Let's start today with some hard-hitting news. Is Brock Boeser dealing with an arm injury?
These photos touched off a tidal wave of concern over the weekend. Was Boeser deliberately hiding his arm with that towel?
No need for worry. Rick Dhaliwal's on the case.
Click here for the summer league's rosters, which have just been released. Boeser will once again be suiting up for Team Bic, on a squad that also includes Derek Stepan and all three Poehling brothers. He'll be coached, like last year, by Keith Ballard and Brock's father Duke.
Also, a couple of goalies to watch for: Canucks goaltending prospect Jake Kielly is participating, playing for team RBC. New free-agent signing Zane McIntyre is on the roster for Tria but is currently scratched out. I'm guessing that means he's not available this week but will suit up at some point during the season.
Three games are on tap for Wednesday from Braemar Arena in Edina, Minnesota, starting at 3:30 p.m. PT. Boeser's Team Bic will take on Kielly's Team RBC in the final game this week, at 5 p.m. PT.
Games are usually livestreamed on YouTube. You can try
this link or
this link if you want to see Brock in action for yourself.
I'm not seeing any updates on Boeser's contract talks. His agent, Ben Hankinson, is one of the driving forces behind Da Beauty League, so he has probably been quite busy getting everything organized.
There has been lots of talk about how there's a bit of a waiting game happening among the big group of star RFAs, looking for someone to go first and set the market.
Sebastian Aho is now signed, but his offer sheet scenario didn't quite offer a typical template—and the general feeling is that he might have lowballed himself a bit by accepting Montreal's terms of five years at a cap hit of just under $8.5 million.
If agents didn't like that number, they must have really hated Kevin Labanc's deal with the San Jose Sharks. On Monday, it was announced that the 23-year-old winger had bet on himself with a one-year deal at just $1 million.
Yes, the Sharks don't have a lot of cap space to play with.
CapFriendly shows them as having 20 players signed, and about $5 million in additional room—with Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau probably both waiting in the wings for invitations to return on bargain deals of their own.
Labanc doesn't have the same star power as many of the other RFAs still waiting for deals. He was drafted in the sixth round by the Sharks in 2014, but has improved steadily over his three NHL seasons, going from 20 points in his rookie year to 40 in 2017-18, then 17 goals and 56 points last year.
You know who else had 56 points last year? Brock Boeser.
So, Labanc's going to take another year to try to prove that he's the Sharks' next Joe Pavelski. Little Joe was a seventh-round pick in 2004 and, for most of his career, saw his salaries slot in below Thornton and Marleau.
In terms of perceived status in the league, Boeser probably matches up more closely to the Sharks' other young star, Timo Meier. The 22-year-old power forward was drafted ninth overall in 2015, 14 spots ahead of Boeser and right between two other current high-profile RFAs, Zach Werenski and Mikko Rantanen.
Meier didn't make the same splash that Boeser did as a rookie, but he took a huge step forward last season, going from 36 points in 2017-18 to 66 points last year—including 30 goals, one more than Boeser scored when he finished second in Calder Trophy voting two seasons ago.
On July 1, the Sharks inked Meier to a four-year deal with a cap hit of $6 million a season. Depending on the term that Brock is after, that seems like it'd be a realistic starting point for a Boeser deal.
Meier and Boeser will both reach UFA status in 2024, so Meier's deal expires one year before that.
The Canucks did bring one more player under contract on Monday, signing new acquisition Francis Perron to a one-year, two-way deal. According to
CapFriendly, the deal will pay just over the NHL minimum at $715,000, with a $100,000 AHL salary.
Originally drafted in the seventh round in 2014 by the Ottawa Senators, Perron finished out his junior career with a QMJHL championship with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and tied for his team scoring lead in the 2016 Memorial Cup with eight points in five games—with none other than Timo Meier, coincidentally enough.
Perhaps the Meier connection is why the Sharks asked for Perron to be included in the deal that brought Erik Karlsson to San Jose last September?
Perron's numbers improved last season. He finished second in scoring on the San Jose Barracuda with 18-29-47 in 63 games and was one of three Barracuda players selected to participate in the 2019 AHL All-Star Game. That all sounds great, and Perron should certainly be another useful player for the Utica Comets this year. But I'll temper my enthusiasm about any possible upside beyond that with the knowledge that the Sharks organization chose to cut ties with him after just one season, dealing him to the Canucks in a draft-weekend trade that saw the Sharks swap a seventh-round pick for one in the sixth round and acquire the rights to 32-year-old Tom Pyatt, who became a UFA on July 1.
While we're on the topic of the Comets, expect one more Utica-oriented signing to come down the pipe soon.
And one final note—if you missed it, I updated the last blog because I initially overlooked the fact that the Canucks' fifth-round pick from this year's draft, Carson Focht, is on the list of
Team Canada's invitees for the World Junior Summer Showcase.
With Dylan Cozens and Peyton Krebs unable to participate due to injury,
the Canadians added Washington first-rounder Connor McMichael to their roster on Monday, bringing the total number of invitees to 42—five goalies, 13 defensemen and 24 forwards.
That's enough bodies to make up two teams, and while the tournament schedule doesn't indicate this, the Hockey Canada press release says that the players will once again be split into two squads, Red and White. So, Focht should get a chance to show what he can do in game situations.
Focht turned 19 in February, so he was passed over in his first year of draft eligibility. A centre, he finished second in scoring on the Calgary Hitmen last season with 26-38-64 in 68 games and tied for the team lead with 5-4-9 in 11 playoff games.
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