On Wednesday, the NHL released its 56-game schedule for the 2020-21 season.
Later that day, provincial health authorities banded together with a request for additional health and safety measures. Frank Seravalli posted the details at TSN.ca.
The NHL is expected to respond on Thursday — and to my surprise, it sounds like they believe they'll be able to proceed.
It’s expected the NHL will respond to the provincial governments today, however, it’s believed the league has approval to move forward with the season in all 7 Canadian cities.
Until we get official sign-off, I'm not going to write any dates into my calendar — or dive too deeply into the details and how they might impact the Canucks. But I will say that when I first scrolled through the dates, I was a bit shaken by how many times I saw "Winnipeg."
In four months, the Canucks are set to meet the Jets nine times — four times at home and five on the road, with eight of those nine games coming in pairs.
Is this the year that practice makes perfect? Can Vancouver figure out how to solve Connor Hellebuyck when they're not always seeing him at the end of a long road trip?
You can check out the details of the schedule, as it currently stands, here.
56 games in 115 days. The #Canucks will face each Canadian team at least nine times, which matchup are you most looking forward to?
Meanwhile, Rick Dhaliwal of TSN has been diligently tracking Canucks prospects' arrival in town on his Twitter feed.
I'll try to summarize as neatly as possible. I'm excited to see actual names!
On Monday:
• Olli Juolevi is in town
• Nils Hoglander expected to arrive
• Will Lockwood has arrived
• Jonah Gadjovich is arriving on Wednesday
• Kole Lind will be here later in the week
• nothing to report on Micheal Ferland
On Tuesday:
• Michael DiPietro and Jalen Chatfield to arrive on Wednesday
• Jett Woo will be attending camp — no word on his exact arrival time
The Canucks also took care of business on the coaching front on Wednesday, announcing that they've hired Jason King as their new assistant coach and promoted Chris Higgins to Skills and Development Coach.
Now 39, King had spent the last four seasons as an assistant coach with the Utica Comets. His first season in Utica, 2016-17, was the last year that Travis Green coached the Comets before moving up to the Canucks, so there is a pre-existing working relationship between the two.
“Jason is a bright, young coach with an eye for the technical aspects of the game," said Green in the Canucks' press release. "He enjoyed a long playing career, and with his coaching experience in Utica, showed an ability to guide young and veteran players alike."
The Newfoundland native was drafted in the seventh round by the Canucks in 2001 and went on to play 55 games with Vancouver in the two seasons before the 2004-05 lockout. In 2003-04, he had 12 goals and 21 points in 47 games — many of them coming as a member of the 'Mattress Line' with the Sedins ('two twins and a king').
By the 2006-07 season, King was playing in Sweden. The Canucks traded his rights to Anaheim in the summer of 2007, in exchange for forward Ryan Shannon. King played just four games for the Ducks while Shannon had 13 points in 27 games for the Canucks in 2007-08, then was traded to Ottawa in exchange for defenseman Lawrence Nycholat.
After some time in Germany, King eventually finished out his playing career with two seasons back in Newfoundland, playing with the AHL's St. John's IceCaps. From there, he transitioned immediately into coaching and management roles for three seasons before he was snapped up by the Comets.
The Canucks' press release does not explicitly state what King's new role will be. I expect he'll slot into the 'eye in the sky' spot that was vacated when Manny Malhotra moved on to Toronto in September.
As for Higgins, he re-joined the Canucks in the player development role after helping out at their development camp at UBC following the 2019 draft — where he worked with players like Hoglander and Lockwood. Acquired by Vancouver at the 2011 trade deadline in exchange for Evan Oberg and a third-round pick, Higgins was an instrumental part of the 2011 Cup Finalist team, chipping in eight points in 25 playoff games.
Originally drafted 14th overall by the Montreal Canadiens in 2002, Higgins played 314 of his 711 career NHL games for Vancouver. In 2015-16, with one year remaining on his contract, he cleared waivers and was sent to Utica. In June of 2016, the Canucks bought out the last year of his four-year contract, which carried a cap hit of $2.5 million.
In his new role as Skills and Development Coach, Higgins replaces Glenn Carnegie, who had been with the organization for the last 12 years. Patrick Johnston of The Province reports that Carnegie is believed to be moving on to work at a hockey academy in Kelowna.
"Chris brings a wealth of NHL experience as a player, great knowledge of the game and a strong work ethic," Green said. "He’ll support the skill and development of our players and expanded roster while working alongside our team and coaching staff day-to-day."
Finally, we got our first look at Vasily Podkolzin in World Juniors action on Wednesday, as Canada beat Russia 1-0 in pre-tournament play.
After the game, Russian coach Igor Larionov admitted that his players looked a bit rusty. But that's what pre-tournament action is for!
No detailed stats were released for the game, but Podkolzin played a prominent role and was on Russia's first power-play unit. Canucks fans should get plenty of opportunity to see what he's about as the tournament progresses.
Round-robin action starts Christmas Day. Russia plays Team USA in the marquee matchup on Day 1, at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Because of Covid issues, Arvid Costmar and Team Sweden did not get a pre-tournament game. They'll make their tournament debut against the Czech Republic on Boxing Day at 11 a.m. PT. The Czechs looked very impressive in Wednesday's late game, beating Slovakia 6-0.
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