Trials, Tribulations, but Mostly Trades (Abbotsford Canucks Season in Review)

Trials, Tribulations, but Mostly Trades ​

It’s been a while since I dipped into the pool of media, and I thought what better way to do that than to dive into discussing the turbulent season that was the S23 Abbotsford Canucks. I apologize if this is a bit verbose, but there’s a lot to talk about so without further ado, let’s start with where it all began.

Bidding

For those of you that have been following the Canucks season, you know that the only players left on the team from bidding in the final week were the managers (myself, Muzzin, and GhostBear). When you see the original roster, it becomes abundantly clear why things ended up that way. Ghost had this uncanny ability of making what is honestly my favorite part of LG the most stressful and arduous task imaginable. Mind you, I wasn’t even on the team when the “bid list” (if you can even call it that) was formed, but once I found out his plan, I wanted to vomit out of every orifice I could.

Ghost devised the long-obsolete strategy of forming a west line with 6 players who could dominate on West ping. First of all, lol. Second of all, every competent manager knows all you have to do is veto west, and then it just doesn’t happen. Every manager has the opportunity to veto a server so obviously they would do that 11 times out of 10. On top of that strategy, Ghost had taken a decently long siesta from LG so he was going off knowledge of players from NHL 22 and prior, going as far as to pull up stats of games from Season 19 where those players lost just to justify their current skill in a game where friendships, strategies, and the meta had changed. Muzzin knew some players he wanted. The list was short, I’m still not sure if he even got more than two players that he sought after, and Ghost did most of the frenetic clicking for the 2.5 days of bidding.

After the dust settled, this was our roster going into week 1:

Goalies

@iamchillson (if you know the video, you know the video)

@Hxwkeye-_- (completely honest, have no fucking clue who this guy is)

Defensemen

@Crushinslices - LD (signed up as a West player just for shits, lives in Ontario, nice…)

@Mxzzin – LD/RD (manager, angry, good at the game when he wants to be)

@HeyKep – LD/RD (disgruntled slightly overpaid AGM, was told I’d be held hostage, so I bought in)

@Pertuu- - LD (forward turned defenseman, bid on to specifically play with other QC players)

@Heatmiser47 – LD (West-ish player I think, uses NHL94 controls, still got a bid in the A despite going 1-20 the season prior)

@JuiceStainz53 – RD (West player, career CHLer, was on my first ever LG team and just argued with everyone)

Forwards

@TTVGhostColeton – LW (Put up good stats in the CHL, won a mem, relatively unknown to the AHL)

@HowRawTooRaw – LW (I knew him as a center, we picked him up to play wing with Freez and Exo, it just didn’t work)

@GhostxBearx – LW-turned C-turned LW-turned C-turned LW (You know him, you love him, he admittedly never uses the right stick except to shoot forehand exclusively. There’s your scouting report)

@xKobeskrt – LW (West player, massively overpaid at 5.25m, Ghost expected him to carry offensively on a West line, but we just watched him skate into people or walls and traded him as soon as we could)


@BK_0994 - C (West player, notably solid in every league I’ve seen him in, Ghost expected him to carry West line defensively)

@FreeZ-o-R – C (QC, grinds the game a lot, expected to carry a significant offensive load)


@xXexodusXx- - RW (QC, grinds the game with Freezor, chemistry pickup; Muzzin wanted both of these guys)

@x-_9-Shield-8_-x – RW (picked up to play with Coleton, with whom he won a mem cup, QC)

@Itz_Telly – RW (West player, decent scorer, great guy and my favorite dude on the team until he wasn’t on the team anymore)


Notice any issues with this roster? Me too.

There wasn’t a ton of proven skill on this roster to go around. Ghost clearly had great intentions with picking up players with chemistry and players on similar servers, but the skills/abilities/talent (I feel embarrassed to ever use this word to describe video games) were lacking in spades. On defense, we had two proven guys in Muzz and myself, two guys who would’ve likely been far more valuable at forward, and two guys who wouldn’t have even been expensive in the CHL let alone catch a bid in the A. Offensively, we had a couple of good chemistry situations on paper and several west players who Ghost thought could mesh together.

