Last night, I dreamt that Trevor Linden started the season centering the fourth line—just a temporary thing, to show 'em how it's done. Dream faded to black just after the opening faceoff, so I can't tell you how that roster move turned out.
Does the CBA allow for a playing President?
The Canucks now have one more roster spot to fill after the announcement this morning that David Booth has been placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a buyout.
As I said yesterday, I'm surprised that this announcement has come so early in the buyout window. I thought the team would want to wait until they had a few more of their ducks in a row before making a final decision on Booth. He was an "odd dude" who made way too much money, but might have been a decent role player as part of a new regime.
Booth's ineffectiveness in Vancouver overshadows the fact that the trade itself that brought him here wasn't that bad. Gillis packaged up Marco Sturm—a nightmarish free agent signing—and an injured Mikael Samuelsson for a younger player who should have been a speedy, scoring winter. Did Booth's concussion issues prior to coming to Vancouver contribute to his poor play while he was here? His ankle injury was definitely a factor, and he certainly got knocked for having too many hobbies and interests outside of hockey—some of which caused more controversy that the organization would have liked.
For his part, as usual, Booth is looking on the bright side:
David Booth told his agent "I'm excited" when he told he was on waivers. It's a new beginning - both sides needed it. #Canucks
— News1130 Sports (@News1130Sports) June 17, 2014News1130 notes that Booth's agent, Mike Liut, also handles the affairs of Keith Ballard and Cory Schneider. Not a great track record for his clients here in Vancouver.
If you missed it, Booth got married on the weekend. Wonder if his bride expected that her husband would be unemployed less than 72 hours after the cake was cut?
Some of you were speculating in the comments that the move is designed to clear more cap room so the Canucks can take on additional salary in a Ryan Kesler deal, which makes some sense. If the Canucks can get two decent roster players, especially, they could easily end up costing more than $5, even if they're younger—say, in that 24-26 range.
I don't think the money will be spent on an offer sheet. I can't find my notes from Benning's radio interview on Friday, but I'm pretty sure I've heard him say that he thinks offer sheets just drive up salaries overall and the Canucks won't be going that route.
Benning, Linden and Victor de Bonis made another Town Hall appearance last night, out in Richmond. A fan named Nav097 offered pretty comprehensive summary of what went down on Twitter. Apparently there was a lot of discussion about the price of food, beer and merchandise at Rogers Arena mixed in with the hockey talk.
Click here to check it out.
I think the most interesting items to note are that Linden specifically singled out Alex Burrows, Alex Edler and Jannik Hansen as players who had particularly terrible or unlucky years last season. I think management is legitimately expecting through three to bounce back and play key roles in the turnaround.
Also, Nav097 mentioned that Benning perked up when he heard that the St. John's IceCaps/Texas Stars game had gone to overtime. Willie Desjardins' Stars took a page from the Los Angeles Kings' book, coming back from a 3-0 hole after being outshot 21-5 in the first period to win 4-3 in overtime and take a 3-1 lead in the series.
What matters to us: Texas can clinch the Calder Cup tonight with one more win. Game time is 3 p.m. PT from Newfoundland.
Here's the latest on the Canucks' other supposed front-runner, John Stevens:
Carolina and Pittsburgh have asked the LA Kings for permission to interview John Stevens.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 17, 2014Friedman added in a second tweet that he assumes Vancouver will also be contacting Stevens, but he wasn't able to confirm that this morning.
On the Move:
Tuesday's other buyout candidate is Ville Leino of Buffalo, who was signed to a six-year, $27 million contract by Buffalo in during the summer of 2011. Sure, the deal looks terrible now—Leino scored 10 goals in three seasons in Buffalo. But he was 27 years old, coming off a 19 goal and 53 point season, and had a great playoff in 2010 with Philadelphia. I wonder what kind of interest he'll draw this time as a free agent?
The scene remains murky with the Richardses in New York and L.A. Brad Richards did not speak to the media at locker cleanout day on Monday at Madison Square Garden, which darkens the skies over his future as a Ranger. Meanwhile, Mike Richards was hooting and high-fiving with his teammates during the Kings' Stanley Cup parade and rally. I don't think the Kings have made an official statement yet, but the general feeling seems to be that he'll be sticking around.
The Boston Bruins announced on Monday that they wouldn't be re-signing soon-to-be-37-year-old fourth-liner Shawn Thornton to a new deal. This is news in Vancouver because Trevor Linden namechecked Thornton on Hockey Night in Canada shortly after he assumed his presidency as the kind of guy that the Canucks would like to build around.
I'm hoping he meant 2011-era Thornton, not the current 2014-15 model.
For his part, Thornton is open to the idea of coming to Vancouver:
Thonton says "I love Mr Benning, him and his whole family, if he gives me a shout, I will be more than happy to talk to him".
— News1130 Sports (@News1130Sports) June 17, 2014We'll see where that goes...