I'll take a break from draft chatter today.
First off, the NHL Awards go tonight. It'll be the 10th straight season that the ceremony has taken place in Las Vegas, but the first time Vegas has been an NHL city rather than a 'neutral site,' so to speak.
Last year, of course, the awards were presented in conjunction with the expansion draft. I wonder if the vibe will be different this year with a roomful of Golden Knights fans on hand?
Two Vegas players are nominated for individual awards: William Karlsson for the Lady Byng and Deryk Engelland for the Mark Messier Leadership Award. The ceremony will also include a tribute to the survivors and first responders from last October's mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.
The ceremony will also pay tribute to the survivors and first responders from the Parkland shooting, which hit close to home for the Florida Panthers. Roberto Luongo has spoken eloquently about this tragedy in the past and will be at the ceremony tonight, as he is nominated for the Masterton Trophy. Aleksander Barkov of the Panthers will also be on hand, as a Lady Byng nominee.
For the Canucks, we've got Brock Boeser nominated for the Calder and the Sedins as co-nominees for the King Clancy Trophy. The trio introduced themselves to another group of honoured guests, the survivors from the Humboldt Broncos bus crash, on Tuesday.
Boeser is up against Mathew Barzal and Clayton Keller for the Calder—and had a real shot at being the first Canucks player since Pavel Bure to win the award before he went down with that back injury with just over a month left in the season.
It looks like his rehab has come along nicely.
Boeser told TSN1040 today that he'll be getting back to full training in mid-July.
That just happens to be right when Da Beauty League starts up in Minnesota. Boeser was part of a long list of NHLers who participated last summer.
As for the King Clancy trophy, the Sedins are up against Jason Zucker of the Minnesota Wild and P.K. Subban of the Nashville Predators for the award celebrating the player who "best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution to his community."
Clearly, the competition is *on,* as P.K. tries to curry favour with Henrik's son Harry.
One other interesting note on the awards: this is the first year that we'll have complete transparency on the awards that are voted by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. The ballots for Alexander Ovechkin's Conn Smythe win were released
on the PHWA website immediately after the award was presented. I expect the same will happen tonight.
The list of awards determined by the PHWA:
• Hart Memorial Trophy
• James Norris Memorial Trophy
• Calder Memorial Trophy
• Lady Byng Memorial Trophy
• Frank J. Selke Trophy
• Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy
• King Clancy Trophy
It should be very interesting to see how individual writers vote and how much variation we'll see on the ballots.
Back at home, the Canucks have been doing some housecleaning, starting to work on contracts and making decisions on free agents.
On Tuesday, they announced that Reid Boucher has been re-signed to a one-year, two-way deal:
For the last two years, Boucher was on one-year, one-way contracts—at $687,500 on the deal that he signed with the Canucks last summer and at $715,000 on the deal he signed with the New Jersey Devils in the summer of 2016. The 24-year-old was eligible for arbitration but he and his agent obviously didn't feel there was anything to gain. He was an AHL All-Star last season, putting up 46 points in 45 games in Utica, but managed just five points in 20 games with the Canucks.
Word is that the Canucks are currently in negotiations with rugged forwards Darren Archibald and Joseph LaBate and veteran goaltender Richard Bachman. All three can become unrestricted free agents on July 1.
A fourth-round pick by the Canucks in 2011, LaBate may have slipped down the depth chart. Despite all the Canucks' injuries in 2017-18, he didn't get an NHL callup last season—despite having played for three seasons in Utica under Travis Green. LaBate's 13 career NHL games all in 2016-17. He had no points and 21 penalty minutes.
Finally, the Chris Tanev trade rumours are heating up once again.
Word is that Tampa Bay could also be interested.
I think teams have been trying to lowball Jim Benning on Tanev for awhile. He needs to stand his ground—take a deal if there's a decent offer on the table, but don't be afraid to keep him around. Tanev has two years remaining on a team-friendly deal that carries a cap hit of $4.45 million.
He seems to be enjoying his summer—joined Jake Virtanen at Ben Hutton's golf tournament in Prescott, Ontario last weekend.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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