If you're keeping an eye on the World Junior Summer Showcase, expect to see Canucks prospects Guillaume Brisebois and Brock Boeser get game action today:
Canada's game against Sweden goes at 10 a.m. PT this morning, while the U.S./Finland game is at 1 p.m. Both will be broadcast on TSN.
Saturday's games will be bumped to the lesser channels due to coverage of the Olympics. The Sweden/Finland game will be on TSN2 at 1 p.m. PT, then Canada/USA will run at 4 p.m. PT on TSN4.
Elsewhere, if you're looking for Canuck content, NHL.com is doing its usual "30 Teams in 30 Days" feature during the month of August.
The Canucks were the second team featured, earlier this week, with a package of stories.
Click here for Kevin Woodley's summary of the current state of the union in Vancouver, where Jim Benning clearly states the team's intended direction and the logic behind his moves so far.
On the Erik Gudbranson trade:
Many wondered why a team that finished 28th in the NHL was trading picks and prospects instead of stockpiling them, especially with a general manager who was hired in large part for his draft expertise.
"I've had to move some draft picks in the last couple of years because I want the team to be competitive and I want our young players to grow up in a winning environment," Benning said. "That's been hard, moving those picks, but I think we are getting to a point now where unless it's a really good young player, we won't be moving any more picks."
Once again, the discussion revolves around filling that age gap by bringing in 22 to 28-year-old players to fill the void between the Sedins and the young players coming out of the draft. Woodley's even able to spin the Loui Eriksson signing into something that makes sense.
Gudbranson fits that demographic, and is nine years younger than the defenseman he replaces, Dan Hamhuis, who signed with the Dallas Stars as a free agent. Eriksson is outside that age group but four years younger than the player he replaces, free agent Radim Vrbata.
The anchor article also provides links to several other pieces:
Top Prospects highlights Brock Boeser, Thatcher Demko and Olli Juolevi, projecting that both Demko and Juolevi won't land in the NHL until two years from now, in 2018-19.
The last two spots on the list go to two players that are expected to make the lineup this year, Nikita Tryamkin and Anton Rodin. I'd argue that, with his 26th birthday coming up in November, Rodin's a little old to be called a "prospect." I'm also concerned that he said last week that his knee still isn't 100 percent after the skate cut that ended his 2015-16 season in Sweden back in January. Will he be ready for training camp in just over six weeks?
In the team's
Fantasy Outlook, David Satriano suggests that Sven Baertschi is undervalued from a fantasy perspective and that Ryan Miller is overvalued. He says Philip Larsen could be a good sleeper pick, Brandon Sutter should be a bounce-back player and Nikita Tryamkin isn't worth drafting but could prove to be an impact prospect.
Finally, we have Woodley's
Burning Questions and Reasons for Optimism.
Most interesting here? Woodley's take on how the forward lines might shake down, including the ongoing question of who plays left wing on the second line.
He figures that Willie Desjardins would like to keep Sven Baertschi and Bo Horvat together to form the nucleus of the third line, after they showed great chemistry during the second half of last season. Woodley also says that nominal right wings Emerson Etem, Alex Burrows, Loui Eriksson and Rodin can all play the left side—and that Eriksson may have to be used on the second line with Brandon Sutter in an effort to squeeze as much offense as possible out of that top six.
That could mean that Jannik Hansen keeps his spot with the twins.
I definitely want to see what Eriksson can do with the Sedins. Maybe the chemistry from the 2013 World Championship won't re-ignite but if it does, that'd bring back some fun-to-watch hockey to Rogers Arena.
Don't carve any line combos in stone just yet. "We got some versatility," Benning told Woodley. "It will be up to the coaching staff to find the right fit."
With the Olympics kicking off today, I imagine hockey chatter will fade even more than it already has for the next two and a half weeks.
The good news? We're a month away from training camps for the World Cup of Hockey, which will be ramping up on September 4-5. The first exhibition games of the tournament will run on September 8.
Won't be long now.....
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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