. We had one of the deepest defensive corp, with matured star-players of the twins and Luongo, hardworking two-way players in Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows, Steve Bernier and Kyle Wellwood, up-and-coming speedsters in Mason Raymond and Jannik Hansen, and finally highly-touted rookie prospects in Cody Hodgson, Michael Grabner and Sergei Shirokov.

Our pre-season were near-perfect. The only troubles our team faced were which players to keep and which to let go.

But then, things start to slowly fall-apart. Cutting Hodgson and keeping Shirokov may have been a mistake, or not, since we still don’t know if the back-injury to Hodgson is serious or not.

Our D-corp suddenly doesn’t seem so deep because although they were healthy, they weren’t showing up to play every night.

Then we lost Daniel to a broken foot, Grabner to hallway soccer, Hansen to a fight, and Demitra constantly regressing in his recovery. The team was so thin in the front, that we used Kevin Bieska as a RW in the second-line!!!!

We also lost Luongo for a few-games, but luckily it wasn’t serious.

Good news is that, all is not lost. The team is becoming healthy again, and playing some decent hockey of late. The Canucks are 7-4 in December, defeating some strong opponents in the Devils, Capitals, Kings, and Predators. The team now has 21 wins in 37 games, and ranked 6th in terms of wins in the Conference. In terms of Goals-For, we are 3rd in the Conference, and 6th in the League.

But the Bad news is that we are the only team to have ZERO OTL-points. It either means we rarely goes to OT, or we always win in OT. In fact, only two games went to Shoot-Out this season for Vancouver, and we won both of them.

With 45 games to go, it’s not difficult to envision the Canucks making the playoffs, since we are one point away from the 8th spot, and only five points away from the 5th spot. If Luongo can continue his solid pre-Olympic play, the Canucks will soon climb back to the upper section of the standings.

How About a New Third Jersey?

Yes, I know that teams which have released their third jersey last season cannot change them again this year. But I am just not a big fan of the current third, it looks too much like the home jersey.

A lot of people have tried to suggest their own version of the third jersey. Here’s mine.

I think the main reason why some of the ideas out there isn’t that good looking is because of the helmet. A green jersey with a blue helmet just doesn’t look good. Both blue and green colors used by Canucks are considered sharp color, and having too much of both won’t look good. This is the reason why the current home jersey only includes a little bit of green.

I didn’t choose the Johnny Canuck logo because I think the “Rink” logo is actually pretty good, it also has a lot of heritage which is why it is a great idea to use it in the third jersey, just that the overall colors are too similar to the home jersey. I’ve also kept the blue-color rink, with tweaks to change the green border of the logo to blue.

I think a good third jersey should be eye-catching, it can be a bit crazy, because you only intend to wear them a few times. I agree that the green color can be a bit too much if we use it as a standard jersey design.

Don’t like it??!!!

How about the following variations? Tell me what you think.

A letter to Mr.Bettman.

Dear Commissioner Bettman,

Thank you for your time to read my letter, I know that you are a very busy man, so I will keep this short.

First off, please excuse the level of stupidity this humble hockey fan in asking why you won’t allow the return of a National Hockey team back in Canada. I know it’s a complicated matter, and a lot of research and discussion are required before the league can decide which city should have an NHL team. I know it will take time, I’ve heard it many many times before, and if it ever occurs, it must be with the right people, in the right city, at the right time, right?

However, isn’t it pretty obvious that after a 13-year experiment, we can conclude that hockey isn’t very successful in Phoenix, Arizona?? How long did it take for the League to decide to move the team out of Winnipeg, if I may ask? How many chances did we give that city to try to salvage a Jets’ team with 24 years of heritage?

It has been a hot topic for the past few years about the potential hockey market for another team in Ontario, even Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly admits that Toronto can handle two NHL teams. I know that there’s always two sides to every story. I know that you’ve said no to either moving a team or starting an expansion team in Toronto, or actually anywhere in Canada, but I haven’t heard the reason for it. Please share with me your side of the story??

So, Why?? Why can’t there be another NHL team in Toronto, if all the evidence points to the direction that it will be profitable both monetary-wise and promotional-wise???

