It's fun to talk about the Vancouver Canucks potentially making a blockbuster trade for a star winger like Gabriel Landeskog or Evander Kane, but given the fact that the team is once again pretty tight to the salary-cap ceiling, it seems far more likely that the club will sign an unrestricted free agent who won't break the bank.
We talked about Jooris, Knight and Gagner last week. Brandon Pirri's an interesting case—he scored 22 goals in 49 games for the Florida Panthers in 2014-15, but was flipped to the Anaheim Ducks at the 2015 trade deadline for a sixth-round draft pick. Pirri was on the sidelines with an ankle injury when he was traded, and managed just nine games with the Ducks before missing the rest of the regular season with an upper-body injury.
Pirri has had one documented concussion as well as a couple of more vague upper-body injuries, according to
this chart from
The Hockey News. With his scoring touch, his name is being floated around as a possible value signing for a number of teams. I wonder if his health is a concern but I wouldn't mind if the Canucks gave him a shot. He's not the biggest guy at 6'0" and 183 pounds, but he's 25, can play any forward position, and probably has the most offensive upside of the four players on that News1130 list.
Doug Jarvis Fills Assistant Coach Vacancy
I was going to go over the list of finalists for the Canucks' assistant coaching job in today's blog, but the team has beaten me to the punch with the announcement that Doug Jarvis is their chosen candidate.
If your hockey memory goes back to the 1970s, you'll know Jarvis as a checking centre who was part of the Montreal Canadiens' dynasty, winning four consecutive Stanley Cups between 1976 and 1979. He won the Selke Trophy as the NHL's best defensive forward in 1984 as a member of the Washington Capitals and was awarded the Masterton Trophy for perseverance and dedication to hockey in 1987.
Jarvis was also an NHL ironman. Though he's wildly undersized by today's standards at 5'9" and 170 pounds, he didn't miss a single game in his entire 964-game NHL career, which lasted from 1975 to 1987.
FYI, Andrew Cogliano is the current active NHL record-holder, with 704 straight games dating back to his rookie season in 2007-08. Henrik Sedin holds the Canucks record at 679 games, lasting from March of 2004 to January of 2014.
Jim Benning talked about wanting to hire a winner when he selected Vancouver's new assistant, and he has certainly done that. In addition to those four Cups with the Canadiens, Jarvis has also won twice as an assistant coach.
When his playing days were over, he spent 14 years on the coaching staff of the Minnesota/Dallas Stars, winning the Cup in Dallas in 1999. He then spent six seasons with the Canadiens organization—as head coach of the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs for two seasons, then as an associate coach with the Habs. In 2010, Jarvis joined the Boston Bruins' coaching staff, just in time for that 2011 Stanley Cup. He also made Jim Benning's acquaintance in Boston, of course.
After two seasons out of the playoffs, the Bruins released Jarvis in May.
Despite his role as a defensive specialist as a player, there has been some talk about Jarvis coming in as a power-play coach. According to
this article from Amalie Benjamin at the
Boston Globe, Jarvis and Joe Sacco took over the Bruins' power play at the beginning of the 2014-15 season. Boston's power play ranked 17th in the league at 17.8 percent in 2014-15, while Vancouver was 11th at 18.9 percent. Last season, though, the Bruins were seventh at 20.5 percent while the Canucks fell to 27th at 15.8 percent, so maybe there is something to this idea.
The Canucks continue to go the tried-and-true route with their assistant coaches at the NHL level:
Seems the decision on Jarvis was made well before this morning. I imagine the team delayed the announcement in order to keep the spotlight over the weekend on free agency and the beginning of Development Camp:
My favourite part of the Development Camp coverage over the last two days is this blog from Olli Juolevi:
Someone asked me the other day about camp and what my goal for camp is and that’s easy: getting better. I need to get stronger and faster and I’m here to learn how to do that. That’s what you have to do when you’re a hockey player. We all want to be better players next season.
I don’t think of myself as being a big first round pick or whatever, I just want to get better and better. Everyone here has a chance to be a future Canucks player and it’s exciting to see. We’ll push each other and help each other all week.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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