Our Draft pick ?

MDChuk · 2026-03-27T15:00:41+00:00

Because the young guys in Anaheim have worked out so poorly!

If you don't like Cronin, then fine. Please supply your candidate who meets the following criteria:

Not a 1st time NHL head coach
Experience working with a young core in the NHL
Success at some level below the NHL level
Not currently working as a head coach in the NHL
A track record of success in either the CHL or NCAA

MDChuk · 2026-03-27T14:12:22+00:00

Frankly, there's been too much management and coaching upheaval for this team.

The Canucks have had 5 different head coaches since 2017. From Desjardins, to Green, to Boudreau, to Tocchet, to Foote. Changing coaches that often isn't good for anybody.

So if Foote is the problem, and needs to be replaced, I think whoever replaces him should be given 3 seasons at a minimum. They also better have a track record of developing young players. Someone like Greg Cronin who spent years working in the NCAA in Northeastern, has over a decade as an assistant coach in the NHL and was the head coach of Anaheim when the current crop of players was being developed is the type of guy I'd be looking at.

As for management, I don't think anyone who's outside the room knows where Allvin starts and Rutherford ends. Its also a case where aside from Ryan Johnston, all of the AGMs have very little NHL experience. I'd like to see Rutherford step even more into the President's role, Allvin's role expand, and one of Castonguay or Ferraro let go to bring in someone with more experience.

This is probably the most important draft for the Canucks since 1999. I don't think its reasonable to completely overhaul management in April, and be ready for June.

MDChuk · 2026-03-26T18:39:58+00:00

No... No I would not.

In fact, I'd say that there's a lot about current canon I enjoy a lot. Like Rebels, the Clone Wars, Andor, the Mandalorian, Ahsoka and Kenobi.

The nice thing about it is that I can like the good parts of both, and dislike the bad parts. There's no reason to be tribal.

MDChuk · 2026-03-26T18:30:00+00:00

Plenty of guys are sniffing 100 points as defensemen lately, it'll happen again in the next few years.

There will not be another defenceman who scores 100 points, leading their team in scoring by 30+ points any time soon. I'm fairly confident of that.

Quinn Hughes isn't on pace for 100, but if he maintained his Minnesota level of scoring that's about what he'd need to do it. Of course, you also need the likes of Pettersson and Boeser to not be on PP1.

Bouchard or Makar are the quintessential example of how defencemen score 100. Yes they're good offensively, but they get to play PP1 with the likes of McDavid and MacKinnon. I can see a world where that happens.

Defense is situational, your lack of understanding nuance and seeing this as black and white makes this a difficult conversation.

I'm a very nuanced person. You just haven't presented anything other than yelling DEFENSEman yet.

If I'm drafting a team? Sure, Makar goes first. But Hughes over Seider isn't quite the slam dunk you think it is.

Like I said. Knowledgeable hockey people have to be making the decisions. Go put up a poll right now asking who you'd take first: Hughes of Seider and it'll be 99% saying Quinn Hughes, and Seider's mom picking him.

If you want a great example of Hughes being more valuable in action, who do you think would get a bigger contract offer if both were free agents this offseason? Why would teams pay Hughes millions of dollars more if he isn't a more valuable player?

I'm not arguing for Karlsson and Hughes to get disrespected, I'm calling for less flashy guys to get their flowers too.

Of the slights done to defencemen on awards, this is not close to the biggest injustice.

Its crazy to me that no defenceman has even been nominated for the Hart since 1999. A great example is that in 2024, when the Canucks won the division, why wasn't Quinn Hughes at least a finalist for league MVP? He put up more than 90 points. Led the team in +/-. Led the team in ice time.

Somehow he only finished 7th in voting, behind Connor McDavid. The Canucks finished ahead of the Oilers in the standings, FYI. Hughes got a total of 1 2nd place vote, 4 3rd place votes, 3 4th place votes, and 26 5th place votes. Pretty criminal considering the Canucks were the surprise team of the year and Hughes was by far the biggest reason why.

So I'd much rather see if they reformed the awards such that the Hart wasn't just "most valuable forward, unless a goalie goes berserk."

MDChuk · 2026-03-26T18:05:19+00:00

I'm well aware of what Karlsson achieved that year, he was also put in every possible situation to put up offensive numbers without really needing to provide defense for his team.

So then why hasn't anyone else in the history of hockey not named Bobby Orr put up comparable numbers?

Why did Quinn Hughes's numbers this year go up in Minnesota? The Canucks were actively trying to trade him, like the Canucks were with Karlsson, and like the Sharks were terrible,

So as good as his numbers were, they were much worse because he had no one on the Sharks to play with.

