This week on TSN1040, Matt Sekeres and Blake Price are hosting their annual Presidents' Week, where they get the top guns from each of Vancouver's sports franchises on the air for one day to talk about their teams' key issues.
Vancouver Canucks' president Trevor Linden took his turn on Thursday—in Sekeres and Price's new afternoon-drive timeslot.
I didn't get to listen live, because I was busy navigating the PNE's new wristband system for their Summer Nights concerts yesterday afternoon. The old system featured insanely long lineups where not everyone was getting in for the most popular shows. The organizers are now making a finite number of wristbands available, starting at 2 p.m. on show day. The wristbands have staggered entry times, which allows for a smoother flow into the PNE Amphitheatre, and the system allows the organizers to know when they've reached capacity.
The new system means that people do need to be onsite earlier—apparently yesterday, all the wristbands for ZZ Top were handed out by about 5:30 p.m. But it also means that if people arrive at the fairground after that, they can be told immediately that they won't be able to get in to see the show and can decide whether or not they want to come in, instead of standing in line for hours and being turned away before showtime. The new system also means that fairgoers have a chance to move around and do more activities before the concerts start, instead of just standing in line for hours.
I think we got to the wristband pickup at about 3 p.m. yesterday, and got 7 p.m. access to the Amphitheatre for the 8:30 show. From there, it was on to the large Hockey Hall of Fame exhibit, which was great.
By sheer coincidence, we ran into PNE President and CEO Mike McDaniel outside the Amphitheatre just before the concert. He was happy to answer a bunch of my questions about the concert series and the new wristbanding procedure, and also mentioned that this year's Hall of Fame exhibit is quite unique—the Hall doesn't usually send this much memorabilia out on tour.
I'd say it took us about an hour to go through. There's lots of vintage material, including a large, jarring image of Don Cherry as a member of the 1967-68 WHL Vancouver Canucks. There's a strong local emphasis on local content—Canucks stuff, a good amount of Vancouver Giants memorabilia and some vintage pieces from local kids-made-good like a trophy won by a 10-year-old Joe Sakic.
The Hall of Fame exhibit is definitely a fun trip down memory lane, ZZ Top was terrific and the weather was about as good as it gets. All in all, a very good day!
So, if you're like me and you missed Linden's two-hour appearance, you can catch up here:
Linden did offer some insight into the state of the Bo Horvat negotiations, so I'll spare you the wild speculation that has been brewing in my head, wondering if he really would join up with Team Canada or sign in Europe this year to give himself a shot at the first-line centre spot in the Olympics.
The Score transcribed Linden's comments on Bo:
"All options are on the table, I think we've explored many of the options, anything from two to eight (years)," Linden said. "We've had some good conversations with Bo and his rep - Newport Sports - who I was a client of there's and we've done several contracts with them. I would say they have been very positive. We're looking forward to getting Bo under contract. Out of respect to the process, I don't want to say a whole lot, but things have been very positive, we're moving along and I don't see any issues."
Linden noted that the club expected a lengthy negotiation going into the offseason and in the end is just hopeful a new deal will be hammered out before training camp.
"Bo's a quality kid and a good character guy and he's been great through the process, not that's he's been specifically involved in the conversations, but we're working hard at things to avoid not having him at training camp," Linden said.
For me, Linden's most surprising talking point is the fact that the team is *still* looking at adding more veteran depth at forward:
Drew Stafford signed today with New Jersey on a reported one-year deal for $800,000, so we're definitely now in value-signing territory. That could be a very good deal for the offensively starved Devils for a 31-year-old first-rounder who scored 21 goals in Winnipeg in 2015-16.
Click here to peruse CapFriendly's list of current UFAs.
Thomas Vanek never did fulfill the promise that he'd shown when the Edmonton Oilers signed him to that $50-million offer sheet back in the summer of 2007. At that time, he was 23 and coming off his career-best season with Buffalo with 43 goals and 84 points.
It was all downhill from there, but even in a low-key year with Detroit and Florida last season, he finished up the year with 17 goals and 48 points in 68 games. On the Canucks, only Bo Horvat (52 points) and Henrik Sedin (50 points) did better last year.
Vanek's not known for his commitment to defense, and it seems like the bigger the game, the more invisble he becomes—not unlike one Radim Vrbata, come to think of it. But he can score goals, and he does go way back with Jim Benning, to their days together in the Buffalo Sabres organization.
If the Canucks sign Vanek, it would create an even bigger logjam at right wing—which could be particularly bad news for players like Jake Virtanen and Brock Boeser, who can be assigned to Utica without needing to clear waivers.
I think Benning and company have already done a pretty good job of stocking the cupboards with NHL-level forwards for next season—the group is much deeper that what we saw last year. At this point, my preference would be to give the kids the best possible opportunity to make the team; I see Vanek as an impediment to that objective.
What do you think?
bike trails
One other note to close out the week—turning to Petrus Palmu over in Finland.
Yesterday, I noted the news that Palmu was currently on the sidelines after suffering a knee injury. Not sure if this is related, but according to Blake Price, Palmu had been expected at main training camp this year but now, that is not happening:
Sounds like we'll have to wait at least one more year to see the Finnish fire hydrant get a shot at making the NHL.
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