With a stagnant cap and a lot of UFA's this season, Anaheim can shore up their defense in FA and take advantage of cap strapped team(s). This team is probably not ready to make any noise in the playoffs, but the object is stabilize the back end, let the young players continue to develop, teach them resilience and tenacity, and try to bring our shots against/game back down into reasonable numbers. Lets talk about the additions to the roster.
Matt Dumba: He is not the $6 million dollar man, but what he is is an amazing locker room presence, willing to throw the big hit to re-energize the team, stand up for his team mates, and most importantly, is right shot. It's a bit of an overpay, and I would ideally like to do 4 years instead of 5, but he is still only 28 years old, the tail end of that deal shouldn't get too ugly, maybe structure the contract so it is buyout favorable if need be. Dumba will be Cam's partner, while he no longer has the offensive capability he once did, he has picked up the defense to compensate. This should free up Fowler to stop getting burned as badly because he doesn't have to focus so much on the shutdown role. Dumba can be pushed down to 2nd pair with Fowler as the Graves-Drysdale line comes to prominence, and be Zellweger or Mintyukov's partner when they come up and replace Fowler.
Ryan Graves: 6'5", 220lbs, blocks shots, lays hits, clears out the crease, this is the guy Gibson has been begging for. He's not here to provide any offense, he is here to be Drysdale's stay at home D partner and make sure no enemy crests get between him and the blue paint. Deal is also probably a bit rich, but securing his services is a must. Backup idea would be to try and pry Logan Stanley free from Winnipeg.
Tyler Myers: at 6'8" and 230 lbs, the big man from Texas is no where near as tough as he needs to be, but under lesser minutes, he should do okay. The Canucks need to clear cap space in order to resign Kuzemenko, and maybe to try and keep their captain. Myers may only be owed 1 mil in real money, but that 6 mil in cap hit they need to loose. He will be find as a third line and PK player with lower utilization. I prefer this idea over getting a 2nd for Zaitsev from Ottowa. This allows Helleson another year of development in the AHL, where he has had a bit of trouble adjusting to the pace, let's not rush the kid.
These additions bring our average defensive stature to 6'1" and 202 lbs
Glenn Gawdin: The few games I have watched him in he has kept the motor going the entire time he is on the ice, he is eager for a spot and puts in the work, it he doesn't work out on the team, call up Benoit Oliver Groulx.
Pavol Regenda: This guy showed fantastic chemistry in the preseason with Jones and Grant, lets see if we can recapture the magic with a different center.
Let's take a look at the curveballs I have thrown into this roster.
Resign Stolarz to a two year deal. He will not play out the entire deal, being moved sometime in the 2nd season as a trade piece, and Dostal is then brought up. Reasoning behind this is to give the D core time to gel before bringing Dostal up, it lets Dostal continue to be the dedicated starter in SD another year, and we really don't have a replacement for him down in San Diego. This buys some time for Clang to continue to marinate in Sweeden and we get to see what Alexander can do at the AHL level. Erikson Ek, i'm sorry, but you can't crack a 0.900 at the AHL level, your time with the club is over.
Keep Henrique. Going against the favorite Rico to Colorado this season to solve their 2C issue, I say we keep him. Extend him when his contract is over for 2-3 years at ~4 mil AAV. He is still producing, is still great in the circle, and we need the offensive depth, and after waiving him to let him hear the branch creak, he seems to have understood his new role.
As for who we draft in 2023, I see us taking Leo Carlsson, one because we loose the Bedard sweepstakes, 2 because we need a top flight winger. we don't need to rush him to the show immediately, let him get used to the NA game in the AHL for a bit. After that, no idea, but we need wingers, and we need goalie prospects, plus we need more defensemen. After the 2nd round its best player available anyway, but we should take a look at going heavy on high risk high reward players in the later rounds.
Lets talk about the lines:
Henrique-McTavish-Terry: When this line was H-Z-T, there was no net front presence, Henrique tried, but it's not his forte, he is no Joe Pavelski. McTavish isn't either, but he does create enough chaos in front of the net to be effective. Henrique is there for secondary (or primary) faceoffs, and he and Terry can play pitch and catch until a shot has opened up while McTavish annoys the **** out of the goalie.
Comtois-Zegras-Strome: I have been saying for months that Strome was going to end up on RW, and here it is. Strome struggled at center the way Zegras struggled on the wing, but he can be a sharpshooter when he is not being overloaded with responsibility. Zegras is the setup man, Strome is the sharp shooter, and Comtois plays the power forward game down low in front of the net. Comtois would have kept his stick on the ice last night *cough* FOWLER *cough*
Vatrano-Lundestrom-Leason: Lundestrom is a fine defensive center who is great in the circle, but he has been stuck with Silfverberg, and the combination of two risk averse players has been sapping the line of any offense, no matter who the third party was. This has dragged Comtois' and Lundestrom's (the previous third line guys) stats into the dirt being stuck with him. Vatrano has great forechecking and some grit and takes chances to make plays happen, and has the kind of crash and bang style that allows him to force separation that Lundestrom can connect with him on. Add Leason for net front muscle.
