Rough n tough Canucks? No way

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1 Rough n tough Canucks? No way Tony Gallagher The Province April 23, 2014 SPEED AND SKILL: Turning Vancouver into intimidating, physical force might be tall task with current roster As you watch the Chicago Blackhawks struggle against the St. Louis Blues in perhaps the most exciting of the first-round playoff matchups, you have to wonder whether there isn t an allegorical lesson on display for the Vancouver Canucks. In the Hawks we see a very gifted, skilled team entering a series with a generally very physical, bellicose St. Louis team. They seem determined to show the Blues that they too can be just as physical as they are, and if the boys from St. Louis don t believe it, they can just watch. And along the way to showing the Blues just how tough they are and that they won t be pushed around, the Hawks have seemingly forgotten what they do best, which is to outskate and out-skill the physical teams as they ve done so well in the past. Now this is not to conclude that the Hawks are going to lose this series, because, in fact, they ve been in control of all three affairs to date until they took some rather ill-advised penalties particularly in Game 2 where they managed to knock out David Backes but got Brent Seabrook suspended in the bargain. But they re in trouble and you wonder whether they wouldn t be up 3-0 with Seabrook still very much in the lineup if they had just stuck to doing what they do best, which is beat teams with their speed and skill as they have in the past against teams like L.A. and Boston. Consider for a moment... isn t this exactly what the Vancouver Canucks have been doing ever since ownership determined that they couldn t get pushed around anymore after the humiliation of the first-round loss to L.A. in the spring of 2012? The largely speed and finesse team has been trying desperately to transition into a big tough team ever since. And judging by ownership s selection of Trevor Linden to succeed Mike Gillis shortly after the former GM said he wanted to get back to a speed and skill team, so does the new president. Hence the fact Jim Benning, the assistant GM with the big tough Bruins, is thought to be the leading contender as the Canucks new general manager.

2 There s only one problem with this kind of thinking: It isn t going to happen for a long, long time, at least with any degree of success. And it won t happen, because it can t happen for four years at least. Consider the people on the roster. The Sedin twins have no-trade contracts for four more seasons in Vancouver, and at $7 million US per, there is no way you are playing rock em, sock em hockey with those guys. Ryan Kesler is on the team, and it is ownership s preference as well as the stated preference of Kesler himself (as remarkably unreliable as his words have proven to be in the past) that he remain on the team. Now he is a fine hockey player and extremely gifted as are the Sedins, but like the twins, if he tries to play the way the Blues and Hawks have gone at it in this series, he won t last any longer than an ice cream cone in Palm Springs on the Fourth of July, given the history of his body. Has it escaped the notice of people wishing to take the team in this direction that Jannik Hansen and Chris Higgins have also signed fouryear extensions? Let me be blunt. Hansen is a relative leprechaun in this game. There are indeed times when he does feel the urge to bump, but, sadly, nobody notices. And Higgins rarely touches a soul, and throughout his career he has been prone to long stretches of slumber. Perhaps you ve noticed Alex Edler and the five years remaining on his no-trade contract. The last time he played remotely aggressively which he actually can if for some reason he ever felt like it again was essentially the last few moments before his last, and third, suspension. Since then, he could have had a dozen eggs in the pockets of his hockey pants and not broken a shell. He is rightfully terrified the next time he hits someone it could cost him a long suspension, and as a result, a corresponding severe disruption in his pay. He may also have issues with his surgically-repaired back. Expecting him to return to his 2011 ways is akin to Waiting for Godot. Mike Santorelli is likely to be resigned, as well he should be, but hitting isn t his game. Niklas Jensen perhaps? Jordan Schroeder? Well, yes, we re getting silly now because he won t be here, but surely by now you re getting the message. David Booth bangs when he s into it, but they re about to buy him out, and Tom Sestito would if he could ever get there in time. At that point, you re pretty much down to an older, more of an agitator Alex Burrows and Zack Kassian. Certainly they can make changes, but they tend to take some time. And nobody is going to trade you a genuinely effective banger as the Canucks found out when they got Brad Richardson. He was a solid player, don t get us wrong here, but he was a healthy scratch in L.A. because he didn t hit much.

3 This big, strong, banging team they seek? It s just not happening, at least for a while. Stale Canucks have to trade Kesler Jason Botchfod The Province April 23, 2014 ESSENTIAL: Vancouver missed its window of opportunity to move Edler, but can t afford the same mistake A solid chunk of the Canucks offseason is sure to be spent puzzling over what to do with Alex Edler. That s because every offseason is spent that way. The regime change will bring with it new suggestions and solutions, though it won t matter. Edler will always be suspect defensively, and when the offence vacates him as it did this season just about every time he was on the ice the results will be disastrous. A year ago, the Canucks were urged in this space to cut ties with Edler before his no-trade clause was triggered. It wasn t because of a lack of talent. That, he has he plenty of, despite the minus- 39. It was because he was then their best asset to put toward redefining the team with a trade to acquire a different set of building blocks say three young players. The Canucks explored it. They came close enough with Detroit. But in the end, they chose patience, while crossing their fingers that John Tortorella could help reinvent Edler. The result was Edler s most baffling, disappointing season. He cratered offensively, a mix of poor play and horrible luck. When he was on the ice, the Canucks shooting percentage as a team was 3.6 per cent. To put that kind of bad luck in perspective, only two players in the league saw worse team shooting percentages when they were on the ice. There is enough evidence to suggest Edler can recover and bounce back. What there is not going to be is an active market for a defenceman with five years left at a $5 million annual average value, coming off a 22-point, minus-39 season. The odds the Canucks now have of getting fair value for Edler at low ebb, when he has a notrade clause and wants to stay in Vancouver, well, in a word, suck. So how then does the team with the old, stale core reshape its future in a trade or two?

