On Monday night, while the Chicago Blackhawks were busy winning their third Stanley Cup in six seasons, the Vancouver Canucks held one of their Town Hall meetings at Rogers Arena:
It's the first of several meetings planned with season-ticket holders over the next few weeks and if Day 1 is any indication, the honeymoon seems to have come to a swift end for the new regime.
It's easy to second-guess the team's bosses on Twitter, but The Province's
Erik Rolfsen didn't find much in the way of positive feedback to feature in today's "Morning Skate" wrapup.
The cynics among you might enjoy taking a spin through the comments he collected in his piece.
As you'd probably expect, Benning and company were taken to task on the usual subjects—mostly, the perceived overpayments of goaltender Ryan Miller, defenseman Luca Sbisa and forward Derek Dorsett.
I haven't heard when or where the rest of the meetings are scheduled, but they ran for a good part of the summer last year—not just before the draft and free agency. I don't suppose it hurts for the fans to get a chance to ask questions and voice their opinions at this point, but I sure hope the Canucks scouting and management group is also pouring over data for this year's draft-eligible players and working the phones to see what kind of trade deals they might be able to scare up over the next couple of weeks.
In the wake of Chicago's Cup win last night, Bodog.ca has released its early Stanley Cup odds for next season:
The Canucks rank 20th overall, which should please those of you who are asking for a rebuild. Seems Bodog agrees with the Twitter haters. It's a humbling position for a team that finished eighth in the NHL in 2014-15—just one point behind those eventual champs from Chicago, if you recall.
Though Winnipeg and Edmonton fans are probably thrilled to see their teams so high in the rankings, the folks in Calgary probably aren't so excited to see their team ranked the same as the Canucks after beating them in the playoffs. Ottawa suffers an even greater indignity—way down at 50-1 despite making the playoffs before being bounced by Montreal.
The top team on Bodog's list for next season? Chicago, of course, at 7-1. And despite missing the playoffs, the Los Angeles Kings are tied for sixth at 14-1, with a motley group that also includes Montreal, Minnesota and Pittsburgh.
That oddsmaker's job is a tough one. I'm sure not ready yet to project where the Canucks will end up in the Pacific Division next season. I'll reserve judgement and wait to see what happens in at least the next two weeks before I start proclaiming that the team will be better or worse than last season. I'm hoping that Benning will serve us up some surprises.
To wrap up today—a few words on next year's salary-cap ceiling.
Last year, the cap ceiling of $69 million wasn't announced by the NHL until June 28—after the draft and the five-day window for negotiation had opened for teams ahead of the July 1 signing period.
Last year's cap came in lower than expected but this year's final number could be even more of an issue—whether teams are trying to re-sign their own players or bring in outside help from UFAs.
I put together
this summary of the situation as part of a general piece on free agency for Bleacher Report yesterday—trying to wrap my brain around the issue surrounding the players' escrow payments and why they'd want to slow salary-cap growth to address it.
In a nutshell—the players' 50 percent share of hockey-related revenues last season didn't come close to covering the value of all the contracts that had been handed out. As a result, every player was required to hand back 12 percent of his salary to the league.
This year, the league was withholding 14 percent, then 16 percent later in the season, anticipating a similar situation. The players with existing contracts are thinking that if they can put a lid on cap growth, then the total value of the contracts won't end up being as high so, hopefully, they won't have to give back as much of their salaries in future years.
If the players go ahead with this course of action and vote to veto the usual five-percent cap escalator, the salary cap could drop to $68 million next season—which would trigger some major fire sales among cap-strapped teams.
NHLPA brass is encouraging the players to continue to apply the escalator. If it stays in place, next year's cap should be around $71 million, which would provide a little more breathing room. It would also help grease the wheels for those big contracts that we expect to see handed out on July 1.
My sympathies to the general managers right now, whose hands are pretty much tied until this number is locked down. I know you're anxious to see the wheeling and dealing begin, but I think we'll need to be patient until this issue is settled.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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