In the past 2 days, I’ve read many articles about how the league, or you specifically, are doing everything you can to prevent the successful acquisition of the Coyotes franchise by Mr. Jim Balsillie. I don’t know much about law, as I am only a naive Canadian hockey fan of 20 years. All I’ve been hearing is that:

1. Coyotes Owner Jerry Moyes wanted the team off his hands, and being an unsecured creditor, he wants to maximize the chance of getting some return on his unsuccessful investment, hence filling the team for bankruptcy.

2. RIM Boss Jim Balsillie has always wanted to place a second team in Toronto. He is willing to fork out $17-million to the club for immediate needs, and then $212.5-million to buy the team. Whether Balsillie is doing this out of patriotic love or smart investment doesn’t really matter, as long as he is willing to offer the highest bid to buy the club.

3. Hockey in Phoenix has never been successful, they’ve tried 13 years already. No investor in their sane mind will invest a lot if there aren’t any ways of assuring monetary success in the near future.

4. Toronto has a huge demand for another hockey club, it can easily support two highly profitable teams, if not three.

5. If the League insist on keeping the Coyotes in Phoenix, they will have to offer a $190-million subsidy for just one more season. This of course won’t be paid out of Mr.Commissioner’s pocket, but shared by the rest of the 29 teams.

6. Players of the Coyotes should be happy playing in a real hockey-market and a profitable club. Free-agents will want to join the team, as with local Junior hockey prospects, the team will quickly be better.

So Moyes gets some of his money back, Balsillie get’s his NHL team, Toronto fans are happy, Players are happy, the League doesn’t have to pay up that $190-million , heck…even Gretzky gets to come back to Canada to coach!!!! It’s seems like everybody wins if this deal comes through, well…maybe except for Mr. Commissioner’s ego.

News reports are saying that the League is opposing this because they never wanted to move any teams unless absolutely required, but don’t you agree that paying $190-million is a good sign that it IS absolutely required??

Some say it’s about control, the League should have the last say as to where and when a NHL team should be placed, not any Arizona court. But is the League willing to sacrifice everybody’s interests just to maintain that image of “Power”???

An even more extreme conspiracy theory suggests that the League doesn’t want any existing team to move to a highly profitable market like Toronto, because the League will make much more ($400-million) on expansion teams. But that doesn’t make sense, if it’s about the money, there should already be 3 teams in Canada by now (Toronto, Winnipeg, and Quebec City??), or even more in the States. You yourself said that there won’t be any expansion teams in the near future, right?

So what is it? Please spare me the suspense, and just tell me why you and the League are doing this?? Is it because you don’t like Canadians??

 

Humble Hockey Fan,

Saint Pako.

Naslund quits and Canucks win.

Well, the two are not really related, at least not directly.

Canucks’ ex-captain Markus Naslund has called it quits Monday night, after 15 seasons in the NHL. Perhaps one of the most-liked Canucks in recently history, Naslund provided scoring power and leadership to a young Canucks team for almost a decade.

But I couldn’t stop asking myself, what will prompt the Ranger’s scoring leader (excluding trade-deadline acquisition Antropov who already has 21G 25A before joining NY) to decide to retire after only one season?

Naslund had a decent season, with 24 goals and 22 assists. At 4-million per season, he is out-performing both 7-million-dollar-centerman Gomez and Drury. He was respected by the organization and the players, naming him Alternate Captain to Chris Drury. He finally found that anonymity he so desired after a decade of spotlight and burden. Naslund also mentioned numerous times that he enjoyed playing hockey in the Big Apple, so why the sudden desire to retire?

Officially, his reason is that he feels that he has underperform, to the point that he feels unacceptable. But perhaps the main reason is the Rangers’ failure in the post-season which hammered in the final nail.

It’s rather sad to see Naslund end his career this way, especially to a genuinely nice guy, who’s had so much to be proud of, quitely enter into the night without the cheers and acknowledgement he deserves.

Participated in the All-Star Game 5 times, and named to the first All-Star team in three consecutive years (2002, 2003, 2004), Markus Naslund is perhaps one of the best player ever dressed for the Canucks. He holds Vancouver’s franchise career-record for Hat-tricks (11), points (756) and Goals (346), third overall in career-assists (410) and games-played (894).

Naslund had his highlight year during the 2002-2003 season, when he had his first and only +100 points season. He scored 48 goals and 56 assists for 104 pts, another franchise-record for single-season points by a left-winger. He also won the Lester B. Pearson Award that year, which is the best NHL player voted by the NHLPA, and he is the only Canucks ever to win this award.

