Well, we got nothing from Thatcher Demko's dad yesterday, so I guess maybe his countdown was for the announcement that his son was named to the U.S. Team for World Championships.
A couple of other Canucks also made the cut for their countries this week. Here's the full list of players who will be competing in Russia:
Canada: Chris Tanev and Ben Hutton
Sweden: Jacob Markstrom
Finland: Markus Granlund
Switzerland: Yannick Weber
Denmark: Jannik Hansen
USA: Thatcher Demko
I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but word came out from Finland yesterday that top draft prospect Jesse Puljujarvi is on his way to join Team Finland at the Under-18 Championships.
Something to keep an eye on. I'm not sure why one tournament would necessarily have a direct impact on the other—and wouldn't it be an amazing hat trick for one player to suit up for the U18s, U20s and senior men's tournaments all in the same year? I'm guessing that doesn't happen too often!
I had my eye on Canada's 10-2 win over Denmark in Grand Forks yesterday to see if I could get an inkling of why McKeen's Hockey has ranked Michael McLeod third overall in their projection for this year's draft. Despite 10 goals for Canada, McLeod didn't record a point. Team captain Tyson Jost—who will play at North Dakota next year—and Jordan Kyrou were the offensive standouts.
That being said, I was a little surprised to see McKeen's so roundly dismissed in yesterday's comment section. Back in the old days, I used to pick up their annual yearbooks to prepare for my hockey pools—they've been around since 1994.
And if you look at their first-round draft rankings from 2015, they didn't do too badly.
Click here to take a look at that list, then contrast it with the
actual first round from Hockey DB.
We've got a ways to go until final rankings are locked in. This U18 tournament, junior hockey playoffs and World Championships will all give players further opportunities to move up or fall back. As always, draft order will also play a role in which players are chosen, depending on teams' positional needs.
Canada takes on the Czech Republic in Grand Forks at 5:30 p.m. today, with television coverage on TSN3, TSN4 and TSN5.
Speaking of TSN—I have my first book recommendation off the offseason for you. I have read a few hockey books lately, but nothing really stood out until I started into James Duthie's "The Guy on the Left: Sports Stories from the Best Seat in the House."
Just like on television, Duthie's big, bright personality shines through as he traces his roots in broadcasting. I was not aware that he was a news reporter for Vancouver's brand new VTV channel for eight months when it launched in 1997—apparently doing his signature wacky stunts even back then, including during ultra-serious events like the APEC conference. Does anybody remember this?
I expected a fun read from Duthie, and he hasn't disappointed. Well worth picking up to help wile away the long offseason.
Regular Season Winding Down in Utica
Also worth following: the Utica Comets, who play their last two regular-season games this weekend before the Calder Cup playoffs begin
The Comets are locked into third place in the North Division. The structure of the AHL playoffs is complicated—see if you can figure out how
this bracket works—but apparently if the playoffs started today, they'd meet the Toronto Marlies in the first round.
Utica's on the road at Syracuse today, then will wrap up the season at home on Sunday against Binghamton on Sunday afternoon.
Four members of the season-ending Canucks crew have been sent back down to Utica for the playoff run.
Here's hoping the Comets will engage us with another long playoff run like they did last year!
Worth noting—there are rumbles that Comets coach Travis Green might be ready to make the jump to the big leagues in the not-too-distant future.
His name is popping up in conversations about the new vacancy behind the bench in Ottawa:
The Green situation will be something to watch this summer. If there's a risk that he'll move to another organization, can the Canucks make room for him at the NHL level?
Even if they can, should they? Would it make sense to replace Willie Desjardins with a head coach with no NHL experience or would that roll back the rebuild once again?
I look at Jon Cooper's situation in Tampa Bay as a sort of best-case scenario for what can happen with a minor-league coach basically moves up to the NHL along with a big group of young prospects. I'm not sure the Lightning could have had the success they've had over the last couple of years if Cooper hadn't come into his job with so much familiarity with his prospects.
My best-case scenario would be to let Willie start next season with the Canucks, with the idea in mind that Green could move up if the team gets off to another rough start. We'll have to wait and see whether the coaching market allows for that, or if Green gets an offer he can't refuse in the meantime from another organization.
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