Latest On The State Of The Vancouver Canucks
It’s no secret the Vancouver Canucks are struggling to start the season; in fact, it’s probably the biggest storyline of the young NHL season. After the team similarly struggled to start last season, they fired then-Head Coach Travis Green, replacing him with Bruce Boudreau. Post-coaching-change, the team went on a sensational run to finish the season, nearly securing a playoff berth. Despite the turn around, many believed the organization would look to make some rather substantial changes to its core, centered around trades of Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller. Instead, both players were extended and remain with the team.
The outlook for this season appeared questionable, as the group didn’t seem like a basement team or a Stanley Cup contender. However the 0-4-2 start, which included a record-breaking four straight losses after having a multi-goal lead to start the season, was unexpected and has created plenty of frustration in Vancouver among players, coaches, management, media, and fans alike.
Last night after the Canucks’ 5-1 loss at home to the Buffalo Sabres, Canucks President Jim Rutherford appeared on Hockey Night In Canada to discuss an array of topics, but most notably, the state of the Canucks. When asked whether the organization was “steadfastly opposed” to a rebuild, Rutherford said:
“Well, I think people have to realize how long rebuilds are. You look at some of the teams that went through it, and we look at how good they are now, but there were a lot of tough years. We may very well be in a rebuild in the direction we’re going. But, ideally we’d like to transition this team on the fly.”
Rutherford’s comments are quite interesting as they seem to give a genuine answer, but one that is at the same time, not very clear as to what exactly that means or where the organization sees itself going, points out ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski.
Looking closer, in onsense, a rebuild on the fly could look something like the Dallas Stars, who transitioned from a team lead by Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, John Klingberg, and Ben Bishop, featuring up-and-comers like Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, Miro Heiskanen, and Jake Oettinger, to one that’s now lead by Robertson, Hintz, Heiskanen and Oettinger, featuring veterans like Benn, Seguin, and Joe Pavelski, as well as top prospects like Wyatt Johnston, Logan Stankoven, Mavrik Bourque and Riley Damiani. The Stars transition was made up of teams that were rarely non-competitive and at its height, included a Stanley Cup Final appearance. Vancouver, much like those Dallas teams has, and has had, plenty of talent up and down its roster.
Another way of looking at the ‘on the fly’ rebuild is a team like the New York Rangers, who chose to hold on to a few key building blocks like Mika Zibanejad, Pavel Buchnevich and Chris Kreider, but deal a majority of their veteran players for young players and draft picks. Instead of taking a drawn out approach, the team went after top free agent talent, primarily Artemi Panarin, counted on the development of prospects they already had or were able to select with their returns, namely Igor Shesterkin and K’Andre Miller, and admittedly got somewhat lucky with players like Adam Fox choosing them and the draft lottery helping them select Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere. But, unlike Dallas, the Rangers quicker approach involved trading top talent and a few very lean years in the standings. It also involved, ironically when looking at the current Canucks, trading J.T. Miller.
Worth considering when it comes to the Canucks as they stand right now, is transitioning on the fly isn’t as clear as it is for other teams. For the Rangers, the writing was on the wall that the long-term future of the franchise was not J.T. Miller, Ryan McDonagh, Derick Brassard, or Kevin Hayes. Those players were taking a substantial portion of their salary cap and for some, getting close to hitting the free agent market. In Dallas, Benn had struggled, Seguin had injury woes, and Klingberg seemed to be a luxury they one-day couldn’t afford, but their young players all seemed to be developing as well as expected – it appeared it was merely a matter of time.
After the above quote on the state of the franchise, Rutherford continued:
“We do have some core players, some young players, that are really good. We just have to keep working and try to work through this. But we will continue to try to add younger players to this team and bring it together here in the next year or so.”