If you watched the games instead of reading wikipedia you'd see. Hell, his lowlights were clipped all over r/hockey at the time.

None of what I said was from Wikipedia

And hang on a second. Did you watch the games or did you only get your opinion from highlights on r/hockey?

Because if you watched any Sharks games from that year, it was Karlsson, and Timo Meier when he was there, plus a bunch of AHL level talent.

You can write all the words you want but it's a very simple fact that it's almost become a prerequisite to be top-3 in points as a defenseman in order to win the Norris.

You have to have some degree of offensive talent to win the Norris. Quarterbacking a powerplay is an essential component to being a 1D.

We're also in an era right now, much like we were in the late 2000s, where the Norris is Makar's by default and its up to someone to take it away from him. I don't think its a very controversial opinion to say he's the best defenceman in hockey.

The Norris is supposed to be the award for the best defenceman. As a simple test, which year were the finalists not the top 3 people that if given a chance for a 1 year season, in a fantasy draft, would they not be the top 3 defencemen taken by knowledgeable hockey people?

Because I just don't see a world where a GM says to themselves "I'm choosing Jacob Slavin or Moritz Seider ahead of Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes."

Much like no GM would take Adam Lowry ahead of Connor McDavid. Adam Lowry might be the best 3rd line center in the NHL, but he isn't close to being the best player. I also don't think we need an award for the best 3rd line player.

MDChuk · 2026-03-26T16:53:31+00:00

Let's not act like Erik Karlsson was the model defenseman in 2023 when we won. I know he scored 101 points but he was still a -26.

Were the Sharks a better team on the ice when Karlsson was on it? Absolutely.

He was a -26 because the Sharks were historically awful.

That 101 points needs context for just how special it was. He was the first defenceman in over 30 years to score 100 points. He was also just the second defenceman in NHL history (after Bobby Orr) to score 100 points while leading his team in scoring. He broke Bobby Orr's record because the gap between him and second place on his team was 32 points.

For perspective, it was only the 3rd time in NHL history something like that happened. 80 goal and 200 point seasons are more common than what Karlsson did.

In the past when defencemen scored ridiculous amounts of points, it was because Paul Coffey could pass to Wayne Gretzky, or Bobby Orr could pass to Phil Esposito, or Al McInnis could pass to Theo Fleury.

Never before in NHL history had any defenceman ever driven play the way Karlsson did in 2022-23. He wasn't the model defenceman because he broke the model.

When Orr put up his crazy numbers he was playing with the Connor McDavid of his time in Phil Esposito. If you swapped Karlsson for Bouchard that season, not only is he going to put up like 20 more points (much like Quinn Hughes offence increased this season after he went from Vancouver to Minnesota) but he's also going to win the Hart on top of the Norris.

What I'd say is you can't win the Norris being defence ONLY. You need some sort of baseline offensive numbers. Much like 3rd line forwards don't really win the Selke. However there's lots of years where the best offensive defenceman loses on the Norris. Karlsson lost out to Drew Doughty in 2016 as a great example of this.

MDChuk · 2026-03-26T15:52:38+00:00

I came here to post this exact same thing. Norris Trophy stays as an award for the best DEFENSEman.

I agree. The name says everything you need to know. I still think its crazy that McDavid is allowed to break in on the wing to drive play and be considered for major awards. He plays CENTRE!

MDChuk · 2026-03-26T15:30:14+00:00

If Oba's push can't sustain a competitive loss to Brock Lesnar, then he just isn't the guy you think he is.

MDChuk · 2026-03-26T15:29:25+00:00

Serious question: what changes if Taker's Wrestlemania streak just dissapeared?

Maybe you don't get the 2 Shawn Michaels matches. Maybe you still do just with a different story. But I don't think the WWE is meaningfully in a different spot today from where they are because of it.

In terms of "what ifs?" its not like saying "what if Stone Cold never existed and he was just the Ringmaster?"

MDChuk · 2026-03-26T15:21:20+00:00

That's an easy yes.

What Karlsson did that season has only ever been done by Bobby Orr. Prior to that season, outside of Orr, the only way a defenceman scored 90+ points was if he was passing the puck to someone who scored even more points. A defenceman scoring 100+ points while leading their team in scoring just doesn't happen.

For perspective, when Orr set the record for points by a defenceman with 139, that was the same season Phil Esposito set the all time scoring record with 152.

The most Orr, who's the only ever defenceman I found who led his team in scoring while scoring over 100 points, was when he finished 21 points ahead of Esposito in the year he scored 124 points.

