I doubt Dallas would even consider a straight swap of Nichushkin for Hammer

^ That would never happen.

not a straight swap...that'd be a huge fleecing for dallas and we all know Canucks can't fleece anyone

as that little blurb said, i can see something conditional (ie. if he re-signs) or prospect related to get it going

it'll probably take 1 of Horvat/McCann or Virtanen for Nichuskin straight up

maaaybe Virtanen I'd do but ill pass.

Nichushkin was head and shoulders better than everyone else in the Subway Super Series when it was here in Victoria a few years back.

Hammer and our 1st round pick for Nichushkin

-time to play armchair GM.

I say Benning does squat at the trade deadline in terms of moving Hammer. His hands are tied with Edler hurt. Can Hamhuis be traded with our defence being so shaky right now? Unless a GM gives a really good offer to the Canucks, I don't see Hammer getting moved by February 29th.

I say that JB tries to move Vrbata in return for prospects and picks if the team nosedives in the standings. Then he tries to acquire UFA Loui Eriksson in the offseason to get that Swedish connection with the Sedins.

JB said on 1040 that if canucks are close to the playoff bubble that they would add pieces at the deadline.....

i just hope we win next game against the laffs in our retro jerseys


after that i hope we lose all the way to the deadline or god forbid, Dim Jim will go balls in just to make it to the 1st round

i was honestly pretty disappointed we won the last two games :lawl:

you guys are going to be super disappointed if you think that a team that is 2 points out of a wildcard playoff birth is both tanking, and selling the team at the trade deadline.


the canucks arent going to out tank edmonton, buffalo, columbus, and toronto for sure. so realistically you're looking at an 8-10 pick. no one pick, especially not one at 8-10 is going to single handedly turn a franchise into a chicago. so are you hoping the canucks pull an edmonton tank for half a decade to stock up on a handfull of good picks? you think you're the only one who thinks his team should do that?

^uhhh look at the points dividing last place team and wildcard playoff birth spot. It's not a wide margin. Anything can happen from now until trade deadline. And from the deadline till end of season.

And just look at the math.

Last year, Calgary made it in the last spot with 97 points.

We are at 56 points in 54 games.

We have 28 Games. We basically have to go 20-8 for the rest of the season in order to have 96 points.

Without Edler and Sutter. It's going to be tough to make the playoffs.

the fact we are 2 points out now.. with about 8.3mil on ltir.. fucking hell benning is going to do something stupid.

I guess the only positive is if we do make the playoffs ot isn't 3on3

^no we don't have to go 20-8 and get 96 points to be in the playoffs. you don't get into the playoffs by hitting a point plateau, you get into the playoffs by being either 3rd in our division or 2nd in the wildcard race. right now 2nd in the wildcard race has 58 points in 56 games. so we have 2 games in hand on them, to get 1 win. 3rd in our division has 1 win and 1 tie worth of points above us, and second in our division has 2 more wins worth of points than us. thats pretty fucking close after 54 games

so basically, out of nashville, colorado, minisota, vancouver, and possibly arizona. which ever teams win like, 2 more game than the other 3, gets into the wildcard spot playoffs.

Dammit, why aren't we further down the standings? We're being like the Leafs...not good enough to make the playoffs, not bad enough to lose enough for a lottery pick.

...or rather too bad to not tank properly.

The fact is Aquilini is all about the money, so he'd take the 1-2 playoff games now rather than build for the future with a tank. I wonder how much he's lost this year with the CAD/USD exchange and less people in the seats.

just for fun, lets look at the top 8 teams in the league, and how many top 8 picks they've had in the last 8 years

WAS...
CHI...
DAL... 2009 (8th)
FLO... 2014 (1st), 2013 (2nd), 2011 (3rd)
STL... 2008 (4th)
LAK... 2009 (5th), 2008 (2nd)
NYR...
DET...

now just for fun, lets look at the bottom 8 teams in the league, and how many top 8 picks they've had in the last 8 years

EDM... 2015 (1st), 2014 (3rd), 2013 (7th), 2012 (1st), 2011 (1st), 2010 (1st)
TOR... 2015 (4th), 2014 (8th), 2012 (5th), 2009 (7th), 2008 (5th)
CLB... 2015 (8th), 2012 (2nd) 2010 (4th), 2008 (6th)
BUF... 2015 (2nd), 2014 (2nd), 2013 (8th)
WPG... 2011 (7th), 2010 (8th), 2009 (4th), 2008 (3rd)
CAL... 2014 (4rd), 2013 (6th)
ARI... 2015 (3rd), 2009 (6th), 2008 (8th)
PHI... 2015 (7th), 2011 (8th)


you can make a good case that florida has benefited from drafting well, but their turnaround involves alot of moving pieces. and thats about the extent of it. conversely, drafting early has absolutely no guarantee that you'll have a quick turn around into being a contender

I'd say Florida is an outlier though as they wouldn't be where they are without trades/signings of Luongo, Jagr and Willie Mitchell.

good point.

