Did you leave out Lukowich on purpose? He’s the odd man out in my eyes.

No doubt in my mind Oberg is not on the team, barring trading away 2 vets. You’re missing a key factor: the veterans will not get banished to the minors. They’ll get picked up on waivers by other teams. The only one with a shot of possibly passing waivers I would guess would be Lukowich, and quite frankly he’s been solid enough to make the team during preseason.

I was at last night’s game and I though SOB played a great game. I believe he set up the lead pass to Welly’s breakaway that led to the penalty shot goal. And he had some nice puck movement all around as well as some pretty good defensive play. He’s leaner and meaner and looks more than anything like a player determined to make this team. He does not want to get sent to crapsville by waiver or by trade, he remembers what it was like playing in Tampa. I’m confident he will make this team barring something crazy or a trade.

I have to feel a trade is coming. And my gut says it will be one of the $3mill+ salaried top 4 d-men, since we need to be dropping some salary by Oct 1.

So I see it as this:

4 of these players: Bieksa, Salo, Edler, Mitchell, Ehrhoff. Presumably Mitchell and Salo will remain since I believe they have NTCs and MG says he won’t trade anyone with such a clause. Although he also once said that he wouldn’t sign a player to one of those crafy back-ended contracts, and look what he did with Lu. As much as it hurts, Mitchell is the most logical to trade, with this being a contract year and with his game, as excellent as it is, being one-dimensional. And I think we can get value back for him.

Then along with whomever the 4 left are, Schneider and O’Brien will also make the team, with Lukowich as a 7th d-men kept as an interchangeable skratch (i.e. plays when Salo is out, or AV is pissed at SOB). Oberg is first call up from minors, and Sauve might be second. Nycholat and Rome will be sent down and need to pass waivers. If they survive waivers and we can keep them in Manitoba as potential extra spares, awesome. Should we actually need them, I think we’re in trouble whether they’re still there or not!

I have to feel a trade is coming. And my gut says it will be one of the $3mill+ salaried top 4 d-men, since we need to be dropping some salary by Oct 1.

I’m starting to think the same thing. Mitchell? Oh god….please no. But it is possible. Or is it? We don’t need 5 out of 6 guys being puck movers / offensive defencemen either.

I’m leaning toward SOB being pitched, but I also think Salo would bring a decent return in exchange if something could be worked out with him, and would ease the finances a lot. Fine defenceman, I like him (Salo) a lot, but only when he plays.

I think something that’s easily overlooked is the possibility of players on 1-way contracts going to Manitoba and how most owners wouldn’t probably greenlight that. I remember reading about how thankful we should be that Gillis even had the possibility of making these deals, since he’s throwing around a lot of money that isn’t his at all.

That being said, I don’t see Schneider starting the season, with Lukowich and SOB fighting for that 6th spot. It always stood out to me how few minutes SOB got last year compared to the other 5, so I wonder how Vigneault is going to balance it this time. My bet is that Mitchell will see a reduction in ice time, because let’s face it, he’s slow. He’s a good defenceman, but I’m not sure he’s worth the money he’s getting.

that is why AV is telling the media Schneider doesn’t know what he’s saying when he’s telling them he’ll be ready for game 1.

At some point, something’s gotta give. Gillis is delaying the decision as long as possible and that makes sense, but eventually someone’s getting moved cuz we’re over the cap.

I also think Demitra’s gonna get moved if Shirok continues to pan out. Even if Demitra could come back, given all our fw’s, his ice time would be reduced in a contract year, which can’t be good for him. So he might want to move at this point to a team that will play him lots, let him rack up the points, then re-sign him to a 2 year deal.

Putting it together I could see something like this: Demitra + a 3.5m-4.0m D-Man (+ a young fw? + Schneider?). That’d not only solve our cap probs, it would leave room for a very good sniper in return.

But what do I know?

Mitchell and Salo have NTCs and Gillis has made it quite clear that they will not ask players to waive their NTCs. So I think those two will likely not be moved.

Edler is definitely a keeper, he could be a poor man’s Lidstrom in the future IMO.

Ehrhoff is like another Edler, but 4 years older and maybe a better skater. I think he could be a candidate to be moved, and would fetch a good return.