In Vancouver, the pieces rumored to be on the go the most were Miller and Boeser, who were both extended this offseason. The future of Bo Horvat, the team’s captain, was up in the air, but an extension seemed forthcoming after Boeser and Miller, however Horvat remains unsigned with free agency looming this coming offseason. There appears to be another young core coming, just like there was in Dallas, with Elias Pettersson, Vasily Podkolzin, Quinn Hughes, and Thatcher Demko, but it’s that core that is starting to take shape in Vancouver, along with Miller, Boeser, and Horvat, that has gone through two consecutive rough starts.
The continuation of Rutherford’s words indicates his confidence in moving forward with that young core. But, notably, the team does not have the rich farm system a team like Dallas did. Forward Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Vancouver’s first-round pick in 2022, is the team’s first opening round selection since Podkolzin back in 2019.
All of this to say, the Canucks are still 0-4-2. Six games into the season, the team is not remotely close to being out of playoff contention. Last year’s Canucks, who started 8-15-2 appeared to be in a much more bleak position when Green was fired than they are now, and that team barely missed a playoff spot. That said, although a rebound is quite possible, Vancouver is still in a precarious position. One bit of Rutherford’s comments, separated from the rest, does appear to give an element clarity, at least depending how this story continues to unfold: “We may very well be in a rebuild in the direction we are going.”
Brock Boeser Undergoes Hand Surgery
After signing a new three-year, $19.95MM contract this summer, there was plenty of excitement around a potential bounce-back season for Brock Boeser and the Vancouver Canucks. Unfortunately, his debut will have to wait, as Boeser suffered a hand injury at practice on Saturday and underwent surgery today. He is out for three to four weeks.
The 2021-22 season was something of a disappointment for Boeser, who dealt with injury and the death of his father. He still scored 23 goals in 71 games, but his 46 points were the worst per-game pace of his career. With contract security in tow, it seemed likely that he could make it back to the dynamic offensive piece he was in years past.
Now, with another training camp disrupted by injury, it’s not clear what the Canucks will receive from Boeser for the first part of the year at least. A hand injury is certainly not what you want to hear for a player that relies so much on his shot, but hopefully, the three-week timeline has him back on the ice after missing just a few games.
With Boeser out – and Ilya Mikheyev, who is still being evaluated – there will be some minutes up for grabs in the top six. General manager Jim Rutherford did tell Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV today that Nils Hoglander has impressed him, and that Andrei Kuzmenko still has some adjustments to make with the North American game.
Vancouver Canucks Extend Brock Boeser
The Vancouver Canucks announced Friday that the team has agreed to terms on a three-year extension with winger Brock Boeser, worth $6.65MM per season. The contract carries a total value of $19.95MM and will take him to unrestricted free agency in 2025. Per CapFriendly, Boeser will have a limited no-trade clause in 2024-25, allowing him to name a 10-team no-trade list.
General manager Patrik Allvin gave the following statement on Boeser’s signing:
We’re very happy to have worked out a new deal for Brock. He is a very talented player and has been an effective goal scorer throughout his entire career. We look forward to seeing his game progress in the years to come. Now that his contract is in place for three seasons, Brock can shift his entire focus to on-ice performance.
The 25-year-old first-round pick has solidified a spot in Vancouver’s top six, looking to become an important scoring option for them for years to come. However, Boeser’s production took a step back in 2021-22, registering 23 goals and 23 goals for just 46 points in 71 games. He’s still yet to hit his career-high of 29 goals again, set in his rookie season in 2017-18. It’s that lack of scoring development that’s led the Canucks to explore trading him, mainly because Boeser was due a qualifying offer worth $7.5MM. With the Boeser able to settle on a cheaper cap hit, though, a reunion between the two parties became a possibility.
Boeser’s production did increase drastically once Bruce Boudreau took over behind the bench, though, a good sign for optimist Canucks fans. If Boudreau’s system can help him regain the play-driving ability that had previously made him an effective scorer, he can suddenly become a solid primary scoring option in Vancouver. If not, the team will likely have to settle on him as a secondary scoring option in order to be a contender in the Western Conference. With the team willing to commit over $6.5MM per season in an already tricky salary cap situation, though, they’re obviously banking on Boeser reaching his ceiling.
