Canucks first division title win in a decade! Jack Adams and Jim Gregory too?…could happen.

[Bretzky]

I’m still hoping and rooting for a Nucks vs Jets Western Conference final but hope Demko proves again why he should win the Vezna this next final game vs Hellebuyck possibly.

Edited April 17 by Bretzky

[Gnarcore]

Norris also possible. 

[Bretzky]

8 minutes ago, Gnarcore said:

Norris also possible. 

Yes!

[Miss Korea]

I think Pettersson actually has a good shot at winning the Lady Byng.  Not a prestigious award like the others but it's always fun to see a Canuck take home any kind of silverware.

[IBatch]

29 minutes ago, Miss Korea said:

I think Pettersson actually has a good shot at winning the Lady Byng.  Not a prestigious award like the others but it's always fun to see a Canuck take home any kind of silverware.

Barkov could take the Byng and the Selke.    

 

QHs and Miller probably split the Hart votes, otherwise QHs is a good candidate for that too. 

[wai_lai416]

25 minutes ago, IBatch said:

Barkov could take the Byng and the Selke.    

 

QHs and Miller probably split the Hart votes, otherwise QHs is a good candidate for that too. 

split hart vote? like 5th place votes? there's no chance they'll get any 1-3 vote when there's kucherov mcdavid and mackinnon there.. 4th and 5th might be matthews and crosby

[wai_lai416]

realistic prolly jack and norris and an honorable mention for vezina outside of that don't see any finalist

 

as for gm of the year.. kevin cheveldayoff should easily win it.. getting rid of PLD and getting vilardi and laffalo? big W buying out wheeler re-signing his core the trade for toffoli and monahan both fitting in well with the club. can't think of a gm that had a better off and in season. 

[IBatch]

2 hours ago, wai_lai416 said:

split hart vote? like 5th place votes? there's no chance they'll get any 1-3 vote when there's kucherov mcdavid and mackinnon there.. 4th and 5th might be matthews and crosby

QHs is a good candidate.  And the fancy stats back it up, he's the stick that stirs the drink.     The Hart isn't the Art Ross.    Miller will get some votes, that otherwise could go to QHs.   Writers don't usually vote for two players on the same team.   You can look this stuff up (where the votes went).    The Canucks will get some votes, Demko possibly too.   Look at how things went without him. 

Edited April 17 by IBatch

[Miss Korea]

2 hours ago, IBatch said:

Barkov could take the Byng and the Selke.    

 

QHs and Miller probably split the Hart votes, otherwise QHs is a good candidate for that too. 

 

Perhaps.  But guys like Sasha and Kopitar both have over 20 PIMs this year.  Pettersson has 12.  And he has more points.  Uh... Gustav Nyquist has only 8 PIMs and scored a lot, so... I dunno.  Lady Byng's a weird one to predict.

[wai_lai416]

21 minutes ago, IBatch said:

QHs is a good candidate.  And the fancy stats back it up, he's the stick that stirs the drink.     The Hart isn't the Art Ross.    Miller will get some votes, that otherwise could go to QHs.   Writers don't usually vote for two players on the same team.   You can look this stuff up (where the votes went).    The Canucks will get some votes, Demko possibly too.   Look at how things went without him. 

hart isn't the art ross sure. but edmonton without mcdavid colorado without mackinnon pittsburgh without crosby etc it's the end of the world for them. canucks have shown even if ep miller demko hughes etc if 1 of them are not on top of their game at any given time they are still capable of grinding out a win.. edmonton looks dead without mcdavid just like if mackinnon goes down for colorado.. they ain't winning games with the goaltending they got.

[IBatch]

49 minutes ago, Miss Korea said:

 

Perhaps.  But guys like Sasha and Kopitar both have over 20 PIMs this year.  Pettersson has 12.  And he has more points.  Uh... Gustav Nyquist has only 8 PIMs and scored a lot, so... I dunno.  Lady Byng's a weird one to predict.

All 3 of these guys play an important part for their teams on the other side of the puck too.   That makes it particularly tough to do while defending.   EP for sure will get recognition for this as well.    It's an interesting trophy, and not all winners take pleasure in it either, Mogilny sure didn't enjoy his.   Barkov plays the line extremely well given how physical he plays guys.   EPs stepped up his physical game this year.   

 

This trophy has some very physical players on the list of guys to do it.  Datsyuk, St. Louis.  Ryan O'Reilly.    Kopitar.   Francis.  Goring.   It's a neat award.  Guys that go into the corners and don't avoid contact.   To me that's Barkov right now, does it better than anyone.   Every coach would love to have a guy like him on their team.   Same with EP (who draws a lot of penalties, quite a few i'm sure he embellishes, because he's a smart hockey player). 

