I spent last night getting my sports fix at the Vancouver Canadians' home opener. The Cs early record dropped to 3-3 after a 5-2 loss to Spokane, but it was still a good time at the ballpark. Interestingly, there was one big section of empty seats despite the announced sellout.
I was disappointed during the offseason to hear that the head groundskeeper had taken a new job in Calgary. His wife had been choreographing the terrific dancing-groundskeeper routines in recent years and it was noticeable last night. The fellas started off pretty simple with their opening-night performance to Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town."
Baseball's a good tool to help pass the time until our real hockey news starts to come into focus.
Stevens Stays in L.A.
I wasn't surprised to hear, yesterday, that the Los Angeles Kings promoted John Stevens to Associate Coach when they signed him to a new contract. Assistant Davis Payne and goalie coach Bill Ranford were also re-upped.
The Kings strongly believe that part of the secret to their success is keeping their group together. Amazingly, 17 players from the 2012 Cup-winners were still with the team this year. That's an astonishing number in the salary cap era.
After the Kings were quick to prevent Mike Futa from being poached as a potential G.M. earlier in the summer, the Stevens move is definitely another page from the same playbook. My guess is that the same strategy will apply when trying to re-sign their key free agents as well: I'll expect to see both Willie Mitchell and Marian Gaborik wearing the crown again in October.
Also on the coaching front, after Dan Bylsma's interview here in Vancouver yesterday, we get this tweet from Darren Dreger:
Among the candidates still in the mix for the Vancouver Canucks coaching gig, Mike Johnston remains a strong contender.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) June 19, 2014Dreger also mentions that Florida plans to name its coach by Monday at the latest. I think that's where Bylsma will land.
Also as expected:
Confirmation from Dallas that Vancouver has now asked for permission to talk to Willie Desjardins.
— John Shannon (@JSportsnet) June 18, 2014Player Notes:
On the player front, here's another tidbit that's not unexpected:
Been told the #Canucks will try and move former 1st round draft pick Jordan Schroeder before and at the NHL Draft.
— News1130 Sports (@News1130Sports) June 19, 2014Schroeder made $600,000 on a one-year deal last season but played just 25 games with the Canucks and two with Utica due to a serious ankle injury. Schroeder turns 24 in September, so he might still be able to make something out of his career if he got a fresh start with a team where he could get some confidence and some top-six minutes. But is he tradeable?
According to this Jim Jamieson story on Chris Tanev, qualifying offers must be submitted by June 25th, a couple of days before the draft. If the Canucks don't qualify Schroeder, a new team could pick him up for free.
According to CapGeek.com, a player needs to hit certain thresholds to be qualified on a one-way deal. With just 56 NHL games to his name, Schroeder doesn't hit any of those marks. However, he had a one-way contract last year. I'm not sure whether or not the team could backpedal and qualify him now with a two-way deal, thereby retaining his rights.
As for Tanev, his agent says he hasn't heard from the Canucks yet, but that's not unusual for RFAs. He'll be qualified, with plenty of time to negotiate his new deal before the beginning of the season.
Broadcast Notes:
Some good news to finish things off today. This announcement is a couple of days old, but I'm happy to see that Rogers has signed both Elliotte Friedman and Scott Oake to continue their roles as part of Hockey Night in Canada next season. Click here for the story.
We've sung Elliotte's praises many times around here. He's well-connected, trustworthy and more often than not, serves as the voice of reason on the HNIC panel. Scott Oake has also become a solid contributor, hitting just the right balance of gossip, humour and insight with his After Hours interviews—often Must-See TV.
I'm still grumpy that we'll have to wait another three months to get a glimpse of the new Rogers hockey package, but cautiously hopeful that they're on the right track as they assemble their team. Friedman is set to debut with Rogers as part of Free Agency Day on July 1.
A side note: I believe there was mention during one of this week's Town Hall meetings that the Canucks are looking at moving the start time of some of their weekday games to 6:00—they said, so that more kids can come to the games. I wonder if this idea originates from the Rogers deal? If they're going to do single games on their national broadcast nights rather than double-headers, an earlier start would work better across the rest of the country.
The 2014-15 schedule should be released in mid-July.