What is Mike Gillis' backup plan?
Mats Sundin's "thanks but no thanks for now" statement this morning was a real stinger. Not only because I thought the idea of him playing here was great, but mostly because it seems that Mike Gillis appeared to have invested most of his time on July 1 trying to pry Mats away from his wife, while other serious UFA's slipped away to other teams. Sure, Gillis locked up Wellwood, but the shoring up of the 4th line with guys like Ryan Johnson and Darcy Hordichuk on the biggest hockey day of the offseason is leaving most Canuck fans with a bitter taste in their mouths.
Signing only Nolan Baumgartner today isn't making things better.
Who's left as far as decent forwards go?
NOTABLE UFA's
-Teemu Selanne. Don't see it happening.
-Mark Recchi. Sure, sign the BC boy up. He'd help out a bit.
-Yanic Perrault. Nah
-Jason Williams. No thanks.
-Joe Sakic. Not leaving Colorado
-Peter Forsberg. No one is talking about Peter the Fragile.
-Stu Barnes. Still has something left in the tank....but not as much.
-Ladislav Nagy. Only if you want to see me jump off a 50-story building.
-Pavol Demitra. The Demitra option looks better and better only because the Canuck situation is getting slowly worse and worse.
-Wes Walz. Always been a fan of Walz.
-Ruslan Fedotenko. No way.
-Miroslav Satan. Always wanted a Canucks jersey with Satan on the back. Ha. Skip this guy.
-Jaromir Jagr. As if he'd move here. Tempting somewhat.
-Brendan Shanahan. Absolutely.
-Sergei Fedorov. Haha...no way.
The restricted free agent list isn't so appetizing anymore either. View the full list of UFA's and RFA's here.
You can see the problem with the notable UFA's that I have listed.......aging, injury-prone. The only names on that list that would make you jump off your couch if we got one of them probably won't come here, or have no interest in doing so. What's Gillis going to do next...throw $10 million at Selanne? You almost have to show that excessive amount of money just to get guys to play in Vancouver. Like most people wonder...what the hell is so bad about Vancouver? It's a hell of a lot better than Edmonton!
So what the hell is going to happen now? It's turning into a deja-vu from last season in a sense. This is what Steve Tambellini was saying exactly 1 year ago (not quoted, but from a post I did):
Steve Tambellini mentioned today after Vancouver's signings that the acquisitions of Isbister and Ritchie were to shore up the bottom 6 forwards. He said that the team is being patient and waiting for other teams to get strapped for cash. Then Vancouver can explore a trade or buyout route later on to probably obtain a top 6 center, for one.Oh jeez. Here we go again.
The people at the Canucks.com Message Board are trying to cope with this. Several posts include an interesting concept: Re-unite the West Coast Express.It's amazing how desperation can fuck up our common sense sometimes. What I mean is: I almost find that option intriguing right now. Fuck. All 3 players are available.
Speaking of that... why has no one taken Morrison or Naslund yet? Are these guys really as big of bums as some of us think they are?
Hell, today teams took Huselius and Avery for $4.75 and $3.88 million per season respectively. And no one bites on Morrison? I smell something fishy here. I get this feeling that Gillis is keeping these guys hanging around for some twisted reason. Don't you?
Given the well-documented theory that GM's may not want to deal with Gillis because he worked for the "other side of the fence" leaves me wondering..... where does Gillis go from here? Is it going to be another dismal year of us mostly relying on the Sedins for scoring again? This isn't an option.
Yup, as you can see, my optimism from yesterday has been flushed down the toilet.
Canucks+not+signing+key+free+agents Mats+Sundin Mike+Gillis+the+rookie+GM
Labels: Canucks
17 Comments:
Naslund will resign tommarrow(i have sources,not CDC)
as for bert gillis has expressed some intrest in him and might throw him a 1.5ishM dollar contract
morrisson has very small possibility,the only case would be if canucks can't find another Centre to play on the 2nd or 3rd line
walz retire an is in management with TB i believe
-Gill
Sorry, Sean. I've felt the same way; hope my new-found negativity hasn't unduly influenced you. It's just that I was afraid the "other GMs will freeze out Gillis to protect their guild/network and to keep a bright line between the agents and their world" storyline would turn out to be true.
The more I think about it, the more this seems likely.
I think that dumping the Sundin offer in favor of making a play for Demitra and Selanne makes sense. Teemu's still got it.
The other option may be to fire sale the joint and go for rebuilding, getting prospects and picks for the Sedins.
I swear, I agree with you on this: if I have to watch the goddamn Sedin cycle all year, I don't know what I'm going to do!
Wes Walz on your list is out. He is an assistant coach with Tampa Bay.
I should have known the Walz thing. I had forgotten about it though. Thanks guys.
Kevinv: We could always jump on the Black Hawks wagon...:)
Gill- We'll see if you're right. You have sources, huh? Are you Eklund in disguise? I kid. So the WCE line may return huh? And why the hell would Bertuzzi come back here after all the shit he went through?
The Wild are after the WCE (or at least Naz and Mo) as of this morning. IMAGINE having to play against them eight times a year.
This team is dead. Aquilini and Gillis have left their mark.
It seems that a Demitra-to-Vancouver scenario is even more likely right now. Maybe Naslund would be signed here again as well.
Talking to a friend today, we figured the Nucks should trade Bieksa for Patrick Marleau. The Sharks never really made for the loss of Campbell yet and still need a go-to guy on the PP. Just a thought.
Whup, I think the Sharks are chasing Dan Boyle...
I have to ask Sean, since you have not been shy about how you feel about Naslund, how you feel about him coming back after a week that went so wrong for the team? I imagine him coming back on his own doesn't do much for you, but like you said, a Naslund/Demitra line behind the Sedins? Still no center for them but not a bad top six either.
Don't count out Joe Sakic :-) You never know.
canucks offered nazzy 3M but he felt lowbailed so he went to the rangers for 4.5 per for 2 years
Jesus christ. I've had it. I've had it with free agency, I've had it with this week and I've had it with the Mike Gillis experiment.
Holy Christ... thanks for the tip, Gill.
Good riddance to that jackass. (No mercy from me.)
Mike, I can come to New York and we can jump of the Brooklyn Bridge together? Or, maybe you should start cheering for the Rangers! haha
Guess Sundin ain't coming here. Now we know why he needed to "think about it".
Oh man, what are we going to do for offence next year. *Sigh*
The former is more of an option. I see that Rag blue and I want to punch a toddler.
At least the history with Bure has helped prepare me for the next steps.
I can't believe I am actually sad about Naslund leaving. Not that I blame him, but there were some good memories.
So can Kesler score 40 goals?
Hey, where's Gill?!? :)
Gill needs to fire his sources, much like Eklund does. ha! Sorry Gill.
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