It's an off day for the Canucks, which gives the voices that cover the team a chance to look at some of the bigger-picture issues.
I don't think it comes as a surprise that columnist
Ed Willes of
The Province is suggesting that the Canucks' overriding plan at this point is to stay the course.
“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” Benning said on Tuesday. “There’s no other way to do it. We have to draft well, develop well and trade well.”
Which isn’t as easy as some make it sound.
“Going into it, I knew what the job entailed,” Benning continued. “We needed to inject some youth and build up our prospect pool but we’re trying to be competitive and bring these kids up in a winning environment. Sometimes that’s a tough job.”
Willes mentions that Benning has decided to stay in Vancouver this week rather than heading to Finland to scout World Juniors. Even if we're not seeing him make bold moves, he is focused on the task at hand which, at this point, could mean more call-ups from Utica.
Sven Baertschi and Jannik Hansen both missed practice on Tuesday.
I appreciate the fact that Benning is staying focused on his team. Presumably, he'll be able to make a bigger move if something presents itself.
Lyle Richardson's
Rumor Roundup runs several times a week at
The Hockey News website. The lack of player movement this season is making it tough for him to find fresh things to write about, so in
today's column he looks at why we've seen so few deals this year.
No surprise—the salary cap is the No. 1 issue. Richardson says cap limitations are the biggest reason why we're less likely than in the past to see aging stars moving to new teams, and reminds us that most of the teams that do have cap space are in rebuild mode and/or have internal budgets that put their teams' cap ceilings even lower than the NHL's limit of $71.4 million.
He also believes that general managers are concerned about the continuing decline of the Canadian dollar (now at about 72 cents) and the effect that the currency fluctuation will have on league revenues. If the NHL doesn't meet its current projections at the end of the season, that'll impact the estimated increase in next year's cap, which Gary Bettman suggested could be $3 million at the December board of governors' meetings.
Bottom line—Richardson does expect trade activity to pick up in the new year but says we'll probably have to wait until February to see much significant activity.
This year's trade deadline falls on February 29th. By that point, the Canucks will have played 61 games and have 21 to go. Based on their current position in third place in the Pacific Division standings, they may still be in or near the playoff picture as the deadline looms.
The closer we get to D-day, the more plausible it appears to me that we won't see the Canucks being sellers at the deadline. I don't think they'll be buyers—don't expect them to trade draft picks or prospects for help in making the playoffs or making a splash this year—but I can also see how the no-trade clauses wielded by Radim Vrbata, Dan Hamhuis (and, for that matter, Chris Higgins and Alex Burrows), combined with the team's desire to stay in the playoff race, could put a kibosh on the types of moves that fans want Benning to make.
Richardson suggests that the only team in the league that's *really* out of the playoff race right now is Columbus, who are currently 11 points out of a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Carolina, Buffalo and Toronto are also at least seven points back, which is a pretty big hill to climb.
In the West, things are still pretty wide open. Winnipeg's seven points out of the wild card, which probably spells trouble, but Colorado's only five back so they could still make a push to be the fifth Central Division team in the postseason mix.
In the Pacific, it's pretty much guaranteed that only three of seven teams will get in but right now, last-place Edmonton is still just four points behind second-place Arizona and third-place Vancouver. That Pacific deck will probably shuffle daily between now and the end of the year.
If 25 of 30 teams are still pushing for playoff spots in mid-February, that will create a different trade market than what we've often seen at the deadline. There won't be many sellers, which could inflate prices, but the uncertainty could also limit the willingness of buyers to pay big prices if they're not even sure that they'll actually reach the postseason.
Like Jim Benning, we'll have to just keep watching and waiting.
• Update from the World Juniors: Jake Virtanen had a feisty third period on Tuesday as Team Canada pulled out a gutsy 3-2 shootout win over a surprising Swiss team. Virtanen did a good job of wreaking havoc in front of the Swiss net during the late stages of the game, using his big body to play the power forward's game we'd like to see from him more often.
• The loss apparently left the Swiss team with nothing in their gas tank for their meeting with Team USA today. It's 10-1 for the Americans early in the third period. Brock Boeser has one assist.
• Team Canada will play for gold on Thursday at the Spengler Cup in Switzerland after edging Davos 6-5 in Wednesday's semifinal. The Canadian team features ex-Canucks Manny Malhotra and Derek Roy, as well as Cory Conacher, who played with the Utica Comets last year before signing on in Europe.
Canada will play the winner of the second semifinal between Lugano and Automobilist Yekaterinburg. Canucks fans should cheer for the Russian team, which includes Vancouver defensive prospect Nikita Tryamkin.
As I type this at noon on Wednesday, Tryamkin's team is trailing 2-0 in the second period. The game's being shown live on TSN5.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»