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Vancouver Canucks: YoungStars Sputter, Three Days Till Training Camp

September 16, 2014, 2:27 PM ET [189 Comments]
Carol Schram
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Vancouver Canucks wrapped up their YoungStars tournament with a whimper, losing 6-1 to Calgary on Monday.

Such as they are, here are your highlights. Looks like the Canucks lost their fights as well as losing the game:



Here's the boxscore if you'd care to look at the numbers in detail.

There was no bounce-back for the Canucks in this game—they were outshot 39-16 overall and outscored 3-0 in both the second and third periods.

Calgary scored three of its six goals on the power play, further damaging Vancouver's penalty-kill numbers and also skewing the plus-minus. It seems impressive that Anton Cederholm managed to be a plus-one despite all the goals against.

Another ugly moment was Frank Corrado's late-game elbow on Flames' young star Johnny Gaudreau, for which he received a major penalty and a game misconduct. It really hasn't been a good camp for a player whose big-league experience should have him dancing around some of these youngsters.




So—Vancouver fans need to look hard for positives that have come out of this prospects tournament.

Tryout players Curtis Valk and goaltender Austin Lotz were probably the most pleasant surprises. Both will be continuing on to the main camp at Whistler this weekend.

The Canucks' competitiveness was almost certainly impacted by three important missing pieces—injured players Jake Virtanen, Jared McCann and Cole Cassels.

When I caught longtime Edmonton Oilers beat writer Jim Matheson on the radio yesterday, he mentioned that the Canucks' prospect depth is nowhere near the same level as the other teams in this tournament—which makes some sense. It's tough to get as many youngsters into the pipeline as teams like Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary—all of whom have been consistently missing the playoffs for years.

Matheson said that the Canucks' competitiveness in the tournament was hurt by the fact that the team needed to fill out its roster with so many tryout players, while the other teams were basically able to ice teams from their existing prospect pools. Another reminder that we shouldn't put too much stock in what we saw on the ice in Penticton.

That being said—maybe it is just as well that the Canucks have a full roster of veterans who will be able start the season.

I don't think I've captured every possible option in this poll, but I'm curious to see how you're feeling as we get ready to start main camp.



For his part, Jim Benning is already in damage-control mode a little bit, reports Elliott Pap of the Vancouver Sun.

“Let’s just go to training camp and see where these guys are at with the big boys,” Benning said. “At times, the play is scrambley out there and some of these guys who have played pro are used to a more structured game. So their game wouldn’t show up maybe so much in this group. Playing with better players, their games get better. So let’s just be patient with them and wait for main camp before we start talking about that.”


The Canucks cut their roster by eight players after Monday's game, with no surprises.

Defenseman Miles Liberati was returned to junior with North Bay, while the following players were released outright:

• LW Cordell James
• RW Jonathan Martin - a goal and a fight on Monday were not enough to save him
• RW Matthieu Bellerive
• C Matt Revel
• D Josh Thrower
• G Jackson Whistle
• RW Klarc Wilson

Tryout player Spencer Humphries, a defenseman from Delta who spent last year in the KHL, has also been invited to the main camp.

Benning Issuing PTO Invites?

During an appearance on TSN1040 on Monday, Jim Benning mentioned that the unexpected absence of McCann and possibly Cassels at the main camp has left room for the team to consider issuing one or more invites for NHL players to join the group on a professional tryout basis.

Earlier, he'd said that he didn't intend to go that route, but circumstances have changed.

Here's the best list of remaining UFAs that I know about, from CapGeek.com.

Quite a few of these players have already agreed to PTOs with other teams. If they're agreeable, I wouldn't mind seeing the Canucks invite either Dustin Penner or Ray Whitney. At a low cost, either might be able to help a power play that desperately needs to improve in 2014-15.

Penner also has a terrific, self-deprecating Twitter account. This town could use someone like him to get over the sting of losing @Strombone1.
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