So, what went wrong in Week 1? Well, basically everything but defense ironically. We tried to put all the West guys together, but availability made that impossible. We put the guys with good chemistry together and both of those lines mustered a combined one win. The Freez/Exo/Raw line scored two goals in three games, and they seemed to perform arguably the worst of any front three in the AHL (truly no offense to them, it happens, and I still play with Freez and Exo when I can). So, what happened next? Alarm bells rang non-stop until Ghost could rattle off some adrenaline-fueled trades to hopefully turn the tides. I’ll admit, I was horny for trades too, as was Muzzin. This was a constant theme as we made 49(!!!) trades in Season 23.


Please note, in the interest of time, if the trade wasn’t significant or none of the players played on our roster, I probably won’t mention it.


Trades/Traidz!

5/23/2023

Abbotsford Canucks receive:
KENNYHITMANHART (Call-up LD)
HandsOnWood (ECU RD/C)


Hartford Wolfpack receive:

Gerbs94 (CHL manager ECU RD)

The Canucks made many worse trades than this one and it ended up working out very well for us. Kenny was disgruntled to find out we were calling him up and started some drama about inactivity in the discord. We eventually picked up his buddy and they put together some successful games. HandsOnWood was our best ECU this season and helped us in a lot of important moments at both center and RD. If he ever decides to stop managing in the C, he’s well worth several AHL bids at either position. We also had another ECU on his team who helped us a ton, NoPuckzGiven. Having two guys like that on TC will make any manager happy.

Gerbs is a buddy so we picked him up in the TC draft but he was adamant that he would never set foot in a Canucks game as long as Ghost was managing, so we sent him on his way before Ghost could start some more shit than was necessary.

Grade: A


Abbotsford Canucks receive:

Alexdrum100 (C)

xXiCb4uCxX (G)


Cleveland Monsters receive:

HowRawTooRaw (LW/C)

Iamchillson (G)

This trade was basically a 2-for-1 as Alexdrum took a ban shortly after this trade took place. Raw wasn’t meshing with Freezor and Exo, and Chillson wasn’t performing up to expectations (though I’m not sure how high they truly were). IC, while a serviceable goalie, had some sliding tendencies that needed to be ironed out while he was with us. Led to some questionable games.

Grade: C-


5/24/2023

Abbotsford Canucks receive:

Hot_Pocket_Handy (LD)


Hershey Bears receive:

Heatmiser47 (LD)

While I had never heard of Handy, I was pretty confident he was better than Heatmiser so we wanted to make this trade before teams could think too hard about it. Was Handy an improvement? Yes. Was he worth keeping long-term? Not so much, but a step in the right direction is just that.

Grade: B-


Abbotsford Canucks receive:

Thebaldeagle69 (RD)

Snipindowntown (LW)


Toronto Marlies receive:

xKobeskrt (LW)

JuiceStainz53 (RD)

The ramifications of this trade were mostly positive. We parted ways with an overpaid west player, and a west CHL player. This was one of several moves in my quest to part ways with as many west players as possible (except Telly :\). This trade was also a core contributor towards a downhill spiral for the Marlies. Baldeagle was Kenny’s buddy, so we paired them together and things worked out fairly well. Snipin was a trade piece for one of Season 23’s notorious menaces, Doer. I would’ve rather kept Snipin or at least waited to see what else was out there.

Grade: B


Abbotsford Canucks receive:

xDoer3 (LW)

Incomparable aG (TC C)


Tucson Roadrunners receive:

Snipindowntown (LW)

Jeffmartin (TC D)


This would be the first of several times we picked up Doer. I was skeptical then, I was obviously skeptical the next few times after. He ended up being a trade chip. Incomparable was actually a solid Xbox player that was heating up in the C on PSN. Eventually got called up to play C for us.