Jones-Gawdin-Regenda: Gawdin has a great hockey IQ and seems to be able to play well with anyone. Jones and Regenda have already demonstrated great chemistry together, lets give this line a whirl and see what it does. If Gawding doesn't work, we can swap him out for Carrick or Groulx.
Powerplay 1: Don't mess with a good thing. One of the few things that has worked to any degree is this powerplay setup, however, we swap Fowler for Drysdale, so that the Bromance of Zegras Drysdale can continue
Powerplay 2: I thought about putting Vatrano an RW, and he could be slotted in easily enough, but I wanted Vatrano on PK1 because he is incredibly dangerous if he can generate a turnover with a forecheck and get in for a breakaway attempt, and I don't want to have him logging too many minutes a night, so instead I put Leason. This poweplay unit is going to prioritize puck possession and creating a scrum in front of the net to try and jam home rebounds with Leason and Comtois.
Penalty Kill 1: Lundestrom is great defensively, never caught out of position, never looses his assignment, always in the right place, and great in the dot. Vatrano is an aggressive forchecker and is incredibly dangerous on the breakaway and will hit and block shots. Pair with the combination of Graves and Dumba, this is the PK unit that will get all the short handed goals and make opposing PP units pay for every inch.
Penalty Kill 2: Gawdin and Jones with Vaakainen and Myers. This unit is set up to bend not break, Block shots, get the puck down the ice, keep the other team's PP2 away from Gibson, don't get fancy, don't get cute, just do the job.
Silfverberg frankly needs to go, his hands are gone and he is a one dimensional defensive winger now. Even at 2.6 mil (50% retention) I don't know that there would be any takers, so I am assuming he gets a nice new suit for the press box or he can go down to San Diego.
While it looks like I have gone and capped the team out, 11.25 mil comes off the books the season after (+/- whatever delta for resigning Henrique or replacing him), and we need a 3RD and a reserve player. That money will be set aside for McTavish's and Drysdale's new deals. Fowler probably doesn't stick around once his deal is up at age 34, Gibson might stick around, but we can't give him 6 again, he will have to start sharing the net with Dostal.
Myers is already a positive asset. Look at the list of defensemen who signed as UFAs and are able to play 22+ mins/night. Only 3 of them (Montour, Larsson, and Savard) signed after Myers did for less than he did. Even in the cap-strapped offseason last year, look at how much the various RHD were able to command, namely Gudbranson and Klingberg. RHD is the most sought-after position, you have to pay to get someone decent, and you pay through the nose for someone above average. We can all say that Myers is a much, much better defenseman than Gudbranson. I understand teams are tight on cap space, I'm sure the Canucks are willing to retain on Myers to have him fit within the confines of other teams' cap constraints, for an increased fee of course.
1. Arizona; they have a projected cap hit next season of 43.9M and three defensive spots to fill. They're losing Ladd's 5.5M LTIR contract and they're needing to budget around 60M in salary expenditure with their financial situation. Myers would give Arizona a reliable Top-4 RHD capable of playing 22+ mins/night, a 6M cap hit that helps them reach the cap floor, with only a 1M salary that helps them stick to their internal budget. They'd be able to take Myers on with no retention needed.
2. Washington; outside of Carlsson, they have no defense signed through next season at all. With other teams also needing to upgrade their defense, the Caps are going to be looking for another solution. If cap space becomes a concern for the Capitals, Myers retained at 50% is going to be much better than the other options Washington has, I doubt they'll be able to re-sign Jensen or a UFA RHD that cheap.
3. Ottawa; again with salary issues and the desire to improve the right side, Myers looks to be one of the best options. They have Hamonic expiring this offseason, and they've expressed a desire to upgrade their right side, with rumors of them making offers for Myers that the Canucks turned down because it wasn't enough.
I'm sure more teams will be interested post-Free Agency when the best UFAs are gone and GMs are scrambling to upgrade their rosters for the start of next season.
Myers does have the 'wrong system' excuse. Last season, under Brad Shaw's defensive system, Myers was a bonafide #2, excellent in his own end, and a big part of the Canucks 105-point pace post-Green. After the firing of Travis Green, Myers was a new man. He's regressed this season now that he's no longer under Shaw, instead he's under Jason King's which is similar to the one he was playing under Green.
Myers is much better than people give him credit for, a lot of people just see his cap hit and points and say he's bad. He gets no PP time, he's the workhorse on the Canucks PK, and he's given the tough shutdown matchups to free up Hughes to do his own thing.
Arizona is still in sell off mode, they're not going to part with a pick to take Myers cap hit. They're interested in taking contracts WITH picks for FCs.
I already agreed you could get something if you retain salary on Myers, that seems to defeat the purpose of clearing out the cap space yourself in a retool.
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