It's Presidents' Week on TSN1040 in Vancouver this week, and Trevor Linden is due up Tuesday for an extended Q+A session.
He'll be on the air from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
I'm sure we'll get some things to discuss out of the conversation, although I assume the only thing he's going to say about Evander Kane is that he can't talk about a player who's under contract to another team.
As a reminder of the force that Linden and the Canucks are trying to push back against,
Jason Concepcion writes for The Ringer about which city is poised to take over from Cleveland as having the most frustrated base of sports fans now that the Cavaliers have captured the NBA Championship (and the Lake Erie Monsters won the AHL's Calder Cup, too. It's been a good spring in Cleveland!)
Thanks to some Super Bowl losses and that skate-in-the-crease Stanley Cup Final loss in 1999 that's even more painful than what Vancouver went through in 1994 or 2011, Buffalo gets the nod as the "most tortured sports fan base in North America."
But Vancouver does come out on top as the city with the highest "cost of losing." We pay more, on average, than any other fanbase for the privilege of having our hopes and dreams crushed by our sports teams. Which could have a lot to do with why we've started seeing so many more empty seats at Rogers Arena over the past couple of years.
If you believe that well-rested teams have better odds of winning NHL games than tired teams playing back-to-backs—well, next year doesn't bode well for either the Canucks or the Sabres.
Vancouver and Buffalo will both played rested teams when they're tired 13 times next season, but will be the rested team playing a tired club only six times. Trevor may have gotten those seven-game Eastern road trips reduced to six games, but the tired/rested quota for the Canucks and the Sabres is the toughest in the league—and it doesn't look like it's a geographical thing.
The most favourable draw this year goes to Edmonton. The Oilers will be the rested club that plays a tired team 19 times next season, while the shoe will be on the other foot eight times. I wonder if that's an indicator that will help lead to improved fortunes in Edmonton next season?
Elsewhere in the Pacific Division, Anaheim also gets a favourable rested/tired breakdown, while Calgary, Arizona and L.A. are in the middle of the pack. San Jose has the next-toughest breakdown compared to the Canucks, playing rest teams while tired 14 times while getting the advantage just eight times themselves.
More Expansion Draft Clarification
To wrap up today, here's a bit more clarification on what will count as "professional experience" when determining whether or not players need to be protected for next June's expansion draft.
Interesting to note that Hunter Shinkaruk will be eligible for selection if he's not protected, because he turned 20 on October 13, 2014—just after starting his first pro season with the Utica Comets. Thus, for purposes of expansion, Shinkaruk is entering his third pro season this fall with Calgary.
Most relevant for the Canucks: even though he had KHL experience, Nikita Tryamkin will be exempt, since he didn't sign his NHL contract until the spring of 2016. Like Artemi Panarin, he'll be completing just his second professional season under the terms of his Standard Player Contract, so he will not need to be protected.
Ben Hutton will also be exempt, as will Jake Virtanen. Based on the current roster, it looks like the Canucks' exposed players will come from a group that includes Derek Dorsett, Sven Baertschi, Brendan Gaunce, Emerson Etem, Anton Rodin and Markus Granlund up front along with, I'd guess, Luca Sbisa, Alex Biega and Andrey Pedan on the blue line.
I'm assuming that the six of the seven forwards that the Canucks will protect will be Daniel and Henrik, Eriksson, Sutter, Hansen and Horvat. If that's correct, one other forward from the group above can also be added to the protected list. My three protected defensemen would be Edler, Tanev and Gudbranson.
Of course, I do expect that we'll see more roster changes between now and next June. Still, it's nice to have a little more clarity about how the rules will work.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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