What the hell is "CDC"? Its not crack I am on, just some heroin. I can not believe you guys like Kyle Wellwood.

CDC = Canucks Fan Forum.

:lol

He's a plug, he produces decently as one and has an upside. For the money there paying him (especially last year) what more can you ask for?

canucks dot com

and look at what wellwood is getting paid. it's not like he's getting 4 mil a year. at the money he's getting, he's worth it.

Canucks' defence upgrade worth cap hit

Progress: Faster, deeper defence will put smile on Luongo's face

By Jason Botchford, The ProvinceAugust 30, 2009 11:12 AM


Christian Ehrhoff is coming off a 42-point season with San Jose and will be the fastest Canuck D-man.

Swaggering away from one of his best days as a general manager, but one that pushed his team well over the NHL's salary cap, Mike Gillis couldn't help a smile as he gave a reporter something to think about.

"We'll be compliant with the cap on Oct. 1, no doubt," he said. "In fact, we'll have space. We can still sign Mats [Sundin] and we can still do other things."

The next question is as simple as it is obvious: Uh, how?

"Lots of possibilities," was his response, as confident as ever.

Maybe "possibilities" are the most intriguing things Gillis picked up last week when he kissed off cap space, and raided the San Jose Sharks' closet, helping himself to a form-fitting Canali suit, and a reliable pair of Nikes.

Without any risk at all, Gillis snatched swift-skating, risk-taking Christian Ehrhoff, and the steady Brad Lukowich from the Sharks. All he left as a thank you were two longshot prospects in Patrick White and Daniel Rahimi, who appeared to be drifting in quicksand in the Canucks organization.

Not done, Gillis also signed wily free agent, and former client, Mathieu Schneider to a deal that will barely cover his Yaletown rent.

It leaves the Canucks defence deeper, faster, more dangerous, and much, much more interesting.

Off the ice, as fans have already begun fantasizing, the Canucks are positioned like we haven't seen in years to pull the trigger on a blockbuster trade. But, be warned, a deal like that may not be in Gillis's playbook.

Gillis finally has the defence — versatile, balanced and nine deep — Dave Nonis wished he had when he said it was one of the best five in the league on the eve of his ouster.

Remember those stories last season about how the Canucks foundered each time Sami Salo was out of the lineup? Ehrhoff will make you forget.

Remember the lack of shots on the power play or every time you winced, watching Pavol Demitra play the point? Schneider and his cannon will make you forget.

Remember Ossi Vaananen stumbling through eight minutes of ice time in the playoffs? Lukowich, and his two Stanley Cup rings, will make you forget.

In two moves on one day, the Canucks have addressed, and repaired, their most glaring weakness. And somewhere Roberto Luongo is smiling.

"Right now, we have basically nine NHL quality defencemen and in my opinion the weakest part of our team last year was that we didn't have more guys that could play more minutes," Gillis said.

"On defence I think we are better [than last year]. I think we are definitely deeper and we have more offence."

Certainly Gillis, whose team is anywhere from $500,000 to $2 million over the cap depending on the 23 players who make the team, isn't done. At some point, whether it be a trade, a serious long-term injury, or a veteran being banished to Winnipeg, another shoe has to drop.

But Gillis sure doesn't sound like a guy prepping to tear down the blueline he built to deal for a premier forward, like, say, Dany Heatley, who appears destined for San Jose anyway.

"We have to have a lineup where we have multiple 20-goal guys, and multiple 40-point defencemen if we are going to be successful," Gillis said. "We don't have a $5-million-plus defenceman on our roster and in all likelihood we may never be able to.

"That's the way we have to win with Roberto in net because he is that good. If we continue to get development out of guys like [Steve] Bernier, Mason Raymond and Kyle Wellwood, and they contribute 20-plus goals, we'll be in really good shape."

Schneider is a good pickup. He's low risk, high reward. Lukowich is solid. But Ehrhoff is the prize. Sure, he isn't Dan Boyle or Sergei Gonchar, and, yes, he makes mistakes. But at 27 years old, and coming off a 42-point season, he's already a top-four defenceman and the fastest player on the Canucks blueline. He also has a chance to get significantly better by polishing his vast array of skills.

Gillis spent two months trying to pry him out of San Jose and it only happened after the Sharks exhausted all of their options in trying to deal for Heatley with limited cap space.

"He's a good skater, he's 6-foot-2, he has a lot of tremendous features which any team would like," Gillis said. "He's been on [vice-president of player personnel] Lorne Henning's radar for some time."

For now, speculation of what's next will run amok in Vancouver. But when you hear Heatley's name remember this: Trading for him would leave the Canucks with four players — including the Sedins and Luongo — chewing up nearly 50% of their payroll. That would fly in the face of Gillis's stated objective, which is to build from within and shop in the bargain bin, something he had a lot of success doing last week.