Grade: B


5/25/2023

Abbotsford Canucks receive:

Loukzz Eh (RAV W/C)


Tucson Roadrunners receive:

French-Millk (ECU D)

French-Millk was another TC draft pickup alongside Gerbs. Getting two guys on the same team felt like a good idea, but they conspired against us to ensure we couldn’t play them and made Ghost mad. HandsOnWood and NoPuckzGiven worked out, and this pair just didn’t. Loukzz filled in for us in some games and was one of the better RAVs available, so we took a chance on him, and it worked out.

Grade: B+


5/31/2023

Abbotsford Canucks receive:

Anttzy- (C)

Not-freshhh23 (LW)

Danyironland (D)


Syracuse Crunch receive:

FreeZ-o-R (C)

xXexodusXx- (RW)

Pertuu- (LD)

Syracuse has been big on the French Connection the past couple of seasons, so this was probably a no brainer for them. Pertu played too offensively for us and Freez and Exo couldn’t get anything going with us despite their chemistry. They finished out their season well with Syracuse. Dany would’ve been a notable improvement, but we kept him around for just a week. Fresh provided a needed scoring punch at times, and Ant was a good player but ya know, a personality.

Grade: B-


Abbotsford Canucks receive:

Biscuit27- (RW)

FrewX93 (G)

Krxonik (C)

Rockshow84 (ECU LD)


Calgary Wranglers receive:

Hot_Pocket_Handy (LD)

xDoer3 (LW)

BK_0994 (C)

I’ll admit, I was completely stoked for this trade when it happened because it was an absolute fleece. Biscuit, while pissed to be spit up and chewed out by Gonzo, was a great addition for our offense and locker room. Frew would be the first step towards solving a goaltending issue and Krxonik (if not for his inevitable toxicity) would’ve been a great player to have to steer our offense in a positive direction. However, Frew broke his collarbone so he had to take a ban, and Krxonik was a veritable thorn in our side as he provided minimum avail to ensure we wouldn’t keep him around unless we played him with Ant who we kept flip-flopping about. This trade would’ve been an A grade if all had gone according to plan.

Grade: B-


Abbotsford Canucks receive:

Piquxnte96 (LD)

Billybobjo12344 (ECU RW)


Henderson Silver Knights receive:

x-_9-Shield-8_-x (RW)

Hxiskanen (ECU)

Jimbo_Slice093 (LD)

This was another okay trade for us, but with some caveats. We traded Shield because he literally made 0 passes in his final game of the night and went a bit toxic, and I was happy to part ways with two ECUs that weren’t going to see time. Piquxnte was a risk in my opinion, because while he’s a great forward, he has the tendency to pinch on defense despite good thumbs. Ghost was weirdly gung-ho about calling up this billybob guy because he had a shitload of goals, but he was obviously being carried and I had to discourage him multiple times. This trade felt like a damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario at the time.

Grade: C+


6/6/2023-6/10/2023

Abbotsford Canucks receive:

Tu-Hye (LD)

Sdpfns (this is Marshy…RW/C)


Toronto Marlies receive:

Anttzy- (C)

Piquxnte96 (LD)

One of the more pervasive themes throughout this season was our (re: Ghost’s) incessant need to trade for guys and trade them back like he was passing trading cards around in his basement. This was the first of several instances. Neither Tu-Hye nor Marsh played a single game with our team, and I was so certain they would be great contributors despite their price tags. And then we just traded Marsh right the fuck back to Toronto with Dany for Ant. Waste of time with this one.

Grade: F


Abbotsford Canucks receive:

Sniiiider (RW)

Itt79 (ECU)


Iowa Wild, but really the Ontario Reign receive:

Krxonik (C)

In this instance, we were left with no choice, but Snider is a good guy to have around, and we managed to acquire his brother in a separate trade shortly after. We tried to get a slightly better return, but we had to pay the Ghost tax because teams knew we were stuck here.

