Nonis Needs to be a Mathlete

Well you wanted it Vancouver. Now you've got it. Dave Nonis pulled the trigger on a deal that will see Roberto Luongo become the first marquee goaltender in the history of the Canucks. With all due respect to the likes of Richard Brodeur, Kirk Maclean and Dan Cloutier, Luongo is in the upper echelon of goaltenders. Don't believe me? Ask the likes of Wayne Gretzky, Kevin Lowe, and Pat Quinn - men charged with putting together the best team on the planet to play under the microscope at the Olympics. It's not just good PR that got Luongo on those teams.

So the Canucks have their puckstopper, now all they have to do is keep him. Luongo has been qualified at $3.2 million dollars but that deal expires at the end of this upcoming season. Both sides are eager to get a long-term deal done. And it's not going to be cheap. Luongo is expected to command around $7 million per season. And if the Canucks don't want to pay it, someone else will when Luongo becomes a free agent next summer.

So they'll sign Luongo (which they should) because you don't trade for one of the world's best goalies simply to trade him. Throw in Markus Naslund's contract and you've got $13 million spent on two players, a number that's a lot easier to stomach with the cap set at $44 million next season. Dan Cloutier will be traded now that Luongo's in town, meaning the Canucks will have 6 players under contract at $22.7 million. Dave Nonis has made it clear that he wants to be around $39 million to start the season, so you've got just over $16 million to play with. If you figure the Sedins will get long-term offers in the $3 million range and that Anson Carter should receive something in the low 2's, you've got $8 million left to sign anywhere from 12 to 14 players. Luc Bourdon gets his rookie deal, Nolan Baumgartner and Trevor Linden are most likely in the $650,000-$750,000 range and if Mika Noronen is your backup goalie, he'll make around the same. That's another $2.5 million on four roster spots.

So what do you have left and what do you need? $5.5 million, 5-6 forwards and 2-3 defencemen. If you keep Morrison and Naslund together, you'll need a right winger to play with them. Mark Parrish might not be a bad idea. He scored 29 goals last year but also made $1.9 million. If you could get him for a little bit less than that, it could be a good fit. That leaves you with four or five forward spots to fill on your third and fourth lines. On defence, Lukas Krajicek made just over half a million last season, and if he can play, the Canucks can probably get him for about $600,000. Nonis would still need another top four defenceman and those fourth line forwards.

Do you try to get a guy like blueliner Jay McKee for a couple of mill and then spend the remaining cash on young forwards aking the NHL minimum? Do you sign another forward with decent hands and take a chance with a couple of no-name (as of yet) defencemen? Whatever you do, you had better get guys who can skate. If this year's playoffs taught us anything. it's that speed and grit are at a premium in the "new NHL".

Dave Nonis has a plan and it all revolves around numbers. But the stats that matter more than goals and assists are dollars owed.

AV Should Make for Good TV

Alain Vigneault. The name doesn't exactly jump off the page at you like Scotty Bowman. But that's not to say the Canucks new bench boss won't do a hell of a job here in Vancouver. He's saying all the right things in his mandate to make the Canucks a hard working hockey team, which is all the Vancouver hockey fan has ever wanted. But most importantly to me, he insists he's not afraid to be frank when asked questions about the performance of both his team and players.

I don't want to hear that a guy who's paid to score goals is "doing a lot of good things out there" when he's mired in a 12 game goal-scoring drought. Don't tell me that "we're just getting a lot of bad breaks" when your penalty kill is giving up three goals every game. Praise them when they play well, but offer fair criticism when they underachieve. That's all I want and I think that's all most hockey fans want.

Vigneault says he will do just that. He says he won't attack players personally, but he will hold them accountable for their play. If that's the case, it should make for the kind of entertainment this market hasn't seen since Brian Burke left town. Some people can't stand guys like Tampa Bay's John Tortorella, a coach who has no problem with speaking his mind. "The Fonz" as he's often referrred to becuase of his uncanny resemblance to Henry Winkler, publicly ripped John Grahame after a brutal performance against the Senators during this year's playoffs.

"Three goals on four shots," fumed Tortorella after Grahame was ventilated by the Sens in the second period of Game 4. "I'm tired of the 25% rule. It's deflating. A save would be nice."

Is it throwing a player under the bus? Maybe. But Grahame was brutal in that game, and whether you like the Fonz's comments or not, he was telling the truth. I've got more respect for a guy that's honest than a guy who shields his players from any type of criticism by using cliche excuses to justify subpar performances.

Tell it like it is and don't make it personal. If that's what Alain Vigneault is bringing to the Canucks, then bring it on.