Veterans clogging up the path to rebuild

Too many players with NHL aspirations are clogging up pipeline to the pro ranks

We now offer our own version of March madness, the musings and meditations on the world of sports:

Granted, predicting the Vancouver Canucks’ future machinations is an inexact science at best, but take out a pencil just for fun and sketch out the team’s forward lines for next season.

We’re going to make a couple of assumptions with our group. We have the Sedins coming back for another year. We’ve also given one spot to Adam Gaudette, which leaves us with nine vacancies. Now watch how fast the roster fills up.

Bo Horvat and Brock Boeser are mortal locks. The contracts of Brandon Sutter, Sam Gagner and, yeesh, Loui Eriksson pretty much guarantee them places. That leaves us with four spots.

Right now, Sven Baertschi gets one. We’re also going to write in Jake Virtanen, who has made significant strides over the last half of this NHL season, and Brendan Leipsic, who would have to clear waivers to be sent to Utica, N.Y.

That leaves us with one position to fill and here’s a list of the candidates: Elias Pettersson, Darren Archibald, Tyler Motte, Markus Granlund, Nikolay Goldobin, Brendan Gaunce, Nic Dowd, Reid Boucher, Zack MacEwen, Kole Lind, Jonathan Dahlen and Jonah Gadjovich.

This means a couple of things, not the least of which is the farm team in Utica might be more interesting to watch next season than the squad in Vancouver.

But the larger point is all those bodies puts some pressure on GM Jim Benning to make the kind of moves he’s been either unwilling or unable to make in his four years — trading roster players for draft picks.

True, you can argue about the market value of a lot of those players. But the Canucks can’t go into next season with 10 to 12 forwards in their system who have legitimate NHL aspirations — not accounting for free agency.

The point is the Canucks can’t have this mass of humanity clogging up the pipeline to the NHL club. They face a number of decisions this off-season, decisions that are crucial to the development of their young players and team.

If they’re going to dig themselves out of 28th place, they have to start getting those decisions right.

On a related note, if you were going to give the Canucks’ current NHL lineup the blue-sky treatment, there are two players who make you wonder what if ?

Virtanen, of course, is one of them and everyone can see there is a top-six power forward in there somewhere. The question is will he ever come out?

The other player, Derrick Pouliot, is a different case, but there’s also something in the 24-yearold defenceman that is tantalizing. He has the skill and vision to be a top-four blue-liner. But some combination of conditioning, strength and competitiveness is holding him back.

West Van’s Morgan Rielly was taken three spots ahead of Pouliot in the 2012 draft and has evolved into a top-pairing blue-liner for the Toronto Maple Leafs. They’re similar in stature. Their numbers were similar in junior. The difference is Rielly has evolved physically to the point where he can exploit his bountiful skills. You can catch glimpses of the same ability with Pouliot, but until he adds some power and escapability to his game, that’s all you’ll see.

It’s up to him and he’ll get the chance to prove himself with the Canucks. It would change a lot if he can make that next step.

Mad props to Ty Ronning for signing an entry-level deal Monday with the New York Rangers.

Ronning, by his own admission, wanted to play with the Rangers’ American Hockey League affiliate in Hartford this season, but instead of sulking when he was returned to the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, he set a franchise record with 55 goals (and counting) this season.

The contract was the reward for his perseverance. Again, the similarities between Ronning and his father Cliff, the former Canuck, are striking, but as Giants GM Glen Hanlon said, it’s that pit bull mentality that sets them apart.

In today’s NHL, there’s a place for a player of Ronning ’s skill and size — he’s five foot nine and weighs 170 pounds. You’d bet on him finding that place.

And finally, looking back over 64 years, it’s difficult to comprehend the confluence of events that brought Roger Bannister and John Landy to Vancouver for the Miracle Mile.

Three months before, Bannister made headlines all over the world when he became the first man to break the mythic four-minute mark in the mile. Over a month later, Landy broke his record, setting the stage for the epic showdown at the Empire Games.

In an era when track and field was king, these two global superstars met at Empire Stadium and staged, inarguably, the greatest middle-distance race in history.

For a more detailed account of the duel, I urge you to read Jason Beck’s fine book on the ’54 Empire Games, but the larger story concerns the impact that race made on our city.

Vancouver was little more than a sleepy provincial backwater at the time. The ’54 Empire Games introduced us to the world and was likely the first step in transforming Vancouver to a capital of the Pacific Rim.

Bannister died over the weekend at the age of 88. It says so much about the man that he believed his work as a neurosurgeon was more important than his track career, but when he was running, he gave our city a shining, incandescent moment that became a huge part of our story.

We shall not forget that race or that man.