Grade: C-


Abbotsford Canucks receive:

XxPasTrnack88 (RD)

Cameron_c46 (ECU)

Onion_Pie (ECU)


Cleveland Monsters receive:

Tu-hye (LD)

Snake123436 (ECU)

I’m not bitter, you’re bitter. Cox was a fine RD that didn’t use gold elite edges, but I was positive Tu-hye was worth keeping, at least for one week just to see…but nah. I’m sure somewhere in there we had to balance RDs with LDs, but I was offering to play either side we needed all throughout the season so a lot of these trades on a whim for different defensemen could’ve been avoided.

Grade: D


6/15-6/21/2023

Abbotsford Canucks receive:

AyoItzCarter- (G)


Hershey Bears receive:

Baxkyy (ECU G)

Itz_Telly (RW)

We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to potentially have a tandem of Carter and Frew if not for his injury, but a #1 G for a goalie that howls in party and a 2/3-line west RW was a no-brainer.

Grade: A


Abbotsford Canucks receive:

Savvyy4 (RW)

xSquxre-_- (G)


Milwaukee Admirals receive:

Anttzy- (C)

xXiCb4uCxX (G)


The struggles of iC could finally be resolved, and also the incessant whining from Ant because I didn’t invite him to a club game (among other minor issues). Square was definitely an improvement at goalie alongside Carter, but we overrated the offensive utility of Savvy so we shortly shipped him off to his pals in Belleville.

Grade: B-


Abbotsford Canucks receive:

CLiiNcH (C)

DirtyWings13 (LD)

Cam-l7l (ECU)


Belleville Senators receive:

CrushinSlices (LD)

Savvyy4 (RW)


Crushin was one of the last original roster players to drop. I was uneasy about him throughout the season knowing how responsibly he plays at forward. He used some odd builds at defense so I questioned whether he was playing as well as he could. Savvy didn’t click with our team, and we knew he was boys with Belleville, so we parted with him. I really tried to get long-time friend and stud Striznizz basically every week of the season and Belleville wouldn't budge.

Clinch was one of my favorite pickups all season, but we only had him for a short time (truly one of the most unfortunate moves of the season was getting rid of him). I’m not even sure if he played with us but we REALLY needed to bolster our center play at this point in the season. This whole trade was kind of moot by season’s end.

Grade: C


Abbotsford Canucks receive:

Default888 (C)


Manitoba Moose receive:

Sniiiider (RW)

Ferdaboiss69 (C)

Knowing that Snider wanted to stay with his brother and having the opportunity to once again improve center play (and then not keep yet another formidable center), this felt stupid at the time, and I felt bad for shipping good guys to a struggling team. Nothing came of this trade directly because we eventually included Default in a blockbuster for Doer, yet again, mostly because of his 5-mill salary.

This trade would serve as a springboard for a lot of weird trades in a row though including sending Baldeagle to Utica (a great fit) for xPronger and Hudon, sending Schmidty (struggled with us, tore it up with the Reign) and Kenny to the Cuda for Cxrp (a call-up risk at LW who we traded immediately) and Oli5858 (trade chip LD). The grade of this trade signifies more so the fact that this is around the time when trades definitively stopped making sense and it felt like we were trading just to trade.

Grade: D


Abbotsford Canucks receive:

Tagthehash24 (LD)

TTV_XMattyX__ (ECU leading scorer in the CHL)


Lehigh Valley Phantoms receive:

TTVGhostColeton (LW)

Oli5858 (LD)

If I recall correctly, Coleton was the last player left standing from our original roster that wasn’t management, so this trade was significant for that reason, plus we fortified our defense with Tag. Coleton had taken a turn for the worse at this point in the season, but I’m sure a lack of chemistry across the roster didn’t do him or the team for that matter any favors. For some reason, Ghost thought Matty would waive protection to play with a struggling AHL team instead of coasting to being leading scorer in the CHL. Didn’t make sense at all, but it was good to have him as an option in any case.

