In case you missed it, what appears to be a full list of Rogers hockey personalities for next season’s broadcasts has now been released.
Click here for all the details from Broadcaster magazine.
If you were hoping that the new deal meant the end of CBC curmudgeons like Glenn Healy or P.J. Stock, think again. It looks like most of the HNIC crew will live on, though I guess we’ll need to see where they're assigned before we know how often they'll be appearing on our broadcasts.
As a reminder, Canucks regional broadcasts will continue as usual on Sportsnet Pacific with John Shorthouse, John Garrett and Dan Murphy. That covers 57 games of the season. Of the remainder, just 10 will be on Sportsnet’s national feed—the actual channel will vary depending on the day of the week—and 15 will be on Hockey Night in Canada.
Blackouts will continue to be in effect, so you won’t be able to pick up any games that are broadcast in your area on Centre Ice or NHL.com’s GameCentre Live, whether they're national or regional. Broadcasts will be available from outside the region, including U.S. games, Rogers regional broadcasts of the Oilers and Flames and TSN’s regional coverage of the Jets, Habs and Sens. The Leafs will have some of their regional games on Rogers and some on TSN.
I've enjoyed the GameCentre Live package in the past. It lags a bit behind the live broadcasts, which means it’s not much use to me for Stats anymore, but you can also watch the video on your computer, phone or iPad, or on television if you have Apple TV. The features also allow you to replay games after the fact and listen to radio broadcasts from all around the league on your mobile device.
Who Wore It Best: Extended Edition
As we might have expected, current Canucks broadcaster and occasional
Canucks.com contributor John Garrett got the final nod of the feature at No. 31. He also won the popular vote on our poll.
For those who mentioned other options in the comments: Dunc Wilson also wore No. 30, so he was up for voting on that list. As for Bob Essensa, he's listed in the media guide under No. 35. Essensa was memorable in 2000-01 but was here for just one season, as a 36-year-old. Essensa played 39 regular season and two playoff games with the Canucks. He had a winning regular-season record but lost both of his postseason matchups against the powerhouse Colorado Avalanche.
I believe Canucks.com has wrapped up their coverage, but I thought we could do a "best of the rest" category for the players in Canucks' history who wore numbers above 31. We won't worry about Pavel Bure at No. 96—he got plenty of adulation at No. 10—but there are definitely some other key players worth noting:
No. 32: Murray Craven, Arturs Irbe
No. 33: Mike Peca
No. 34: Jason Strudwick
No. 35: Alex Auld, Richard Brodeur, Bob Essensa, Kevin Weekes, Kay Whitmore (with a nod to still-active Cory Schneider)
No. 37: Jarkko Ruuttu, Rick Rypien
No. 38: Jan Bulis, Pavol Demitra
No. 39: Dan Cloutier
No. 44: Dave Babych, Nolan Baumgartner, Todd Bertuzzi
No. 55: Ed Jovanovski
No. 77: Anson Carter
No. 89: Alexander Mogilny
I'll narrow it down to the Top 10 for voting purposes. This should be quite a battle!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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