Canuckz.com » Michael Grabner

Ballard BC Bound

Tonyz Tanti — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 01:43:23 +0000

The biggest deal on draft day in 2010 once again involves the Vancouver Canucks. The same team that brought you Alex Mogilny (1995 draft), the Sedin twins (1999 draft) and Roberto Luongo (2006 draft) did it again. While not as big as the aforementioned trades, the acquisition of Keith Ballard is significant. The Canucks acquired Keith Ballard and prospect Victor Oreskovich in exchange for their first round draft pick, Michael Grabner and Steve Bernier.

In the short term I like this trade but I think it is a bad deal long-term. Keith Ballard is exactly what the Canucks need. He’s a mobile, gritty defenceman who can play big minutes in their top four (he’s also no longer on Tomas Vokoun’s Christmas card list). He’s also only 27, so he shouldn’t be over the hill. That’s the upside. The downside is that he makes $4.2 million and has five years left on his deal. That makes him the Canucks highest paid d-man. Can Ballard play in a shutdown role? Can he play on their first unit power play? That remains to be seen. He’ll be a useful player for them, no doubt, but to justify making $4.2 million he needs to be one of their top two defencemen.

The other player acquired in the deal is a prospect by the name of Victor Oreskovich. It doesn’t sound like he’ll be an impact player but he sure is big. The Whitby, ON native was a 2nd round draft pick in the 2004 draft and is 6’3″ and 215 pounds. He split time between the NHL and AHL last season. He’s got a cap friendly salary at $438,000 next season. I’m guessing his potential is to be a third or fourth liner that can provide some size and grit.

So what did the Canucks give up? In Michael Grabner, they’re officially giving up on Dave Nonis’ first round draft pick from the 2006 draft. He was picked 14th overall, so it’s disappointing that he wasn’t able to fetch more in return. I believe Grabner is just about ready to make an impact at the NHL level, and probably has potential to become a 30 goal scorer. The problem with him is that there isn’t much room for him with the Canucks next season. Their top six will be filled with the Sedins, Burrows, Kesler, Raymond and Samuelsson. To play Grabner on their fourth line certainly wouldn’t help getting grit into their lineup.

Steve Bernier’s time with the Canucks was filled with lots of effort, but no finish. The bottom line is that his lack of finish reduced his role to the third line and wasn’t particularly effective on the penalty kill or power play. He was set to make $2 million next season, so getting rid of his salary was a plus. He’s a nice player to have, but not at his salary.

The Canucks also parted with the 25th overall pick in this year’s draft. I’m a little bothered with the Canucks losing this pick, given that they already don’t have a pick in the second and third round. Mike Gillis must work at acquiring some draft picks or else the cupboard will be bare.

The Canucks gave up a lot to get Keith Ballard and for this trade to be viewed as a success, Ballard must deliver. While this trade doesn’t eliminate the chances of the Canucks landing another free agent like Dan Hamhuis, it doesn’t help it. This trade likely means Willie Mitchell won’t be back with the team, although that was already common knowledge. Ballard provides a lot of what Kevin Bieksa brings to the table, so this deal could be a precursor to the underachieving d-man being shipped out of town.

I also believe that this is an early sign from Gillis that he’s going to ‘go for it’. The window of opportunity is now for Gillis. Roberto Luongo had an off-year last season, but he should still be considered one of the top 5 netminders in the league. Their forwards are deep and have high end talent. Their defence needs improving and Gillis is attempting to do that in this trade and can improve it some more with some free agent signings. What I’d really like to see is a true #1 defenceman in blue and green, but those guys are hard to come by. Ballard is useful, but certainly not a true #1. In any case, I believe the window for this team is open for the next 1-2 maybe 3 years. The time is now.

Game 4 Preview – Vigneault Shakes up the Lineup, Burish Calls Canucks ‘Clowns’

Tonyz Tanti — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:19:57 +0000

Skate and go to the net, presumably that’s the message from Coach V to his troops tonight. Alain Vigneault has a few lineup shuffles in mind for tonight’s contest. Pavol Demitra and Rick Rypien will sit out tonight’s contest in favour of Michael Grabner and Tanner Glass. Here’s what the Canucks lines are expected to look like:

Sedin-Sedin-Burrows

Raymond-Kesler-Grabner

Hansen-Wellwood-Samuelsson

Glass-Johnson-Bernier

I like the idea of them shaking it up. You’ve got to give the Hawks a different look, make your team unpredictable.