However, it might have been an even-better season, and perhaps it was a foreshadow of things to come for Naslund and the version of the Canucks under his leadership. Entering the very last game of the season in 2002-2003, at home for the 82nd game, the Canucks holds the Northwest Division Title, and Naslund was the league leader in points and goals, making him so-close to become the first Canuck ever to win the Art Ross Trophy and the Rocket Richard Trophy.

As fate has it, the Canucks loss that game to a weak Los Angeles Kings team. In doing so, Vancouver lost the Division title to the Colorado Avalanche, whom played a high-scoring game that night, which gave enough points and goals for Peter Forsberg and Milan Hejduk to defeat Naslund for the Art Ross and the Rocket Richard Trophies respectively.

That single game killed the confidence and the momentum for a Canucks’ team which had the leagues’ best forward line in the WCE line. That was the year most commentators in Vancouver predicted the team to most likely to win the Stanley Cup. That was the year the Canucks won the first series against the St. Louis Blues, but failed to finish off the Wild despite having a 3-1 series lead. (Sound familiar…hope not!!)

It all points to that one thing, the failure to finish. The Canucks was so close, and Naslund was so close, but it wasn’t close enough.

After that, Naslund will continue to lead the Canucks in various aspects of the game for many years, during which the WCE line was still feared by most teams. That will change completely after the Steve Moore incident.

Most will agree that Bertuzzi’s hit on Moore destroyed two players’ career that night. Steve Moore no longer played hockey for any NHL team, and Bertuzzi is only a fraction of his former self after the assault charge and numerous stops in Florida, Anaheim and now Calgary.

But it also severely damaged Naslund’s career. The entire incident started out with Steve Moore trying to injure Naslund, and it ended with a quick playoff exit for a Canucks team thought to be Cup-bounding. Facing the charges against his best friend, Naslund wasn’t able to focus on what he was supposed to do, and that is to lead the team. And it seems that ever since then, the Canucks locker room was divided, and Naslund’s leadership questionable.

With Bertuzzi traded, and the arrival of Vancouver’s saviour in Roberto Luongo, Naslund’s role changed. He is no longer the face of the franchise, or the beloved leader he once was. This decline in his role and responsibility definitely affected Naslund’s will to win, and is shown by his rapid decline in his point production.

Of course, this led to his exit when his contract expired last season. He told everyone that he longed for anonymity so he can quietly focus on doing the thing he loved most and that’s playing hockey. But deep down insider, maybe the reason he left the team was because he felt the team no longer needed him.

I guess he thought that a change of scenery will help him regroup and re-focus, but it takes much more efforts for a long-time team captain to get adjusted to a new team, just look at Sundin or in fact any long-time Captain who’s been traded.

The reason why Naslund isn’t able to play like he used to is simply because he’s no longer the center of the team. It’s a very different game if you are leading the play versus supporting the play. That extra pressure you put on yourself to not let your teammates down, because you know everyone is depending on you may be the difference between success and failure. That extra step, that extra shot, that extra play, always make the difference.

So, maybe the reason for Naslund’s retirement is not because he can’t perform, but simply because he knows he can’t go back to being the center of the team like he was to during his golden era with the Canucks.

IF, I’m only saying IF the Canucks can go far in the playoffs this year, and IF they are able to win the Cup, the first year without Naslund, what will that say?? Can Naslund take this as a NY Ranger?? Maybe, it is better to leave earlier than later.

Yet, like I said, I am sad with the way Naslund has to end his career like that. In New York, nobody cares about a 35-year old free-agent retiring, especially after a first-round defeat in the playoffs. No body will remember Naslund played for the Rangers many many years from now. But in Vancouver, Naslund will forever be a Canuck. Just imagine if he’d retire last year, or he signed back with us and decide to retire this year after we’ve won the cup??

Doesn’t the all-time point-leader, 8-year team captain deserve something better from his fans? Shouldn’t the Canucks community at least do something to show our appreciation? Maybe, but surely not now, not when the entire focus of the club in on beating the Chicago Blackhawks and continue the quest for the Ultimate Glory. (As I wrote this, we’ve just defeated the Blackhawks to take a 2-1 series lead!!)