4 The new management group needs to start with a Ryan Kesler trade. He may be their reigning de facto MVP and leading goal scorer, but he is also the most valuable asset the Canucks can dangle at the draft. The door was opened this season when Kesler gave management six teams he d be willing to accept a trade to. Leading up to the trade deadline, four of those teams weren t viewed by the Canucks as a good fit. But the two who were, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim Ducks, are among the favourites to go on a long run this postseason. If either, or both, slip up, how much will they regret not making a more serious offer at the deadline for Kesler? More importantly, will they be more interested in making a substantial run at the second-line centre at the draft? When they were mapping out a Kesler trade during the season, the Canucks wanted a centre around the age of 23 as part of a package. Maybe that changes with a new president and general manager. Maybe the Canucks can get their second-line centre to replace Kesler in free agency. It won t be easy, which is why some will argue for keeping Kesler and trying to find him an elite scoring winger, which would essentially make his line the top line. But he s going to turn 30 this summer. He already looked older than that this season, possibly because of all the injuries. Kesler has two years left on his current deal, and in the dreamiest of scenarios the Canucks would be in a position to seriously contend again in a couple of years. What s the point of holding on to Kesler now when you realistically have to start building a team for the future? Now, the Canucks don t have to trade Kesler right at the draft. They can wait till the pre-season, or even until next season s trade deadline swings around. They could even wait till the 2015 draft, which is promised to be a deep one. But they do have to trade him. It s just a matter of time. Recchi touts Benning as fit for GM

5 Ben Kuzma The Province April 23, 2014 JOB OPENING: Boston Bruins assistant has impressive record, style right for Vancouver Mark Recchi knows this much about the Vancouver Canucks: He hated playing against the confident and cocky club in the 2011 Stanley Cup final to such a degree that he even called them arrogant a year after the highly-strung seven-game series. However, the Kamloops native wonders where that swagger has gone. Far removed from that championship run and in a state of franchise flux, Recchi has some advice for Trevor Linden, the new Canucks president of hockey operations, to fix the floundering: Hire Jim Benning to replace the fired Mike Gillis. In Game 2 of the 2011 final, a 43-year-old Recchi became the oldest player to score a Stanley Cup final goal and the Boston Bruins winger would earn his third championship ring before retiring. As an assistant general manager, Benning had much to do with assembling that club and maintaining its strong stance as a Cup contender. That s why I think a guy like Jim would be fantastic, Recchi said Tuesday from his Pittsburgh home. He can build around the Canucks core players and get pieces in there. They re going to have to draft really well from now on and they re going to have to make great trades. I d love to see him back in Canada because that (Vancouver) is a wonderful hockey market. The Bruins fashioned the league s best record this season and had the second-ranked power play and penalty kill. And because Recchi knows first-hand that Benning s strengths are strong leadership, smart draft evaluation and savvy personnel decisions, Linden s former Canucks teammate looks like a good fit. He was interviewed by Buffalo in late November to replace fired general manager Darcy Regier the job went to Tim Murray because of Benning s success as the Sabres director of amateur scouting. He had a strong hand in selecting Ryan Miller, Jason Pominville, Derek Roy, Paul Gaustad, Daniel Paille and Dennis Wideman. When Boston promoted Benning to director of player personnel in 2006, the club drafted Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand that summer. The former NHL defenceman was bumped to assistant general manager the following year and the 50-year-old Edmonton native works tirelessly with general manager Peter Chiarelli. I know that Peter absolutely loves him and leans on him heavily, said Recchi.

6 He s a workhorse. He s non-stop. He s just one of those guys who lives and breathes and is always at the rink and will do whatever it takes to help the team get better. He s a wonderful person. Look at his history. He s always been able to draft well. He knows what he likes and he believes in what he likes and who will turn into good hockey players. A big key to that is he gets good team players, guys who have a great work ethic and skill along with it. That s why the 2014 Bruins look a lot like those 2011 Bruins. And with Linden already citing the four-line Bruins especially Shawn Thornton in reference to the type of game he d like to see the Canucks ice, forget about following that Detroit model. Boston seems to make more sense if you like speed, grit and finish. They ve got everything, said Recchi. They re deep everywhere. A guy goes down and another fills in. And their core guys are still 26, 27, 28, 29, and they can keep building and winning. It s fun to watch. That s certainly not the case in Vancouver. From leading the league in 2011 first in offence, power play and defence and third in penalty killing to plummeting to 26th on the power play and 28th in offence just three years later the fall from grace has been swift and stunning. From Alain Vigneault to John Tortorella to whoever, the Canucks are a shadow of what they were because of more than coaching. The talent level has dropped off. And the swagger of Raffi Torres, the leadership of Mikael Samuelsson, the calm of Sami Salo and effectiveness of Christian Ehrhoff are all gone. What remains is an aging core that has missed the playoffs for the first time since 2008, has managed one playoff victory in the last 11 postseason outings and has been outscored Recchi amassed 1,533 regular season and 147 playoff points with seven teams in a career that spanned 22 years, but even he is shocked by what has happened in Vancouver. Yeah, I am, he said. Obviously, that (2011) was a big series, but I m still a Canucks fan and grew up one and you still want them to do well. It s tough to watch that. And when you lose that swagger, it s tough. That s what made them successful because they believed in what they were doing. Today, Recchi serves as a minor hockey coach for his son and as an unpaid adviser for business partner and Dallas Stars owner Tom Gaglardi. They re part of a WHL ownership group with the Kamloops Blazers and share a similar hockey vision. When Gaglardi hired Jim Nill as general manager and Lindy Ruff as coach on the Stars, Recchi knew his cell wouldn t ring nearly as much. Absolutely, he chuckled. They know what they re doing they ve been around forever.

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