Bieksa, we need to keep for his grittiness, leadership and offensive ability. I feel that SOB is a poor man’s Bieksa, so he’s the most expendable.

Lukowich could fill in the 6th or 7th D-man role no problem. The Stanley Cup experience will help the team, and he could be another body for the PK shifts.

I don’t think this defensive depth is a bad problem to have at all. :D

trust in mike, he’ll manage to do something. i think we’ve all seen he gets what he wants, sit back and let him work it out. have no fear…

about what he wants, he wanted Sundin for 2x $10M last year.
Also, having options is good but not sure I’d call having to get under the cap last minute “dealing from strength”.

Fact is they’ve got at least 1 maybe 2 too many dmen and at least 2 maybe 3 too many forwards (if they keep Shirokov and Hodgson), and not a lot of time to do anything about it.

Bit more wiggle room with the forwards as at least some of them have 2-way deals, but if you want to ice the best team you have…

First off.. I work at a very boring job.. pays decent, but its boring as fuck.

That being said i have a lot of time to think about silly things like.. well this. Who is going to be cut out of the Vancouver Canucks defense this season? I can honestly say i have no idea.. no hunch if you will..

One things for sure, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens come Oct 1st.

With Demitra on the LTIR, Gillis has us near the cap already, so he has time to make a deal. As long as Demitra delays his return, Gillis can take his time – up to a point, of course – in finding the best deal. I presume he’s already lined up some possibilities.

Demitra’s pace of recovery couldn’t have timed out better if we’d planned it that way, could it? :)

Oh, and yoata …lately the glass has been kinda half-empty for you, hasn’t it? Take heart! We’re in good shape, fellow fan, and we’re set for a great season!

Sort of off-topic but … if Shirok makes the team, then we get lines like these (which you can shuffle around as you like cuz the actual combinations per se aren’t what I’m talking about here):

Sedin-Sedin-Samuelsson
Shirok-Kesler-Burrows
Raymond-Wellwood-Bernier
someone-Johnson-someone
(plus someone as the spare fw)

So we have 3 slots open above for “someone”, and competing for them are 6 players, meaning 3 have to go, likely one of these:

Grabner, Demitra, Hodgson, Rypien, Hordi, Hansen

I expect Grabner to be sent down. That’s 1.

I expect Demitra to be traded. That’s 2.

So we’re down to just one other player who won’t make it on day one, which overall is not that bad a decision to have to make.

It can’t be Hansen cuz he’s just too good to lose to waivers.

Hodgson should really be the spare fw where he can train w/the team and get some ice time during games. If he goes back to Brampton he spins his wheels for a year, then probably goes to the Moose after that, and that’s two full years of his career right there at a time when he’s on the cusp, and after that Schroeder could be here. So I expect the Canucks to keep him.

That leaves Rypien and Hordi. Which brings me to a q: can we send either one of them down, even temporarily, then recall them safely later on? What kinds of contracts do they have? If it’s possible, I’d bet one of them goes down (Hordi?), at least for a while. If not, then Shirok might be the one who has to go till a trade can be arranged lest we lose talent and get nothing in return.

not lose young talent like Hansen in order to hang on to role players, as effective as Johnson is, can’t somebody with more upside do his job? We know he can’t do theirs.

What’s Grabner’s status, can he be demoted without clearing waivers?

he has a lot more upside than some of the other guys and has actually shown more as a Canuck (with less opportunity) than even Bernier or Wellwood have, let alone Johnson or Hordichuk, at a younger age and for less money (a lot less in Bernier’s case).

Hansen is a role player today, but he’s clearly developing into more than that, too. He should become a solid 2-way fw in the future, a 2nd or 3rd line player on most teams, and that day is not that far off. That’s way too much to jut give away.

RJ is a great 4th liner, too. He can skate like the wind and he plays hard whenever called upon, never complains. I like him.

We have too many good fw’sthat we might not be able to send down so we gotta look at who we can send down for now even as we look for a trade (both for cap and for personnel reasons).

Johnson too, but I’d rather lose a guy who’s potential we know is that of a checker, than lose a guy whose potential upside is far greater.

I think Hansen gets grabbed immediately if he has to be put on waivers to get sent down (or back up).