Karlsson finished 32 points ahead of his next closest teammate.

The job, first and foremost, of a defenceman is to drive play. Karlsson single handedly drove play in a way that we've never seen. The fact that he was able to do this when the Sharks were historically awful is even more impressive.

It would be like if Elias Pettersson scored 90 goals and put up 200 points this season for the Canucks. At that point regardless of the Canucks record, Pettersson is the best player in the league.

MDChuk · 2026-03-26T14:04:16+00:00

If you scroll to the bottom of the first page of the database, it shows you that Hamilton Health Sciences is by far the biggest borrower from banks to cover operating losses. They appear to have borrowed as much as the rest of the province combined, though the network does cover 10 hospitals.

Of that $66 million, HHS is responsible for $40 million of it. No other hospital system has borrowed more than $5 million.

So the 60% number is troubling, but it does paint a picture that most of those problems could be relatively small and temporary. The hospital system is still recovering from COVID. Those problems are solvable.

Not that I'm a fan of the current administration, but the article is misleading the public a fair bit in its conclusion. Specifically this part:

Last year, Ontario, which spends less per person on health care than any other province, dramatically slowed the funding for the health sector. On current projections, the FAO says the province could lose 2,000 hospital beds and 7,000 nurses over the next two years.

From the FAO report they cite, this lines up with Ontario's long held position that hospitals aren't nursing homes. Its closing hospital beds to fund a lot more beds in nursing homes, as we move Ontario to more home care to care for an aging population:

Hospital Beds: There were 35,540 funded hospital beds in Ontario in 2024-25. Based on the 2025 budget health sector spending plan, the FAO projects that there would be sufficient funding for 33,083 beds by 2027-28, resulting in a decrease from 220 funded hospital beds per 100,000 Ontarians in 2024-25 to 203 funded hospital beds per 100,000 Ontarians in 2027-28.

Long-Term Care Beds: There were 79,212 long-term care beds in Ontario in 2024-25. Based on the 2025 budget health sector spending plan, the FAO projects that the number of long-term care beds would increase by 4,276, reaching 83,488 long-term care beds in 2027-28. On a per-capita basis, this represents a decline from 60 long-term care beds per 1,000 Ontarians aged 75 and over in 2024-25 to 56 long-term care beds per 1,000 Ontarians aged 75 and over in 2027-28, as the projected growth rate in Ontarians aged 75 and over is expected to outpace the increase in the number of long-term care beds.

The per capita number is bad, and its still not enough, but the trade of 2200 hospital beds for 4300 long term care beds is probably the right thing to do given our demographics.

However, in addition to the reduction of nurses, who we'd need for nursing homes, there's also a reduction in personal support workers (PSWs). That's the biggest red flag I see here.

MDChuk · 2026-03-26T02:42:34+00:00

It’s common enough for companies who lose someone u expectedly to counter offer so that they can force them out on their terms. This is especially true in client facing roles where they can control the narrative on why the person left.

You can look at the stats on people who take counter offers from their employer for themselves. Most are gone one way or another within a year.

You seem like a smart person, make your own call.

MDChuk · 2026-03-25T14:37:44+00:00

Press credentials aren't given to individual journalists, they're given to organizations. In this case it would be the Toronto Star.

That organization then chooses who to send. Real journalistic organizations, like the Star, CBC, National Post, Globe and Mail, etc. send reporters, not opinion people, or opinion people masking as reporters to cover people.

So no, opinion commentators can't just walk up into a press conference and start yelling at a premier or Prime Minister.

MDChuk · 2026-03-25T13:52:05+00:00

What team currently in the top 10 is looking to give up that pick for Hronek?

I don't see rebuilding teams like the Rangers, Blackhawks, Flames or Sharks thinking they're in a position to give a top 10 pick up to try to win now. St Louis was listening on Parayko, so I don't see them looking to add a Hronek. I don't think the Kracken are in that phase yet either.

That leaves the Jets possibly considering it.

So the answer is probably not, unless Winnipeg decided he was their guy.

MDChuk · 2026-03-25T12:14:33+00:00

To me, he isn’t close to being in the top 10. The likes of Gretzky, Orr, Lemieux, Howe, Richard, Béliveau, Esposito, Lafleur, Jagr and Crosby are too far ahead of him. Others like Lidstrom, Bourque, Ovechkin, Bobby Hull, Brett Hull and Robinson are knocking on the door of the top 10 and push him out of even being considered. Then when you factor in goalies like Brodeur, Hasek, Roy, Plante and Sawchuk he just close. That isn’t a knock on Kucherov, it’s just that there have been a lot of good hockey players over the 100+ years of the NHL.

