HOLY CRAP!

To Vancouver:

- G Roberto Luongo
- D Lukas Krajicek
- 6th Round Pick

To Florida:

- RW Todd Bertuzzi
- D Bryan Allen
- G Alex Auld


...As stated previously, HOLY CRAP!

And I thought for sure they were gonna give Bertuzzi another run in Vancouver, what with the new Coach and all...

[edit:]

Let me elaborate...

First of all, we got friggin' Luongo?! AWESOME!!! I thought for ages that this would happen, and it finally did! And trading Bertuzzi was obvious, even though I really thought w/ the new coach who's harder on top players and what not... but anyways, yeah. Not a huge surprise that Bert got traded. What really got me is that they traded Bryan Allen! I mean, he's friggin' top 4 material right there! And each year he just gets better and better, and this year he was a friggin freight train, running over everyone in sight! Gahh... but no matter. After researching this Lukas Krajicek guy, it doesn't seem all that horrible to lose Allen (as Lukas was picked #24, and has offensive upside, etc...).

So, yeah, pretty good trade for both teams! I mean, Florida gets a HUGE boost to their team while still having a relatively good netminder in Auld (who, btw, I'm not a huge fan of), and Vancouver can stop friggin' whining about how we never have a good goaltender! And as an added bonus, we can pretty much throw around Cloutier wherever we want in a trade and not worry about a goaltender in return... plus, it frees up a bunch of cap space, what with Cloutier/bertuzzi/allen gone... hmmm, speaking of cap space, perhaps I shall go into what I believe next year's roster will be for Vancouver... hooray for speculation!

Nits' Projected Canucks 06/07 Roster: [in millions]

Sedin Line:

LW Daniel Sedin $ 2.8 (? - Guess on $$)

C Henrik Sedin $ 2.8 (?)

RW Anson Carter $ 3 (?)

Nassy Line:

LW Markus Naslund $ 6
C Brendan Morrison $ 3.2
RW Martin Havlat $ 2.6

Kesler Line:
C Ryan Kesler $ 1
LW Alex Burrows $ 0.5 (?)
RW Trevor Linden $ 0.8 (?)

Interchangeable 4th Line:
C Brandon Reid/Josh Green $ 0.45 (?)
LW Jason King/Tyler Bouck $ 0.45 (?)
RW Lee Goren/Jesse Schultz $ 0.45 (?)

Defensemen:
D Wade Redden $ 6 (?)
D Mattias Ohlund $ 3.5
D Sami Salo $ 1.5

D Luc Bourdon $ 0.8

D Lukas Krajicek $ 0.6

D Kevin Bieksa $ 0.45

D Wade Brookbank $0.45

Goaltenders:
G Roberto Luongo $ 5 (?)
G Mika Noronen $ 0.65 (?) Total Cost: $43 million

And there you have it! My 06/07 Canucks! Sure, not super stocked up, but pretty realistic (as new cap's projected to be around $42-44 mil), and still a pretty good team I think... last two lines definately interchangeable, but I was getting lazy near the end...

Notable names to discuss:
D Ed Jovanovski --> He wants to go to Florida, and Florida will be looking, and with friggin Bert going there, not to mention his defensive partner in Allen going there too, how the hell is Nonis going to keep Jovo in Vancouver? Besides, we got New Jovo in Bourdon coming in, heheheh...

D Wade Redden --> I'm thinking he's gonna ask for a ton of money, and Ottawa'd rather have Chara over Redden anyways... the perfect UFA replacement for Jovo!

LW Matt Cooke --> We got friggin Burrows now, we don't need no $1.5mil Cooke! TRADE BAIT!

D Nolan Baumgartner --> A UFA, proved that he belongs in the league last year, is awesome in the powerplay... we just can't afford Baumer!

RW Jarkko Ruutu --> Also a UFA, showed glimpses of offensive awesome (i.e. the shootout goals), we're probably not gonna bother resigning him. Plus, even if we did want to, I'm thinking he'd rather go play with his brother in Chicago...

RW Martin Havlat --> Trade for Cloutier, yes?? Possibly drafts or whatever, but hey, it's my fantasy roster... Havlat seems like a good fit, to me at least...

And now it's 10pm, and I've wasted enough time on the 'Nucks.

Until next time, I guess...