Latest On J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser
It’s no secret that the Vancouver Canucks are looking to build a more dynamic team worthy of contention. With new management installed, the team has already made some waves this offseason by signing top European free agent Andrei Kuzmenko. Vancouver still remains a popular name in trade talks, though, as the team is sitting on a pair of high-profile forwards that don’t seem to fit into the team’s long-term plans. TSN’s Darren Dreger said on Insider Trading today that the team is wide open to trading both J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser, noting that the Canucks are listening to strong market interest.
Dreger also notes that the Canucks aren’t interested in accumulating draft picks as parts of returns for Miller and Boeser. With the organization looking to make a playoff push as soon as possible, they prefer to acquire NHL-ready young talent in place of futures.
While Boeser is a free agent this offseason, he is under team control as an RFA. With a $7.5MM qualifying offer due to him, though, that’s too rich for the Canucks’ taste, especially considering his subpar 2021-22 performance (23 goals, 46 points in 71 games). In Miller’s case, the team is hesitant to give the 29-year-old forward too much term on a contract extension after a career season. Miller has one year remaining on a deal with a $5.25MM cap hit and is a UFA next summer.
If both Miller and Boeser are moved, it will undoubtedly be some of the biggest trade news of the offseason (save for all those Chicago Blackhawks trade rumors). It certainly seems as though Vancouver is more intent on trading both players as time passes by, making it seem more like an eventuality at this point.
Snapshots: Boeser, Rangers Black Aces, Miroshnichenko
It’s been a whirlwind of a season for the Vancouver Canucks, and perhaps even more so for Brock Boeser. As his team rose from the ashes of the late Travis Green/Jim Benning era, their collective stock pointed upwards under new coach Bruce Boudreau, Boeser himself has seen his stock as a core member of the Canucks fall to perhaps its lowest point in his professional career. As the season comes to a close, Boeser has put together a career-worst season, with only 46 points in 70 games. It’s a sharp decline from last season, when he was in strong form, posting 49 points in 56 games, and a decline that has led to his name being floated in trade rumors. The idea of trading Boeser was essentially unthinkable even just 12 months ago, but now as Boeser stands as a pending RFA with arbitration rights, a sizeable qualifying offer required to keep his services, and the ability to hit unrestricted free agency in short order, the idea has become far more realistic than it has ever been.
But as it stands, the idea of trading Boeser may be unrealistic after all, though. According to Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV, “everything is on the table” in terms of an extension for Boeser. Dhaliwal notes that while it once seemed as though the team would need to either commit to Boeser long-term or find a new home for him, it now seems that, as Dhaliwal puts it, “everybody is okay with even a short-term deal.” In summation, Dhaliwal reports that the Canucks “are going to work hard to try to get Boeser re-signed,” and that the possibility of a trade is “not something [he’s] hearing.” While the idea of what Boeser could return in a trade might be tantalizing, Dhaliwal’s reporting has to come as a welcome development for Canucks fans. For all the faults in his play this season, Boeser is still a young star offensive player who only last year was scoring at a near point-per-game rate. The idea of trading him was always going to be a tough sell to a devoted fanbase eagerly awaiting the team’s return to contention, and it seems like the Canucks’ management team agrees with that sentiment.
Now, for some other notes from across the NHL.
- One of the aspects of building a potential Stanley Cup-winning team that is often highly important but also somewhat under-recognized is the impact of a team’s organizational depth. A team’s organizational depth is flexed through their “black aces,” or the players who are attached to their team as they compete in the playoffs but don’t dress for games on a regular basis. They are the players who are around to be ready at a moment’s notice, and with the brutal nature of playoff hockey, it is more likely than not that a team will have to dip into their reserves of players as they go deep into the playoffs. The New York Rangers hope to be one of those teams going deep into the playoffs, and today Larry Brooks of the New York Post reported the group of players who will make up the Rangers’ Black Aces. The Rangers will have a group of seven players, per Brooks: Zac Jones, Nils Lundkvist, Matthew Robertson, Jarred Tinordi, Lauri Pajuniemi, Tim Gettinger, and Keith Kinkaid.
