My big question is, what happens if Vancouver gets off to another slow start? Will we start hearing rumors of players wanting out? Would Aquilini and the front office finally acknowledge that the team needs to undergo a rebuild?
tekmosis
My big questions are – How will Hronek do? I’m excited to see him play – How will Mikheyev do? Speedy boi will be healthy now – How much will our PK improve with the offseason additions?
NerdPunch
I’d write in a 6th burning question which is, what level of goaltending do they get next season?
– Does Demko come back next season and play like a Top-5/Top-10 goalie in the league?
– Is Spencer Martin a competent NHL backup? Or is he just a journeyman 3rd stringer?
– Do we see Vancouver acquire a more proven backup goalie between now and opening night (maybe someone like Annti Raanta shakes loose in camp)
Goaltending very quickly went from being a competitive advantage to their achilles heel last season.
Faldarian
The defense pairings question is interesting especially with the stats from last year.
I am really curious to see who of the many options will play with Hughes. Giving him a consistent partner is important and knowing how RT has emphasized players knowing their roles it should be very interesting who plays the role of “support Hughes” the best.
Cole definitely has the inside track but Soucy and Juulsen are both interesting choices with drawbacks. We’ve seen the Myers experiment in the past and while not pretty if Myers plays the more restrained veteran role it could work.
As it stands all of this pairing work hopefully is just temporary until one of our young rookies can come in and take that spot for himself.
AppealToReason16
I found the bit about Miller’s two way game kinda funny. He improved more defensively more by not being in those situations once Petey took over all defensive duties. I know the PK stats are nice, but he still wasn’t great at things like lane control which is one of the most important parts of playing the PK.
If he can play average defensively with most of the lifting on Petey and Suter they could be decent though and that’s something this team really needs.
This article though could have been like 20 questions long. There’s so many coin flips this team needs to turn into something more resembling guarantees.
tripcy
You could argue a lot of his defensive zone issue were because the Canucks didn’t have a defined system in place and most of the time they were a scrambling.
JerbearCuddles
Can Demko return to form? The additions are nice, but this roster goes as far as he carries us. It was like that during the bubble run with Markstrom and Demko. And the same now with just Demko. We are not deep enough at any position to be a meaningfully strong team. We have one good or better center, two good or better left wingers (one of which we have playing center cause we suck down the middle), two good or better defenders and one good or better goalie.
Assuming he’s healthy. But a healthy, dialed in Demko is easily a top 5 goalie in this league in my books. And we’ll need that to compete. Our team feels like a slightly more talented Montreal when they had Carey Price. Not great, but can do some damage purely on the back of great goaltending.
8 Comments
My big question is, what happens if Vancouver gets off to another slow start? Will we start hearing rumors of players wanting out? Would Aquilini and the front office finally acknowledge that the team needs to undergo a rebuild?
My big questions are
– How will Hronek do? I’m excited to see him play
– How will Mikheyev do? Speedy boi will be healthy now
– How much will our PK improve with the offseason additions?
I’d write in a 6th burning question which is, what level of goaltending do they get next season?
– Does Demko come back next season and play like a Top-5/Top-10 goalie in the league?
– Is Spencer Martin a competent NHL backup? Or is he just a journeyman 3rd stringer?
– Do we see Vancouver acquire a more proven backup goalie between now and opening night (maybe someone like Annti Raanta shakes loose in camp)
Goaltending very quickly went from being a competitive advantage to their achilles heel last season.
The defense pairings question is interesting especially with the stats from last year.
I am really curious to see who of the many options will play with Hughes. Giving him a consistent partner is important and knowing how RT has emphasized players knowing their roles it should be very interesting who plays the role of “support Hughes” the best.
Cole definitely has the inside track but Soucy and Juulsen are both interesting choices with drawbacks. We’ve seen the Myers experiment in the past and while not pretty if Myers plays the more restrained veteran role it could work.
As it stands all of this pairing work hopefully is just temporary until one of our young rookies can come in and take that spot for himself.
I found the bit about Miller’s two way game kinda funny. He improved more defensively more by not being in those situations once Petey took over all defensive duties. I know the PK stats are nice, but he still wasn’t great at things like lane control which is one of the most important parts of playing the PK.
If he can play average defensively with most of the lifting on Petey and Suter they could be decent though and that’s something this team really needs.
This article though could have been like 20 questions long. There’s so many coin flips this team needs to turn into something more resembling guarantees.
You could argue a lot of his defensive zone issue were because the Canucks didn’t have a defined system in place and most of the time they were a scrambling.
Can Demko return to form? The additions are nice, but this roster goes as far as he carries us. It was like that during the bubble run with Markstrom and Demko. And the same now with just Demko. We are not deep enough at any position to be a meaningfully strong team. We have one good or better center, two good or better left wingers (one of which we have playing center cause we suck down the middle), two good or better defenders and one good or better goalie.
Assuming he’s healthy. But a healthy, dialed in Demko is easily a top 5 goalie in this league in my books. And we’ll need that to compete. Our team feels like a slightly more talented Montreal when they had Carey Price. Not great, but can do some damage purely on the back of great goaltending.
How big is Myers stick?
How deep is our pick?
What makes Petterson tick?
Has hughes watch John wick?
How big is Miller’s dick?