 

This year see Barkov as the distinct front runner for the Selke, more competition for the Byng.   All hits are not the same.   Barkov can flatten guys.    Barkov's primary assist might make this years top play of the year, just sick.   

Edited April 17 by IBatch

[IBatch]

51 minutes ago, wai_lai416 said:

hart isn't the art ross sure. but edmonton without mcdavid colorado without mackinnon pittsburgh without crosby etc it's the end of the world for them. canucks have shown even if ep miller demko hughes etc if 1 of them are not on top of their game at any given time they are still capable of grinding out a win.. edmonton looks dead without mcdavid just like if mackinnon goes down for colorado.. they ain't winning games with the goaltending they got.

McKinnkon and McDavid are for sure front runners.   Don't expect a Canuck to win.   Mathews, Pasta, Kucherov too.   Of the guys on our team, it's pretty clear to me anyways, take away QHs, Brock doesn't break 40 goals,  Miller isn't a top ten scorer, and EP probably isn't even a PPG player this season.    Our goals for and goals against take a big hit.   Down to 240ish and up to 240ish.   Believe we'd be a middling team without QHs.    Demko is awfully important too.   Same with him.   Miller next up.    EP hasn't shown nearly enough to carry the load the way Miller has.   There's a reason why he's already got Hart votes twice as a Canuck.   Will likely get some again this year. 

 

When McKinnons out, COL still wins.   They've lost some depth since their cup and aren't the same as they were.   As for McDavid, Draisatl manages just fine with or without him on his line.    Mathews will probably be a finalist because you know a lot of writers love TO.  Josi is also a good candidate.   This year I could see 3 of our players getting Hart votes, and QHs leads the pack. 

Edited April 17 by IBatch

[IBatch]

Predict Tochett wins the Adams.  Allvin for sure is a finalist.  And QHs wins the Norris.    And of our group of deserving players, also gets Hart recognition.   Maybe as high as 4-5th.    And Demko is a finalist but Hellebuyck takes this with most first place votes.   EP and Miller both get Selke votes, Miller and Demko both get some Hart votes.  And EP is a Byng finalist as well (top 3). 

 

 

Edited April 17 by IBatch

[HKSR]

4 hours ago, wai_lai416 said:

realistic prolly jack and norris and an honorable mention for vezina outside of that don't see any finalist

 

as for gm of the year.. kevin cheveldayoff should easily win it.. getting rid of PLD and getting vilardi and laffalo? big W buying out wheeler re-signing his core the trade for toffoli and monahan both fitting in well with the club. can't think of a gm that had a better off and in season. 

GM of the year is definitely up for debate.  Do you remember what this team looked like last year?  Especially the defence core?  Pretty sure our GM had something to do with the turnaround from bottom dweller to nearly tops in the entire league.

[wai_lai416]

5 minutes ago, HKSR said:

GM of the year is definitely up for debate.  Do you remember what this team looked like last year?  Especially the defence core?  Pretty sure our GM had something to do with the turnaround from bottom dweller to nearly tops in the entire league.

for sure but the hronek trade was LAST season not this season.. so really this season only includes soucy cole and zadorov with soucy injured like half the season.. so his impact is still up for debate. so if you are just judging the off season and current season Kevin have done a lot more.

[Jess]

Tocchet is the only real shoe in, though I think there's a strong chance Hughes win the Norris, for the narrative of a new name, if nothing else. Demko should finish 2nd in the Vezina voting and it'll be a joke if he's any lower.

 

I'll take a closer look at awards after our last game and see if there are any other contenders. Chances are Miller and Petey will get Selke votes, but not be finalists. Petey might be a finalist for the Lady Byng, but Kucherov has just 10 PIM, so I can't see him beating him out with fewer points and more PIM. Kaprisov also has more points and equal PIM (in fewer games) and Point equals Pettersson's points and PIM numbers.

 

I think our team is too deep to have a real Hart contender, but also, with three players over 130 points, it's hard not to see the Hart going to one of those guys as well. Kucherov is more than 50 points more than the 2nd highest scorer on his team, so he should be a shoe-in for the award.

[OldFaithfulcap]

Norris is the only one i care about, tocc may win jack adams, demko will be a vezina finalist but flying rasputin buckhelly will win it.

