Canucks don’t need to be in limbo
REBUILDING: Rather than labour under delusion of competing in West, it’s time to start youth movement
We’re just one week away from the American presidential election, which raises the question, what are we going to do for entertainment when it’s over? To help fill the void here are the musings and meditations on the world of sports.
The Canucks are only nine games into this season, but even with this limited sample size, it should be clear, as they’re now constructed, they can’t compete with the best teams in the West. And that’s not a bad thing. For the last two years the organization has clung to the illusion they can rebuild their team while staying competitive. This thinking led to signing, in no particular order, Ryan Miller, Radim Vrbata, Loui Eriksson and Philip Larsen. It also led to trades for Brandon Sutter, Derek Dorsett and, lest you forget, Brandon Prust.
And that’s left the team in the worst kind of limbo.
The organization has tried to serve two masters but it hasn’t worked. The only out for this team, in fact, is developing their young players, and that has to be their priority for the next 5 1/2 months.
That means Bo Horvat has to play in a feature role. That means Jake Virtanen has to play in the top nine every night. That means one of Troy Stecher and Nikita Tryamkhin have to be regulars, and it wouldn’t hurt if they’re both in the lineup.
That means Jacob Markstrom gets the bulk of the work in goal.
There will be pain and it won’t be short-lived. But it can’t be as painful as watching the current mishmash of fading stars, ne’er-do-wells and kids. Trevor Linden and Jim Benning were brought in to reform this franchise. Let that process begin.
On a related subject, Mike Gillis’s reign as the Canucks GM was marked by too many personnel miscalculations and too many misses at the draft table.
But when he took over, Gillis also liberated something in that 200809 team by insisting on an uptempo, creative brand of hockey. That sea change in philosophy turned the Sedins and Ryan Kesler into stars and Alex Burrows and Kevin Bieksa into frontline NHLers. Admittedly, they’re at different stages in their career, but could the Canucks do the same thing with the current team? Would Horvat, Virtanen, Sven Baertschi, Markus Granlund, Ben Hutton and Stecher benefit from playing a more attacking style?
That’s a question you’d like to see answered.
Jakob Chychrun was the fifth defenceman taken in this year’s draft. The first four, including the Canucks’ Olli Juolevi, are in junior or college. Chychrun has now played seven games with the Arizona Coyotes, has a goal and two assists along with 19 penalty minutes and he’s a regular on the team’s penalty kill.
The ’Yotes haven’t made a final decision on keeping the Florida native but, at this point, it would rank as a massive upset if Chychrun was spent back to junior in the Ontario Hockey League.
Look, players develop at different speeds and this book is far from closed. But Chychrun started last season as the draft’s second-ranked prospect on a lot of boards before he fell to the 16th pick, where the Coyotes moved up to take him. At the very least that looks like a savvy play by the Coyotes.
The idea of the super bullpen isn’t exactly new to baseball — see Nasty Boys, Cincinnati Reds, 1990 World Series champions — but watching this year’s Fall Classic, you wonder if the Cleveland Indians represent a new model for baseball.
The Indians are 21st in MLB in payroll at US$114 million. Granted, that’s a tad misleading and it will change as a number of key players approach free agency. But look at the composition of the bullpen that has carried them to within on win of the World Series.
Andrew Miller, the Angel of Death, is the highest paid of their three top relievers at US$9 million. Closer Cody Allen is next at US$4.1 million and setup man Bryan Shaw pulls down US$2.75 million. That’s a total of just under US$16 million for a trio that has basically turned Indians games into five-inning contests.
The Red Sox, by way of comparison, have US$63 million invested in starters David Price, Rick Porcello and Clay Buchholz. The point is, it’s a lot easier and a helluva lot cheaper to find three or four power arms for the bullpen than blow your resources on a starting rotation.
You also wonder if this Series has brought back the nine-out save. Somewhere, Rollie Fingers is smiling.
■ Finally, it should now be abundantly clear the Seattle Seahawks aren’t going anywhere unless quarterback Russell Wilson gets healthy. Wilson is trying to play through a high ankle sprain and a sprained MCL, which, one supposes, is admirable.
But the injuries have robbed him of his mobility and that’s what separates Wilson from the NFL’s other quarterbacks.
He averaged more than 600 rushing yards a season over his first four seasons. This season, yikes, he’s ran for 44 yards. That’s bad enough but without the threat of Wilson taking off, defences have smothered the Seahawks run game.
Wilson has also demonstrated he’s average, at best, has a one-dimensional pocket passer. The Super Bowl window is still open for Pete Carroll’s team but it can’t win with half of Wilson.