On the Waiting For Stanley poll that asked which Canuck player you would like to see leave this summer, 37.8% of you picked Brent Sopel, 33.3% said Markus Naslund, and 22.2% said Brendan Morrison.
I can nearly guarantee you that Markus Naslund is not going anywhere and will play out his final year in Vancouver. Naslund's efforts in the post season earned him Alain Vigneault's respect. I thought his on-ice leadership was pretty decent as well. No, he's not worth $6 million, but why complain about something we can't change?
Morrison has one year left that pays him $3.2 million. I think he is the biggest waste of cap space on the team for obvious reasons, injured or not. Perhaps Nonis will try to trade him.
But the real cluster comes on defence, and this is where we will probably see Brent Sopel let go. Currently, Sopes makes $2.4 million per season. I am quite sure he did not play well enough after the trade deadline to earn that amount this coming season in a Canucks jersey. I know, he was so happy to be back here playing but this isn't a damned charity.
We can't afford him and are too close to the cap as it is. Somebody on D has to go to shed some salary, and that obvious choice is Sopel. I wonder how much of a pay cut Sopel would take to play here, and if it would even matter if he did take one. Probably not.
It appears that Alex Edler is ready to make the jump to the big team right away. He is better than Sopel already.
I wouldn't mind seeing Rory Fitzpatrick stick around. His price tag is $525,000. Cheap. I think he is a steady guy at the back end. Is Rory going to want a fair-sized raise?
However, a lot of attention will be on Luc Bourdon and how much he has matured as a player. Bourdon should be getting a lot more chances with the Canucks this year, and hopefully he is ready to prove himself. He is currently signed for 2 more years at $850,000 per season.
We have so much depth on defence that Sopel is an easy choice as the odd man out.
T Tags: Canucks Brent+Sopel defence Markus+Naslund Brendan+Morrison
I can nearly guarantee you that Markus Naslund is not going anywhere and will play out his final year in Vancouver. Naslund's efforts in the post season earned him Alain Vigneault's respect. I thought his on-ice leadership was pretty decent as well. No, he's not worth $6 million, but why complain about something we can't change?
Morrison has one year left that pays him $3.2 million. I think he is the biggest waste of cap space on the team for obvious reasons, injured or not. Perhaps Nonis will try to trade him.
But the real cluster comes on defence, and this is where we will probably see Brent Sopel let go. Currently, Sopes makes $2.4 million per season. I am quite sure he did not play well enough after the trade deadline to earn that amount this coming season in a Canucks jersey. I know, he was so happy to be back here playing but this isn't a damned charity.
We can't afford him and are too close to the cap as it is. Somebody on D has to go to shed some salary, and that obvious choice is Sopel. I wonder how much of a pay cut Sopel would take to play here, and if it would even matter if he did take one. Probably not.
It appears that Alex Edler is ready to make the jump to the big team right away. He is better than Sopel already.
I wouldn't mind seeing Rory Fitzpatrick stick around. His price tag is $525,000. Cheap. I think he is a steady guy at the back end. Is Rory going to want a fair-sized raise?
However, a lot of attention will be on Luc Bourdon and how much he has matured as a player. Bourdon should be getting a lot more chances with the Canucks this year, and hopefully he is ready to prove himself. He is currently signed for 2 more years at $850,000 per season.
We have so much depth on defence that Sopel is an easy choice as the odd man out.
T Tags: Canucks Brent+Sopel defence Markus+Naslund Brendan+Morrison