But in case nothing happens, I just want to say something to our favorite captain:

“Markus, thank you for your 12 years with us, you are by-far my favorite captain of all-time. We were so close to winning it all with you, but I enjoyed watching you play even if we really didn’t win anything. I know that Vancouver misses you, and I always thought that you will retire as a Canuck, and in my heart, you did retire as a Canuck.

Here’s to Vancouver’s Favorite Son from Sweden, I hope you will enjoy playing hockey back home, because you’ve always wanted to do that. Who knows, maybe we will see you again sooner, rather than later. But if you do decide to make a comeback, do it with us.

Good luck on whatever you do and Godspeed, Markus!”

On to the playoffs.

There is this thing in the game of hockey you just can’t explain scientifically, it’s called chemistry.

Following up on my last post, the team suddenly find themselves losing consecutive games, thanks to the line-juggling wizardry of coach Alain Vigneualt. Looking back now, with the regular season finally over, it’s okay what Alain did. He was merely testing out different line combination, just like what he did with splitting up Kesler and Burrows. Although the timing is really bad and stupid, he did what he thought best.

The experiment failed completely. Don’t get me wrong, I love Mason Raymond, I think he has tons of skills and potential. He’s fast and has great hands. One would think that Raymond could benefit greatly from icetime with Kesler and Sundin. But he didn’t.

Somehow it just didn’t click. They don’t have that “Chemistry”. The result was a three-game winless streak. In particular, the loss to a Colorado team filled with AHL players were heartbreaking to watch. Yet, Vigneualt didn’t learn from this, and he started the same line-up against Calgary in arguably the most important game of the year.

It was scoreless, and Calgary was outplaying and outshooting the Canucks with 21 shots, in the first period alone. Then, at 13:01, AV finally gave in and call out the RPM line as it was meant to be. Four minutes later, the Canucks scored the only goal in the period, despite being outshot 21-9.

The team finally settled down, and the overall play improved significantly. Captain Luongo played great, stopping 46 out of 47 shots for the all-important 4-1 win.

With this line-up, the Canucks will continue to win all of their remaining two games to clinch their second NorthWest Division title in three years. Of course this will automatically means that Vancouver will have home-ice advantage in the playoff as well.

But, go ask anyone in the Canucks organization, and they will tell you that nothing has been won, just yet. It’s all-or-nothing this year for Vancouver, just like it was during the West-Coast-Express era.

Of course, one would argue that we didn’t have a top-end goaltender like Luongo, or that our depth in our defense wasn’t nearly as good as they are now, or even the skills of the bottom two forward lines are nothing compared to the 2009-edition of the Canucks.

But all these rationale will mean absolutely nothing comes Wednesday when the puck is dropped in GM Place. It will all be about hunger, passion, grit, experience and resilience. Whichever team has more of these will be the winner at the end of the series.

I have been a Canucks’ fan for almost 15 years now. After experiencing all the promises and heartbreaks throughout the years, I think that a fan, I deserve better…better from the team I’ve cheered for all these years. This has to be the year, for our team to at least make it to the conference finals. It has been 15 seasons since the Canucks made it passed the second-round.

With our Swedish sensations in Henrik, Daniel, Mattias and Mats all facing free-agency this Summer, if the Canucks get outsed early this post-season, it will be a very very different team comes next October.

It’s Make-or-Break time guys, are you ready? I know I am, I have started my playoff-beard already!!!

Canucks 1st Round Pick History.

15 years of first round draft picks.

[Updated] Thanks for all the comments wrt this post. Especially to Kyle, you are absolutely right, and I stand corrected; Hudler and Franzen are not 1st rounders, and in 1999, Henrik is also a first round pick. I made some mistakes there, as I wrote my post based on another website’s data, the way they arranged it was misleading.

But anyways, to clear up my point, I am only trying to respond to some people’s comments about the Canucks always having a poor draft record, and by trading away many of our picks, our reserves are depleted. I was trying to suggests that even the Red Wings does not have a very good draft record, as they made a lot of first round faults as well. I am suggesting for teams to be continually successful, the key may not simply be in their drafting, but the developing of the players.

The fact that both Franzen (3rd) and Hudler (2nd) aren’t first-rounder only further proves that you don’t always need to have great 1st round picks, but if you can develop your players well, even your late rounders can turn into gems. This coincides with Kyle’s point about Bieska (5th rounder), Hansen (9th rounder) and Edler (3rd rounder).

