Canuck's Offseason/Free Agency
While there is definately hope for the Canucks (Hope is spelled L-U-O-N-G-O), several questions arise concerning the draft, free agency and the upcoming season.
Unfortunately, the Canucks will not be big players in the free agent market due to their CURRENT salary cap status.
HOWEVER, watching Nonis’s end of the season address, I have a feeling he will make a move or two come the trade deadline. No, I’m not saying he’s going to make another insane trade like the Luongo deal last year. But, I am saying there is the possibility of a trade involving a young prospect or role player.
Cory Schneider’s name has been bounced around as possible trade bait. He has improved leaps and bounds and is considered by some to be the best goalie not signed to a pro contract. With Luongo signed for another three years, our time is now and Schneider may be a lucrative trading chip.
Matt Cooke and Brenden Morrison may be worthwhile commodities to some teams, but their injuries and subpar performances lately lead to an unlikely trade situation.
All this being said, the biggest need for the Canucks is a winger to play with the Sedins and a size forward to crash the net on powerplays. Perhaps these two spots can be filled by one player, eg. Ryan Smythe, Keith Tkachuk, Bill Guerin. We only have 2-3 million to spend, so these would be out of the question, except possibly Guerin.
Either way, the Canucks will be a stronger team next year, with their young players gaining valuable experience and maturity(Bourdon, Edler, Hansen, Grabner, Bieksa, Krajcek) and the Canucks shedding some unwanted weight(Chouinard, Bulis, Fitzpatrick, Sopel, Smolinski, Green).
The draft is not a deep one past the top 11-12 picks, which the Canucks will not pick within. Thus, the player picked will not have an impact for the next several years and it has less trade value.
We have the rare situation where our goalie gives us the chance to win each and every game, and so this is the greatest window of opportunity to win the cup. We must do everything we can to win the cup in the next three years, even if this means giving up youth, potential and picks. As a life-long Canuck fan, I’m tired of always saying “we’re rebuilding and there’s always next year”! Now is the time and Nonis is doing a hell of a job shaping us into contenders and hopefully Stanley Cup Champions. 38 years is too long!
Sedin-Sedin-Guerin/Hartnell
Naslund-Morrison-Hensen
Cooke-Kesler-Pyatt
Burrows-Rypien-Linden/Cowan
Ohlund-Salo
Bieksa-Mitchell
Edler-Bourdon
Krajcek
Luongo-Sabourin