Power Play

The Canucks power play clearly needs to be better and Alain Vigneault has decided to shake that up also:

1st PP Unit:

Sedin-Sedin-Burrows

Bieksa-Salo

2nd PP Unit:

Wellwood/Bernier-Kesler-Samuelsson

Ehrhoff-Edler

Once again, I like the sounds of this. The mandate sounds like they want more point shots with a net presence. If they do that, it’ll open things up for the Sedins down low. It’s no different than having a three point threat helping your post players in basketball.

Burish Bullsh*t

Adam Burish had a few choice words for a few members of the Canucks. Here are a few excerpts:

“The thing that upsets me about O’Brien and Burrows is they go and target [Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews],” Burish said Friday morning. “The clown Burrows goes after [Brian] Campbell in the middle of the ice.

“Give me a break. If you want to target someone, come find me or [Ben Eager]. You guys want to pretend you’re so tough, and yet you go and try to pick a fight with those guys. If you want to hit them and play hard, fine. But those clowns are pushing them after the whistle and punching them.”

“We call O’Brien a ‘spot picker,’ ” Burish said. “He picks his spots pretty nice. He knows who’s on the ice and when he can be a tough guy and when he kind of has to shut up.”

To me this is nothing more than Burish trying to throw the Canucks off their game. I don’t know if it will work or if it will just motivate the Canucks, but I do know that those are tough words for a guy who got his clock cleaned by O’Brien last season:

Samuelsson Hurt, Grabner Re-called, and Everyone Hates Cooke

Tonyz Tanti — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:29:18 +0000

After calling the Canucks “Cup pretenders” last Friday, I must admit that I was starting to believe they were contenders with one of the most impressive outings of the season against the Senators on Saturday followed up by a 1st period knockout of the Calgary Flames the next day. But then came the Islanders game on Tuesday night. Now I’m not suggesting that Canucks fans should begin panicking about this team because of it, but it certainly didn’t help. Another thing that didn’t help was losing first star of the week, Mikael Samuelsson. He’ll be gone 2-3 weeks with a shoulder injury or so we’re told (and we’ve been lied to before, see Dan Cloutier). With that said, here are a few random thoughts going through my head as the playoffs loom:

Wonder how John Tavares had such a productive night against the Canucks Tuesday night? Maybe cause he put up two of his points either with Aaron Rome or Andrew Alberts on the ice. How do those two players end up matched up against Tavares when they only have one decent scoring line and you have the last change at home?

They could have sure used Willie Mitchell last night.

Can we please end the Andrew Alberts experiment? I put Shane O’Brien, Aaron Rome and even Nolan Baumgartner ahead of him. Especially O’Brien. He’s had a good season as far as I’m concerned, and brings everything Alberts brings, and more.

Luongo didn’t look great against the Islanders but I’m sick of the Luongo bashers. He’s having a good (not great) season, but stop freaking out. He’s human. He’s also still putting up a better save percentage than Brodeur, Thomas, Ward, Turco, C. Mason, Quick, Fleury, Backstrom, Rinne, and more. Ease up.

A potential blessing in disguise with Samuelsson’s injury is that it made room for Michael Grabner to be called up. I say this with emphasis on “potential” because his success with the Canucks earlier this season has been exaggerated a bit. Grabner put up five points in nine games, all of which came on the power play. Seems not far off what Jannik Hansen would produce with a similar chance. So lets see what happens.

If the Canucks win their division, I’m VERY worried that the Detroit Red Wings finish in 6th place and face them in the first round. If that happens, that would likely mean the Wings will be healthy and on a roll.

I’m going to be the only person defending Matt Cooke. Everyone is appalled at him not receiving a suspension, but they’re calling for a rule change to call head shots. Excuse me, but if there’s no rule against head shots, then you can’t suspend him for a head shot. His hit wasn’t late, it was with his shoulder and he didn’t jump. It might have been a hit made in bad taste, but it’s not against the rules.

I can’t believe that people are defending Alex Ovechkin’s hit on Brian Campbell. He pushed him from behind into the boards at high speed in the danger zone. That is against the rules and it’s dangerous as well as dirty.

