What better way to start off a new week than with some Vancouver Canucks real estate news?
Selling prices typically aren't published, though they can be accessed by realtors.
This tweet reports that the home sold in six days for $5.625 million. Pretty respectable.
I've heard that Daniel is building a new place—where I'm guessing right now that his family is planning to stay even after his playing days are over, based on
last week's interview out of Sweden.
I don't expect we'll see him leaving town anytime soon.
Volunteer Opportunities for Canucks Training Camp
If you live in the Prince George area, consider volunteering for the WHL's Prince George Cougars, and you could also get some inside access to the Canucks 2015 training camp this September:
Click here for more information on the Cougars' volunteer program.
Bo Horvat on Youngstars for World Cup of Hockey?
It's still over a year away, but one of the most intriguing elements of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey will be the Youngstars team.
Click here for a reminder about the tournament's format. Eight teams will compete—national squads from Canada, the U.S., Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic, then a grab-bag European All-Star team from the lower-tier countries like Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Germany, Austria, Norway, Denmark and Latvia and the North American Youngstars Team—made up of players from Canada and the U.S. who will be 23 or under.
Competition will be pretty strong for that European All-Star team, but the Canucks could end up putting Sven Baertschi, Yannick Weber and Luca Sbisa of Switzerland into the mix, as well as Ronalds Kenins from Latvia.
More likely, Bo Horvat should be able to compete for a spot on what could be a stacked Youngstars team.
While Team Canada has announced its management group lead by St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong and also including Ken Holland, Bob Murray, Marc Bergevin and Rob Blake, no management team has yet been announced for the Youngstars group.
This Canadian Press article from late June speculates that dual citizens like Dale Tallon, Brian Burke and Stan Bowman could lead the group with another dual citizen, Jon Cooper, serving as head coach.
It is intriguing that players from the 23-and-under group will *not* be available for selection to the main Canadian or U.S. teams. Though they haven't announced an exact cutoff date yet, Tyler Seguin will just squeak through for eligibility to the main team—he turns 24 in January.
He'll still face stiff competition. Team Canada's natural centers at the 2014 Olympics included Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Patrice Bergeron, Ryan Getzlaf, John Tavares and Jeff Carter—and that's not a complete list.
Looking at the centre position, here are some centers that Bo Horvat will be competing against for a spot in Toronto next year:
Sean Monahan - turns 21 on October 12, 2015
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - turns 23 on April 12, 1993
Ryan Strome - turns 23 on July 11, 2016
Mark Schiefele - turns 23 on March 15, 2016
Nathan McKinnon - turns 21 on September 1, 2016
Sean Couturier - turns 23 on December 7, 2015
Sam Bennett - turns 20 on June 20, 2016 (though he'll always be 18 in our hearts)
Connor McDavid - turns 19 on January 13, 2016
Jack Eichel - turns 19 on October 28, 2015
Ryan Johansen will turn 24 on July 31, 2016, so his fate will be detetermined once the tournament establishes its cut-off age.
What do you think? Will Bo have a strong enough sophomore season to warrant his inclusion on his roster? As I mentioned about with the Olympics, these all-star teams do tend to load up on centers, some of whom end up playing the wing.
The positive view: I would think Horvat's faceoff skills and two-way play would make him a strong candidate once the management team is assembled.
The negative view: that list is very heavy on Canadian talent. The final mix for the complete 23-man roster is probably going to be close to 50/50 between Canada and the U.S., which could mean that a player like Horvat ends up getting bumped in favour of an American.
We'll get our first clues on March 1, 2016, when each team will be required to announce its preliminary 16-player roster.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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