...I'm going to let you go Google what year those things happened.

Burke should be the Don Cherry of america, if hockey night in America ever exist in Califonia.

Completely different situations. The Blackhawks core got broken up (sort of) because they were all getting out of their entry level contracts but clearly, their leadership group was still young enough to thrive in the league for years to come. The Canucks leadership core is north of 30 and their skills have declined.

Sneaking in at 8 and hoping to make a run is the bullshit that has murdered the Flames since their miracle run in '04.

Nearly every team in the NHL that has won Cups in today's NHL has shown that you have to be bad before you can be good. Chicago, Pittsburgh, Anaheim, LA were all absolutely awful for years before they got lottery picks and got the guys that you can build a winner with. We had that with the Sedins and now that chance is over.

Phaneuf for hot garbage
JVR for Schenn

Oh, Anaheim ... Really? What top picks did they get that won them a cup? Do tell ...

Los Angeles? Oh yeah, Thomas Hickey is doing loads of good for them. Has nothing to do with the 5th round pick that was a Conn Smythe winner or any of the other post-1st round picks they translated into good players. They also completely gave up on all of their players with "potential" and decided to go with veterans instead. Doughty is the only top 5 pick they got that's doing anything and there's no Doughty in this draft, let alone at any pick we were capable of getting even if we started tanking 10 games ago.

Chicago is good because of depth and good drafting, not solely because of high picks. Notice how the years between depth they were incredibly mediocre, but still made the playoffs. A few stars doesn't get you anywhere.

Pittsburgh, again, depth. Since they traded Jordan Staal away, they haven't been nearly as good.

Where is Edmonton? The Islanders? Columbus? I mean, they should be competing for championships year after year, right?

Detroit and San Jose are garbage, no high picks. They must be like middle of the pack every year for the last decade or two, right?

Does it matter? You make it sound like he did nothing other than put the Anaheim puzzle pieces together...

Lupul, Gardiner, Kessel, Van Riemsdyk... I'd say those players are pretty significant and important to the Maple Leafs wouldn't you?

Detroit is the exception to the rule every single time.

Lottery picks was the wrong word but high picks...the sort where you just have to be terrible for. The Canucks either haven't been in that category or have squandered their chances in the 1st round. I realize that there are plenty of bad examples but...we have to think that we're in a better situation than the idiocy happening in Edmonton and Long Island. There are just otherworldly forces there making those teams the essence of suck.

I didn't say superstars. I said "guys that you can build a winner with". That means NHL-ready 1st rounders that are on an entry level contract so that you have the cap room to build a winner. A guy doesn't have to be Sidney Crosby but they're growing stars that are 1st line NHL players without being paid like one. The only way to get a player like that now is to draft him because trading for one would cost you a hell of a lot more than a draft pick.

Yes, you can get good players in the later rounds of the draft. If you couldn't, there would only be one round but the higher you pick, the better chance you have. In the salary cap era, the best chance you have at building a winner is the draft.

Yep. And they're totally going to make the playoffs.

Would you rather have Phil Kessel or Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton?

I'll give him all the credit in the world for the Sergei Federov trade, though. That was amazing. Like selling snow to a penguin.

after watching that twitter video i went to look at the 2011 playoff games....fuck :cry:

Dougie Hamilton sucks, though, as he wasn't a top 5 pick ... :concentrate:

I agree with most of this, its all about moneyball right, I get the concept if you get a top pick and they produce like a top tier player but cause rookie status they get paid like ass right. But the whole tanking for a pick model imo is just wayyyyyyyy overvalued. Especially if it isn't going to be a top1-3 pick, we like to think they are these surefire top tier prospects but more often than not they flame out and never amount to shit and those who do take years to develop. If I recall the stats on first rounders amountign even to a NHL regular is something like 30%, of course its probably a bit higher if you only include lottery picks but still its essentially flipping a coin.

I feel like 07/08 drafts would be a good time to look to see how those picks turned out, for every Stamkos and Doughty there is a Luke Schenn 4th, Filatov 5th, Josh Bailey 9th, Kyle Beach 11th. At the time these were all thought of as great value picks and they are imo all busts and in between those guys Bogosian, Wilson, Boedker, and Coho they not busts but they didn't exactly alter a franchise either.