- In a bit of good news, there is a positive update on prospect Ivan Miroshnichenko. Miroshnichenko is one of the most talented players available for this year’s NHL draft, but in March it was announced that he had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, clouding his professional future. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports on his 32 Thoughts podcast that Miroshnichenko is heading into his final round of chemotherapy and that some NHL teams met with him in Germany. Friedman says that he was told Miroshnichenko “looks pretty good, all things considered.” Friedman stated that after his treatment, the focus for Miroshnichenko will be getting back into on-ice shape and that while his draft situation is still murky, the health updates have been positive. So while these updates may not restore his place at the top of NHL team’s draft boards, these reports do indicate that he is in a much better spot with his health, which is ultimately far more important.
Pacific Notes: Boeser, Kings, Ducks
Prior to the trade deadline, the Canucks hadn’t made any progress on a contract extension with winger Brock Boeser, reports Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston. It has been a quiet year by the 25-year-old’s standards as he has 19 goals and 19 assists in 60 games, numbers that aren’t bad but aren’t befitting of the $7.5MM salary he’s receiving this season which stands as his qualifying offer in July to retain his rights. It’s that situation that had Boeser in trade speculation heading into the deadline and will continue to have him in that until a new deal can be reached. Vancouver can take him to arbitration and offer 90% of the qualifying offer but that’s as low as they can go and it’s something they can only do once with Boeser.
More from the Pacific:
- Kings defenseman Tobias Bjornfot is nearing a return from the undisclosed injury that has kept him out for the last couple of weeks, relays Zach Dooley of LA Kings Insider. The 20-year-old has held down a regular spot on the third pairing for Los Angeles this season, averaging over 16 minutes a night in his sophomore year. Meanwhile, winger Brendan Lemieux was a full participant in practice for the first time since sustaining a lower-body injury three weeks ago. He leads the Kings in penalty minutes (86) and sits second in hits (108) in his 44 contests.
- Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf is expected to be a game-time decision for Saturday’s game against San Jose, notes Elliott Teaford of the Orange County Register (Twitter link). The veteran has missed the last three weeks with a lower-body injury but still sits tied for fourth in team scoring. Winger Troy Terry should be back for that game, however, after missing Wednesday’s contest due to illness.
Snapshots: Senators, Hagel, Boeser
The Ottawa Senators don’t want to be sellers anymore. General manager Pierre Dorion spoke with Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, explaining that he hopes this is the last deadline for his club to move pieces out, instead of bringing them in. Nick Paul is the player who sticks out as a featured trade candidate, given his expiring, inexpensive contract, though there are certainly others.
Chris Tierney, Zach Sanford, Tyler Ennis, and others are also on expiring deals and headed for UFA status, though Dorion doesn’t even know exactly how much they’ll sell at all.
- Among the top few names on Daily Faceoff’s trade targets board is one that wouldn’t normally be expected; Chicago Blackhawks’ Brandon Hagel is listed fourth, with Frank Seravalli noting that the Florida Panthers, Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, and Calgary Flames have all looked into the young forward. With two more years on his contract at a very inexpensive $1.5MM cap hit, Hagel’s price tag would likely be extremely high.
- The pair of Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman discussed several Vancouver Canucks forwards on the latest 32 Thoughts podcast for Sportsnet, including pending restricted free agent Brock Boeser. Marek suggests once again that the New Jersey Devils would be a good fit for the sniper, given the big qualifying offer he’s owed after this season.
Snapshots: Nemeth, Fines, Boeser
The New York Rangers have moved Patrik Nemeth to injured reserve, and Mollie Walker of the New York Post reports that it is believed to be due to lingering effects from COVID-19. Nemeth has not played since January 22, missing six games during his current absence. He dealt with a symptomatic bout of COVID in December.
