It's the first day of spring — and if you haven't seen this yet, I'm certain it will make you smile.
Far as I can tell, it looks like Petey has decided to stay in Vancouver — and has found some productive ways to pass the time during his self-isolation, while satisfying an obligation to one of his sponsors. Win-win!
Considering he's a dude who can juggle while riding a unicycle, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if these shots *are* real.
Have you seen any other quality content from NHLers on how they're passing their time without games? I've seen quite a few videos of players demonstrating their workout routines. Our old pal Erik Gudbranson and his wife Sarah took it to another level.
As for actual hockey news, the Canucks put a smile on my face on Thursday when they announced that the team had inked NCAA players Will Lockwood and Marc Michaelis to entry-level contracts.
Selected in the third round by Vancouver in the 2016 draft, Lockwood was born in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and came up through the U.S. National Team Development Program before spending four seasons at the University of Michigan.
Lockwood's freshman year was Michigan's last under legendary coach Red Berensen, who led the Wolverines for 33 years. The team went 13-19-3 in the season and lost in the Big Ten quarterfinal, but Lockwood captured the
Hal Downes Trophy as the team's most valuable player, second in team scoring with 8-12-20 in 30 games.
In 2017-18, Mel Pearson took over as head coach, and Quinn Hughes joined Michigan as a freshman. Lockwood got off to a good start, with 4-7-11 in 16 games, and was named to the U.S. World Junior team, but suffered a shoulder injury that required season-ending surgery in the World Junior outdoor game against Canada in snowy Buffalo on Dec. 29, 2017.
With Hughes but without Lockwood, Michigan reached the national semifinal later that spring.
In 2018-19, Hughes and Lockwood finished 1-2 in team scoring, but the Wolverines finished with a 13-16-7 record and were swept by Minnesota in their best-of-five Big Ten quarterfinal series. As you probably remember — Hughes signed with the Canucks immediately afterward, then spent some time on the shelf with an ankle injury before suiting up for the last five games of the Canucks' season.
Lockwood decided to stay at school and complete his senior year. He was named captain of the Wolverines — and stayed healthy for the second-straight year, finishing with 9-14-23 in 33 games before the NCAA season was cancelled.
Because of his amateur status as a college player, and his injury history, we haven't had a chance to see Lockwood much yet here in Vancouver. But I did get a chance to catch up with him last summer at the Canucks' development camp at UBC.
As he headed into his senior year and knew he had the opportunity to become an unrestricted free agent if he chose not to sign with Vancouver, he sounded sincere about wanting to commit to the team that drafted and developed him.
"I'm healthy now and it's great to be back in Vancouver," he said at the time "I love this place."
As for the Canucks, "It's a team that took a chance on me at the draft," he said. "They've been very loyal to me and stuck with me. And it's kind of come a point where I owe them a little bit. So, you know, working developing my game. The end plan is to come here in Vancouver."
Lockwood also said that he was good friends with Quinn when the two played together, and that he and the rest of the Wolverines closely followed Hughes' exciting NHL debut last season. I imagine they kept an eye on him this year, too — a breakout star like that is always good for any college program.
Lockwood told
Patrick Johnston of The Province that he has learned from his injuries.
“I think I played a little more reckless my freshman year, after I was drafted. I think I felt I was a bit invincible,” he said. “I still play a gritty, hard-nosed game and I’ll never lose that. I was told by a couple people to maybe just ease up a bit because of my injuries, but that’s not something that’s really in my DNA.”
He also talked again about the support he received from the Canucks' staff, particularly director of player development Ryan Johnson and his assistant, Chris Higgins.
“It’s been a fantastic relationship,” he said. “I’m really appreciative of that. Chris, Ryan, they’d send me clips of my games, tell me what to work on.”
"He's in extremely great shape, not just physically but mentally," said Johnson last summer. "Obviously, it's been an arduous time over a couple-year period there with the shoulder injury and recovery times. But it says so much about the kid that he has stuck with it.
"To finally get him here, healthy and going into his senior year. He's going to be a captain. And you can tell there's a maturity, not just mentally, but physically it's come a long way. So it's gonna be an exciting year for him and looking forward to seeing him get a jump on things next year."
When asked if he tough Lockwood would be ready to make the jump to the pro ranks at the end of his senior year, Johnson said "Absolutely." He talked about signing him to potentially get him some AHL games at the end of this season — and while the AHL has not yet cancelled its year, that's starting to look more and more unlikely.
Lockwood is still listed at 5'11" and 172 pounds, but if you go to his
HockeyDB page and click on his photo, you can get a good look at how he has matured during his four years of college. He turns 22 this June; because of his age, he can only be signed to a two-year entry-level contract.
As for Marc Michaelis, he's a forward from Germany who clocks in at 5'11" and 187 pounds, and turns 25 on July 31. He has been playing in North America since the 2014-15 season, and has spent the last four years at Minnesota State - Mankato under coach Mike Hastings, who coached Team USA to the silver medal at the 2019 World Junior Championship here in Vancouver.
Michaelis led his team with 20-24-44 in 31 games this season, in his second year as Minnesota State's captain, and would have been poised to make a solid run in the NCAA Tournament. With a 31-5-2 record, Minnesota State was ranked third in the nation in the last NCAA college hockey poll, released March 10, behind only Cornell and North Dakota.
Much like 20-year-olds in the AHL, older players in college hockey can also have an advantage over their younger peers. But Michaelis has also been part of Germany's team at the World Championship over the last two years, putting up 3-2-5 over 13 total games. And on a one-year contract with an AAV of $700,000 that will see the Canucks retain his rights as a restricted free agent, the signing is a low-risk gamble.
Jim Benning has done pretty well with his late-season free-agent signings in recent years, identifying Zack MacEwen from the QMJHL and Brogan Rafferty from college as late bloomers with potential who now both look like they'll have NHL careeers. And Lockwood's signing continues the team's successful string of bringing NCAA players under contract before they have a chance to reach free agency — remember all the fear in the early days about whether Thatcher Demko or Brock Boeser would sign??
I'll close today with this bittersweet piece of news, from Jim Benning's Friday morning radio interview.
The Canucks were scheduled to be playing back-to-back games this weekend — Friday in Anaheim and Saturday in L.A. And yes, that does correspond to the 3-4 week timeline that was first rumoured for Markstrom's injury when it was announced on trade deadline day, back on February 24.
I have been trying not to think too much about the games that would have been, but the NHL did make a cool announcement this week — from now until April 30, all games from the 2019-20 season are now available to watch for free through
NHL Live.
The league has also set up a portal to binge some of their best content during the "Pause."
Enjoy — and let us know if you find something especially juicy that the rest of us should also re-watch!
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