First off today, an update on an ex-Canuck who moves back to his old team.
Kenins spent three seasons with Zurich of the Swiss League between 2011-12 and 2013-14 before joining the Canucks after being recommended by then-Zurich coach Marc Crawford, whose brother Eric was, at the time, the Canucks' director of player development. Kenins was actually signed by the Canucks during the summer of 2013, then loaned back to the Lions for the 2013-14 season in order to fulfill his contractual obligation in Switzerland.
In 2014-15, Kenins played 36 games with the Utica Comets and 30 games with the Canucks, recording four goals and eight assists with the big club. During his time in Vancouver, he was lauded for his hard-hitting playing style and his ability to find the net from the left faceoff circle, but he was also often caught out of position. In Vancouver's playoff series against Calgary, his defensive deficiencies caused Willie Desjardins to use Kenins sparingly, even as the Flames outmuscled the Canucks for the series win.
In July of 2015, Eric Crawford was relieved of his duties and the title of director of player personnel was eventually transferred to Stan Smyl. Kenins was re-signed for one year, this time to a one-way contract, but played just eight games with the Canucks and was healthy-scratched eight times during his longest call-up, in December.
By the end of the year, it was pretty clear that he was no longer in Vancouver's plans, so it's back to Zurich for the Latvian, who's now 25.
Of course, the other ex-Canuck who returned to his old team this week is Radim Vrbata, who's back in Arizona for his third tour of duty with the Coyotes.
Craig Morgan of Arizona Sports spoke with Vrbata about coming back to Arizona—“We never really wanted to leave,” Vrbata said of his return. “We love living in Arizona."—and has the details of the bonus structure of his contract:
Base salary: $1 million
Bonuses:
• $250,000 for playing 10 games
• another $250,000 for playing 30 games
• $500,000 for 20 goals OR 40 points
• $250,000 if the Coyotes qualify for the playoffs
• $250,000 for each playoff round won
Last season, Vrbata appeared in 63 games and finished with 13 goals and 27 points. It seems pretty safe to assume that he'll collect the $500,00 in games-played bonuses and he should also be able to tick the performance box with 20 goals or 40 points. That bonus only counts once, by the way—he doesn't get an extra $500,000 if he does both.
So, call it a $2 million deal. As for the playoffs? Vrbata has just 42 games of postseason experience in his 15 year NHL career. The only times he has been past the first round are when he got into nine games as a rookie when the Colorado Avalanche went to the Western Conference Final following their Stanley Cup win in 2001-02 and when the Coyotes surprised the Blackhawks and Predators before losing to the Los Angeles Kings in the 2012 Western Conference Final.
The Coyotes should be an improved team next season but as they stick with their goaltending tandem of Mike Smith and Louis Domingue, I'm not sure that's a strong enough pair to get Arizona into the postseason. They missed by nine points last year and finished just three points above the Canucks in the final NHL standings.
Just one other bit of Canucks news to report. Our Jakey's not a teenager anymore!
In other news, the NHL held a press conference in Toronto today to set up the sale of single-game tickets for the World Cup of Hockey and share a few other details.
Nothing terribly interesting there, but I liked this announcement:
Yes,
Miracle is the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, but it's a great hockey movie—and was shot entirely in British Columbia,
per IMDB. Lots of locals filled out the minor roles—and the hockey teams, so there's plenty of regional flavour.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»