Another point is that the reason why I chose to talk only about 1st rounder is for the sake of simplicity. The effect of trading away your picks for rental or veteran players is most apparent for the first round. The influence of development is less for 1st-rounders than for late-rounders because the players are supposedly much better or more developed. ie. Patrick Kane or Alex Ovechkin turned out to be superstars despite little efforts in terms of organization development from the Hawks or the Caps. Of course, this is only relative, players like Grabner or White definitely need their time building their size and skills. However for late rounders, the chance of their success will rely heavily on how the organization planned their development in terms of exposure, ice-time and training.

Last but not least, I don’t think Gillis is doing a poor job so far, he’s still in his first year as a GM, and fans don’t get to see a lot of things he does in the background especially on player developments. In fact from what he did yesterday by picking up 24-year old Eric Walsky of Colorado College, I think he is doing a great job so far.

Just that when us fans complain about our draft history, we always forget the most important element behind it, the development of the player after he’s drafted.

*****************************************************************************************

People have been saying that the Canucks draft terribly, and due to the many picks traded away during the Burke and Nonis era, our club is left depleted of good prospects. A quick look at TSN’s recent article of the club’s Top 12 Prospects may have proved just that. And we’ve all heard how this has always been a trend throughout the Canucks’ history, so I thought a summary of the 1st round picks for the past 15 years may shine some light on this topic.

Year	Overall	Name	Position	Junior Club	Notes
1994	13	Mattias Ohlund	D	Pitea (Sweden)
1995	–	——	–	——	Traded for Mogilny
1996	12	Josh Holden	C	Regina Pats (WHL)
1997	10	Brad Ference	D	Spokane Chiefs (WHL)
1998	4	Bryan Allen	D	Oshawa Generals (OHL)
1999	2,3	Sedins	C, LW	Modo (SEL)
2000	23	Nathan Smith	C	SC Broncos (WHL)
2001	16	R.J. Umberger	C	Ohio State U (NCAA)
2002	–	——	–	——	Traded for Linden
2003	23	Ryan Kesler	C	Ohio State U (NCAA)
2004	26	Corey Schneider	G	Phillips Andover (Mass)
2005	10	Luc Bourdon	D	Val-d’Or Foreurs [QMJHL]
2006	14	Michael Grabner	RW	Spokane Chiefs (WHL)
2007	25	Patrick White	C	Tri-City Storm (USHL)
2008	10	Cody Hodgson	C	Brampton Battalion (OHL)

Of the 15 years of first round picks, starting with Mattias Ohlund, only 3 remain active with the Canucks (Ohlund, Sedin & Kesler), and another 4 remain within our system (Schneider, Grabner, White & Hodgson). That’s less the 50% rate of making it into our organization. Is it bad??? If you compare with the team known for drafting and developing the best players, the Detroit Red Wings, it doesn’t look so bad. The Wings in fact only have [edited] 1 first rounder in their current line-up (Niklas Kronwall) out of their last 15 1st-rounders. Of course, 1st round draft picks can often turned out to be bust, every team faces the same problem. It is equally often that teams somehow are able to pick out superstar-players in late rounds, like Datsyuk (6th round, 171 overall) or Zetterberg (7th round, 210 overall). The Canucks hottest player right now wasn’t even drafted.

But I think the reason why good teams have higher successful rates for their draft picks becoming steady NHL-ers, isn’t that they draft better, but because they develop better. Without a good development program, there’s no way a 6th rounder and a 7th rounder can mature into one of the most premier centerman and left winger of the league.

Take a look at Canucks history and we see some interesting facts. Just looking at first rounder alone, we’ve only given away 2 of our 1st rounder, whereas the Red Wings gave up 7 first rounders during the same 15 years. Three of them are now retired from the NHL (Holden, Ference and Smith). Umberger was the victim of Burke’s hard-ball negotiation skills, and he never came to terms with the club. His rights were traded to the Rangers for a rental in Martin Rucinsky. We lost Bourdon to a motorcycle accident (RIP ~ Luc). As for Patty White, his career might have been very different if he was drafted and developed by another club. Rather than allowing him to stay with the Golden Gophers in Minnesota, if the Canucks or the Moose were able to put him in their line-up and provide enough ice-time and training, he might have been a very different player. But, White is still very young, he is only 20 years of age, and there’s still a good chance for him to mature into a good NHL-er.

