Which part of the NHL Awards/Expansion Draft felt like the biggest kick in the gut to you?
1) The fact that the expansion draft selections went in reverse order from the season-ending standings, meaning that the Vancouver selection came second?
2) The fact that the Canucks lost Luca Sbisa?
3) The fact that John Tortorella won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year?
4) The fact that the biggest laughs of the night came at the Canucks expense, courtesy of 10-year-old Jacob Tremblay?
For me, it was definitely Torts, especially because it was such a shocker. I was sure that Mike Babcock was a shoo-in to win, for his work turning around the Leafs this year and as a sort of lifetime achievement award for his past successes as well.
Was I ever wrong!
Because of my bias against Torts after his dismal year here in Vancouver, I spent the season believing that the Blue Jackets were succeeding in spite of him, not because of him. The award voting took place at the end of the regular season, before Columbus got toasted by Pittsburgh in the first round. I figured their quick playoff exit justified my skepticism that even though Columbus had finished fourth overall in the league, some of that was smoke and mirrors—and a lot of it was goaltending.
Seeing Torts win forced me to re-think these convictions—and wonder, did we give up on him too quickly here in Vancouver?
But his lack of commitment during his time here seemed so palpable. And the rage issues! The broadcasters just gave the coach of the year award to a guy that was suspended for trying to storm another team's locker room. How can this be??
Granted, Torts hasn't been making highlight reels for the wrong reasons during his tenure so far in Columbus. Maybe he really has tempered his worst tendencies and learned from his mistakes with the Canucks?
I don't know. I'm going to stick with my conviction that the Blue Jackets are going to take a tumble next season and like 2015 Jack Adams winner Bob Hartley, 2014 winner Patrick Roy and 2013 winner Paul MacLean, Torts will also be out of a job within two years.
As for Jacob Tremblay, I do take some comfort in the fact that he followed up his Canucks jokes with an apology.
The bit did deliver an historic moment. Mike Babcock doesn't even smile, usually, let alone guffaw!
Tremblay is a Vancouver native. A star of the Oscar-nominated film "Room" in 2015, he also presented at the 2016 NHL Awards, in a Canucks jersey.
He was good, so they brought him back, but apparently the only way the writers could integrate his declared allegiance to the Canucks was by roasting the team.
This too will, eventually, pass. But it's tough to be the butt of the joke on a night that's all about celebrating what's best in the game.
The show did show tremendous heart in a couple of segments. Bobby Carpenter was fantastic in relaying the story of how he ran the Boston Marathon with Denna Laing and what a source of inspiration she continues to be, and Bryan Bickell's farewell speech as he says goodbye to the game due to his M.S. diagnosis were both major tear-jerkers.
And then, there was the expansion draft.
It was no surprise to hear Luca Sbisa's name called as Vegas's second selection—especially when the draft board was filled and it became apparent that George McPhee had used all four of his extra selections on defensemen.
CapFriendly has the easy-to-follow breakdown of the current Vegas roster—amazingly, they're less than $1 million below the salary cap after Wednesday night's selections, though I assume they'll free up some cap space pretty quickly once they start making their followup trades. With 14 defensemen currently on the roster, a bunch of them will be on the move.
For all of the flak that Sbisa took during his time in Vancouver, he is being treated more nicely on his way out of town.
Sbisa's wife is from Vancouver but the couple still spends offseasons in Southern California, where they put down roots when he played for the Ducks. If he does stay in Vegas, it'll keep them close to that home base.
I liked Sbisa's attitude and his sense of adventure.
Click here to revisit my interview with him from last January, with his marvellous tale of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro on his honeymoon last summer.
Does losing Sbisa put the brakes on a possible Chris Tanev trade? Perhaps. We pretty much knew this was going to happen but now, the current Canucks D-corps consists of Tanev, Alex Edler, Erik Gudbranson, Ben Hutton, Troy Stecher and Alex Biega. We've got Swedish free-agent signing Philip Holm coming in, Andrey Pedan taking what could be his last run at an NHL job and 2016 first-rounder Olli Juolevi hoping to show that he has what it takes to step into the lineup this year. The roster isn't completely barren, but it's not exactly overflowing with talent, either—especially once you factor in the seemingly-inevitable injuries that will arise.
More likely to slow the roll on Tanev-to-Dallas is this Marc Methot situation. The Stars would love to take him off Vegas' hands—and I'm sure George McPhee would be thrilled to add that third-overall pick to his arsenal—even if it means giving up one of the three first-round picks he already holds.
The trade freeze has ended and a couple of deals have already gone down this morning. George shipped out his first defenseman, Trevor van Riemsdyk, to Carolina, and the Oilers pulled the trigger on the Jordan Eberle deal, sending him to the Islanders in exchange for Ryan Strome.
I expect we'll see plenty more deals over the next 48 hours, including a bunch on the draft floor on Friday during the first round. Should be exciting!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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