One more sleep!
The Vancouver Canucks are wrapping up training camp at Whistler today. On Tuesday, half the group will convene in Vancouver for a game against half of the San Jose Sharks, while the other half travels to Stockton, California to meet the rest of the Sharks in the split squad games.
Though he has 61 players in camp, Willie Desjardins has said that he won't make any cuts until after Tuesday's games.
I'm surprised to see that the Canucks' full rosters for both games have already been announced:
We'll get our first chance to see Radim Vrbata play with the Sedins at Rogers Arena, and get a look at Hunter Shinkaruk, Bo Horvat and Dane Fox up front. Frank Corrado and Jordan Subban will show their stuff on the back end, while we'll see Eddie Lack and Joe Cannata in net.
I had actually hoped to see a few more prospects like Curtis Valk and J.T. Wyman, who both scored twice in yesterday's scrimmage, but they're not showing up on either roster.
Jason Botchford has a
solid story on Valk in
The Province. Also undrafted in the WHL, he made the Medicine Hat Tigers under Willie Desjardins as a walk-on, but was actually invited to join the Canucks' prospects this summer before Desjardins was brought on board.
It'd be a great story to see the kid earn a contract, even if he spends most of the season playing at the minor-league level, but according to
CapGeek.com, the Canucks currently have 52 contracts on their books—and the maximum is 50.
They'll get down to 50 when they send Jake Virtanen and Jared McCann back to junior. Only three others are junior eligible: Cole Cassels, Anton Cederholm and Bo Horvat.
Though Cassels scored the shootout winner at Sunday's scrimmage, I'd certainly expect to see him head back to Oshawa after losing his entire summer of training to mono, and I wouldn't expect to see Cederholm make the defense as a 19-year-old when there are plenty of others ahead of him on the depth chart. If Horvat stays up, that leaves the team with 48 contracts—not a lot of wiggle room if they do decide to ink Valk.
It looks like Ryan Stanton was injured by the hard hit he took from Darren Archibald at Sunday's scrimmage:
Stanton's also not on either roster for tomorrow's games, though there hasn't been an official update yet on his condition.
The timing for tomorrow is somewhat staggered, so you should be able to keep an eye on both games to some degree.
The game in Vancouver starts at 6 p.m. and will be broadcast on Sportsnet 360 and TSN1040.
The game in Stockton starts at 7:30, but there's no word yet on whether there will be any radio coverage, either from the Vancouver or San Jose side. Let us know if you come across any information!
No word yet on the Sharks' lineups, either. I'm pretty curious to get a first look at a team that promised major changes over the summer—but didn't make them. It's a stark contrast to the busy summer we've experienced here in Vancouver.
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