I highly doubt OEL waives his NMC. And even if he did we shouldn’t lower Horvat’s return by including him

Garbage value for Bo

Why not? If the Canucks have the opportunity to move OEl, they'd be foolish not to. The Canucks take back an almost identical cap hit in Foegele and Barrie with much shorter term. While still obtaining a couple solid pieces in return seeing Bo move the other way. If Bo is moved, it will be a significant blow to the team and moving out a player like OEL expedites any attempt at a quick rebuild. Getting assets for Bo while straddled with 5 years of OEL (who doesn't have a role on the PP) will be even worse IMO.

I personally think it would be better to get as good of a return as possible for Horvat, and worse case scenario buy out OEL in a couple seasons.

OEL’s advanced stats have actually been quite good since the trade, he’s still a quality 2nd pair dman, just a bad contract https://twitter.com/harshbirbrar03/status/1594739480321302530?s=46&t=BmVoowWR8AAckRI4kulYYA

Thanks for sharing. The defense is terrible though. He's not a good fit in the team. His metrics might be solid but he's almost unoticable out there. That's fine for 1-2m dman but not 7m. And if his metrics are holding up, better chance to move him now than never being able to (not that it's likely anyway).

I think OEL can still be really good, but he needs a good partner. Finding one for him and Hughes has been difficult.

I think if you pay a player that much, they should elevate their peers game. Players like Petey and Hughes are elevating their linemates/pairing (Schenn).

https://twitter.com/JFreshHockey/status/1595166964799967255?t=oOT4YsVPEXRsZ_hls7aTbQ&s=19

That made me laugh, thanks!

Ideally sure, but you're no team is entirely perfect. The Avalanche won the cup with a 3RD at 6M. The Lightning won back to back championships with guys like Schenn, Bogosian, Rutta and Shattenkirk at RD. OEL is still good enough to help the team win IF he get's a good partner.

Talk about a garbage offer for Bo Horvat at 50% retained.

There's no way OEL is waiving for Edmonton, He basically said it's Boston and Vancouver only.

2 cap dumps in Barrie and Foegele and Puljujari = 3rd round pick at best. Talk about a pathetic offer for Bo. Dude you're lowering Bo's value just by attaching Ekman-Larsson to him. No reason to make this offer.

Things change and OEL could have different feelings about the org now.

I'm well aware that OEL would have a negative impact on Bo's return but freeing up OELs money for better use is definitely a positive.

Those guys were on minimal cost contracts making their contribution. OEL at 7m+, the expectation should be game changer. Bear is playing solid but OEL hasn't suddenly flourished.

Colorado also has multiple players outplaying their aav, arguably one of the best centers and dmen (who was on ELC when they won the cup) in the league as well. These guys are making bigger impacts than any player on the Canucks.

Did you read my post?

Johnson was on the 3rd pair at 6M and is absolutely not a game changer. Makar's cap hit was 9M last year. The fact that Schenn, Ruuta, Bogosian and Shattenkirk were getting regular playing time at all was a weakness for Tampa.

Bear has been good but that doesn't mean he's a good partner for OEL, at least not yet.

The point is every single team in the league has weaknesses both in their cap allocation and their lineup, you just have to be strong enough to overcome them. Right now the Canucks defense (in terms of both the players and structure) is a glaring weakness that they can't overcome. There's no excuse for that given how well Pettersson and Horvat are playing.

Ya you're right about Makar.

We'll disagree about OEL. He struggles against speed, getting the pick out of his zone, he's not used on PP and that's money down the drain and will continue to be. I think all of those players you listed are more impactful defensively besides Shattenkirk and have fallen off since besides Schenn. Definitely more physical. OELs fit is off. Myers is a bad fit too and money tied up sucks.

The TB and Avs forward group is still much better despite Petey and Bo's efforts. Their play style is significantly more impactful with speed and pressure.

The bolded is a systems thing and exactly what Rutherford is talking about. When you have inefficiencies within your cap and your lineup, you can overcome that with strong team structure. That's what Rutherford was talking about with injuries on HNIC After Hours. OEL would look a lot better on Tampa or Colorado because the of the way they play as a team. All those things you pointed out that OEL struggles with are true, but they were also true for those Tampa defensemen. Tampa was able to overcome that. That's the level that Rutherford wants the Canucks to get to, but it's a slow, methodical process.

Specifically on Tampa, Lalonde's Spittin Chiclets interview was interesting. He mentioned that after getting swept by CBJ the coaching staff worked to completely eliminate risk from their game. The players bought in and it worked. However, there was an instance where Lalonde and the other assistants were irate with Kucherov for his puck management. Lalonde went as far as contemplating having Kucherov moved. But Cooper met with Kucherov one day and completely settled him down and his commitment to playing within the team's system didn't waver after that. Think about how long Cooper andKucherov have been in Tampa and how much they've gone through to get to that point where it finally clicked at the perfect time. All that to say that however Rutherford is going to build the team, it's going to take a long time and there are no quick fixes.