The big news around the Vancouver Canucks over the last 48 hours was the discussion between Nick Kypreos, John Shannon and Bob McCown on McCown's podcast — and the assertion that Canucks president Jim Rutherford thinks there's a country-club atmosphere among the players.
If you haven't listened to it yet, here's the clip:
What should we make of all this?
Kypreos and Shannon agree with each other that there's going to be a 'different look' to this team within six months. But they're not quite aligned on who the untouchable core players actually are.
Shannon lists Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, Thatcher Demko...and Bo Horvat. Kypreos wonders what this will mean for J.T. Miller, Horvat and "Boeser, who they're not going to pay."
So let's start at the end.
We know that the Canucks are required to extend a qualifying offer of $7.5 million to Brock Boeser in order to retain his rights. This year,
per the NHL, the deadline to extend that offer comes on July 11, three days after the draft. And qualifying offers can't be accepted until July 13, the day free agency opens.
Deadlines to file for arbitration come on July 17 for players, and July 18th for clubs. There has been some talk that the Canucks could file for arbitration against Boeser — to argue that he deserves less than his qualifying offer based on his performance last season. But reports are that the club is not inclined to do so. And Rutherford has previously gone on the record as saying that while they'd prefer to sign Boeser to a longer-term deal at a more team-friendly camp hit, they can issue the $7.5 million qualifying offer if necessary.
Now that we have more of an understanding of what Boeser went through last season as he dealt with his father's health issues, I think we can expect that he won't be carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders as much next season.
And even under those trying circumstances, Boeser's game did improve after Bruce Boudreau took over. He had 10 points in 22 games under Travis Green (0.45 ppg) and 36 in 49 games under Boudreau (0.73 ppg).
As we've reviewed many times over the last six months, nearly every player on the team saw his personal numbers spike in a similar fashion after Boudreau took over. Nils Hoglander was the glaring exception.
If Rutherford thought the Canucks players were in 'country club' mode when he first arrived, and that they should have had more to give, the second-half turnaround certainly bore out that belief. But I'm not sure how the gutsy effort they displayed under Boudreau, and their intense disappointment at falling sort of a playoff spot, is indicative of a group that's coasting or doesn't care about winning.
Through the stretch run, virtually every player on the roster was giving it everything he had, every night. And given that there have certainly been some recent seasons when the Canucks have mailed it in as they've played out the string toward a playoff miss — as recently as the bubble season in 2020-21 — this year didn't look anything like that.
Rutherford made it clear when he first arrived that he thought a major roster overhaul was necessary — as much for salary-cap reasons as because the club was underperforming.
The performance aspect got better, but the cap issues remain. And Rutherford has also made it clear that he wants to get younger and find a way to play with more structure.
So while I think there will be some off-season roster surgery, I'm not sure I buy the idea that Rutherford still "doesn't like the room" after what the players delivered in the second half — especially when he's sticking with Bruce Boudreau in hopes of building off last season's success.
Now — a couple of other interesting Canucks-related notes that came out of the latest DFO Rundown podcast with Jason Gregor and Frank Seravalli.
In terms of trade talk, Seravalli landed where I often end up: who can Vancouver realistically move to free up cap space? And when you're desperately thin on the right side of the defense, how could trading Tyler Myers possibly help matters??
Side note on Myers — I'm amazed that he's already at the point where he only has two years left on his deal. And if Rutherford can realize his wish to bring better defensive structure to the Canucks, I think there's room for Myers to be even better than he has been: that structure could help remove some of those crazy, desperate plays from his game.
Seravalli did drop one big bomb — that a league executive told him that he thought the Canucks should trade Thatcher Demko as soon as possible, because they didn't think his hips would hold up.
On this, I heartily disagree. Demko had his double hip surgery in April of 2015, more than seven years ago. Since then, he has worked hard to strengthen his hip joints and muscles, and Ian Clark has worked with him in a program that's making him more flexible and resilient than ever before.
Or, as a goalie expert put it:
Demko did miss the last three games of the season with a lower-body injury, and declined to go into details about the issue at his season-ending media availability. Overwork certainly could have been an issue last year: he finished the regular season in fourth place in total minutes played and in third place in shots faced and total saves. Those numbers were all career highs by a long shot: he basically played as much in the 2021-22 season as he did in the previous two years combined.
Demko has faith in the guidance that he's getting from Ian Clark, and that's good enough for me. I trust that he'll be on the right program this summer to prepare for another big year next season. And hopefully Spencer Martin will continue to excel and allow Boudreau to believe that his club has a chance to win with either goalkeeper on any given night.
One other interesting tidbit from Seravalli in his podcast: he mentioned that he was surprised that he hadn't heard Travis Green's name in the mix for any of the current coaching vacancies around the NHL.
A year ago, Green was well regarded around the league as he waited on his contract extension from the Canucks. After some discussion on the podcast, Seravalli and Gregor concluded that his reputation was dramatically tarnished by the fact that Boudreau was able to get so much more out of the same group of players after he took over here in Vancouver.
Green was signed to a two-year extension last summer, so he'll have another year of being paid not to coach if he wants it. After that, he may have to take an assistant's job or return to a lower level to re-establish his value before he'll get another crack at a head job in the NHL.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»