Grade: A-


6/22-6/28/2023 – The beginning of the end

The Canucks had finally gotten into somewhat of a groove with improving the roster, but Ghost needed to trade his cards for gold and then a pile of coal that someone took a shit in.

Abbotsford Canucks receive:

TGil36 (top line RW)

Wadden l32l (RAV)


Springfield Thunderbirds receive:

Xcxrp34 (LW, formerly getclxpped, really solid player)

XxHudon77xX (RA A, call-up eligible, iffy avail)

Desveaux_x_19 (RAV G/C never joined our discord)

This trade was dramatic because we gave Broberg two good players for TGil who was a very active and safe choice to pick up. Broberg went as far as to AC us after realizing he traded a first line player for two risky players, despite us giving him as much information as we could. TGil would later be moved but while he was with us, I was hoping he was there for the long haul.

Grade: A-


THEN WE TRADED FOR DOER TWO MORE SEPARATE TIMES. HE WAS INVOLVED IN 5 TRADES WITH US. AM I CRAZY? DOES THAT SOUND CRAZY? WOW.

Abbotsford Canucks receive:

xDoer3 (LW)

Kxngsb3rry_ (LD)

Habsfan4200 (ECU)


Syracuse Crunch receive:

Wadden l32l (RAV)

MadLuigi_Qc (ECU G)

Default888 (C, who has chemistry with Doer…)

xPronger44 (LD, never played with us)

UnboGazebo (ECU D)


I mean…I get it. We needed better defensive players, and Doer was going to just be a trade piece, fine. Kingsberry is great, Doer is Doer. We did trade two good goalie ECUs, an expensive center who had chemistry with Doer (who we’d eventually get back, did I mention that?), and a fairly reliable defenseman.


Grade: B+ (at time of trade)


Then we make a really good fucking trade, I thought this was the end for sure.

Abbotsford Canucks receive:

ImSooSorreh (LW, our best pickup of the season)

Jerry1330 (LD, very reliable defenseman)


Laval Rocket receive:

xSquxre-_- (G)

xDoer3 (LW)

JonTurner15- (LD, by the way we got him and flipped him…)

Method-_-Man36 (ECU)


This was arguably our best trade all season. Sorreh is a top 10 scorer in the AHL. Paired with Biscuit, or really any good wing for that matter, he just makes plays and gets shit done. Jerry has been my boy for a while. I’ve always liked playing with him. I even insisted on playing with him, but I also wanted to play with Tag. Either way, he should’ve been a mainstay as well, but spoiler alert, he got shipped off after a week too. Cost issue certainly was part of it.

Grade: A (at time of trade)

Somewhere in here we traded for Twbai for some weird reason when we got a better defenseman for cheaper in NHL-MOST-HATED.

But then….

We just needed Doer back, I guess.


Abbotsford Canucks receive:

xDoer3 (LW)

ll_19-Toews (RAV C)


Laval Rocket receive:

CLiiNcH (C)

Zach-2- (ECU)

I truly didn’t get this. Doer was a pest all season, we had finally made a move where Sorreh and Biscuit could play with Clinch. It would be one of the best lines in the AHL. I truly believed that. But Muzzin needed Doer, or at least Ghost thought so. The inner workings of this still don’t make any sense to me and we were worse for it. Bar none. If we got 2 wins a week at least out of Doer, I would maybe eat my words. I don’t think he won more than a game a week except a week where he played two bottom feeder teams and barely eked out two wins.

Grade: D+


Then we immaculately picked up Saddzy for a CHL callup G, we picked up Nate and Storto for Kroner and a bunch of TCs somehow? Suspicious? We begrudgingly traded Incomparable aG (Ghost betrayal after calling him up and promising to keep him) for Pezdemic which did work out for us. Then, the week of the deadline we had no choice but to clear cap, so we had to let some key pieces go that I really didn’t want to.

