Quiz And Friday Morning GM'ing

by Yankee Canuck on Jun 5, 2009 12:00 AM PDT in Canucks Trivia Comment 8 comments

Before you drink your weekend away, give your brain a jog:

Question #2: Roberto Luongo leads all Canuck netminders in history with a 2.29 GAA when playing a minimum of 50 games. Name the other four goalies that round out the top five (hint: you need not go back terribly far).

...and...

GM'ing #2: Nine years ago, the Canucks used their first round pick to select Nathan Smith, 23rd overall, in the 2000 entry draft. The following list shows the 2008 production of the ten players selected behind Smith (picks 23-33):

Nathan Smith

#46 / Center / Colorado Avalanche

Height: 6-2

Weight: 206

Born: Feb 09, 1982

(No 2008 Stats)

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Brad Boyes	82	33	39	72	-20	26	16	0	11	0	220	15.0

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Steve Ott	64	19	27	46	3	135	5	0	0	1	132	14.4

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Brian Sutherby	59	8	7	15	1	71	0	1	0	0	67	11.9

(Martin Samuelsson, drafted by the Bruins, plays for the Malmö Redhawks of the Swedish Hockey League and has never played a NHL game.)

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Justin Williams	44	4	10	14	-8	17	3	0	0	0	108	3.7

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Niklas Kronwall	80	6	45	51	2	50	4	0	1	0	121	5.0

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Jeff Taffe	8	0	2	2	-4	2	0	0	0	0	5	0.0

(Ilya Nikulin, drafted by the Thrashers, plays for the Ak Bars Kazan of the KHL and has never played a NHL game. In fact, just this week he rejected another offer from Atlanta.)

(Tomáš Kůrka, drafted by the Carolina Hurricaces, plays for HC České Budějovice in the Czech Extraliga and played 14 games with the 'Canes back in 2003.)

	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	SHG	GWG	GTG	SOG	PCT
2008 - Nick Schultz	79	2	9	11	-4	31	0	0	0	1	48	4.2

Other notables in the draft include Ilya Bryzgalov (44), Jarret Stoll (46), Andreas Lilja (54), Antoine Vermette (55th) and Paul Martin (62).

I assume you don't precisely miss Smith's four game regular season career presence in Vancouver, but don't forget, the bastard played in the 2007 playoffs (yeah, that's offensive depth to be scared of). You can also forgive Brian Burke who, at the time, had an offensive unit with a still burgeoning Markus Naslund, veteran Andrew Cassels and rookie Peter Schaefer as some of his top scorers while the blueline was just given the gift of Ed Jovanovski from the Pavel Bure trade. So a big forward like Smith made sense...at the time.

But, ignoring the past and focusing on the now, the question is Mr. or Ms. GM, would you still have taken Smith with the first round pick? And if not, then who and why?

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The Drafting of Nathan Smith:

(standing on a mountaintop with raised fists, thunder, lightning and rain crashing down)

“DELORME!!!!!!!!!”

I would have taken Kronwall, despite his borderline hits and often-injured vagina.

by Sneps-ish on Jun 5, 2009 10:01 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs

I enjoy rec’ing any comment that includes the phrase "often-injured vagina."

And I’d agree, Kronwall would have been great though he would have suffered in the Cloutier/Crawford years like the rest of the blueline.

How about Ott on a team that already had Brashear, Cooke, Ruutu, Jovo and Bertuzzi? Yikes, that’s basically a prison league line-up.

'Nucks Misconduct - Housing Swedish Millionaires Since 2000.

by Yankee Canuck on Jun 5, 2009 10:15 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

I know Russians can be a pain in the ass to draft because sometimes they may not take the boat over, but given the times of the team then (goalie graveyard), I think drafting Bryzgalov would have made sense.

I can’t answer your damned quiz without the urge to cheat.
Can I guess Arturs Irbe as one of them? How about Bob Essenza?

Nucks Misconduct

by Sean Zandberg on Jun 5, 2009 11:48 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs