Hope all is well and that you're enjoying another relaxing, sunny weekend. I'm off to the Whitecaps game this afternoon, which should be my first chance to experience BC Place with the roof open.
Not much Canuck-related news floating around at this point. Even the first week of arbitration has been underwhelming, with all parties settling before their hearings except for absent Vladimir Sobotka, who bolted for the KHL rather than accept the terms of his deal in St. Louis.
Here are the weekend news tidbits I've cobbled together:
Virtanen Signs
If we're lucky, Jake Virtanen will be a lively source of news and information through his Twitter feed going forward.
The Vancouver Canucks' sixth-overall pick broke the news on Friday that he'd signed his entry-level contract.
The Canucks followed up with their own press release a few hours later, so both 2014 first-rounders are now officially members of the team.
If you're interested in the nitty-gritty of how entry-level contracts work,
check out this detailed FAQ from CapGeek.com.
Entry-level contracts contain two key clauses that discourage teams from bringing players into the NHL too early:
1) As long as a player appears in nine NHL games or less in a season, his contract slides forward to the following season. Zack Kassian is an example of a player who didn't make the NHL until he was 20, so he didn't complete his entry-level contract until the end of last season, when he was 23.
You may recall, as a 19-year-old Frank Corrado burned the first year of his NHL contract by appearing in just seven games in 2012-13—three in the regular season and four in the playoffs. The entry-level "slide" was lowered to just six games due to the lockout-shortened season. Though he has yet to become an NHL regular, Corrado will be entering the final season of his entry-level deal this year.
2) Players become unrestricted free agents at age 27, or when they've accrued seven seasons in the league. That means 18-year-olds like Nathan MacKinnon or Sean Monahan will not only be due for their second contracts sooner, they'll also have burned through their seven seasons by age 25, setting themselves up for a bigger payday at that time.
With that in mind, it's really not a bad thing that Jake Virtanen is headed back to the Calgary Hitmen—first, to finish rehabbing his shoulder surgery and then for another year of seasoning.
Virtanen's return to Calgary is only a couple of weeks away:
Jason Botchford
reports that Virtanen's playing style hews more closely to Jeff Carter than to Canucks' 1982 first-rounder Cam Neely, who's a natural comparison for sentimental reasons. He also says Virtanen "believes if his shoulder was healthy he’d be NHL ready right now." He'll be interesting to watch once he gets back on the ice for the Hitmen.
Jim Benning already has an idea of how he wants to see Virtanen deployed:
He’s a shooter...He’s going to have to play with somebody who can get him the puck. He’ll use his speed to drive wide and take the puck to the net. We understand the type of player he is. He’s a powerful skater and a strong kid but he’s going to have to play with someone who can make plays.
Trevor's Twitter Taken Over By Hackers
Since his hiring in April, Trevor Linden has been highly visible as he implements his plan to return the Vancouver Canucks to respectability.
Apparently somebody thought he wasn't doing enough on Twitter. On Friday, Linden's account started sending out invitations for followers to chat with comely females.
Click here for a lighthearted take on the situation.
As of Sunday morning, Linden's Twitter page is back to normal, with no further sign of his sudden embrace of the seamier side of social media.
Mike Gillis' Daughter Enjoys Field Hockey Success
An interesting piece from the Canadian Press about Mike Gillis' daughter Kate, who's currently captaining Canada's field hockey team at the Commonwealth Games.
It was Kate's commitment to Canada's national field hockey team, based here in Vancouver, that initially brought the Gillis family out here to the west coast.
“I was 17, finishing high school by correspondence and my parents didn’t feel quite comfortable with me living out there by myself,” said Gillis. “They moved just for the year until I went back to school, but ended up staying because my dad got a job.”
Kate admits that she was affected by all the criticism of her dad during his days at the helm of the Canucks and says that he's been able to attend a lot more of her matches this summer. No word on whether Mike has any new job prospects on the horizon.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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