Canucks must crunch the numbers
Team has to prioritize, identify players they’ll feature and the ones who are expendable
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, just for fun, take out a pencil 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 guarantees 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 AHL 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 — and that doesn’t account for the free agents they’ve said they’ll go after.
The Canucks have to prioritize. They have to identify the players they’ll feature and the ones who are expendable. And we need not remind you of the table stakes involved with each decision.
The problem is the Benning-Trevor Linden administration’s track record in these matters doesn’t exactly fill the faithful with confidence.
Granlund, a 19-goal scorer two seasons ago, has been devalued. You can make a similar case for Goldobin, who has been given chances this season.
At the risk of repeating ourselves, yeesh.
Based on this season, Archibald merits consideration for regular employment, but do you slot him in ahead of a younger player? We know Travis Green has a soft spot for Gaunce. Pettersson, meanwhile, is a subject unto himself but Benning has stated if a young player shows he’s ready, he’ll play.
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 their 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 blue sky the Canucks’ current NHL lineup, there are two players who make you wonder “what if?”
Virtanen, of course, is one of them and everyone can see there is a topsix 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 necessary skill and vision to be a top-four D-man. But some combination of conditioning, strength and competitiveness is holding him back.
The Leafs’ and West Van’s Morgan Rielly was taken three spots ahead of Pouliot in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft and has evolved into a top-pairing blue-liner.
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 of things if he can make that next step.
Mad props to Ty Ronning for signing an entry-level deal with the New York Rangers on Monday.
Ronning, by his own admission, wanted to play with the Rangers’ AHL-affiliate in Hartford this season but, instead of sulking when he was returned to the WHL 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 Ty 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 Ty Ronning’s skill and size — he’s 5-9 and weighs 170 pounds. You’d bet on him finding that place.
There are a couple of take-aways from Ed Hervey’s work in free agency this CFL off-season but the one that sticks out concerns the restructuring of the Lions’ front office.
With a free hand in player personnel, the Leos’ new GM was able to make the kind of aggressive moves Wally Buono would seldom make when he was the head coach and GM.
Buono, to be sure, would generally sign a couple of players to strengthen the club but he never adequately addressed the holes on the offensive and defensive lines over the last five years.
In one off-season, Hervey went all in those two areas.
You can find skill players in the CFL. It’s a lot harder to find offensive linemen and pass rushers. Heading into this season, the Lions have improved themselves immeasurably at the line of scrimmage. That was also their best chance to improve their team immeasurably.
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.
Just 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 — brain surgeon, champion athlete, who does that? — 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.