Connor Garland - Superstar?

[random-d]

Very fair, thx bud. Either way he’s going to be a pretty good keeper multicat winger.

BTW another point made by a Canucks buddy - Canucks may want to give Garland primo opportunity, and take some away from Miller, to avoid Miller putting up huge numbers in a contract year.

Miller's contract isn't up until the end of the 22-23 season. They have 3 mil from recapture coming off the books at the end of this year and another 2.5 mil from buyouts at the end of Miller's contract. Hamonic is up the same year as well. I find it hard to believe they would want one of their best players to underachieve just so they could pay him less in the future. That would just ensure that he left at the end of the contract.

[Pawtucket]

Boeser has to be qualified at 7.5mil
They are about to pay Hughes and Petey $15million+
Horvat is a UFA soon. He will get paid 7+ - he's more important than Boeser.

What am I getting at? Boeser gets traded and they move Garland to line 1, RW. Trade deadline if they are out of it, off season if they make the playoffs.

[Wonko]

Garland is a damn good player. Not a superstar. His deployment will determine his production.

My best guesses on his production:

Line 1 and top PP? He could hit high 70's.

2nd line top PP? High 60's.

2nd line 2nd PP unit? high 50's.

My guess, barring an injury to one of the top dogs, is he plays second line and sees the occasional look at top PP. Thus he finishes the season around 60 points.

[lucafen4]

Garland is not and will not become a superstar. End story.

Garland is a good winger with potential to become really good.
He will not reach DeBrincat levels. Don't listen to Canucks radio - they're dreadful with expectations on new/young players.

30 goals, 35 assists is where you should hang your hat and be happy. There's some upside from that in a career year, but this is kind of where expectations should be.

^ Boeser ain't going anywhere. He's a RFA next summer. makes no sense to trade a player in his prime.

Other than D. Sedin... name me the last winger for Vancouver that has been as productive as Boeser? Think we're going back to Naslund/Bertuzzi days. Unless you have a soft spot for Burrows lone really good season.

JT Miller I expect will have priced himself out of Vancouver in two years - Which works well with the dream timeline of Podkolzin being on the final year of his ELC and stepping into top 6 in 2023/24

Van has Hoglander as well who has a different level of creativity then Garland.

If they don't - Odd man out on the PP1 is likely Horvat.

But let's be realistic here... Garland ideally is a 2nd line winger with PP1 potential. Far from a superstar. Kucherov is a superstar, DeBrincat is a star - NOT a superstar, Patty Kane is a superstar, Mitch Marner is a superstar.

So let's stop pumping the calling Garland a superstar tires before you over inflate and blow the tire up.

[ross10019]

Miller's contract isn't up until the end of the 22-23 season. They have 3 mil from recapture coming off the books at the end of this year and another 2.5 mil from buyouts at the end of Miller's contract. Hamonic is up the same year as well. I find it hard to believe they would want one of their best players to underachieve just so they could pay him less in the future. That would just ensure that he left at the end of the contract.

I hear you, but come on, GMs will play games like this from time to time given cap constraints. It seems stupid but may it’s not out of the realm of the possible.

[lucafen4]

I hear you, but come on, GMs will play games like this from time to time given cap constraints. It seems stupid but may it’s not out of the realm of the possible.

Canucks ownership wants wins. Wins = $$$.
Every home playoff game = 1.5m - 2m in extra revenue.
They will not bury Miller's role and risk losing games when they can make an additional 6-8m revenue in the 1st round of a playoffs.

maybe in a cash strapped market this makes conspiracy theory sense, but makes no cents in Vancouver.

[ross10019]

Canucks ownership wants wins. Wins = $$$.
Every home playoff game = 1.5m - 2m in extra revenue.
They will not bury Miller's role and risk losing games when they can make an additional 6-8m revenue in the 1st round of a playoffs.

maybe in a cash strapped market this makes conspiracy theory sense, but makes no cents in Vancouver.

Makes sense, I hear you. Again all I’m saying is GMs play games like this, perhaps infrequently but it happens hence sometimes shaking your head at deployment of certain players. It happens is all I’m saying, and on top of that here the suggestion here came from one of the most knowledgeable Nucks fans I know.

[FrozenInferno]

If rumours are to be believed Miller rubs teammates the wrong way sometimes. If anything drives him out of Vancouver it would be locker room issues. There have been instances caught on camera of him annoying Boeser on the bench for example and the body language in the exchange was pretty telling.

Great player on the ice but there might be more to it than meets the eye.

[ross10019]

I’m not reviving this thread because I think Garland is a superstar. He’s not, nor do I think he’ll ever be, as many have opined here.

But I do think he’s damn good and has another level he could well hit in Vancouver. And in fantasy he’ll be a multicat contributor - a younger and more skilled Marchessault say, with a significantly higher points ceiling.

Some terrific coverage of him in this Sportsnet piece:
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article...p-winger-role/

Oh and he scored a nice PPG from the high slot last night, on a pass from OEL, Canucks fans giddy!

Oh, and I loved this little tweet:
https://twitter.com/canucks/status/1...922663947?s=21