Dallas has also found their way to the top of the league by making trades and signings, not by drafting well. i think only 2 or 3 of their top guys were drafted by dallas

the kings have been fairly steady builders. half their key players are trades or signings

He's already lost a ton of money due to poor home game attendance. Just look at StubHub, with the exception of this Saturday's Leafs game, you can easily get tickets to the games for $20-$30!

If he forces the hand and the Canucks "try to make the playoffs" then they'll most likely not make it, or get bounced in the first round and the fans will be furious with how management squandered a legitimately perfect reason to tank it for a high draft pick to draft a stud prospect. If Aquilini thinks it's bad now, wait until that scenario plays out and I guarantee there will be even more resentment from the fans and that'll be reflected in even poorer home attendance and revenue next season.

you missed lak 4th overall in 2008 and chi 1st overall in 2008 (kane). but theres more than an 8year period to making a team lol
Chi..2000(10th), 2001(9th), 2004(3rd), 2005(7th), 2006(3rd)
Flo...2001(4th), 2002(1st to 3rd), 2002(9th), 2003(1st to 3rd), 2004(7th), 2006(10th)

all these end up getting traded for others, or develop like toews. also ufas and trades a lot of these bigger teams can pull off. but stl, det have the best scouting

^kane was 2007
LA didn't draft 4th overall in 2008. StL did.

Chi won their first (recent) cup in 2010. 3 of the 5 players you posted were drafted within 8 years of that, and the other 2 weren't in the top 8, and weren't part of the winning teams


my point is that the majority in here seems to think we can tank this year, draft 1st overall (somehow the canucks are guaranteed 1st overall), and be a contender next year

I picked 8 years because theres not one single canuck fan that would allow a 'rebuild' to go on for 8 years lol

Lol no one is saying contender next year.

People are saying tank to get a legitimate franchise piece to build around. As nice as our prospects look, after the Sedins are gone, we've got no franchise players.

Ovie and Backstrom were top 5 picks though but that's past 12 years.

That being said, i think we can all agree we really got ass fucked in scouting during the Nonis / Gillis era.



2004 - Schneider
2005 - Bourdon (RIP)
2006 - Grabner
2007 - Patrick White (I know this was Nonis pick but it really went downhill from there)

2008 - Coho
2009 - Schroeder
2010 - Keith Fucking Ballard
2011 - Jensen
2012 - Gaunce

2013 - Horvat / Shinkauruk
2014 - Virtanen / McCann

Basically from 2004 and drafting Schneider, the only first rounders that has contributed for more than one season is Boho and Schneids. AND that was because we traded Schneider for him too! haha

2006 1st rounder and 2010 1st rounder was traded for Ballard

2008 was traded for Kassian then for Prust then for nothing

2011 was traded for Etem

I still don't get why the fuck our scouting staff is still here to this very day.

weird, site I was using fucked up the years. but main point is you need to usually draft 2 franchise players within the top 10 that peak at the same time, looking over an 8 year period doesn't mean much considering how chi is now. the rest of the team can be filled in with ufa's, draft choices, trades

canucks had it for a couple years with the sedins, chi with kane and toews, lak with doughty and kopitar, tb with hedman and stammer, was with ovie and backstrom, pit etc and now seemingly fla with ekblad and barkov

canucks haven't drafted that second franchise player yet, not even sure if they have one with Virtanen/horvat. and if they miss out on it its just going to create a gap where half the team is at their peak or just past, and half of it is just getting their feet wet like it is now.

also gillis turned around the drafting department, but aquilini after losing in the finals wanted a team that was big and strong like the bruins which is why gillis shifted and drafted gaunce and Jensen. when gillis finally stood up to it and wanted to go back to drafting speed and skill, alng with rebuild he was canned

Canucks tanking means it put themselves into a better position to be able to draft a top 5 prospect. This year's draft class is good, but like most years, there is a slight drop in talent outside of the top 5.

Tanking for that top prospect means 1-2 seasons of mediocre hockey at best while the youngster get experience and fulfill their potential. I'd rather go through a couple of seasons of poor hockey to ensure their future is setup to provide us with an exciting brand of hockey.