This. Vancouver right now is taking tons of crap from hockey analysts because of this attitude. They are carrying around hockey PTSD from last year's finals and are making their moves based on where they failed in their response to Boston. They just down graded rookies from Hogson to Kassian because Zak is bigger and meaner. From nearly all reviews of this trade I have seen people rate Hogdson consistently higher in potential and talent. Add to that our hurting center position and you see that this guy instantly brings an injection of points to our team that we needed and specifically in a position we were dying for. Keep looking at this in a longer time frame and with moves this summer we have the potential to bring together a damn good team come October.

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Anytime a team wins the cup most teams try and build their team in the mold of that cup winning team or to compete against a team like that. Boston like a few other teams in the East are skilled, strong and tough.

No one will deny that Hodgson will be a better point producer but the problem I have is this team has no toughness at all and Kassian had only a handfull of games in the league not playing big minutes. Yes you can add toughness but Kassian is a top 6 power forward with skill who can fight and only showed limited amount of what he can do with his limited amount of ice time. Sorry but Power forwards take awhile to develop. I'm guessing the Sabres brass see Foligno filling Kassian's toughness void. Only time will tell. I'm not mad at getting Hodgson as I think he should do well here but the lack of toughness on this team with Boston in the same division worries me.

I use Boston as an example on what is a big problem with the team along with adding a top center which, hopefully, has now been address by adding Hodgson. You need to build a team that can compete against all types of teams. Building a team to just be small, fast, and high scoring is a recipe for disaster which we experienced this season. Hopefully they learned lessons from the playoffs last season and the majority of this season.

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FWIW, TSN has a poll asking whether you'd want Hodgson/Sulzer or Kassian/Gragnani more. So far it's 67% in favor of Hodgson/Sulzer.

Power forwards take longer to develop. Think Neely, Lucic, Bertuzzi in his prime.

This trade won't be able to fully be evaluated for at least another year.

And don't forget, Hodgson really screwed up his back a couple years ago. Let's hope he 100% healthy now, and in the future.

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"I'll rap you with my cane; you pencil necked geek!!"

-Bowler, imitating Freddy Blassie, at the very first M & G.

Kassian barely ever fought anyone anyways. He had 1 fight against Matt Martin where he did nothing but keep his head down and punch.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

Hodgson is built like a brick shit house. I'd love to know where you get any of your info, so I can stay away from there. I can't vouch for seeing him too much, but the VAN fans say his ability to come out of the boards with the puck is uncanny. As far as the guys you listed being weak and getting manhandled, I only see one, and Hodgson and one good draft pick makes him expendable.

If Gionta becomes available, I'm all in. He's an amazing hockey player. I can only guess what your team looked like in NES ice hockey. I think when the Xanax starts kicking in, you'll be ok.

I like how we're bitching about Darcy taking care of skill position lines before he works on the physicality, which he already acknowledged that he knows it's an issue, and what he plans on doing to fix this issue.

But let's hate Darcy because he's Darcy. It's cool.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

Vanek can also, Pominville has been able to do it this year.

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Yeah, I don't know what happened to Pominville, but it seems the guy works a lot harder than he ever has before, and it's definitely paying off this year.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

It's the C and the new Easton RS stick, it doesn't break on him so he can use it better.

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Um, I have see all three (especially Roy and Gerbe) get manhandled several times this year or cough up the puck as they tried to finesse their way into the zone. Maybe i'm just imagining it during my panic attacks. You really don't understand the whole Gionta thing, do ya?

I'm not hating on Hodgson, I haven't really seen him play. I'm willing to give him time to prove that he's worth all the hype since most people here make him out to be some phenom that was held back with the nucks. If he is then Darcy will go down in NHL history with working the deal of a century.

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There is not a single Canuck fan who is happy Hodgson is gone. They were fine with getting Kassian at first, but as soon as they learned it was for Hodgson, well, let's just say it's shocking that there wasn't another Vancouver riot.

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Girgensons for captain. Team Keep Nick DesLauriers forever.

@TJLuckman550

I'm not making him out to be a phenom. I felt I had to defend him because you were originally saying that this trade was shit.

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I am, you know I am. I am Canadian.
#1 Hockey Nation.

If Leino worked out as a center, would they have made this trade?

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

I'd be willing to say yes. Leino has been better, but I think we need to posture ourselves to move Roy, and Hodgson may do that for us.

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Where did you get that I think he's shit??? Please quote me when you find it because I would love to see it. Others here are making it out like this kid is some underestimated goal scorer who is going to swoop in and save the day. I'm just arguing that I really don't like losing Kassian because WE ALL BITCHED ABOUT THIS TEAM AND THE LACK OF TOUGHNESS....EVERYONE. Now people are saying that toughness is not all that...Whatever. Don't bitch when another one of our players gets flattened.

Darcy did what I asked, he did something.

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We better hope they finish weak, and grab a top 3 draft pick. Without a true #1 center in the pipeline, they are screwed.

To build the center position correctly, several things have to happen. My hope is that they draft a big #1 center and he makes the team right out of camp next season, and plays his way up the depth chart from line 3 to line 1.

Hodgson has to turn out to be a good 2nd line center. 60 points, and two way play. That IS NOT a given. People think he's good enough to be that guy, but looking around the league, those guys are rare.

Then, they should trade Roy for Hanzal at the next TDL. Now you got:

#1 stud
Hodgson
Hanzal (he's so hot right now)
Adam, Tropp, whoever.

That's a pretty strong from 1-4. But there are a ton of IFs.

And even if all of that happens, they still need now size and toughness. Kassian was a hefty price to pay. Too hefty. In a couple of years he's going to be a beast, and better than Hodgson.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

I got the Gionta thing, but obviously you didn't get the NES thing. Gerbe can handle himself just fine, and not every guy on your team can be the fat guy. You need some finesse, speed, scoring guys, and it's even better when they can take care of themselves AND be pesky(draw calls). Gerbe is a gem. Ennis doesn't mind throwing a body check either. I hope they get rid of Roy, because I agree with you about him being 'that guy' you explained.


We could easily go out and get a guy who can kick 90% of people's asses, but goons are a thing of the past. What we lacked in the Miller incident was a REACTION. How big and tough are Detroit and Vancouver(arguably the front-runners to win the cup)? Would Abdelkader or Helm have kicked Lucic's ass?? I agree the team does need some size and grit, but who's to say that Foligno won't add the grit, and Armia the size? I can almost assure you that DR conferred with Ron Rolston about Foligno and Kassian. If he said, "naw, he's miles behind Kassian", we wouldn't even be having this discussion right now. We still have the off-season to make moves as well. I'm just trying to point out you're having a knee-jerk reaction to this.


I'm beginning to wonder if you're just hot for him. I sure wouldn't mind Hanzal as a 3rd line center, but he doesn't bring that much more to us than Goose does to justify throwing assets away to get him.