Team Sweden looks like it should be a force at the World Cup of Hockey. The Sedins and Loui Eriksson will lead the charge on offense, backed up by some other terrific talents like Nicklas Backstrom, Filip Forsberg, Gabriel Landeskog and two newly-anointed Stanley Cup winners—Carl Hagelin and Patric Hornqvist.
The Swedes' real strength will be on defense, where Victor Hedman and Erik Karlsson will anchor a blue line that also includes Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Anton Stralman, Hampus Lindholm and Mattias Ekholm.
Henrik Lundqvist is expected to take most of the responsibility in net, but Jacob Markstrom's role probably increased on Thursday, when Robin Lehner announced that he was pulling out of the tournament as he's still dealing with the aftermath of that high ankle sprain that kept him out of action for a good part of the 2015-16 season.
Jhonas Enroth has been added in Lehner's place—and I like Enroth, but as an unrestricted free agent who was just signed to a one-year contract worth $750,000 by Toronto this week, I think it's safe to say that Markstrom is now the clear No. 2 on the depth chart.
Now 34, I'm sure that Lundqvist will be looking to share his workload, especially during the pre-tournament games.
Speaking of aging goaltenders, if the other Niklas Backstrom, the goaltender, doesn't return next season, that'll make the league's two oldest netminders two very familiar faces—Roberto Luongo, 37, and Ryan Miller, 36.
Luongo's status still matters to Canucks fans, of course, because of the potential cap-recapture penalty that the team could incur if Luongo retires at any point before his contract is up. He's halfway through now—only six seasons to go!
The good news—after his hip surgery in May, Luongo is back on the ice and is aiming to be ready for the Panthers' season opener, says Florida beat writer George Richards:
"I'm not 100 percent; it's a five month rehab," Luongo told Richards. "But I'm feeling better than I thought I would. I thought it would be a slower progression, especially on the ice. It has gone fairly quickly and I'm happy about that. If the season were to start tomorrow, I probably wouldn't be able to go. But I feel good where I'm at and I'm excited about it."
Richards also has more details on Luongo's injury, which started as a nagging groin issue and turned into a torn labrum in March.
Though he's fighting hard to make sure he holds his spot as Florida's starter when the season opens, Luongo is actually saying that he's OK with the idea of sharing his net with James Reimer and cutting his workload to some extent.
A little bit more rest for me should keep me fresh for the playoffs; that's a good thing. If I was 29, I probably wouldn't be saying the same thing. I might even be upset about it. But I've through a lot, went through this in Vancouver toward the end.
You learn how to manage these things. I'm mature enough now to see that at 37, it's tough to play 60 games especially with the travel and all that. To me, it's all about the success of the team here. With Reimer backing me up and playing some games, it should put us in a good position where we want to be come playoff time and that's what it is all about.
For the sake of the Canucks' salary-cap situation, it's important to root for continued success and good health for Luongo in Florida!
As an aside, it's a strange world where we're getting in-depth coverage of informal workouts from markets like Florida, and there's nothing but crickets here in Vancouver.
I do have this—retweeted by the retired beat writer from the Utica Comets:
Up next, news on another former member of the Canucks organization:
Montreal's former director of pro scouting has decamped for Las Vegas. Crawford joined the Habs a year ago, after being let go by the Canucks. He was with Vancouver for 16 years—including all of the "bad drafting" Gillis years, and was director of player personnel between 2010-11 and 2014-15.
That means Crawford oversaw the drafting of first-rounders Nicklas Jensen (2011), Brendan Gaunce (2012), Bo Horvat and Hunter Shinkaruk (2013), Jake Virtanen and Jared McCann (2014) and Brock Boeser (2015)—though he was dismissed just a week after Boeser was drafted.
Depth picks from the Crawford era that have made NHL impacts or are considered decent prospects include Alex Grenier (90th) and Frank Corrado (150th) in 2011, Ben Hutton (147th) in 2012, Cole Cassels (85th) and Jordan Subban (115th) in 2013 and Thatcher Demko (36th) and Nikita Tryamkin (66th) in 2014—though, again, I'd suggest that those 2014 picks have more to do with the Jim Benning drafting philosophy than with Eric Crawford's influence.
Karpan had been with the Canadiens as a scout since 2005 and was named director of pro scouting just a year ago. It's important to note that Crawford's new gig focuses on pro scouting, not on the amateur side.
But speaking of players that were drafted in Vancouver under Crawford's watch, Canucks prospect Jordan Subban was among the star-studded group that participated in this week's BioSteel Camp in Toronto.
The lineup included everyone from Connor McDavid to Paul Bissonnette. Taylor Hall made some headlines earlier in the week when he talked about his trade out of Edmonton and seeing the final Tragically Hip show in his hometown of Kingston, but my favourite items are these investigative nuggets from
Luke Fox at Sportsnet:
15. Jordan Subban is more of a Drake fan than a Hip guy.
The Canucks prospect went to Buffalo to catch the Summer Sixteen Tour. “He faked like Rihanna was coming out but didn’t bring anybody,” Jordan says.
16. Subban delivered the best response when I asked what else he did for fun in the off-season.
"I got a girlfriend.”
Enjoy your weekend!
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