Thanks for all your votes in yesterday's poll. Only four players from the list drew significant interest as a possible No.6 pick for Vancouver.
Jake Virtanen, who just had shoulder surgery, led the pack. He's an appealing package—a local boy with size, skill and a good attitude—but sometimes losing a significant stretch of development at this age can derail a junior player's career forever.
If you'd like to hear more from Virtanen, Elliott Pap has an interview from the scouting combine a few weeks back. He's playing down the shoulder surgery—but I think he has to, given that his whole future is on the line at the draft. I am impressed that he finished his high school obligations early so that he could focus on hockey last season.
Virtanen captured 26 percent of yesterday's vote as of this writing on Sunday morning. Your next three candidates, in descending order of popularity:
Nikolaj Ehlers - 23 percent Willie Nylander - 21 percent Nick Ritchie - 15 percent
No one else captured more than five percent of the vote.
Coaching Update:
Despite the many proclamations of Willie Desjardin's hiring by the Canucks late last week, we'll have to wait a little longer for the official word. The interview should be taking place this weekend, but we know that the Canucks were also looking to speak with Scott Arniel—and Kevin Dineen?
We don't have photos this time, but it's rumoured that Dineen was spotted in Vancouver on Friday. After his gold-medal success with the women's Olympic hockey team, I'd agree that Dineen deserves consideration. A few of you have been stumping for him throughout the search, but he hasn't gotten much play from the sources around the league.
I still think Willie has the inside track on the job, but the Canucks are doing the right thing in keeping their options open.
I don't understand why Jim Rutherford announced that the coaching search was complete in Pittsburgh before his face-to-face meeting with Desjardins. Not a great way to start a new job, having to backpedal and re-start this week, especially with the draft looming and plenty of other concerns for the organization.
Meanwhile, Gerard Gallant has now been hired in Florida, which makes it look like Dan Bylsma will be the odd man out now that all positions have been filled.
Looks like Marc Crawford will also be heading back to Zurich for another year in the Swiss League:
Marc #Crawford is not going to @NHL and will continue as a head coach at @zsclions after winning the Suisse #NLA last season.
— Champs Hockey League (@championshockey) June 21, 2014In addition to the possibility of Doug Lidster joining Vancouver's coaching staff as Desjardins' assistant if he hire goes through, another ex-Canuck defenseman has just taken a new coaching gig:
Former NHL defenceman Jeff Brown named head coach of OHL's Ottawa 67's https://t.co/WUlOv6CuCu #OHL
— Yahoo Junior Hockey (@YahooJrHockey) June 19, 2014Brown only played 72 games over three seasons with the Canucks, but he was a natural on the right point on the power play. His impact was immediate when he arrived as part of the Petr Nedved trade package late in the 1993-94 season, and he was a key part of the '94 Cup run.
One final sighting to report from Vancouver this weekend. The Arizona Coyotes' (gotta get used to saying that) bad boy @BizNasty2point0 is in town:
Ran into @BizNasty2point0 the Phoenix Coyotes 4th line specialist himself last night in #Vancouver. Super nice dude pic.twitter.com/hsKEo3DZ5f
— Danny Danha (@DannyDanha) June 22, 2014There's another photograph floating around of him with a very casually-dressed Trevor Linden. Should we read anything into that?
Bissonnette's an unrestricted free agent who made $737,500 last season so I wouldn't say it's out of the question. But he's been a fringe player with the Coyotes: could he really contribute enough to a team that wants to play four lines on the regular? Working in his favour—at 29, he's eight years younger than Scott Thornton.
Looking Ahead:
The full schedule for 2014-15 will be released later today. So far, we know that the Canucks will open their new season in Calgary on October 8, with their home opener at Rogers Arena on Saturday, October 11 against Edmonton.
We also know that the Canucks will be heading to Whistler for training camp from September 19-22. The public will be able to attend, so mark your calendar if you want to snag an early look at this year's prospects and new additions.
Kesler:
Plenty of rumours this week surrounding a new home for Ryan Kesler. Seems like a lot of teams are trying to get in on the action as a deal might come down soon.
I'd be surprised if Pittsburgh's in position to make a play right now, since it seems like they don't quite have their managerial ducks in a row just yet. Eklund's suggesting Toronto, but I highly doubt that Kesler would go to another Canadian team. The Chicagoans seem interested but would have to do some pretty impressive juggling with their cap situation to make it work. St. Louis has cap space and some youngsters with talent that they could deal. From my point of view, it would take a lot more than Patrik Berglund to make the deal work. If I was Jim Benning, I'd ask for Jaden Schwartz, then go from there.
I'd say Anaheim still has the inside track but if the Canucks can manage to spark a bidding war, who knows what kind of lineups you'll be projecting by this time next week?