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Vancouver Canucks free-agency update, profiling draft pick Petrus Palmu
June 29, 2017, 1:44 PM ET [450 Comments]
Carol Schram
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It has been exactly one year since the '23 minutes that changed hockey.'




So far this morning, the biggest news of the day is the passing of former Edmonton Oilers enforcer Dave Semenko.




This comes as a surprise for me. Semenko had been serving as a scout for the Oilers until the Peter Chiarelli regime began in 2015. I saw him often in the press box at Rogers Arena—as big and imposing as ever.

Friends have told me that he was a larger-than-life character around Edmonton during those early dynasty years when the young, brash Oilers had the run of the town. He was one-of-a-kind, and he'll be missed.

Also out of Edmonton today, Benoit Pouliot has been put on waivers for purposes of a buyout. He was three years into a five-year contract that carried a cap hit of $4 million a season. He signed as a free agent with the Oilers during the summer of 2014, one year before everything changed with the arrival of Connor McDavid, and it was understood at the time that Edmonton was paying a premium to acquire him. Injuries have been an issue and his production dropped dramatically last year—he managed just 14 points in 67 games and was pointless in the playoffs. So, it makes sense to cut ties—especially as the Oilers need to clear cap space for these new McDavid and Draisaitl deals.

I took a pretty deep dive into those issues in my new piece on free agency for Bleacher Report:




Even though I love him as a player, I don't think it's worthwhile to try to offer sheet Leon Draisaitl. Firstly, if he was interested in signing an offer sheet, it wouldn't be with the Canucks. Secondly, Edmonton is ready to offer him big bucks anyhow—I don't think forcing their hand with an offer sheet would make much difference. And because McDavid's new deal won't kick in for another year, they won't be in cap hell until 2018-19. They've already started clearing space by moving Eberle and now buying out Pouliot. I think they have a plan.

As for the Canucks, Trevor Linden made an appearance on TSN1040 on Wednesday and pretty much confirmed that Ryan Miller could be heading to Anaheim.




Turning to a Plan B, Rick Dhaliwal reports that the Canucks got snubbed by Steve Mason—who seems to be linked most strongly to Winnipeg. Devils backup Keith Kinkaid was in the mix, but the latest target is yet another Swede.




Nilsson is 27 and had the best year of his career in Buffalo in 2016-17, posting a 10-10-4 record with a 2.67 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage in another all-Swedish tandem with fiery Robin Lehner. Around these parts, we probably remember Nilsson best for his 26 games with the Edmonton Oilers in 2015-16, where he started off strong but eventually spent some time in the minors before being moved to St. Louis at the trade deadline.

At 6'6" and 229 pounds, Nilsson is one goalie who could literally see eye-to-eye with Markstrom. For the last two seasons, he has been on one-year contracts worth $1 million.

The Canucks had their in-person interviews with free-agent forwards Sam Gagner and Jordan Weal on Wednesday. They're not the only team in the mix for either player, so we'll have to wait and see whether they submit the winning offer on Saturday.

One other note—I mentioned this the other day but to clarify once again—teams *can* immediately re-acquire players that they lost in the expansion draft, as long as the league is satisfied that no deal to this effect was worked out ahead of time.







In other words—the Canucks could bring back Luca Sbisa if they choose to do so.

If Karl Alzner proves to be too expensive, Vancouver is also said to be looking at a more economical option.




Postma is a 28-year-old whose injury struggles over the years have made it tough for him to stick at the NHL level. He played a career-high 65 games with Winnipeg last season—healthy scratched a few times at the beginning of the year, then he missed the last 11 games of the season with a sports hernia.

Postma just finished up a two-year contract with the Jets that carried an average annual value of $887,500. I don't imagine he'd cost a lot to sign, but he's probably on the bubble as an NHL player.

Finally, my second-last Canucks draft profile:

Pick 181 - Petrus Palmu - RW - 5'6" 175 pounds - Born July 16, 1997, Joensuu, Finland

I can't fault the Canucks for waiting until the sixth round to take a flyer on an undersized winger they spotted in the OHL. Petrus Palmu turns 20 in July so he's two years removed from his original draft season, but he led the Owen Sound Attack in scoring in 2016-17 with 40 goals and 98 points, which ranked him fourth in the entire OHL.

Palmu's OHL coach, Ryan McGill, raves about him:










Also worth noting:







Hooray—there's a video of Palmu highlights!



Palmu has a deal to play in Finland next season, but as a 20-year-old, he's also eligible to play in the AHL.

He's one player I'm especially interested to watch next week at development camp.
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