[Jester13]

6 hours ago, wai_lai416 said:

realistic prolly jack and norris and an honorable mention for vezina outside of that don't see any finalist

 

as for gm of the year.. kevin cheveldayoff should easily win it.. getting rid of PLD and getting vilardi and laffalo? big W buying out wheeler re-signing his core the trade for toffoli and monahan both fitting in well with the club. can't think of a gm that had a better off and in season. 

Winnipeg made the playoffs last year whereas we weren't even close. We're now the Division Champs, and Winnipeg is again the playoffs. I'd say PA's changes had the biggest improvement to our team than theirs: Zadorov, Cole, Blueger, Suter, Lafferty, DeSmith, Lindholm.

 

Tocchet

Allvin

Hughes

 

All three will win hardware. Demko will be a Vezina finalist, and JT will get some Selke votes. 

[Gnarcore]

7 hours ago, wai_lai416 said:

realistic prolly jack and norris and an honorable mention for vezina outside of that don't see any finalist

 

as for gm of the year.. kevin cheveldayoff should easily win it.. getting rid of PLD and getting vilardi and laffalo? big W buying out wheeler re-signing his core the trade for toffoli and monahan both fitting in well with the club. can't think of a gm that had a better off and in season. 

So he took a good team and made them good. Taking a mediocre team and making them great tends to score a lot of points. Either KC or PA would be good choices. 

[PureQuickness]

I was corrected.

Edited April 17 by PureQuickness

[MattJVD]

11 minutes ago, PureQuickness said:

Sportsnet said (erroneously) that this is the first Division win in franchise history. This was repeated several times over.

 

First Pacific Division win in franchise history, as the Pacific Division in quite new. We won the old North West Division many times (don't remember what it was called before that).

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, MattJVD said:

First Pacific Division win in franchise history, as the Pacific Division in quite new. We won the old North West Division many times (don't remember what it was called before that).

The Smythe division was before that

[IBatch]

5 hours ago, wai_lai416 said:

for sure but the hronek trade was LAST season not this season.. so really this season only includes soucy cole and zadorov with soucy injured like half the season.. so his impact is still up for debate. so if you are just judging the off season and current season Kevin have done a lot more.

Don't forget Bluegar, Suter, dumping Kuzmenko, Cole,  OEL buyout to allow for a lot of these things.    Zadarov, Soucy, Lindholm.   De-Smith.  EPs deal.  If you're going to do it by pure transactions, no GM came close to doing what Allvin did up to the Lindholm trade in number of deals made.    There are other things too.   Canucks performed a lot better than expected.   That's half the D-core.    It's got to be between those two guys.   Allvin the first half the of the season, was noted many times as the most active GM in the league.   Don't discount what acquiring Zadarov meant for the club, or is going to mean for the club, or what Soucy did too.    Without those guys we'd be screwed.   No thanks to Ben Hutton/Del Zotto, Stetcher etc. 

Edited April 17 by IBatch

[PureQuickness]

3 hours ago, MattJVD said:

First Pacific Division win in franchise history, as the Pacific Division in quite new. We won the old North West Division many times (don't remember what it was called before that).

 

Thank you for the correction then. I definitely confused the NW division and the Pacific Division.

[The Arrogant Worms]

King Clancy nominees are out

 

The 2023-24 nominees are:

Anaheim Ducks: Cam Fowler
Arizona Coyotes: Nick Bjugstad
Boston Bruins: Linus Ullmark
Buffalo Sabres: Alex Tuch
Calgary Flames: Andrew Mangiapane
Carolina Hurricanes: Jaccob Slavin 
Chicago Blackhawks: Connor Murphy
Colorado Avalanche: Cale Makar
Columbus Blue Jackets: Zach Werenski
Dallas Stars: Jake Oettinger
Detroit Red Wings: Dylan Larkin
Edmonton Oilers: Darnell Nurse
Florida Panthers: Aleksander Barkov
Los Angeles Kings: Kevin Fiala
Minnesota Wild: Marc-Andre Fleury
Montreal Canadiens: Nick Suzuki
Nashville Predators: Roman Josi
New Jersey Devils: Jack Hughes
New York Islanders: Anders Lee
New York Rangers: Jacob Trouba
Ottawa Senators: Brady Tkachuk
Philadelphia Flyers: Scott Laughton
Pittsburgh Penguins: Bryan Rust
San Jose Sharks: Luke Kunin
Seattle Kraken: Jaden Schwartz
St. Louis Blues: Brayden Schenn
Tampa Bay Lightning: Nicholas Paul
Toronto Maple Leafs: Auston Matthews
Vancouver Canucks: Quinn Hughes
Vegas Golden Knights: Jack Eichel
Washington Capitals: Tom Wilson
Winnipeg Jets: Josh Morrissey