The 30-year-old defenseman signed a three-year, $7.5MM contract last July and has suited up 38 times for the Rangers this season. Always known as a stay-at-home option, he has just two points during that time and is averaging just over 17 minutes a night. It is not clear when he will be ready to return to action and the team has not confirmed Walker’s report.
- The NHL has handed out a pair of fines today, one to a player and one to a coach. Nashville Predators head coach John Hynes was fined $25K for “inappropriate conduct” following Tuesday’s game against the Washington Capitals. The league did not release any specifics about the incident, though there have been other fines handed out to coaches including Rod Brind’Amour of the Carolina Hurricanes and Rick Bowness of the Dallas Stars. While Hynes is out $25K, Calgary Flames forward Adam Ruzicka will have to pay $2,004.17 for his elbow on Kevin Shattenkirk last night. That is the maximum allowable by the current CBA based on Ruzicka’s salary.
- Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff has added Brock Boeser to his board of trade targets, even wondering if the New Jersey Devils could be a fit for the Vancouver Canucks sniper. Notably, Boeser is due a $7.5MM qualifying offer this summer as a restricted free agent, a salary that outpaces his production from this season. Still, since Bruce Boudreau took over in Vancouver there has been a noticeable improvement from the sniper, including four goals and eight points in his last seven games.
Snapshots: Malkin, Canucks, Robertson
Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan spoke to reporters today, saying that injured center Evgeni Malkin is taking line rushes in his normal second-line center spot and is taking scrimmages on the top power play. He’ll officially be listed as a game-time decision for tomorrow’s game against Anaheim. If Malkin is healthy enough to go, it’ll be his first NHL game since May 26, 2021, his first in six and a half months. Malkin was expected to be out indefinitely after undergoing knee surgery in June 2021. Now, after missing Pittsburgh’s first 34 games of the season, he’s hopefully fully healthy and ready to go for the stretch run.
Other notes from around the league:
- Three Vancouver Canucks forwards who were previously in COVID protocol – Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and Jason Dickinson – are likely to return when the Canucks kick off a road trip on Tuesday against Florida, per NHL.com’s Kevin Woodley. All three exited protocol today and practiced with the team. It will be Vancouver’s first game since New Years Day, a 5-2 win against Seattle.
- Top Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Nick Robertson is recovering from a leg injury that’s sidelined him since mid-October 2021, and their AHL head coach, Greg Moore, says Robertson is skating with the Toronto Marlies again and could play in a “couple of weeks.” It’s great news for Robertson, who’s been taken out of the lineup by long-term injuries each of the past two seasons. He has 19 points in 29 games between the NHL and AHL since the beginning of 2020-21.
Boeser, Di Giuseppe, Dowling Placed In COVID Protocol
Dec 30: The Canucks have put Justin Dowling into the protocol today. Of note, Dowling played last night against the Ducks, though it was fewer than eight minutes of actual ice time.
Dec 29: The Vancouver Canucks have announced that Brock Boeser, Phillip Di Giuseppe, and a member of the team’s support staff have been placed in the COVID protocol. Patrick Johnston of The Province reports that both players tested positive this morning in Anaheim, after traveling to face the Ducks tonight.
Losing Boeser ahead of tonight’s match will make it a lot tougher on the Canucks, who are actually working on a six-game win streak despite having not hit the ice since December 16. The team hasn’t lost a game under new head coach Bruce Boudreau, and a big part of that success has been the rejuvenated Boeser, who has five goals and seven points during that stretch.
While the two players would normally be subject to the league’s recently-reduced isolation period given they’re in the U.S., it certainly won’t help them in this case. The team’s road trip ends on Saturday and with the Canucks heading back to Canada, it is unclear when they will be ready to return to action (or even travel back to Vancouver). For now, the team will have to make do without their sniper or Giuseppe, who could have been the direct replacement for Boeser if he was eligible to enter the lineup.