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Edler, Eriksson, Sutter among Canucks at Craig Cunningham's All-Heart Camp
September 4, 2018, 1:55 PM ET [560 Comments]
Carol Schram
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I spotted Vancouver Canucks assistant coach Newell Brown out for lunch with Craig Cunningham yesterday, which reminded me that I hadn't written about Cunningham's All Heart Pre-Season Pro Camp, which went down in Delta last week.




Brown was an assistant coach with the Arizona Coyotes when Cunningham, the former Vancouver Giants captain, suffered his on-ice cardiac incident with the Coyotes' AHL affiliate in November of 2016. The story of the soon-to-be 28-year-old's recovery has been remarkable and inspiring. A native of Trail, B.C., Cunningham grew up with Ray Ferraro's son Landon, which added a strong personal note to this TSN feature that came out last year.




Cunningham is continuing to work in hockey as a scout for the Coyotes. He is also deeply committed to his All Heart Foundation, which is working with top doctors in the world to try and prevent sudden cardiac arrest.

The philanthropic gene runs in the family. Earlier this summer, Craig's brother Ryan cycled more than 1,600 miles from his home in Castlegar to Tucson, Arizona, raising $28,000 through a GoFundMe and another $10,000 from the Coyotes and the Tucson Roadrunners for Craig's organization.




Last week's camp was also a fundraiser. On-ice participants from the Canucks included Alex Edler, Brandon Sutter, Troy Stecher, Loui Eriksson and Sam Gagner, as well as other local NHLers like Brendan Gallagher, Brenden Dillon, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Morgan Rielly and Martin Jones.

It's something new on the offseason calendar—and a change from the informal skates that the Canucks players used to hold at the Britannia rink during the Sedin years. Hopefully it'll grow—and raise more money—in the years to come.

After the camp, Edler and Gagner hooked up with Erik Gudbranson and their respective spouses for an action-packed weekend at Whistler.

Views, best buds and ALL the activities. So good to be back out West.

A post shared by Erik Gudbranson (@guddy44) on



It warms my heart to see the reserved Edler happily posing for a photo—and apparently ready to live his life in a post-Sedin world. He's now the longest-serving member of the team. Now 32, only Loui Eriksson and Jay Beagle are older. There aren't many 80s birthdays left on the roster!

Speaking of Beagle, he got his day with the Stanley Cup in Calgary a couple of weeks ago—and celebrated by heading out into the community in his 1986 GMC Jimmy, spending some quality time at the Alberta Children's Hospital.




I wonder if he's driving the Jimmy out here to Vancouver?

Now that the huge Esports tournament has wrapped up at Rogers Arena, the ice is back in and players are able to skate there.




To close today, score one for Brock Boeser, who once again made a point of spending time with his one-time prom date Baylee Bjorge before leaving Minnesota—and clapped back hard at a hater.




Between Brock and Jake Virtanen, the Canucks boys are starting the season with some power moves on social media!
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