The Return of Matt Pettinger and Your Daily Injury Update

Tonyz Tanti — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:53:07 +0000

How bad are the Canucks injury woes? Well, they’ve brought back a Tampa Bay Lightning cast-off! Yeeesh. Actually, I don’t mind this signing. Matt Pettinger was re-signed by Mike Gillis yesterday. With all their injuries at the moment, bringing a veteran NHL forward who can skate and kill penalties probably isn’t a bad idea. He’ll be here on a temporary basis in all likelihood though. The best they can hope for is a Trent Klatt effect. Klatt was sent down to the minors early in his Canucks tenure, and when he came back up was a changed man. His intensity was up considerably and he became an effective player. Surely, Pettinger will be a motivated player.

Speaking of Canucks injuries, this is getting ridiculous. In what seems like a daily injury update, Michael Grabner will be lost for six weeks with a fractured ankle. Amazing how you can be chased around at high speed by 220 lb defencemen for your career and it’s casually kicking a soccer ball that knocks you out.

After watching the following video I started to think that maybe Canuckz.com should consider spicing up its injury updates? Just a thought…

The Replacements

Tonyz Tanti — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:07:54 +0000

In a weird twist this season, the Canucks have all 8 of their defencemen healthy (defencemen usually are the most injury prone), and a whole whack of injuries to forward, and then of course there’s Roberto Luongo. The result has been a lot of dull hockey, with the team trying to play more defensive due to their lack of fire power. With that said, here’s a review of the replacements for Luongo, Daniel Sedin, Pavol Demitra and Ryan Johnson (as well as Kyle Wellwood and Rick Rypien here and there).

Michael Grabner:

Chicks are digging the speedy Austrian sniper, and why not? Grabner has been impressive with the big club. He has five points in his first nine NHL games and has been generating a lot of scoring chances. Unfortunately, a replacement for this replacement will be needed. Grabner was lost to an ankle injury that he suffered during the pre-game hallway warm-up. It’s been that kind of season for the Canucks (kind of reminds me of when the Canucks lost all those defencemen in the 2007-08 season and Lukas Krajicek slipped on some ice and injured himself).

Tanner Glass:

Glass has looked good thus far. Sunday’s game against Colorado was probably his best, notching a goal and hitting a crossbar. He’s been pretty reliable, finishing all of his checks and responsible in his own end.

Aaron Rome:

The Canucks’ forward (forward!? Yes, forward) has been impressive since being moved from defence. Vigneault moved him from defence to forward because of all the injuries up front, and must have sure liked him there. He lead all Canucks forwards in ice time in Friday’s game versus Anaheim. That’s clearly ridiculous, but he hasn’t looked out of place at forward (unlike Mathieu Schneider who looked completely lost in his one game at forward… Vigneault clearly hasn’t heard of not being able to teach an old dog new tricks).

Alexandre Bolduc:

Bolduc, like Grabner, has also been injured since being called-up. While healthy, he played pretty much error free, but didn’t offer anything notable.

Sergei Shirokov:

The “Pocket Russian Rocket” hasn’t been able to lift-off as of yet. In six games in the NHL, he has been unable to get a single point and is a minus four. Disappointing, sure, but even more disappointing is that he hasn’t been noticeable. He has been sent to the Moose a couple of times already, and continues to rip it up down there, but so far he hasn’t been able to translate that to the NHL level.

Andrew Raycroft:

Raycroft has played pretty well in his limited action. I thought he was unfairly pulled in the loss to Anaheim on Friday, but responded with a shutout against his old team, the Colorado Avalanche. He wasn’t tested a lot against Colorado, but still, I have more confidence in him than any back-up goalie they’ve had since Alex Auld. He should get all of the starts until Luongo comes back.

Comeback Payback in Chi-Town

Tonyz Tanti — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:47:58 +0000

The Canucks silenced the boisterous United Centre crowd with a gritty 3-2 third period comeback victory on Wednesday. The win was big, not only because it was their first road win of the season and against a hated team, but because of how they won:

-They came back on the Hawks, a team known for coming back on other teams
-They outshot the Blackhawks, the first time that Chicago has been outshot this season
-Roberto Luongo was outstanding, especially when the score was 2-1 for Chicago. He especially came up big during the lengthy 5-on-3 man advantage in the third period
-Michael Grabner (!) scored. And he looked like a sniper while doing it.
-They hit! Willie Mitchell’s hit was the turning point of the game.

