Beware the rebuild & Seattle

The Vancouver Canucks lost a very valuable asset to the Las Vegas Golden Knights - Luca Sbisa. And if you don't think he's valuable - look at where the Canucks are without him and where Vegas is with him. He plays the second highest minutes on the team.

S
T
U
D

The bad news? Canucks were relatively shielded in the expansion draft to Las Vegas.

Every team in the rebuilding mode got whacked hard by Vegas. Vancouver was no exception. Losing Sbisa hurt.

But this next round could hurt even more. Look at the Minnesota Wild who lost Erik Haula with 23 goals and 44 points. That doesn't sound bad, but consider it would be 2nd on the Canucks in goals and points.

OUCH!

Now consider the next round of expansion draft. You can protect 11 players. 1st and 2nd year players exempt. Seven forwards, 3 D men, 1 goalie. OR 8 skaters and 1 goalie.

Okay. But that is going to smack Vancouver right in the face this time around. Seven forwards. Three defenseman, one goalie.

So Markstrom, in two years, is a starting goalie... gone.

Erikkson must be protected, NMC.

Expansion set for 2020/21 season.

So IF Juolevi, Pettersson, Gaudette, Dahlen, Goldoben and in theory Demko play next year - you have to protect them because their 2 years will be up in 2020/21.

So... Let's go through the list you MUST protect

Virtanen
Erikkson
Pettersson
Gaudette
Demko
Boeser
Horvat
Tryamkin (has to be coming back)


Exposed
Juolevi
Stecher
Gudbranson ( you paid a high price to get him and he's showing promise)
Hutton
Markstrom

You can't even begin to see what a nightmare scenario this is.
What if???
What if
Stukel turns out to be a player.
Kole Lind? Do you like Kole Lind?

How much are you going to like Lind playing in Seattle?

What if Gadjovich makes the team next year?
Or Dahlen?

And for kicks and giggles - let's say the Canucks WIN the Draft Lottery - and get Rasmus Dahlin.
Now you're losing a really good player off that crop of young kids.

Holy crap, the Vancouver Canucks are going to get punched in the face here.

They're going to lose a VERY good player in the NHL expansion draft to the Seattle Thunderbirds if they try to bring these kids on the team next year.

Bottom line --

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES DO YOU BRING ANY OF THEIR YOUNG KIDS TO THE NHL NEXT YEAR. !!

Period.
End of story.

Next year MUST be a tank year.

There's no way around it.

You can't bring any of those kids on board next year.

Gaudette will force their hand.
But then that's it.

They can't bring anyone else next year in terms of rookies.
They got to shut it down.

And any thought of Demko playing this year or next - shut it down.
Forget about it.

You do that - you lose a Virtanen or a Tryamkin.

The Canucks are in big time trouble and they have to GM accordingly.

In my book I go into some detail about the expansion rules and when they've come into affect and how they have impacted different teams because of where they were in their rebuild.

Two teams ALWAYS get punched in the face - Buffalo, and Vancouver.

Both teams are going to be in exactly the same problem - losing a high first round pick to a new team.

And neither team can afford it.




Want more common sense on hockey?


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