Time for Canucks to get a GOON

When the Vancouver Canucks traded Andrey Pedan for alleged D man Larry Pouliot from Pittsburgh I objected to the anger of Canucks twitterverse.

"Pedan can't play! You're so stupid! Pouliot has potential to be a great D man."

Yeah. Pouliot can't play.

And Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson are being used for target practice by the opposition with ZERO deterrence.

You may not like the idea that the NHL requires you to have a GOON - but you're now starting to wake up to reality.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi of the Montreal Canadiens stalked Pettersson, hooked him, put his hand on his hip, slew footed him, and fell on his knees AND swung his stick at D man Ben Hutton's head for good measure after he got up.

This is after the New Jersey Devils took multiple runs at Pettersson and the Ottawa Senators took multiple runs at him and actually nailed him with a big hit that could have caused a concussion.

The Canucks have two options

A) Allow Pettersson to be used as a pinata
B) Get a nuclear deterrent

The goon is required in Vancouver.
The people they brought in to protect Pettersson clearly don't like to fight.

Harold Snepts was brought in to protect Darcy Rota.
Gino Odjick was brought into protect Pavel Bure.

No one was brought in to protect the Sedins - and that ended well in 2011.

You'd hope the franchise would learn the lesson here.
Find a goon that can play a bit.

And in the case of Snepts and Odjick it turned out they could both play pretty well. And Snepts could really play well. He was an excellent penalty killer.

Which brings me back to Andrey Pedan

Pedan didn't mind fighting. And he can play forward and D. He was a better D man than Pouliot who gets a regular shift.

You can take Pedan and play him from time-to-time with Pettersson on the wing at the beginning of each game just to send a message to the opposition - don't touch Pettersson - don't touch Boeser.

He doesn't have to play a lot if you're concerned that Pedan can't up and all that crap.

Pedan was actually the Canucks faster skater at their skills competition and hardest shot.

And if you don't like the idea of Pedan then you can get Mat Martin from the New York Islanders for a 4th or 3rd round pick.

The Canucks need to make a statement and they need to make it today.

You put Tim Schaller on waivers - you trade for Martin

OR

You go sign Pedan from Kazan Ak-Bars.

And you make another pitch for Nikita Tryamkin from Yekaterniburg in Russia - bring him home to Vancouver so that he can play 25 minutes per night as another deterrent.

You may not like that the NHL requires a goon - but you can see it with your own eyes - if you don't have one - no one is going to protect your future.

The referees in the NHL are brutal. The NHL safety department is a joke. The NHL is a step up from a bush league. It doesn't protect its stars.

So you have to do it yourself.

It's better to have someone on the roster who maybe takes a lot of penalties BUT allows your talent to survive.