^I have the same concerns. Throw on a flat cap with all that money tied to 3rd/4th line players how does he expect to improve the team.

Sorry to see Schneider's career spiral downwards after Canucks. He has lots of $$ coming to him after buyout but still, in terms of professional career, would have liked to see him succeed. Hopefully, he can find a good backup role somewhere.

If Oilers or Flames pick up Markstrom, he will have one hell of a chip on his shoulder when he plays Canucks !! But I get that he can't get the kind of $$ here vs. with Oilers or Flames. I think Markstrom will do either of those teams a LOT of good with steady night in and night out goaltending.

Jet Black Jim can't win.

I think it's fair to say no one saw the Canucks getting this good, this quickly. Three and four seasons ago they HAD to offer longer term and higher money to get any free agent to sign here as the Canucks weren't a destination team in any regard.

Roussel and Beagle and Sutter's deals don't look great, but, layer in Lou's retirement recapture and an unexpectedly flat cap and they're suddenly buggered. I guess I'm still a glass half full guy with Benning. The Hawks just let Corey Crawford walk.. many many teams are in trouble right now with cap issues.

Every GM has contract gaffs, yet few GMs can load up on young talent as consistently as Benning has. The youth core has me suddenly interested in the Canucks like I was back in 2007 / 2008.

this....the canucks trajectory is ahead of schedule by 1-2 years which is when those contracts should expire...who would have thought Pettersson/Hughes would be top 10/20 players in their respective positions after their first year or 2 in the league??

..it sucks that we're in this position but so are other teams too...

BTW - has anyone seen NYR's cap hits? they have $13M tied up this year in dead money via buyouts (players that dont even play for them anymore)

Don't forget Ottawa didn't QO Anthony Dulcair.
Guy scored 23 goals and 17 assist in the shortened season. Crazy times.

he didnt score in his last 29 games as well.

He had 2 goals in the final 29.

I think Benning should stay forever as the guy in charge of the drafting but his GM side has been either good or awful and the awful is preventing us from taking the next step now which pretty much nixes the good

So did GMJB buyout anyone's contract?

if nothing happens, this is the biggest f'in tease

Nope, but then again we didn't really have any good candidates.

well shit but 2 isn't much thats for sure

And nothing happens, what a tease. Oh well, now we get to keep Marky?

All that OEL hype and nothing -_- on the bright side, glad Benning held his ground and didn't throw a ridiculous offer to get OEL

and Marky too! that term and AAV for us would be too much

welcome to vancouver Holtby!

Holtby ehhh.. later Marky.

Like the deal, I think everyone knew Marky would not be coming back not because he didn't want to but her probably wanted money and term and we were probably only able to offer 1 of the 2 or neither. Holtby as a plan B I'm ok with, the money and term are both good. Good start imo.

I'm happy with us getting Holtby, I've always wanted Demko to be the starter and for a 2x4.5 term for Holtby its fair in my books and helps get Demko to get ready to be the starter. I also think a big reason why Marky is playing so well is because of Ian Clark, I wouldnt be surprised if his play drops off real quick just like what happened with bobrovsky.

he better be getting 5.5+ and term from someone else then..

if he signs for like 5/5 or 6/4 I think we fucked up

I like Demko but the way Markstrom had been playing in the last year or so was showing huge upside

hate to be that cynical fan but is the plan to lose Markstrom, miss on OEL, lose Toffoli, and start praying?

Yea, in my mind our max was always around the 5/5 or 6/4 so if I don't see him getting at least 6/6 or something I'll wonder wtf did we do wrong? With that said, it also comes down to who you see and or want to be the future? Dollars aside Marky or Demko. I guess it's a nice problem to have to have options though.

AAV for marky and holtby are pretty similar, but sounds like Marky wanted term that Benning wasn't open to giving; 4 yr vs 2 yrs

EDIT: nvm, apparently fake account reported 4 year deal (4.5M AAV) for Markstrom. Actual contract still TBD.

so you're saying Marky is going ot sign for 7 x 4.3M per?

reports are saying his AAV is going to be around 6M per

speculation is Marky to Calgary for 7 years. Details have not been confirmed just yet.

seems like we're losing Tanev and Toffoli on top of Marky today. Gonna be real different next year. Curious to see what else happens.

Ugh I never liked Holtby’s attitude or body language in the net, I hope he proves me wrong :(

I can only think of him as a stop gap as Demko gets acclimated to a larger workload. Also, they can expose Holtby for expansion draft.