Neidermayers Canucks?
The other day Scott and Rob Niedermayer’s agent told the Team 1040 Sports Radio they would be interested in playing for Canada’s West Coast club. Now it’s no surprise that certain players look like they’re on their way out of the Canucks organization and certain voids need to be filled. By bringing in Scott and Rob you solve a bunch of the Canucks problems at once. The proverbial killing two birds with one stone.
Where do I even start with how they’d impact the team? Ohlund looks like he’s going to test free agency so assume the vacancy there, Scott provides himself as a replacement for a top 4 defenseman, while taking less than pursuing Jay-Bo would cost. He has four cup rings, is the definition of grit and comes with the tag veteran. He also took grooming lessons from Chuck Norris, that makes him semi-indestructable.
Pyatt’s a free agent this off season. If Gillis knows what’s right he’ll let Pyatt go, and that’s where Rob can fill in nicely. He had 14 goals this year, and secondary scoring is clearly something the Canucks will never have an abundance of. If not Pyatt, then maybe one of the RFAs that could potentially get an offer sheet that is too absurd for the clearly levelheaded Mike Gillis to sign.
The Neidermayers come with many an attractive feature. Scott powers up an offensive blue-line and with Salo and Scott blasting point shots on the power play, if Sami can stay healthy, that could be lethal. Scott’s 59 points this season would certainly help, can’t argue with numbers. There’s a reason Rob’s won 4 cups. He’s a mean, hard hitting, smart-play-making, veteran player. He knows what he’s doing and on a team that’s likely to lose a veteran defenseman, replacing him with a better veteran only makes sense.
Bringing in the two helps out secondary scoring, it bolsters our blue-line, it’s leadership and a quality veteran (unlike Sundin) which will help with the likes of a still developing Edler, and even Hodgson if he gets the chance to play next year. It also helps bring more points to the blue-line and the bottom two lines, and brings more grit to a team that managed to get pushed around by a bunch of kids and a guy who’s name no one could even properly pronounce.
Another important things that plays a little into the Canucks favour is that they’ve already expressed interest. They want to play here. Gillis doesn’t have to go and woo them into considering Vancouver, that’s already done. He just has to hash out numbers. With the cap aside, a lot is still going to depend on what the Canucks sign the Sedins for, if they sign them, and whether Mats Sundin is back for a second go around with the team. Because the Neidermayers want to play here, it might suggest that they’re willing to take a little less. Scott certainly comes with a hefty price tag after just finishing off a 4 year 27 million dollar contract but Gillis has been known to work some magic so anything is possible.
