Pacific Notes: DiPietro, Morehouse, Labanc

While he works to help facilitate a trade for his client Michael DiPietro, Quartexx’s Darren Ferris voiced some frustration to Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province about how the Canucks have handled the young goaltender so far:

There are occasions where they’ve dropped the ball on his development. The truth of the matter is that the bulk is more on the organization that (sic) it is on the player in this instance. Hopefully, we can get him in the right position.

The 23-year-old basically had a lost season in 2020-21 as his presence on Vancouver’s taxi squad for most of the year limited him to just four games played, hardly ideal for development.  Last season, he lost playing time to Spencer Martin (who’s now Thatcher Demko’s backup) while the Canucks brought in Collin Delia to partner up with Arturs Silovs with AHL Abbotsford next season, making DiPietro the odd man out.  He accepted his qualifying offer earlier this month that will pay $840K in the NHL and $70K in the minors.

Elsewhere in the Pacific Division:

• The Sharks are expected to announce the hiring of Chris Morehouse as their new Director of Amateur Scouting next week, reports Corey Masisak of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 35-year-old has spent the last nine years in various scouting roles and had been with the Rangers for the last two seasons as their North American Director of Scouting where he would have likely crossed paths with Mike Grier, now the GM in San Jose.
• Still with San Jose, Grier told reporters, including Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News, that he gave no consideration to the idea of buying out winger Kevin Labanc when the second buyout window opened up recently. The 26-year-old has two years remaining on his contract which carries a $4.725MM AAV.  Over the first two years of that deal, Labanc has just 15 goals in 76 games and was limited to just 21 games last season due to a shoulder injury.  A buyout would have freed up nearly $4MM in extra cap room this summer and next but instead, he’ll look to rebound under new head coach David Quinn.