Injury News:

Rick Rypien has a groin injury (surprise surprise), prompting the question: who is the most injury-prone player on the Canucks? They’ve got a few candidates including Rypien, Salo, Demitra and Schneider.

Speaking of Mathieu Schneider, he appears ready to go. He has been cleared to play, so we will most likely see him on Sunday against the Oilers. He is inegligible to play Saturday because he was placed on 10 day injured reserve.

Memo to Grabner: Your time is NOW

Tonyz Tanti — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:14:28 +0000

Recently called-up Michael Grabner will make his NHL debut tonight tonight when the Canucks play the Flames. The speedy winger has been thrown right into the fire, playing the club’s chief rival on the top line with Henrik Sedin and Alex Burrows. Grabner will never get a better opportunity to succeed than this to finally prove he’s NHL worthy and he’d better excel or there may not be many chances left for the young Austrian sniper.

Lets review. He was the Canucks’ first pick, 14th overall in the 2006 entry draft. He currently sits as the only forward taken in the first round to have yet to play an NHL game. Players picked behind him include many youngsters already making a significant impact in the NHL: Claude Giroux, Simeon Varlamov, Patrik Berglund, Nick Foligno, Milan Lucic, Steve Mason and Cal Clutterbuck. Last season, he lead the Manitoba Moose in goals, notching 30 in 66 games. He has never been able to translate that success at the NHL level, preseason included. He played in a team high seven preseason games this year, scoring zero goals and one lone assist. Just for some perspective, that put him 20th (20th!) in scoring on the team.

Grabner is now 22 years old, not as young as he used to be, and is getting a chance with a team that has Daniel Sedin, Pavol Demitra and Jannik Hansen out of the lineup for significant periods of time. If he plays anywhere half decently, he should be given a long look in a scoring role. Will he succeed? Don’t bet on it. Personally, I would have liked to see Sergei Shirokov back. Shirokov grossly outplayed Grabner in the preseason and has more points in Manitoba. If Grabner can go from brutal in the preseason last month to good in the regular season, I will be pleasantly surprised.

(A little motivation for Grabner)

The Bubble Boys

Tonyz Tanti — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:14:06 +0000

This year has been the most competitive Canucks camp in recent memory, with so many players with a realistic chance to make the team. Head coach Alain Vigneault has a lot of tough decisions ahead of him, particularly concerning players on the bubble. Numerous young and old guys are fighting for spots at forward, defense and in goal. Here’s where the “bubble boys” stack up so far:

Goaltenders:

Perhaps none of the battles have been as close as Schneider versus Raycroft for the backup job. Both have played well in their games, but conventional wisdom would suggest if it’s close, they’d give the job to Schneider. One would think that the Canucks want desperately to shop Schneider and then trade him as soon as possible while his stock is high. The thinking is that Schneider has already done everything he can do at the AHL level and that his trade value can only go up if he proves something in the NHL. It wouldn’t come without consequence though, Schneider’s cap hit of $1.084 million is more than double the minimum wage $500,000 hit from Raycroft. Raycroft would also have to clear waivers, while Schneider doesn’t. Should be interesting to see how Gillis makes the jigsaw puzzle come together.

Defense:

Shane O’Brien has been impressive so far in the preseason, looking more mobile and making good decisions with the puck. Everyone knows he’s tough, but he’ll need to be reliable defensively to deserve his new $1.7 million deal. Christian Ehrhoff has 4 points in 2 games, and is looking like he is solidifying a spot on the first unit power play. Brad Lukowich is a steady defensive defenceman, which means he won’t dazzle anyone, even when he’s at his best. Look for Lukowich to be their #7 or 8 defenceman, along with O’Brien. Mathieu Schneider hasn’t played a game in the preseason yet, presumably resting the 40 year blueliner for the regular season. It would be hard to imagine them not having him in mind for their top 6 if they are resting him in the preseason. Another impressive player in the preseason has been Aaron Rome. Barring injury/trade, I give Rome very little chance at cracking the Canucks roster. The resumes of the other 8 defencemen in camp are far superior and I don’t think there’s anything Rome can do to change that.

