TSN: Ray Ferraro was on TSN 1040 Vancouver yesterday. Moj, Rickie, and Dhaliwal are hearing free agent defenseman Travis Hamonic still may be in play for the Vancouver Canucks, and Ferraro was asked if he can still play and about the Canucks blue line.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“I think he’s a lower case Chris Tanev. He’s got some miles on him like Tanev did. He’s been banged up the last couple of years. Really, like a lot of the Flames, did not have a really good year last year. Got hurt late, and then in the return to play he opted out.
So, you know, we haven’t seen him in quite some time. You’re obviously looking at him at a more than reasonable price. You also have to consider if it’s not him or it’s not another defenseman, are you going to trust and be real confident in your last pair being Jordie Benn and virtual inexperienced? That’s pretty thin. So I’m not surprised that if the guys that are out there, that Hamonic might pop up.”
All of his stats, tradition and advanced, last year weren’t great, but the season before they were much better.
“We was, which I would say a lot of the Flames were kind of in the same boat. The 18-19 season they were flying high for most of the year. Last year with the coaching change, they were kind of muddling around for a long time.
He’s a defender, you’re not going to get any or very little, offense from him. Very simple player and in that regard I view him as a lower case Tanev.”
Ferraro on if they’d be better off playing kids, if he’d be an upgrade to their blue line.
“Well, I’m gonna say yes because I think I have a better feel for what he’s going to do as opposed to someone that’s never played before. But there is a point where you just got to just jump off into the water and say okay I’m going to give the kids an opportunity and maybe a shorter season, given a Canucks team that’s in my opinion is not what they were when they left the bubble. Maybe this is a good year to find growth. Find opportunity for your younger guys. Eventually, you have to pitch these kids in the water, right? They’ve got to play eventually.”
Hosts: If it’s a cheap one year deal, you may have nothing to lose at that point. Wouldn’t want to give term, would rather play the kids at that point. It may be tempting for the Canucks. Ferraro responds with:
“Ya, but what if, what if the option was, you can get a couple of those kids 35 games each?”
…
“But that will play, that has to play in to what they, the management, feels is their development road for this year. I mean there, it would be for me to think that they are going to waltz to the top of the Canadian division and have an easy spot in the playoffs.
It’s going to be a go, they are going to play teams 10 times. You know a couple teams they are going to play 10 times and it’s going to be a hard road.
So, if you think you can get yourself to a good spot, maybe you sign a veteran. If you don’t, maybe it’s best to take a look and say ‘hey, by the time we play these guys 35 of the 56 games each, as you rotate a couple guys around, then come 2021-22 season, we’re in way better shape. We’ll at least know what these players can do.’
Because if you sign the veteran you’re still going to have a question mark next September, next offseason.”