Trade Deadline 2009

Trades I’d Like to See

 

Ian Laperriere – This guy is tough, full of grit, and can pop in a goal or two.  This scrappy competitor is exactly the kind of depth guy you want for a playoff run.  And Colorado is a known seller this year. 

 

Jay Bouwmeester – A UFA, but this deal could work if they can convince him to sign a long-term deal as part of this transaction.  It’s been rumoured he wants to come back to Western Canada, making Vancouver, Calgary, & Edmonton ideal trading partners.  With Ohlund likely leaving town next year, Vancouver could be looking for some firepower and muscle on the backend.

 

James Van Riemsdyk – Philadelphia hasn’t been able to solidify their goaltending since missing out on Curtis Joseph in the late 90’s.  While Van Riemskyk has been rumoured in a deal with Atlanta for Kari Lehtonen, I think a better long-term deal for Philly would be to trade him to the Canucks for Cory Schneider.  It would fill a need for both teams in the coming years.

 

Marian Gaborik – The problem here is that Risebrough wont’ give him up cheap.  Gaborik has played only six games this year and before that averaged only 63 games per year since the lockout.  He’s a game changer, but not a guy you want to lock up long-term due to his band-aid boy status.  If the price is right though, I’m just thinking the price will be too high.

 

 

Other Potential Trades

 

Chris Neil – A UFA at the end of the year, Neil also has that grit factor wanted for a playoff run.  He’ll be gone at the end of the year, but could be a nice addition if Laperriere doesn’t pan out.

 

Nik Antropov – Another UFA at the end of the year, Antropov has been linked to Vancouver in rumour mills all winter.  But the price is extremely high for this guy and I just don’t see it happening.  Gillis won’t give up a first rounder and I’m pretty sure there are other teams desperate enough to do just that.

Jr. Tournament Notes

It’s always fun to see international hockey in play.

Did anyone else notice the change in the clocks for the Junior Tournament?  International hockey used to always count up, while the NHL and North American Leagues would count from 20:00 down to 0:00.  But in this tournament that seems to have changed and they are counting down.  I LOVE that change as it always… I mean always caused me some confusion.

Like when you watch an NHL game on TV from Edmonton.  They play is all backwards because the cameras face the penalty boxes and not the benches like they do in EVERY OTHER ARENA!  Somebody help this team get a new stadium, please.

Back to International Rules, I particularly liked the no-touch icing rule.  I know that the NHL execs like the exciting chase for the puck, but the game seems to go quicker when they just blow it dead.  They quickly regroup and get the puck dropped again.  In the NHL, they take their sweet time as they don’t get a line change (which I also like), and get some rest though.  Put in the no touch icing and speed up the game.  The team causing the icing will also get less of a break and become more of an advantage for the offense.

No fighing.  I’m going to talk a lot more about this in the future, but the best games played don’t have fights.  Playoffs.  Elimination Tournaments.  Amazing, with little to no fighting.  Do we really need it?  So much involved in this type of thinking and changes.  It CANNOT be done in isolation like the instigator penalty had been done.  In fact, it has to be done in connection with that rule, plus the visor (starting a fight) rule, hits to the head, etc.  IT ALL NEEDS TO BE LOOKED AT!

Whistle blows when the goalie is plunked in the head with the puck.  This is all about protecting the players.  See above comments on this.  Not that the NHL needs to do this, but they do need to do more to protect the players from themselves.  Consider EVERYTHING.

The Chief Canuck

Burkie in T.O.

Burke will always be one of my favourite all-time Canuck GM’s.  He got this team back on the map and provided them leadership when it the team was a complete mess on and off the ice.

He has a long road ahead of him in T.O.  with little in the way of assets to parlay into a good team.

Still, my only real question is….

Isn’t Dominic Moore going to be the first player traded by him?  Think about that one for a while.

The Chief Canuck.

Who Knows Washington?

Other than AO and the coach of the year Bruce Boudreau winning coach of the year, I know very little about this team.

Oh ya, and this is the team Nylander scorned Edmonton to join. 

Anyways, check out this blog from A View From the Cheap Seats.  The most current post is a preview of the Chicago game, but at the end of it he has a section titled Take A Drink If that is very telling of the issues Washington is facing on and off the ice.

A Caps Nut mentions in his post game review of Saturday’s tilt with Chicago that they seem to have slow starts to games.  Maybe the Canucks can take advantage their, along with some of their other blemishes including a poor power play and risky cross ice passes.

And you can’t take a trip to Washington without checking out Ted Leonsis Blog, one of the few owners in the league that actually gets it.

The Chief Canuck

82-0

451 goals.

Okay, it’s not going to happen, we all know that.

With all the good going on with the team after two games, let’s temper that a bit with some things that need work.