The big news of the weekend in Canucks-land was Thatcher Demko's San Diego wedding to his longtime girlfriend, Lexie Shaw.
I love the fact that they're both goalies. Lexie played four years at the University of North Dakota, including 35 games in her senior year, where she put up a 1.68 goals-against average and .928 save percentage.
Her connections with the Fighting Hawks are part of the reason why the Canucks' players with North Dakota connections figured prominently in the wedding photos that surfaced online. We saw not just Brock Boeser — and it's great to see him out among his friends, enjoying a celebration. Also on hand was Tucker Poolman — who, at last report, is expected to be healthy and ready for the start of next season, as well as now-Arizona Coyote Troy Stecher.
After a strong finish to last season with the Los Angeles Kings, Stecher will be among the first players to experience home-ice life at the Coyotes' intimate new facility at Arizona State University next season. He signed a one-year deal with a cap hit of $1.25 million when free agency opened on Wednesday — and that's a step backward from the two-year deal at $1.7 million that he pulled in from Detroit back in 2020. Before that, his two-year deal with the Canucks had been worth a $2.325 million AAV.
As for Jordie Benn, his fiancee Jessica Kohout appears to be close with Lexie — presumably from their time together as Canucks WAGs. Also in the photo above, we've got Quinn Hughes, Jack Rathbone, Tanner Pearson and Tyler Myers.
Demko's groomsmen included a couple of former teammates who came up with him in Utica — Zack MacEwen and Ashton Sautner.
After establishing himself as a bit of a fan favourite in Philadelphia with his rough and tumble playing style after he was claimed on waivers at the beginning of last season, MacEwen was one of 24 players around the league to apply for salary arbitration before Sunday's deadline. Now 26, he made $950,000 last season. And I wonder if last week's Nic Deslauriers free-agent signing in Philly now makes him a tad redundant??
As for Sautner — after spending his entire pro career with the Comets/Canucks organization but never gaining traction at the NHL level, the 28-year-old left-shot defenseman from Manitoba inked a one-year, two-way contract with the Winnipeg Jets last Friday. He'll make $200,000 at the AHL level and $750,000 if he cracks the NHL lineup — and is yet another example of a pro hockey player making the decision to play close to home.
The Canucks have no remaining arbitration-eligible players. That also closes their potential second buyout window, although Jim Rutherford has made it clear that's not how he'd like to manage his budget anyway.
Congratulations to Thatcher and Lexie. Looks like a great time was had by all!
Speaking of goaltending, the plot thickens around Michael DiPietro.
As I mentioned last week, the 23-year-old looked like he was on the verge of being squeezed out of the Canucks' goaltending corps after being passed on the depth chart by Spencer Martin and Arturs Silovs in Abbotsford last season.
As a restricted free agent without arbitration rights, DiPietro chose to accept his qualifying offer on Saturday. That sets him up to make $80,000 at the AHL level and $840,000 in the NHL.
CapFriendly also shows that because DiPietro has logged just three NHL games so far in his career, he needs two more years of pro hockey service before he becomes arbitration eligible — but just one more year before becoming waiver exempt.
On Sunday, as he heads off to his summer vacation, Rick Dhaliwal reported that DiPietro's agent has received permission from the Canucks to try to find a trade fit for his client.
The goalie carousel has been spinning like crazy around the NHL. With DiPietro's waiver-exempt status, I would think there'd be a club that might be willing to take a look at a goalie with his strong junior pedigree. The fact that he barely hits 6 feet in height makes it a bit of a tough go, but Juuse Saros was an impressive exception last season. He's listed at 5'11" and 180 pounds, and delivered a tremendous season in Nashville until he was derailed by a late-season injury, putting up a .918 save percentage and 2.64 goals-against average in 67 games played — while leading the league with 3,931 minutes played.
Among current NHLers, Antti Raanta and Alex Nedeljkovic are also both listed at 6'0".
The Canucks had two other goalies at development camp last week, who can now be considered to be in the prospect pipeline. Aku Koskenvuo is listed at 6'4" and is headed to Harvard this fall. He was selected by the Canucks in the fifth round in 2021. He wasn't at last winter's abbreviated World Junior Championship; I wonder if he'll find his way into the mix for the Finns this time around?
This year, Vancouver took goalie Ty Young in the fifth round, from the WHL's Prince George Cougars. He's very young — doesn't turn 18 until September — so it'll take some time before the organization knows whether it has something promising with him. But he's already measuring in at 6'3" and you know what they say — you can't teach size.
Another interesting piece to come out of last week's development camp was Patrick Johnston's chat with new player development coach Mikael Samuelsson.
He was on hand at UBC last week, but will be based in Sweden next season. All the better to keep an eye on prized first-rounder Johnathan Lekkerimaki and the long list of other Swedes in the Canucks prospect pipeline.
Lekkerimaki is expected in Edmonton next month, for World Juniors.
"I live, like, 20 minutes from him," said Samuelsson of Lekkerimaki.
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