Looking at 07 in the top 10 guys other than Kane, like sure JVR-Couture-Voracek-Gagner are pretty solid now but most of them started out as 3rd liners and Couture didn't even crack the sharks until 3 years later. In between all of this is Hickey-Hamill-ellerby-Brandon Sutter pretty much imo all flops maybe not Sutter but I'm pretty sure at the time he was drafted it wasn't to be a career 3/4C.

Tanking the rest of the season, totally ruining locker room morale and having the fans endure the last handful of games watching our players "give up" is pathetic.
Watching them lose on purpose for the incremental chance to bump up a couple percentages of landing a higher pick that might or might not pan out for the next 5 years is retarded.

Over the past years, looking at ANY draft, you will find gems and busts littered throughout the 1st round. I would rather the Canucks still play their game and just let nature take it's course for the pick than intentionally lose the rest of their games.

my thoughts anyway.

I'd rather have Phil Kessel, actually. Just because he looks funny in pictures doesn't mean he's not a first-rate player and he isn't a polarizing presence to team-mates like Seguin is.

The Leafs were well into the playoffs (as much as it hurts me to say that since I hate them so much) before this losing streak. Dallas isn't making the playoffs last time I looked even with wonderboy Seguin, so not sure what your point is.

Yes, I realize you can fuck it up like so many people have but that's like saying no one should be president because George W. Bush was.

I'm just saying its more or less a crapshoot, I don't think there should be this whole focus on tanking to get a slightly higher pick because more often than not it won't make a huge difference. The odds also of landing a true first liner is insanely rare and even rarer if you expect it from an 18 year old rookie. I'm not gonna debate the Kessel vs Seguin/Hamilton since I think they are all quality players but I will say the reason the leafs won't make the playoffs has nothing to do with Kessel and more a terrible coach and a shitty team that was looking half decent cause they were riding unstainable percentages.

The point is that good teams have depth and bad teams don't. The reason why we won PTs and went to the Finals in 2011 is because we had depth. The reason we haven't been as good the past couple of years is lack of depth (not helped at all by Torts' insistance in putting what little depth we have on IR). A #8 pick doesn't help our depth anymore than a #12 pick does in this draft.

Because Dallas isn't the team that made the Kessel trade. The Bruins got a good deal for Seguin and it made them an even stronger hockey team.

Kessel isn't a terrible player. He's a very good player but Seguin looks to have a higher ceiling and Hamilton is a 6'5" d-man that looks to be a just slightly shorter Chara. Unless Kessel has a few 90-point season and Seguin tanks, I'd say the Bruins won the trade.

Yes, you're right but the best kind of depth is a young player on a entry level contract that can legitimately play in the top-6.

Because they give you not only a top-6 forward but allow you to use cap space to go after other players. That's the reality of the salary cap era. You're NEVER going to find top-6 forwards under a million otherwise. Veterans get paid more by default and the sort of vets that cost under a mill are the ones you just need to take a complete shot in the dark on like Mike Santorelli.

Someone mentioned Moneyball up top and if we're talking in those terms, then a player obtained through the draft gives you more opportunities to add goals (...er...runs, since Moneyball is about baseball) primarily through the players production and secondarily through the cap space they leave free.

Maybe they don't enter the league at 18 but the more good young players you have in the system, the better your chances. And the higher you draft, the better your chances. Even if your scouting staff is absolutely retarded, being able to draft higher increases your probability.

Does it matter? The Canucks aren't going to TANK. No respectable team will do it unless the GM builds the team not to succeed ie. Buffalo.

So enjoy the wins and or just get off the bandwagon.

:facepalm:

Shanny at it again, Niederreiter will not be suspended

http://cdn.fansided.com/wp-content/b...3/burrows1.gif
http://cdn.fansided.com/wp-content/b.../burrows1a.gif

principle point of contact, clear head shot, could have stopped/slowed (or hit low and would be clean) but raises up his elbow and follows through his arm, predatory, blindside at the very least two games...
but its the Canucks and its Burrows, strong standards




Kerry says pretty much the same

If Kassian hit someone like that, he's get suspended for sure. But Burrows was the victim, so justice is served according to league execs, right?

Kerry Fraser should take over Shanahan's job.

This.

if MG is Aquaman's puppet, Shanny is probably a puppet too. So I'm not sure if placing Fraser in his place would do much good. *shrug* who knows..

From Knights' goalie Stolarz suspended eight games by OHL for stick-swinging - The Globe and Mail: