Power Play: At Centre Ice With the Canucks

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When the NHL resumed play following the lockout a year ago, the Canucks were expected to contend for the Cup. Many pre-season prognosticators even had them matched up with Ottawa in an all-Canadian final. But whether it was because of the ongoing distraction (also known as Todd Bertuzzi) or because the team simply couldn’t keep up with the new NHL’s speedier game, Vancouver missed the playoffs for the first time since 2000. That this was the second straight season in which a Canadian team Goaltender Roberto Luongo is the Canucks’ prize trade
this year. ( Jeff Vinnick/Vancouver Canucks)from the Canucks’ own Northwest Division made the finals must have been especially frustrating for Vancouver’s players, coaches and management staff because—on paper, at least—the Canucks looked much better than both the Flames two seasons ago and the Oilers last year.

But Stanley Cups are not won on paper, so it’s not surprising that Senior Vice-President and General Manager David Nonis decided to gut his team and rebuild it. First to go was coach Marc Crawford, followed by Forward Todd Bertuzzi, Defencemen Ed Jovanovski, Bryan Allen and Nolan Baumgartner, Goaltenders Dan Cloutier and Alex Auld, and pesky agitator Jarkko Ruutu. It doesn’t look likely at press time that the Canucks will be able to re-sign the Sedin twins’ personal play finisher, Anson Carter, either. It’s unclear whether the Canucks will re-sign fan favourite Trevor Linden or speedster Richard Park, who never seemed to achieve his full potential last year.

Some of those players—like Carter and Jovanovski—will defi nitely be missed, but others won’t be, or at least their baggage won’t be—can you spell Bertuzzi?

Hey, Who’s the New Guy?

In case you missed the biggest NHL trade of the summer, here it is: Bertuzzi, Auld and Allen went to the Florida Panthers in exchange for 27-year-old Goaltender Roberto Luongo, 23-year-old Czech Defenceman Lukas Krajicek and a sixth round pick.

In order to wrestle Luongo away from one-time Canuck GM Mike Keenan, Nonis had to give up a lot: Bertuzzi still has the potential to be a top player in the NHL if he can sort out his personal life and focus on his game; hulking young defender Allen will only improve; and Auld ably filled in for the injured Dan Cloutier last season, proving that he is capable of starting in the NHL.

The Canucks faceoff against the Phoenix Coyotes in last year’s season opener at General Motors Place
(Jeff Vinnick/Vancouver Canucks)

Nonis also had to break the bank in order to sign Luongo, topping Naslund’s $6 million annual salary with a new high: $6.75 million per year over four years. That’s a lot of money for a goaltender with a grand total of zero playoff games under his belt, but the key here is that Luongo is one of the NHL’s true superstar goaltenders—he will probably be Team Canada’s number one goalie for the next three Olympic Games unless Martin Brodeur manages to stay in peak shape until 2010. Check back in four years—only time will tell whether it was a good deal or not.

As for the other new players signed by the Canucks this summer, none has the potential to affect the team’s fortunes the way Luongo could, but all will play a role.

Centre Marc Chouinard ($2.2 million over two years) and Defenceman Willie Mitchell ($14 million over four years) were both signed away from the Minnesota Wild as unrestricted free agents. Chouinard brings a 52.7% face-off success rate (2% better than any Canuck centre last year) and a solid, if not dazzling, two-way game.

Left Wing Daniel Sedin
(Jeff Vinnick/Vancouver Canucks)B.C.-born Mitchell is excited to be playing for his “home team” after growing up admiring the Canucks in Port McNeill, a logging town (pop. 2900) near the remote northern tip of Vancouver Island. He is a tough defender in the Mattias Ohlund mould, and will be expected to play against opposing teams’ top forwards (you might remember his tenacious play against Bertuzzi in the 2003 playoff series when the Wild upset the Canucks).

The other significant additions to the team are forwards 25-year-old Taylor Pyatt, who was obtained from Buff alo for a fourth-round pick in next year’s draft, and 28-year-old Czech Jan Bulis, signed away from the Montreal Canadiens as a free agent.

Pyatt was a first-round pick in the 1999 draft, but has yet to reach his full potential. At 6'4" and 227 lbs., he has all the makings to be a power forward, but injuries kept him out of half of last season when he only managed 6 goals and 6 assists in 41 games.

Though listed as a Centre, Bulis mostly played Left Wing across from Russian sniper Alexei Kovalev in Montreal last year. He is coming off his best season after scoring a career-high 20 goals in 2005-06, so his salary may prove to be a steal at only $1.3 million.

Also new to the Canucks’ defensive corps are Lukas Krajicek, Luc Bourdon, and Yannick Tremblay. Krajicek played 67 games for the Panthers in his first full season in the NHL last year and kept his head above water with a +1 rating (admirable on a team that gave up more goals than it scored). Bourdon, still a teenager, nearly made the Canucks right out of the draft last year when he was only 18 years old. This year, he is expected to make the squad and hone his prodigious but untamed skills alongside veterans Ohlund, Salo and Mitchell. Thirty year-old Tremblay, signed as a free agent after playing in Germany for the past two years, spent five years with the Atlanta Thrashers before the lockout. He comes with a booming point shot, so he could see some time on the power play.

Replacing Marc Crawford behind the bench as the Canucks’ 16th Head Coach will be 45- year-old Alain Vigneault. This is Vigneault’s second NHL coaching job following a fouryear stint with the Montreal Canadiens from 1997-2001. He coached the Canucks’ AHL affiliate Manitoba Moose to a 44-24-7 record last season.

Fearless Predictions

I’d love to predict a return to the top of the Northwest Division for the Vancouver Canucks, followed by a strong run to the Stanley Cup finals. Realistically, looking at the turnover the club has undergone this summer, I can’t see them doing better than squeaking into the playoffs in 7th or 8th position, if that.

The Canucks’ main weakness this year will be their scoring. Markus Naslund’s skills are fading; his point totals have been on a downward trend since 2003 and there is no reason to expect them to bounce back up to point-a-game, superstar status. After Naslund, Vancouver has no real scoring stars. The Sedin twins have taken strides and might continue to improve, but it is doubtful that either of them will ever be a superstar. The Canucks have a talented group of young offensive players like Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows, but they will need a few more seasons at least to develop into top-scoring forwards.

With Roberto Luongo, Mattias Ohlund, Willie Mitchell and Luc Bourdon all signed through 2009 or longer, the Canucks’ core strength over the next few seasons will be their defense. Once Naslund’s $6 million salary comes off the books in 2008-09 (or sooner, if they can trade him), they should be able to add a star scorer or two and begin to compete with the league leaders. Until then, however, don’t expect to see a Stanley Cup Parade on Robson Street. Considering that the 2010 Winter Olympics will be in Vancouver, perhaps this is all part of the team management’s master plan. After all, what could be better than seeing Luongo win both a Gold Medal and the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP with the Canucks’ Orca (or preferably the Stick-in- Rink) on his chest?

Salary Cap 101

Thanks to a better-than-expected first season under the new Salary Cap system, this year’s maximum team salary budget is going up from $39 million to $44 million. While you might think this will give the Canucks a lot more breathing room, the fact is they have seven players each making more than $3 million per year, locking up $30.1 million, which is more than twothirds of their maximum salary in less than one-third of the players that will make up their eventual roster.

Pos	Name	2006-07
G	Roberto Luongo	6,750,000
LW	Markus Naslund	6,000,000
C	Henrik Sedin	3,575,000
LW	Daniel Sedin	3,575,000
D	Mattias Ohlund	3,500,000
D	Willie Mitchell	3,500,000
C	Brendan Morrison	3,200,000
LW	Matt Cooke	1,500,000
D	Sami Salo	1,500,000
LW	Jan Bulis	1,300,000
C	Marc Chouinard	1,100,000
D	Luc Bourdon	850,000
LW	Taylor Pyatt	700,000
D	Yannick Tremblay	450,000
Totals		37,500,000

Here is a breakdown of the players under contract at press time with their average annual salaries:

This leaves the Canucks with $6.5 million to sign several restricted free agents on their roster: Tyler Bouck, Ryan Kesler, Mika Noronen, and Lukas Krajicek, as well as young players like Alexandre Burrows, Brandon Reid and Jason King. Vancouver also has a $1.52 million option on Trevor Linden, which they won’t exercise, but I predict they will re-sign him for the league minimum of $450,000 in a veteran leadership role.

Since GM David Nonis will want to have some leeway for minor league call-ups or to be able to trade for a new player during the season if necessary, he has very little breathing room.