E-mail Canucks reporter Jason Botchford at jbotchford@theprovince.com
© Copyright (c) The Province

New Canuck Mathieu Schneider: Vancouver's the only place to be

Almost became a Canuck last September

By Jason Botchford, The ProvinceAugust 30, 2009 11:18 AM

The Canucks didn't make Mathieu Schneider's short-list. That's because he didn't have one.

Vancouver was the only place the unrestricted free agent wanted to play, providing hard evidence to the theory that GM Mike Gillis is slowly changing the culture of an organization which has been marred historically by too many losing seasons and playoff failures.

Yes, Schneider is Gillis's former client. The two share a history and a friendship. But friendships only go so far and generally aren't enough to make a player, without much hockey left, shun both money and options.

"I'm not sure how things were run before Mike, but in talking to people within the organization, everything has just been done right [since he took over]," said Schneider, 40, who started courting the Canucks once last season ended.

"That was something that I was looking for. I kind of handcuffed my agent, Pat Morris. I told him this is the place I wanted to be, and until we exhausted negotiations with Vancouver, we really didn't want to negotiate with anyone else. We never really took any offers from any other teams.

"At this point in my career, it's not about making another million bucks. It's more about being in a situation where my family would be happy and I would be happy."

Schneider said he never considered retirement despite his arthroscopic shoulder surgery after the season, which left him with a four-to-six month recovery period. Despite the surgery, and his age, at least six teams inquired about him.

He turned them all away for a paltry $1.55 million base salary with Vancouver. To understand how thrilled Gillis is with this signing, all you need to know is that he tried to trade for Schneider last September when he was set to make $5.75 million for the season.

"I knew last year when I was in Anaheim Mike was trying to trade for me," Schneider said. "I found out later from a couple of people on the Ducks organization that he was about a day away from getting me before I got traded to Atlanta."

With both sides wanting a deal, the only thing that held up the signing was Schneider's health. Only recently was his shoulder healed enough for him to pass a physical.

Even though he thinks he will be ready for training camp, the Canucks will be cautious, and will likely keep him out of preseason games.

"We don't know if he'll be participating in exhibition games, but that's probably our choice more than it is his," Gillis said. "All the reports we saw [indicate] he's going to be fine. He's on the ice now, he's shooting the puck. He's going to be ready for camp, but maybe not participating in actual games.

"I think 40-year-old players in the NHL have a lot to give in a lot of different ways. Not always in the most obvious."

Schneider gives the Canucks a power-play quarterback but, maybe more importantly, he's a veteran who can mentor Alex Edler, a player who has all the tools but hasn't yet figured out how to make the most of them.

"I go back to even in Detroit where I partnered with Niklas Kronwall for a couple of years and Brett Lebda," Schneider said. "When I was in Anaheim, they had me playing with Kent Huskins. I have been working for the past five or six years with younger defencemen, and to me that has been so much fun and kept me younger.

"Last year [in Atlanta] I was able to play with Zack Bogosian who I think is just going to be a tremendous player in this league.

"Playing with these guys has been so much fun for me, and I look forward to doing it again in Vancouver."

E-mail: jbotchford@theprovince.com
© Copyright (c) The Province

Ehrhoff should be in town now.

he'll be at the deutsches haus

sweet rumor right here

http://nhlpa.wordpress.com/

To Canucks:

Alex Frolov (UFA by 2010)

To Kings:

Pavol Demitra (UFA by 2010)
Shane O’Brien (RFA by 2010)
2010 3rd-rounder


LOL! anything is possible now

milli vanilli had more credibility...

Shitty trade unless Frolov resigns.

Interesting trade......

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465...84/1945185.bin

I think it's a even shittier deal if he resigns!

terrible sentence.

No kidding. Maybe it is because we need someone who speaks russian with Shirokov! :lol

Well, I won't be upset if he starts to play before the season starts with all the camps and what not. Let's be honest here, he didn't get into his groove till much later. He was pretty amazing in the playoffs when he was back into form.

It'll be interesting to see if Sundin comes back to Vancouver or goes to another team but I think he would fit in prefect in Vancouver.

lol, i was actually just talking about the sentence composition.

I'd totally keep Sundin over Demitra, but where are we going to get the money to pay him

Something is in the works........

On another note, Sundin is a cradle robber, eh? OK, maybe not. I'd hit it.

Frolov doesn't seem like an upgrade... Canucks' turn to do a salary dump, right?

He had about 100 million reasons to get a prenup, for his sake I hope he did.

Well, Frolov is an upgrade over Demitra. He's playing on the Kings. He's lost some of his form but hey, he's 27.

$4m isn't a great contact, though. Dumping Demitra's $4m to take on his $4m and getting rid of SOB's good, affordable $1.6m is stupid.

If that trade actually goes through, don't we only take the cap hit of 2.9 mill for frolov? That's what the cap hit was originally supposed to be on the kings.

http://nhlnumbers.com/overview.php?team=LAK&season=0910

that trade makes no sense and will never happen unless lombardi is on drugs