"Jim Vandermeer was making final wedding plans in Vancouver three years ago when he learned of his trade from Calgary to Phoenix. When the NHL lockout ends, the unrestricted free agent defenceman would like to learn the Canucks believe the well-travelled blueliner is the right replacement for the departed Aaron Rome."
As an aside, I imagine when the CBA is settled there will be a brief frenzy as teams try to fill rosters. Smarter players will be sending up kites, like this.
He's a lefty, there just doesn't seem to be a ton of room. One thing I will say though is Gillis seems to bring in just a ton of defensemen to make them compete against one another. We currently have: Hamhuis, Edler, Bieksa, Garrison, Tanev, Ballard, and Alberts before we need to start tapping into the AHL (Connauton being the top call up?). That's really only 7 NHL calibur defensemen, it wouldn't shock me to see Gillis bring in an extra guy. Have a look at who we had the last 2 seasons...
That's a much weaker crop depth wise than the previous 2 seasons, I'm sure Gillis is well aware of that and may look to address it. We've had 8 legit NHL guys each of the passed two seasons with a steady call up in Tanev. Still though, all of those guys except 2 are left hand shots. I imagine we'd go after a right side guy.
He's a lefty, there just doesn't seem to be a ton of room. One thing I will say though is Gillis seems to bring in just a ton of defensemen to make them compete against one another. We currently have: Hamhuis, Edler, Bieksa, Garrison, Tanev, Ballard, and Alberts before we need to start tapping into the AHL (Connauton being the top call up?). That's really only 7 NHL calibur defensemen, it wouldn't shock me to see Gillis bring in an extra guy. Have a look at who we had the last 2 seasons...
That's a much weaker crop depth wise than the previous 2 seasons, I'm sure Gillis is well aware of that and may look to address it. We've had 8 legit NHL guys each of the passed two seasons with a steady call up in Tanev. Still though, all of those guys except 2 are left hand shots. I imagine we'd go after a right side guy.
We should go after a righty but don't need a top 4 quality one unless we move Ballard or Edler. We need an experienced AHL vet that is NHL ready (Sanguinetti, Blum) and a good prospect that may or may not be ready for a few minutes in the NHL (Rundblad, Petrovic, Murphy, Biega (college))
If there was a right handed Bryan Allen lying around out there somewhere that would be cool....I think Petrovic is the closest thing to that right now.
We should go after a righty but don't need a top 4 quality one unless we move Ballard or Edler. We need an experienced AHL vet that is NHL ready (Sanguinetti, Blum) and a good prospect that may or may not be ready for a few minutes in the NHL (Rundblad, Petrovic, Murphy, Biega (college))
If there was a right handed Bryan Allen lying around out there somewhere that would be cool....I think Petrovic is the closest thing to that right now.
I'd be afraid he'd do something crazy like get into a tussle when someone drives a Sedins' nose back into their face. We can't afford penalties like that!
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