I expect we'll see more tidbits and photos as the day wears on.
Speaking of tidbits, here are a few other smaller bits of news that surfaced over the past few days.
• On Friday, the Canucks signed 28-year-old center Blair Jones to a one-year, two-way deal. Jones was a fourth-round draft pick back in 2005 but has played just 132 NHL games in a career spent largely in the minors. Last season, he played four games with the Philadelphia Flyers.
Jones is a big boy at 6'2" and 216 pounds. I assume he's earmarked for Utica, where there's a hole at center now that Cal O'Reilly has moved on to Buffalo to play with his brother Ryan.
Fun fact: As a Calgary Flame, Jones was one of the participants in the infamous line brawl that has become the defining moment of John Tortorella's Canucks career. Jones squared off with Dale Weise.
Pretty amazing to realize that, now that Kevin Bieksa has been traded, not one Canuck who was part of that incident remains with the team.
• In case you missed it, Daniel Sedin's house is for sale:
I haven't been able to confirm, but the word is that this isn't a sign of a possible swift exit by one of the team's franchise players. He bought the house in 2006 so, with a growing family, it certainly seems possible that they could be moving to a bigger place.
The timing also seems like it was probably pre-set to coincide with the family's summer trip to Sweden, now that the kids are out of school.
I'm not ready to start musing on whether or not the Sedins might want to leave Vancouver if this rebuild doesn't end up happening in a "winning environment." Let's see how the season starts before we jump to any conclusions.
• Jim Jamieson has an interview with newly-signed Linden Vey in The Province, where Vey talks about the importance of the upcoming season for his career. Click here to read.
Though Vey is currently listed as a right wing on the Canucks website, Jamieson postulates that, with the departure of Shawn Matthias and Brad Richardson, there's a job opening at center that's Vey's to lose.
Though we all saw that Vey's not the biggest guy in the world and doesn't match up especially well against some of the hulking centres in the Western Conference, he says he struggled last year because his head wasn't in the right place.
“It’s a big step playing against the best players in the world,” says Vey. “You’re not playing against guys who are 20 to 23. Now it’s guys who have been in the NHL for eight or nine years.
“It took a while to get my head around that and I struggled with my confidence. I got a good opportunity last year but I didn’t play the way I wanted and it kind of snowballed from there.”
For those of you who think the Canucks might consider bringing back Shawn Matthias as he sits unclaimed on the unrestricted free-agent market, Jim Benning is suggesting that's not going to happen.
“Linden Vey is a talented player, so not re-signing Shawn Matthias, we need to get goals from somewhere,” says Benning. “I know (Vey) is working real hard this summer to improve his skating, his first step, his strength, so he’s strong in the battles. He wants to come back and have a year that he’s going to be proud of, and will help us win.”
As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather see a roster spot go to a young forward than see the Canucks bring back Matthias.
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