7/5-7/6/2023

Abbotsford Canucks receive:

Jblaze0514 (RD)


Iowa Wild receive:

Kxngsb3rry_ (LD)

This was an unfortunate move to have to make. I think if we did things a little bit differently with some you-know-whos, we could’ve kept Kingsberry no problem. We ended up flipping Jblaze for yyaRayy just so we can make it to the last week under cap. Ray was fine as a third liner but nothing more, but I think he filled his role as best as he could under the circumstances.

Grade: C-


Abbotsford Canucks receive:

KarlssonIsGod (LW)

Kabraxis7 (RD)


Colorado Eagles receive:

TGil36 (RW)

JointedCascade5 (LD)

I won’t deny, this was somewhat of a buddy trade, but again we needed to clear cap and the Eagles had nowhere to go. Karlsson would bolster our left side and Brax was a fine third liner, but at the expense of trading someone like TGil, this was quite a gut punch. He and Clinch were the guys I most regret seeing us send away.

---------------------

As y’all know by now, we missed the playoffs by a hair, and we can make all the excuses in the world, but this team was never consistent enough. We had to pay a lot of trade taxes given our sheer propensity to throw players at anyone and everyone, so it put targets on our back. We also traded for a lot of expensive players and used a TON of CHL/ECU players to “make ends meet.” A team without chemistry and continuity can’t succeed in LG. It all starts at bidding, and then you should have a well-rounded squad of players you mostly had at the beginning of the season with a few small changes where necessary. Taking basically a CHL team at bidding and almost making playoffs was a triumph in my honest opinion.

This is the roster I would’ve liked to see by season’s end, given all the trades we made and all the guys we had throughout the season. I checked to make sure this roster fell under the cap, and these are listed in order of cost by position, not by line. There are some notable omissions and I’m likely even looking like I’m contradicting myself but a lot of the guys we had were very expensive.

Goalies

Saddzy- ($2.5m)

AyoItzCarter- (called up in the last two weeks, $1m)


Defensemen

Kxngsb3rry_ (LD $3.5m)

xNatel17l (LD, $1.25m)

Tagthehash24 (LD, $1m)

HeyKep (RD, $3.5m)

Thebaldeagle69 (RD, $1.5m)

Mxzzin (RD, $0)


Forwards

ImSooSorreh (LW, $3.5m)

xCxrp34- (LW, $750k)

GhostxBearx (LW, $0)

Krxonik (C, $2.5m)

Pezdemic (C, $1m)

Incomparable aG (C, $750k)

TGil36 (RW, $4.25m)

Biscuit27- (RW, $1.25m)

Dunsii (RW, $1m)


Notable Omissions/Honorable Mentions

Jerry1330 (LD, $3m)
CLiiNcH (C, $3.75m)
Tu-hye (LD, $3.5m)
Marshy (RW/C, $5.5m)
xStorto (RW/C, $4.25m)

TL;DR: We did very poorly in bidding, we made a lot of trades. Some were great, others not so much. We battled salary cap and chemistry issues all season long, and the lack of continuity and chemistry on our team ultimately bit us in the ass when it mattered most.

 

I’ve never had the same line up all season long thanks for giving me my chance, for one week

 

I still have you blocked, but impressive use of orifice.

 

Thank you for not acquiring me

 

Thank you, it's one of the better words.

 

I was here for good time but not a long time. Great write up!

 

I didn’t get carried

 

We have had a top 6 team towards the end. We couldve made some noise in the Playoffs. Sadly Cuda losing to Coachella 7-1 didnt help and if that doesn't scream selling, then what dose.

 

Kinda hurtful I’m not a honourable mention with my 2 (I think) weeks played lmao

 

Only reason you weren't is because your situation put you out of commission lol. We couldn't put you back on the team when we wanted to.