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Jake Virtanen gets a dose of tough love on Day 1 of Canucks training camp |
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Hello from Victoria!
Day 1 of the Vancouver Canucks' training camp at Save-on-Foods Memorial Arena is in the books. And we wrapped up another work week with huge breaking news late on Friday afternoon.
That's one big contract, but not far off the numbers we'd been hearing get bandied about. In the end, Mitch Marner ends up with one more year than Auston Matthews, whose new contract is for five seasons. But the AAV is a bit lower: Matthews is getting $11.634 million, while Marner comes in at $10.893. What a world — where a difference of $741,000 a year is considered small potatoes?
We've been hearing all summer that Marner's signing will help set the market for the other RFAs that still remain unsigned, including Brock Boeser. Now that Marner has come in at a big number, the rhetoric is shifting a bit, back to "Toronto is its own ecosystem."
It's not unreasonable, though, to suggest that Boeser sits one tier below players like Marner and other still-unsigned RFAs like Matthew Tkachuk and Mikko Rantanen. Nothing new yet on Brock's status but as they like to say, these things can change in a hurry.
As for camp itself, I thought it was pretty funny that Travis Green elected to go with the closest substitute he could find for Boeser, name-wise, in his first group on Friday morning.
Even Green chuckled when asked about Reid Boucher's deployment on Friday.
"We had Boes slotted in there and did a little line juggling," he told the assembled media after the two main groups skated on Friday. "Bouch has done a lot of good things down at the AHL level. We wanted to put him in there right away to see how he looked and we'll probably keep him there for a couple of days. But he can score ... we'll see where it goes."
Overall, Green said not to read too much into the line combinations that were used on Friday, but he did admit that he was deliberate in some pairings, like putting Micheal Ferland with Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller with Bo Horvat — two combinations that we've been anticipating since those wingers were signed this summer.
I came over from Vancouver on Friday morning, so I didn't arrive in time to see Pettersson crush his group in Green's patented Day 1 Bag Skate.
Petey was also in high demand for autographs by the fans on hand. My favourite part of this is learning that this is not the first time he's signed a baby. What a life!
In addition to the Horvat-Miller pairing, Group B on Friday gave us a look at what could be two of the team's three defense pairings — youth + experience in Quinn Hughes/Chris Tanev and one-time Canucks superfans Jordie Benn and Troy Stecher.
The story of Stecher's childhood fandom is well known. Talking to the media in his hometown of Victoria, Benn also made no bones about the fact that the Canucks were 'his team' when he was a kid. He talked about his memories of how Victoria was buzzing during the 1994 Stanley Cup run — when he would have been six years old. And when I asked him if any of his new teammates have surprised him on the ice as he's gotten to know them, he admitted that even in recent years, he has always kept a bit of a close eye on Vancouver.
"You play against these guys, you know who they are," he said. "And obviously, being a fan when I was a kid, i always kept a little bit of track of them as the season went on, just to check in and see how the Canucks are doing. So I knew who everybody was and I mean, nothing's surprising. Pettersson's a special player. Bo is unbelievable and we've got a good group of guys here. We should do something special."
The biggest drama of the day surrounded Jake Virtanen's demotion to the third group, where he skated on a line with Utica Comets stalwarts Wacey Hamilton and Carter Bancks as part of a squad that was comprised almost entirely of minor leaguers.
Green told the media on Friday that there was a reason for the demotion, but also made it clear that this wasn't an indiciation of a one-way ticket to Utica for Virtanen this season.
"I think he's a big part of our team, a big part of our future, so i don't want people to start reading into it, anything other than that he wasn't in the groups today," Green said.
"Jake and I have had lots of conversations over the years. Met a few times over the summer, met at the end of the season. Jake wants to be better as well and wants to progress as a player. I want him to take a step; start to become a leader on the team.
"There were certain expectations that he wanted to reach and that I wanted him to reach, and we both agreed that there were goals that had to be met and if he didn't reach them, that he probably wouldn't be with the first two groups on the first day of camp, and there's nothing more than that. I'm not going to get into it more than that.
"I put a lot of hope that Jake can be a little bit better for our team. I thought he took a step last year and it's our job to develop — and make sure he progresses and helps our team win down the road and also progresses for himself as well.
"I think consistency is a big part of it. There's certain aspects that go into providing that consistency and be a real good pro. That's what you want to be."
To his credit, Jake held his head high and accepted the hand he was dealt.
Sure enough, he's the only change in Group B on Saturday morning. Playing the Name Game once again, Jake swaps in for Jasek.
With that change, plus Green's past work with Virtanen, I think it's safe to assume that he's being sincere in his desire to help the big forward take another step in his development. Virtanen showed flashes of what he can be last year. Now, he needs to build on that.
The order of the first two groups is swapped this morning, with the first scrimmage of training camp slotted in between.
Here's the full Day 2 schedule:
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