So we are now seeing the wings and hawks squaring off in the western conference final. For all those canucks fans wondering what happened, I'll answer with my own opinions and give some analysis on where they should go from here ( if you're a flames fan then you're probably thinking they can go to heck). 

First off, for most of this series the hawks were the faster team, but to the canucks credit, they did play a good trap in game 3. Luongo was good but he wan't great, he's human so you can't blame him if he has a bad game here or there . I think he'll be even better next season and that this was just a learning curve , no net issues for the 'nucks in 09-10.

The most obvious observation  would be that they need more speed , size, and players less injury prone. They struggled with likes of Byfuglien all series long and as stated before, the hawks were the faster team. So where do they go from here?

The Sedins are one of the biggest question marks . Rumor has it that the dynamic duo are looking for 6 million+ a peice next year. Do let your leading points getters go and risk alex burrows not performing well with anyone else, or do you swallow the hit on the cap and thus handicap the team. Right now they make a little better than 3 million so that would deplete 5 million dollars of current cap space. 

Other players who might be making an exit include Ossi Vannanen ( 1 million),Kyle Wellwood [RFA] ( 1 million), Jannik Hansen [RFA] ( 0.5 million )Mats Sundin ( $5million + ), Taylor Pyatt ( 1.5 million), Mattias Ohlund ( 3.5 million), Shane O'brien [ RFA] ( 1 million ), Rob Davison ( 0.5 million ), Jason Labarberra and Curtis Sanford ( 0.8 and 0.6 million respectively ).So if all of these guys leave , the Canucks will have about $15 million in cap space to work with ( assuming todays cap) . keep in mind luongo is supposed to make 7.5 million next year.

I would keep Labarberra and sign him to 1mil/yr. I would definitely let Mats go , re-sign taylor Pyatt 1.75mil/yr, and I would let go Ohlund, Davison. I would sign wellwood to a three year 1.5 mill/yr , vanannen to a 1.25mill/yr and i would sign hansen to 0.85/yr.That's just about 7.5million in cap space right there , if the Sedins were to leave Vancouver, you could ad another 7 million to that for a total of about 13.5 million in cap space when you calculate Luongo's salary increase. That means they need 2 top centers  , 1 top six winger, 2 defencemen.

Or maybe just try to re-sign everyone . post a comment.