The Injury Bug
We're only 8-10 games into the season but already numerous teams have ran into significant injury issues. Whether it's players like Phil Kessel or Matheiu Schneider who have yet to play a game yet or others who have been through training camp but have run into an injury and been knocked out for a significant period (see Johan Franzen, Andrei Markov, Sergei Gonchar, Daniel Sedin or Marc Savard) the injury bug has seemed to hit numerous teams and hit some of there most important players.
No team has been hit harder than the Vancouver Canucks who have lost two of their top six defenseman in Sami Salo and Matheiu Schneider, and two of their top six forwards in Pavol Demitra and their leading goal scorer, Daniel Sedin. While the Canucks have not had the fast start that they were hoping for they are one of few teams that are actually prepared to handle significant injuries like this. In the off-season the Canucks continued to stockpile forwards, both young prospects and solid veterans and made a stingy trade acquiring two solid defenceman from the San Jose Sharks, who were too close to the cap.
Knowing that his defence had previous injuries issues Mike Gillis acquired Christian Ehrhoff, Brad Lukowich, Aaron Rome, Lawrence Nycolat, and Matheiu Schneider even though he realistically only needed two or three defenceman to fill out his roster. On offence he acquired Tanner Glass, Mikael Samuelsson, Sergei Shirokov and re-signed Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Steve Bernier and Alex Burrows, even though he had numerous young prospects who may have been able to break the line-up as well.
Mike Gillis has realized one of the most important factors of a cap system: salaries do not cost go against the cap if the players are in the minors and depth is something that always seems to be needed. Last season the Canucks had 6 forwards in the minors who had significant NHL experience and though he only ended up using a couple of them throughout the season, this strategy seems to be really valuable this season. The Canucks have also been able to develop players in the minors without putting too much pressure on them or ruining their development by bringing them up too early. The notion of a trial by fire works for some people but definitely not everyone and development generally works a lot better by being too patient rather than being too hasty.
Every team has to deal with the injury bug at some time or another but have a strategy in place to deal with it ahead of time and developing players so that they are ready to step in when needed can dramatically change how a team is impacted by losing a significant player. This was clearly evident last season when Vancouver lost Roberto Luongo for a third of the season but still managed to hang around the playoff picture. In comparison last years two teams that had made the playoffs the year before were blindsided by injuries (Colorado and Dallas) and because they did not have the depth to overcome it, they were unable to make the playoffs again.
No team has been hit harder than the Vancouver Canucks who have lost two of their top six defenseman in Sami Salo and Matheiu Schneider, and two of their top six forwards in Pavol Demitra and their leading goal scorer, Daniel Sedin. While the Canucks have not had the fast start that they were hoping for they are one of few teams that are actually prepared to handle significant injuries like this. In the off-season the Canucks continued to stockpile forwards, both young prospects and solid veterans and made a stingy trade acquiring two solid defenceman from the San Jose Sharks, who were too close to the cap.
Knowing that his defence had previous injuries issues Mike Gillis acquired Christian Ehrhoff, Brad Lukowich, Aaron Rome, Lawrence Nycolat, and Matheiu Schneider even though he realistically only needed two or three defenceman to fill out his roster. On offence he acquired Tanner Glass, Mikael Samuelsson, Sergei Shirokov and re-signed Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Steve Bernier and Alex Burrows, even though he had numerous young prospects who may have been able to break the line-up as well.
Mike Gillis has realized one of the most important factors of a cap system: salaries do not cost go against the cap if the players are in the minors and depth is something that always seems to be needed. Last season the Canucks had 6 forwards in the minors who had significant NHL experience and though he only ended up using a couple of them throughout the season, this strategy seems to be really valuable this season. The Canucks have also been able to develop players in the minors without putting too much pressure on them or ruining their development by bringing them up too early. The notion of a trial by fire works for some people but definitely not everyone and development generally works a lot better by being too patient rather than being too hasty.
Every team has to deal with the injury bug at some time or another but have a strategy in place to deal with it ahead of time and developing players so that they are ready to step in when needed can dramatically change how a team is impacted by losing a significant player. This was clearly evident last season when Vancouver lost Roberto Luongo for a third of the season but still managed to hang around the playoff picture. In comparison last years two teams that had made the playoffs the year before were blindsided by injuries (Colorado and Dallas) and because they did not have the depth to overcome it, they were unable to make the playoffs again.
Labels: Injuries, Mike Gillis, Vancouver Canucks
posted by Aidan Tiefenbach at
11:20 PM
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