So, if you ask me whether the Canucks draft terribly, I can name many examples of other clubs doing worse, how about Patrik Stefan (1999 1st overall by Atlanta)? Alexandre Daigle (1993 1st overall by Ottawa)?? Ric Jackman (1996 5th overall)?? Steve Kelly (1995 5th overall)?? The list goes on. If you want to talk about a club given the most number of top picks with the worst results year after year, the Thrashers are definitely the winner there. But again, it all comes back to not just drafting the right player, but providing the proper development for the player. It’s no surprise that teams like Detroit are stacked with good prospects down their pipeline even with 12 consecutive play-off apperances, whereas the Atlanta Thrashers seem to always be in the rebuilding mode.

With GM Mike Gillis, coming from his background as a player-agent, he should not just focus on drafts, trades and free agent signings, instead he should definitely look into improving the Canucks’ development program.

SaintPako on BleacherReport.

Today, I was kindly invited to have my articles posted on bleacherreport.com, so for those of you who enjoy reading my posts, you can now also see them there.

Heard something today on Team1040 about a poll for who is the best Canuck right now, and Burrows and Kesler seems to be the favorites. Just like to say that I agree that Kesler does play a more complete game, and his leadership by example is definitely the main reason for the team’s recent success.

Kesler for Canucks MVP this year!!!

Patrick, Adams, Smythe and Norris.

Hey everyone, it’s “Favorite Hockey Article Day” again for us at NHLPA.WORDPRESS (I’ve got to think of a better name for my blog…any ideas??) and today I’d like to share with you a post from our favorite Anonymous Hockey Blogger – Eklund.

Well, I mean fake-rumors aside, Eklund does a good job with his site for creating new ideas and stories for the NHL. Take this article for example, he wrote on the 13 March, 2009:

Link to the Article if you want to see the full version:

“So it is with that in mind that you and me get to play (hockey) God today.

I am putting two more teams into the NHL, re-aligning the divisions and bringing back divisional playoffs.

For a long time now I have been hearing that the next two NHL teams will be added in Las Vegas and Ontario. You all know that as an American-who believes strongly in taking the needed time to build a hockey culture in southern American cities- I have been a huge supporter of what I have seen in Nashville and Tampa. Dallas has shown the way and created the model that all other new markets should follow.

However, in the difficult economic times going on, I am straying from my usual theory that you will create a million more hockey fans by putting a team into a big southern city in America than you will by putting another team in Toronto. It is simply too difficult to put a team into a new market when you are cash strapped.

Therefore I am awarding my two franchises to the great cities that never should have lost their franchises in the first place and welcoming back the Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques!

Also I am going to realign the division in a much different way. Currently the divisions have always been aligned by time zones running from east to west. That method made sense when you were dealing with teams that were only in America. Coast to Coast it is 3,000 miles, and the distance from Dallas to Minneapolis is 900 miles. However, when you add Canada to the equation it is still 3,000 miles across, but the distance from Dallas to Edmonton is nearly 2,000 miles.

Therefore, my realignment is going to be different.

Here are my Divisions.

The American Southern Division:

I am putting these teams together because they really do share a sports culture already that is not being taken advantage of in my opinion. College Football and Basketball are HUGE among these fanbases and that should be taken into account. Rivalries already exist here. Just go to a game in Carolina and check out the tailgate to know what I mean.

The Atlanta Thrashers
The Nashville Predators
The Carolina Hurricanes
The Dallas Stars
The Tampa Bay Lightning
The Florida Panthers
The Phoenix Coyotes
The Columbus Blue Jackets

The American Eastern Division

These teams are all essentially within an eight hour drive of each other. Most within a five hour drive. Bringing the Capitals back into a division with the Flyers and Penguins is really important. These teams have great rivalries and are only three-four hour car drives from one another.

The Philadelphia Flyers
The Buffalo Sabres
The Boston Bruins
The Pittsburgh Penguins
The New York Rangers
The New York Islanders
The New Jersey Devils
The Washington Caps

The American Western Division

Let’s put Minnesota back into the old Adams Division. The Rivalries the North Stars had with the old Blues, Wings, and Hawks were awesome to witness. It is true that there will be more travel here for many of these teams but really we are talking the difference of an hour plane trip.

