At their season-ending press conference on Tuesday, Vancouver Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin gave us a lot to chew on.
While we wait to see what ends up happening with Bruce Boudreau, let's bid adieu to the Abbotsford Canucks, who saw their debut AHL playoff experience snuffed by the Bakersfield Condors in just two games.
In Game 1 Tuesday night, Spencer Martin made 45 saves as the Canucks fell 2-1 in overtime to Bakersfield. After two scoreless periods, Vasily Podkolzin gave Abbotsford the 1-0 lead midway through the third, but Seth Griffith forced overtime when he beat Martin with just 30 seconds remaining in regulation time.
Noah Juulsen was in the penalty box serving a tripping minor when James Hamblin scored the game-winner at 6:39 of overtime, assisted by Tim Schaller and Cooper Marody.
Game 2 on Wednesday saw the Condors win 3-2 on another late goal. This time it was Marody who beat Spencer Martin for the winner with 1:22 left to play in the third period.
Abbotsford took a 1-0 lead late in the first, on a power-play goal from Sheldon Dries. Ex-Canuck Adam Cracknell tied the game late in the second, then the Condors took the lead off a tally from Brad Malone early in the third.
With 7:09 left in regulation, Sheldon Rempal re-tied the game for Abbotsford, but the Canucks couldn't hang on to force another overtime frame.
After a very busy night on Tuesday, Spencer Martin made 30 saves in Game 2, but was ultimately outduelled in the series by Stuart Skinner.
The 23-year-old was drafted by the Oilers in the third round in 2017, 14 picks after the Canucks selected Mikey DiPietro. But DiPietro remains waiver exempt next season, according to
CapFriendly, while Skinner will require waivers. As Mikko Koskinen approaches UFA status this summer, I expect we'll see the steady Skinner in a regular backup role with the Edmonton Oilers next fall.
As for Abbotsford, it's a disappointing ending; the club had been red-hot in April before dropping its last three games of the regular season.
As Patrik Allvin pointed out on Tuesday, Abbotsford's roster had been depleted by the emergency call-ups to the big squad during April — Martin, Sheldon Dries and Nic Petan.
Will Lockwood was also re-assigned to Abbotsford at season's end. But he'd missed the last three games of the Canucks' season with an upper-body injury, and wasn't able to suit up in the playoffs. Abbotsford was also missing Justin Bailey, who suffered an upper-body injury in the Canucks' last regular-season game against Bakersfield on April 27. He was a difference-maker when he was in the lineup this season, with 27 points in 30 games.
Head coach Trent Cull has received some scrutiny for choosing to scratch Danila Klimovich for the two playoff games. The 19-year-old finished with eight goals and 18 points in 68 games.
Podkolzin did everything that he could during his brief AHL tenure, tallying two points and tying Rempal with a team-leading plus-two. But there are also questions about why Trent Cull chose to deploy Jett Woo as a forward late in the season — questions that loom larger after he finished a team-worst minus-three in a series where Abbotsford only allowed four goals in total at even strength.
On Tuesday, both Allvin and Rutherford spoke glowingly about the Abbotsford franchise.
"I have been down in Abbotsford, I would say I think it's five or six games," Allvin said. "The excitement there — great fan base. I think the players have played really hard. I think the coaching staff have done a really good job.
"Obviously here — the last two months, I would say, we took a lot of players up to the big club here in Vancouver so they were a little bit depleted. But they've done a really good job down there."
"This could be the best franchise in the American Hockey League over time," added Rutherford.
"(When) Francesco first came and talked to me, that was a priority of a number of things that we talked about — the importance of having that franchise here in British Columbia and how good it's already done in its first year.
"But to make sure that not only is it as good, but make it better and better, and make sure you have good players there so we have a good team every year. It's very important to our franchise."
That got me thinking about the Pittsburgh Penguins' development system. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have never won a Calder Cup, and the Penguins' farm system is typically rated low in league-wide rankings — in large part because the club has been trading away draft picks with impunity in order to stay competitive, and has only had one first-round selection in the last seven years.
But somehow, the Penguins stay competitive, and do manage to work young players into their roster. That's summed up by a tweet about the Penguins' farm system that has lived in infamy for awhile:
Even without much draft currency — and a payroll that's not as top-heavy as Toronto's, but still has some big deals with Malkin ($9.5 million), Crosby ($8.7 million) and Letang ($7.25 million), the Penguins were able to win two championships. They also hold the current NHL record with 16 consecutive playoff appearances.
As big as they are, those deals — especially Crosby's — were quite team-friendly. They were also all negotiated by Rutherford's predecessor in Pittsburgh, Ray Shero.
But all along, the Penguins been able to re-stock their roster with the Mark Donks and Buzz Flibbets of the world — bringing along lower-round picks like Jake Guentzel (#77 in 2013) and Bryan Rust (#80 in 2010 — even Matt Murray back in the championship days (#83 in 2012) — and turning them into key members of the team.
On Tuesday, Rutherford and Allvin also talked about the importance of finding more good players. Allvin emphasized that creating cap space for its own sake is not the goal: the objective is to use that cap space to bring in better players. He also said he was not looking to see the team take a step backwards before moving forward — so, don't expect a rebuild.
The plan, as Rutherford laid it out, is to focus on finding more good players who are 25 or younger and can grow along with the young core that's already in place — Demko, Pettersson, Hughes and, probably, Horvat and Boeser.
There are a lot of moving parts, and each player's situation will certainly affect the others. But one of my takeaways from Tuesday's presser is that after we saw a flurry of new bubble players signed by the Canucks last offseason, that could happen again this summer as the organization looks to make the Abbotsford squad even better, and improve organizational depth.
One other note before I sign off today: details on World Championship rosters are starting to be released. After telling me on Sunday that he was "thinking about it," Oliver Ekman-Larsson has committed to Team Sweden. Allvin also mentioned that Canucks prospect Linus Karlsson is on the bubble to make the team, which would be a coup for him if he gets selected.
USA Hockey announced its full roster on Thursday — a young group, for the most part, that includes two former Canucks who will be playing for their country for the first time at any level: Adam Gaudette and Nate Schmidt.
More announcements should be coming soon. Puck drop for the first games is just over a week away, on May 13 in Helsinki and Tampere, Finland.
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