If you missed it, Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning made an appearance on TSN1040 radio on Monday. Among other things, he talked about what the team hopes to accomplish by bringing in unrestricted free agents Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel and Tim Schaller.
I get it, but I wonder if it'll work? I like the fact that Benning believes that these guys can skate well enough to be effective in today's NHL, but part of me feels like these comments echo what we heard when Brandon Prust was brought in three years ago. Prust had a rep as a great team guy, but he didn't seem to mesh with the rest of the room here in Vancouver, in what turned out to be his final NHL season.
Jay Beagle seems like a different type of "high-character guy"—and perhaps the most important difference from Prust off the top is that he wants to be in Vancouver. Even if Beagle's decision was influenced by money and term, he chose to sign with the Canucks, whereas recently-engaged Prust and his then-fiancee were devastated by the trade that saw him leave Montreal.
The other difference, which I feel hasn't been talked about enough, is the fact that Beagle's coming into a post-Sedin locker room. We *know* that Daniel and Henrik have retired, but I don't think we'll get a true sense of just how big a void is being created until training camp starts rolling. Even as we talk about the logjam at forward, it'll be fascinating to see how the twins' prime ice time gets divvied up, and which players become the go-to guys for the media—especially after losses.
Alex Edler and Chris Tanev are now the longest-serving Canucks—and the only ones whose tenures stretch back as far as the storied 2010-11 season. Both are career Canucks—Edler has 758 games in a Vancouver uniform while Tanev has 390, so they have the strongest sense of the team's history and legacy. But both of them shy away from the media spotlight—and the two of them together (1,148 games) don't even come close to one Sedin (Henrik had 1,330 games played while Daniel had 1,306).
The player with the next-longest tenure in terms of games with the big club is Jacob Markstrom, who made his Canucks debut on March 6, 2014. He played a total of four games under John Tortorella, then added three more under Willie Desjardins in 2014-15 before becoming a full-time Canuck during the 2015-16 season.
The next most senior active Canuck is Bo Horvat (295 games), who made the team as a 19-year-old under Willie Desjardins at the beginning of the 2014-15 season. He's followed by Sven Baertschi (193 games), who was assigned to the Utica Comets when he was acquired at the 2015 trade deadline, then played three regular-season and two playoff games with the Canucks to close out the 2014-15 season. Then comes Brandon Sutter, who arrived during the 2015-16 offseason and has logged 162 games.
Horvat's not the most talkative guy, but he is determined to do what it takes to become a team leader, so I expect we'll see him in scrums a lot this season. Baertschi's reasonably chatty. So is Sutter. And Markstrom gained locker-room traction with the media last season thanks to his unflinching honesty, even in tough situations.
That's the core group, so I expect there will be plenty of opportunity for Beagle and Roussel to chime in and share their thoughts on a regular basis.
I have a funny Roussel story, actually. At my first World Championship in 2015, he was part of Team France. I arrived in Prague a couple of days before the end of the round-robin portion of the tournament, so one of the other reporters was taking me around to help me get a feel for the interview protocol in the mixed zone after games.
Going into the third period against Sweden tied 2-2, Filip Forsberg and Oliver Ekman-Larsson picked up third-period goals to give the Swedes the 4-2 win and put France at risk of relegation with one game left in the round robin. As I stood by, observing, my colleague stopped Roussel to ask for his thoughts on the game. "Ahhh, F***...." he started, before talking about how he felt that the French had let a good opportunity slip away against a strong team.
I've never heard another player drop an F-bomb in the World Championship setting; it was quite a first impression!
I'm very curious to see if Roussel brings that kind of candour to the Canucks' locker room this fall.
In his interview, Benning also offered the latest non-update on Quinn Hughes:
He went on to say that if Hughes does get signed and deserves to make the team, they'll find a way to make room for him on the roster.
If you haven't seen it, the Canucks' video of Benning and company mic'ed up at the draft certainly confirms the group's glee as Hughes fell to them at seven.
I'm happy to report that I'll get a chance to check in on Quinn and his ultra-talented little brother Jack next week in Kamloops at the Sport Chek World Junior Showcase. I'll be there for four days, so I'll get to see Quinn & Jack play twice for USA's Team White in split-squad games on Monday and Tuesday and—presumably—as part of the integrated team that faces Sweden on Thursday.
Click here for the full schedule. TSN has covered this event in the past but it looks like it's not on next week's TV schedule.
In addition to Quinn Hughes, three other Canucks prospects will be participating: Michael DiPietro and Jett Woo (Canada) and Toni Utunen (Finland).
If you missed it,
click here for a profile of Utunen from the IIHF website, and
here for a feature on Woo from NHL.com.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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