The Detroit Red Wings
The Minnesota Wild
The Chicago Blackhawks
The St. Louis Blues
The San Jose Sharks
The Los Angeles Kings
The Anaheim Ducks
The Colorado Avalanche

The Canadian Northern Division

Putting all of the Canadian Teams in the same division will do incredible things for the sport. Having watched a lot of Hockey Night in Canada games and TSN I can tell you that there is an amazing excitement that exists when these teams face-off with one another. The playoffs would be incredibly intense and you would guaranteed a Canadian team all the way to the Conference Finals. That is a 50% chance of a Canadian team in EVERY Stanley Cup final. TSN, CBC, and Sportsnet can thank me later.

The Montreal Canadiens
The Quebec Nordiques
The Toronto Maple Leafs
The Ottawa Senators
The Winnipeg Jets
The Edmonton Oilers
The Calgary Flames
The Vancouver Canucks

OK, so here is how the schedule would work.

You play all 24 out of division teams twice. Once home and once away. 48 games.
You play your divisional teams 6 times each….42 games

I know what you are thinking…a 90 game schedule?

Well what you do is you eliminate the NHL pre-season schedule, for which fans are already being forced to buy tickets…The preseason is brutal anyway and consists of way too many games. You can play a few exhibition games in your practice rinks and maybe one pre-season game for charity.

Now, here is the way the playoffs would work:

Divisional Playoffs.

1 plays 4, 2 plays 3, winners play, and a divisional champion would emerge.

Imagine the excitement in Canada to see who the “Canadian Champion” is each year!

As Hockey God I would eliminate the Conferences completely and instead the four divisional champions would be re-seeded based on their records outside of their divisions. This would be perfectly fair since the teams all play a balanced out of division schedule.

So let’s just say the following teams win their divisional playoffs.

The South-Dallas
The East-Washington
The West-Detroit
The North-Calgary

In their 48 out of division games they had the following records.

Washington 39-9
Detroit 37-11
Calgary 34-14
Dallas 32-16

(oh, btw I would also eliminate points for losses)

So the newly named “Stanley Cup Semi-Finals” would be 1-4, 2-3 in this particular season.

Washington would have home ice over Dallas
Detroit would have home ice over Calgary

And then of course the winners would play for the Stanley Cup.

(and that Stanley Cup winning team would go on to play a team that won in the finals of the newly formed Euro NHL for the World Cup….well maybe….)”
I like Eklund’s idea a lot, first of all, bringing back two of the most missed teams in the modern NHL is awesome. If half of the rules the NHL have today exist back in the Jets and Nordiques time, both teams would still be there. I mean if anything, the move of the Jets to Phoenix has proved unsuccessful both in terms of team performance and market return. Although, the same couldn’t be said to the Avs-Nordiques.

Aside from the teams, I think the division re-alignment makes a lot of sense!! I mean North East South West, four divisions are simple enough. As for the Northern Division which only consists of Canadian teams, I think is an even better idea. Ensuring a Canadian team in the conference finals will make a lot of Canadian fans happy. I mean there are American teams are the majority here, and the League should stop protecting the US-based teams and start aiding the minority Canadian teams with a huge fan base.

Schedule is also a good idea, I think in any league, any team should at least play every other team once in a season, or else how could you consider them within the same league?? Playing your division rivals 6 times sounds enough, otherwise it will make the rivalry a bit boring for fans. Divisional Champions are “nice-to-have” trophies for a teams accomplishment in any season. I mean we see a lot of great teams every year, and although having just ONE cup is exactly the reason why it’s so sought after, having some kind of confirmation for more than just one team’ success is great for marketing. I think they should bring back the old division names as well, Patrick, Adams, Smythe and Norris sounds soooo much better than North-Eastern or Central division!!! It shows the sport’s heritage!!!

Eklund’s last suggestion is a bit wild, having the Stanley Cup champion playing against the champion of Euro NHL for the World Cup would minimize the meaning of the Stanley Cup’s ultimate glory, doesn’t it??!! I know he’s partly joking on this one, but what would it mean if the Euro NHL Champion defeats the Stanley Cup Champion, does this mean that the NHL is no longer the best league in the world?? If the Euro NHL continuosly loses to the NHL, then what’s the point of this match or this World Cup? But anyways, I think it’s an interesting idea, something for us to think and talk about.

It’s a great idea, I hope someone will share this with Bettman.