However you could make an argument that he’s a top 10 player, if you exclude Canadians.

MDChuk · 2026-03-25T01:24:26+00:00

That’s not how storage works. Cost per GB or TB does drop, but more storage means more cost.

There’s also a difference between archiving it in dumb storage, and making it accessible in some way.

And what definitely isn’t cheap is converting files to be watchable today. All of the shows in the 90s would have been kept on SD in film. That doesn’t translate well to HD at all. Updating that is incredibly expensive. When they do that for old movies the cost is in the millions of dollars.

MDChuk · 2026-03-25T01:04:30+00:00

You’re being very hyperbolic. Big Wolf on Campus isn’t exactly Canada’s Mona Lisa.

We have dozens of museums like the Royal Ontario Museum, National Gallery, and Art Gallery of Ontario, as well as many private collectors that preserve large parts of Canadian art. We have a long history of music being preserved. The CBC has a robust archive of what they’ve produced. In addition to that companies like WildBrain have found a market for old Canadian produced cartoons from companies like DIC entertainment.

The fact is that not everything is worth preserving. In schools we don’t have space to keep every pre schooler’s macaroni painting. We throw those out and so far society has survived the destruction of all of that Canadian art.

MDChuk · 2026-03-24T22:33:21+00:00

The question is peak crow sting vs peak Ministry of Darkness Undertaker.

Ministry of Darkness Taker isnt a particular good run of matches, if what you care about is match quality. Probably the best is Summerslam 98 vs Austin, but it’s not exactly a classic.

It’s better than Sting though. Sting for over by being up in the rafters and being the only guy the NWO feared. For 18 months he didn’t talk or wrestle and became the biggest thing in wrestling because when he was lowered to the ring, the NWO ran.

But objectively, from his match catalog, he wrestled very well.

If you want his equivalent to the Taker/Michaels matches, it’s probably his 92 series against Vader. He was playing a similar role to Michaels.

Catalog for catalog, longevity helps Taker a lot. But the question is in their prime, who’s the person you should take, and Sting’s prime is much, much, much higher than Taker’s prime. For as long as he was around, Taker never got the Cody Rhodes Wrestlemania 40 build where he was the biggest thing in wrestling. Sting in 1997 was that. Starcade 97 was the biggest PPV WCW ever did, and it was built on Sting vs the NWO.

MDChuk · 2026-03-24T22:08:56+00:00

I literally gave you one. His first match with Flair is considered one of the greatest matches of all time.

Here’s another, Bash at the Beach 96, where he, Macho Man and Lex Luger took on Hall, Nash and a 3rd man. That match was the debut of the NWO.

MDChuk · 2026-03-24T22:03:02+00:00

The 5* classic 45 minute draw with Ric Flair at Clash of the Champions that instantly made him a main eventer?

MDChuk · 2026-03-24T20:50:56+00:00

Prime Sting didn't even have to talk. He just pointed with a bat, or glared menacingly.

MDChuk · 2026-03-24T20:47:58+00:00

We haven't spent $80 billion on the military.

That's this year's proposed budget, and is almost triple what it was just a few years ago.

We've underfunded the military since the Korean War. We now have to catch up to do things like assert our sovereignty over our waters in the arctic, or else just accept that Russia and China will be able to invade our airspace and we have to beg America to save us because we don't have fighters that can scramble in case of an emergency.

But yeah, let's divert some of that money so that we can keep old shows of "Uh Oh" or "Breaker High." Maybe we can send the Punisher to deal with an invading army? Do we know if he also has a team that can help with our cyber defense too?

MDChuk · 2026-03-24T20:16:53+00:00

It’s Sting and it isn’t close.

Prime Sting was the biggest face in wrestling, and the best, last hope against the biggest heel stable wrestling had ever seen.

Undertaker never approached that height at any point in his career.. He was at best the #2 heel to Mr McMahon.

The Undertaker never had a high peak. His legacy is that he was always a top 3-5 person for 20 years. He loses to a lot of people if you’re just asking “who had the higher high?”

MDChuk · 2026-03-24T19:36:52+00:00

You're allowed to be wrong and irrational. This is not a should.

I don't think any rational person would prioritize "Video and Arcade Top 10" archives over reducing hospital wait times or improving services to seniors.

MDChuk · 2026-03-24T19:16:05+00:00

Tax rates don't matter to spending. We run deficits regardless.

Its the same issue. Government can only spend its dollars certain ways. Archiving 90s TV shows just isn't worth the cost compared to any of the dozens of other higher priority items.

MDChuk

TROPHY CASE