Tough choices await when Roussel returns
Forward ‘getting closer’ to making his debut after concussion; Sedins to have numbers retired
TAMPA, Fla. — Forward Antoine Roussel’s recovery from an off-season concussion is progressing well, according to his NHL team.
The French winger, signed as a free agent during the off-season, took a regular turn Thursday at the Vancouver Canucks’ morning skate in Tampa.
Canucks head coach Travis Green indicated Roussel’s return is imminent.
“He’s getting closer, for sure,” Green said. “He’s going to get pushed hard (Thursday) morning.”
Roussel stayed on the ice after the rest of his teammates left to do extra work in an effort to get him closer to being game ready.
When Roussel is cleared to play, the Canucks will have to make another roster move by putting a player on waivers unless another player is hurt.
For the last few seasons the Canucks have carried two extra healthy defencemen and an extra forward, but Green suggested that might not be the case when the time comes to put a player on waivers.
“I think anything is possible at this point,” he said. “It’s not going to be an easy decision to make.”
The decision to keep Tyler Motte to begin the season suggested the team isn’t planning to waive him anytime soon, so the Canucks will likely look at waiving winger Brendan Leipsic or a defenceman, most likely Alex Biega.
SEDINS TO BE HONOURED
Francesco Aquilini revealed Thursday on Sportsnet 650 the team plans to retire Henrik and Daniel Sedin’s numbers during the 2019-20 season, when the Canucks mark their 50th season in the NHL.
“We’re probably going to retire the Sedins’ jerseys next year,” the Canucks owner told Rick Dhaliwal, Perry Solkowski and James Cybulski.
“Henrik and Daniel are a big part of this community. They’ve given back so much. They’re iconic players. Iconic players and iconic people. We’re going to do something special for them.”
The date for the ceremony hasn’t been determined, but the Canucks are in talks with the league over scheduling. Aquilini suggested it would be a special celebration — possibly a week in length.
The Canucks have previously retired the numbers of Pavel Bure (10), Stan Smyl (12), Trevor Linden (16) and Markus Naslund (19).
Wayne Maki’s No. 11 has been informally withdrawn from use, except for the three-season period when Mark Messier played for the Canucks (1997-2000).
FUTURE IN UTICA AWAITS
The Vancouver Canucks’ lease at Utica’s Memorial Auditorium is up at the end of this American Hockey League season.
The Canucks own the Utica Comets and the AHL team has played there since 2013.
Asked Thursday by Dhaliwal to comment on the team’s future in upstate New York, Aquilini did not make any commitments, but acknowledged the team has an option to extend the lease.
He didn’t expand on the terms of that option, but the Utica Observer-Dispatch’s Ben Birnell reported the Canucks must make a decision by Jan. 1.
“There’s a lot of debate around that. There’s a lot of pros and cons,” Aquilini told Dhaliwal during his appearance on Sportsnet 650’s morning show.
Canucks management has regularly spoken positively about having the team in Utica, even if it’s not a direct flight away from the West Coast. The owner reiterated those feelings Thursday.
“Utica is a good hockey town. The building sells out every night,” he said. “But it’s far (from Vancouver).”
Still, the Comets do most of their travel by bus, he pointed out, which makes for lower travel costs and means the team has more time for practice.
Teams on the West Coast, like the grouping of AHL teams that has sprouted in California in recent years or the former Calgary Flames farm team that called Abbotsford home, have much higher travel costs when going to play teams out east. (With five of the teams in the AHL’s Pacific Division located in California, most of their schedule is managed through bus trips, as the Comets do now for most of their games.)
“I know there were a lot of complaints about travel,” Aquilini said of the five-year period when the Heat played at the Abbotsford Centre.
“(The AHL team’s location) is something we’re looking at all the time. Different markets. The Pacific Coliseum is an option. Abbotsford is an option.”
But no decision has been made. Aquilini said senior executives — the Canucks’ Jeff Stipec and the Aquilini Investment Group’s Adrian Montgomery — were “still evaluating that.”
Before signing the deal with Utica in 2013, the Canucks had looked at taking over the Abbotsford arena, but under similar terms to what the Flames had negotiated with Abbotsford city council, which was heavily favourable for the team and eventually saw the city pay more than $12 million to the NHL team because of a revenue guarantee in the lease.
But the city said it wouldn’t sign a lease with the Canucks under the same terms.
The Flames had originally signed a 10-year lease for the Heat to play in the new City of Abbotsford-owned arena, but attendance was low — the team averaged under 2,000 fans per game — and if revenue came in below $5.7 million for the season, the contract called for the city to make up the shortfall.
In addition to paying to operate the facility itself, Abbotsford taxpayers paid out $7.2 million over five years to the Flames to make up for the revenue shortfall. In the spring of 2014, the city paid the Flames $5.5 million to terminate the deal.
The Pacific Coliseum, on the grounds of the Pacific National Exhibition in east Vancouver, was home to the Canucks from 1970 until 1995 and the junior Vancouver Giants from 2001 until 2016.