The Vancouver Canucks continue to take care of business with respect to structuring their team for the future.
I'm happy to hear this. With both Markstrom and Ryan Miller currently scheduled to become unrestricted free agents at the end of the 2016-17 season, I'm glad to see the Canucks are trying to make a long-term commitment to Markstrom before we get into any potentially messy situations when we see how goaltending assignments are doled out next year.
Click here to take a look at the complete expansion draft guidelines on NHL.com. The Canucks will be able to protect one goaltender but must also expose "One goaltender who is under contract in 2017-18 or will be a restricted free agent at the expiration of his current contract immediately prior to 2017-18. If the club elects to make a restricted free agent goaltender available in order to meet this requirement, that goaltender must have received his qualifying offer prior to the submission of the club's protected list."
The Las Vegas team will be required to select one player from every team—14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goalies. Of those 30 players, at least 20 must be under contract for the 2017-18 season.
Right now, NHL goalie Ryan Miller and AHL goalie Richard Bachman are both scheduled to become UFAs at the end of the 2016-17 season, while Thatcher Demko and Michael Garteig will be exempt from the expansion draft as first-year pros. We'll have to see how the season goes, but it could make sense to swap Miller at some point for a goaltender who is under contract for at least one additional season, or else to extend Bachman for another year so that he can be exposed.
Development Camp Notes
Iain MacIntyre of the
Vancouver Sun is at Shawnigan Lake for the Canucks' development camp and offered
this story from Monday's on-ice sessions.
He notes a couple of players who stood out from the crowd:
• North Dakota defenseman and Richmond native Troy Stecher, who's showing a strong leadership presence on the ice and during team-building drills.
Stecher is undersized for an NHL blue line at 5'10" and 190 pounds, but he's exactly the same size as another B.C. boy, Tyson Barrie, who is getting plenty of attention as a possible trade target and looks like he's headed to arbitration with the Colorado Avalanche.
Stecher is only two years younger than Barrie and sure, he doesn't have the 264 games of NHL experience, but he's also a heckuva lot cheaper. And he's already with the team.
In his first pro season, Stecher will be waiver-exempt, so it'll be easy to send him to Utica, but I'm excited to see how hard he pushes for a job with the Canucks during this development camp, the Young Stars tournament in September and the Canucks' subsequent training camp.
• MacIntyre singled out Alexis D'Aoust as a lesser-known prospect who stood out on the ice on Monday. D'Aoust is a 20-year-old right wing who finished fourth in QMJHL scoring last season with 44-54-98 for the Shawinigan Cataractes, one point behind a certain Pierre-Luc Dubois. He has decent size at 6'0" and 200 pounds, and his numbers have improved dramatically since his draft year.
In 2013-14, D'Aoust had 18 points and was a minus-27. Then in 2014-15, he jumped to 57 points and a plus-nine before spiking to 98 points and a plus-32 last season. The Cataractes reached the QMJHL final in the playoffs before falling to Rouyn-Noranda. D'Aoust finished fourth in the league's postseason scoring with 26 points in 21 games.
In a different story,
MacIntyre describes how Thatcher Demko is the star attraction for the fans on hand at Shawnigan Lake.
From talking with goaltending coach Dan Cloutier, MacIntyre suggests that the ideal situation is for Demko to go through two years of minor-league development, a timeline that Demko says is OK by him.
“It’s kind of the nature of the position. I had a good year last year but, obviously, college to pros is a huge step. It’s not going to happen overnight. I’ve got to make sure I’m progressing the right way. It’s tough to rush it. You don’t want to get there early and end up stunting your development.
“I know the team has a depth chart, but it’s tough to number guys. Even if they have an injury, you can’t predict who they’ll pull up. My goal is that if I get an opportunity, try to make the most of it. I’m going to work as hard as I can to make sure I’m ready for it.”
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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