Steve's Picks for the 2010-11 Canucks

The next few weeks, before free agency quiets down and we're all forced to watch baseball highlights, are always a time to have some fun sculpting our own rosters. Although comparing us to Gillis is like pitting The Godfather against The Wolfman (I'm watching it now..it lives up to the hype and totally sucks balls), we at the HCP will give it a shot. And we'll try to avoid any NHL '10 trades, so unfortunately Malkin, Crosby, and Steve Chamberlain (skill rating: 99) will not be joining the team this year.

Signings:
Resign Mitchell to 1 year, $2 million
Sign Neidermayer to 1 year, $5 million
Sign Madden to 1 year, $3.0 million
Resign SOB to 2 years, $3.6 million
Resign Raymond to 3 years, $9.6 million

Trades:
Trade Bieksa for picks/prospects
Trade Bernier for picks/bags of pucks
Trade Salo for picks/prospects
One of those trades needs to get a 2nd round pick back

Offer sheets:
2nd rounder from Bieksa/Bernier/Salo trade to make a 4 year/$12 million offer to Hjalmersson

Final Roster: (tip of the hat to capgeek.com)

Daniel Sedin ($6.100m) / Henrik Sedin ($6.100m) / Mikael Samuelsson ($2.500m)
Mason Raymond ($3.200m) / Ryan Kesler ($5.000m) / Alexandre Burrows ($2.000m)
Jannik Hansen ($0.850m) / Cody Hodgson ($1.696m) / Jordan Schroeder ($1.025m)
Michael Grabner ($0.843m) /Madden ($3.000m) / Darcy Hordichuk ($0.775m)
Rick Rypien ($0.550m) / Tanner Glass ($0.500m)

Neidermayer ($5.000m) / Alexander Edler ($3.250m)
Christian Ehrhoff ($3.100m) / Hjalmersson ($3.000m)
Willie Mitchell ($2.000m) / Shane O'Brien ($1.800m)
Evan Oberg ($1.562m)

Roberto Luongo ($5.333m) / Cory Schneider ($0.900m)

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS
(these totals are compiled using the bonus cushion)
ROSTER: 23; CAP: $58.8m; PAYROLL: $60.085m; CAP ROOM: $0.828m BONUSES: $2.112m

I didn't really want get rid of Salo, but needed to in order to get under the cap. Gillis gets his Stanley Cup experience in Hjalmersson, Madden, and Neids and the Canucks get much, much more mobile on defense. However, the plan rests entirely on our young players like Oberg, Hodgson, Schroeder, and Grabner stepping up into big time roles.

Thoughts? Concerns? Think you've got the right package for Ovechkin and Green? Let us know.