Forwards:

The Canucks currently have 13 proven NHL forwards under contract and I believe that all of them will make the team. Mason Raymond and Rick Rypien in particular have looked very impressive. Of the 13, Jannik Hansen is in the most danger of being thrown on waivers. That list of 13 forwards also includes the injured Pavol Demitra, which means that at least one of the bubble players will get a shot on opening day.

That’s where things get interesting. Cody Hodgson, Michael Grabner and Sergei Shirokov make-up the list of youngsters trying to crack the Canucks roster for the first time while Mark Parrish, Ronald Petrovicky and Dave Scatchard are all veterans on tryout contracts. None of the veterans have shown enough to earn an NHL gig thus far. Michael Grabner appears to be a young sniper who doesn’t score, and that’s a bad combination. Cody Hodgson has looked ok, but I don’t think he looks quite at home in the NHL yet. I think there’s a good chance that Hodgson will be sent back to junior. That leaves Sergei Shirokov. He’s impressed everyone since his first day at rookie camp and, assuming he can recover from his minor injury set-back, is my pick to make the Canucks roster.

And now for a trip back down memory lane… Possibly the greatest preseason goal ever scored:

Bad Luck Canucks

Tonyz Tanti — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:27:03 +0000

I woke up this morning and read a couple of troubling stories about some Canuck prospects. Arguably the Canucks best player of the preseason, Sergei “the Pocket Russian Rocket” Shirokov, suffered a mild first degree sprain on his knee in the Canucks 3-1 win over Edmonton last night. They are hoping to have him back for next weekend, which leaves him little time to impress the coaches enough to crack the opening day lineup.

I also read a story by Jason Botchford, describing Michael Grabner as “invisible” in last night’s win. I must say that I have been very disappointed in his play this preseason also. He is supposed to be a prolific scorer, and should have shown more than he has. He’s getting dangerously close to “bust” status if he can’t crack the Canucks lineup soon.

Couple these two stories with the back ailment that Cody Hodgson is recovering from and I couldn’t help but think back to all the bad luck the Canucks seem to have had concerning draft picks. From losing the wheel turn in 1970 and having to select Dale Tallon, while the Sabres got to choose future Hall of Famer Gilbert Perreault, to giving up too soon on a young Cam Neely. It seems like the Canucks don’t get a lot of breaks. When they get a good draft pick, they trade him away prematurely (see Cam Neely, Mike Peca and RJ Umberger). When they have a bust on their hands, they seem to hold onto him forever (see Fedor Fedorov, Jim Sandlak and Nathan Smith).

Now, there are exceptions like Pavel Bure, but overall, the Canucks just seem to be cursed. Unless Bure can get into the Hall of Fame (which he has been unsuccessful so far), the Canucks are the only team (aside from the teams that joined the NHL in the 90s or later) to not have a player in the Hall of Fame that played the bulk of their career with the franchise. Every other team has had at least one Hall of Famer, like Dale Hawerchuk (Winnipeg/Phoenix), Rod Langway (Washington) and Ron Francis (Hartford/Carolina). Instead, the Canucks have had players who have been good, not great, like Trevor Linden, Stan Smyl, and Markus Naslund. All three are extremely unlikely to get a sniff of the Hall.

Lets hope Hodgson and Shirokov can get 100% healthy, and help the Canucks ASAP and have great careers. Lets also hope that Cory Schneider can find his form in the NHL to give the Canucks a good bargaining chip to play with. But if history is to repeat itself, start worrying!

Is this for real?!

Canucks Re-sign Hansen

Tonyz Tanti — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:22:20 +0000

The Canucks have re-signed RFA Jannik Hansen to a two-way deal worth $550,000. Hansen would have to clear waivers in order to go to the minors, and I think it’s unlikely that he wouldn’t be claimed by another team if they tried to send him to Manitoba. This is an interesting deal for the Canucks. Hansen is a nice role player to have, but he’s also the 13th NHL forward that the Canucks have signed (14 when you include Cody Hodgson and 15 if you include Michael Grabner). Consider that most NHL teams only carry 13-14 forwards, and it’s only a matter of time before Gillis pulls the trigger on a deal for a defenceman.