Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Canucks Rumors

Pacific Notes: Toffoli, Giordano, Goldobin, Pettersson

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

While the Los Angeles Kings did add Ilya Kovalchuk to their roster and have a healthy dose of veterans around, one key for the Kings will be whether the team can get Tyler Toffoli to show off more of his offensive prowess. The 26-year-old rebounded from a 13-goal season in 2016-17 to post a 24-goal season, but that’s still a far cry from the 31-goal season back in 2015-16 when he was considered one of the upcoming goal scorers in the league.

The Athletic’s Lisa Dillman (subscription required) writes that Toffoli feels that the team and especially coach John Stevens feel that it’s time for him to take that next step in his development.

“He obviously wants me to score more goals,” Toffoli said. “He said I didn’t have a bad season. Scoring 24 goals is not bad. He thinks that’s just something I need to focus on, bearing down on opportunities and not worrying about having the ups and downs.”

Many feel that Toffoli struggled over the last couple of years due to the lack of having Milan Lucic in 2016-17 as well as a healthy Jeff Carter playing alongside him last season. However, consistency has also been a problem as he tallied 11 goals in the first two months of the season and then struggled at different times to put numbers up, including one goal in January and just three goals in the Kings’ final 18 games, including going scoreless in the playoffs.

  • The Athletic’s Scott Kruikshank (subscription required) looks into the fitness level of Calgary Flames defenseman Mark Giordano. The team’s top defender just turned 34 and remains in the best shape of his career. Giordano’s conditioning is one of the main reasons for his success. He has ranked first, first, first and second (last year to Michael Frolik) over the last four camps, despite his age. “I want to keep my speed as I get older,” Giordano says. “So I do a lot of strengthening of my hips and groins, working on some ankle-mobility stuff. Little things to keep my skating up to par. Speed and conditioning are the two things I like to focus on the most. But you need that strength out there, too.”
  • Jason Brough of The Athletic (subscription required) wonders who will win the final spot on the Vancouver Canucks first line with Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat. The scribe says the team has three candidates in mind for that final spot, including veteran Sven Baertschi as well as Brendan Leipsic and Nikolay Goldobin. While Baertschi might sound like a logical candidate as he got some time with them last season, Brough wonders whether the team is giving every opportunity to Goldobin or Leipsic to seize the spot, which would allow Baertschi to play on the second line. The team has been hoping Goldobin, in particular, is capable of breaking out this season. He tallied eight goals in 38 games last season.
  • The Vancouver Canucks got a flash of their upcoming future when top prospects Elias Pettersson and Jonathan Dahlen combined for three goals, three assists in Friday’s first game of the Young Stars Classic, according to Ed Willes of the Vancouver Sun. The two Swedes showed a chemistry together that suggests they could play together for a long time. Pettersson potted two goals, while Dahlen added a third. The two played together for parts of three years in the Timra system.

Minor Transactions: 9/7/18

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Rookie camps have begun, veterans are returning, and the preseason is right around the corner. Yet, teams and players alike continue to make decisions for the coming season. Here are some of those moves made today:

  • NHL veteran Adam Pardy has found himself a nice landing spot for the twilight of his career. The 34-year-old defenseman was forced into the international route last season to continue playing, signing with Frolunda of the Swedish Hockey League after twelve pro seasons in North America and 342 NHL games. Pardy will now return home by nearly returning home in a literal sense. Pardy has signed with the ECHL’s newest club, the Newfoundland Growlers. The team plays in St. John’s, not far from Pardy’s hometown of Bonavista, Newfoundland. The league announced that the Growlers had signed Pardy to a one-year deal, but the experienced blue liner may find a natural fit as the veteran leader of the young, developmental roster and so close to home, and end up with the team for another year or two longer.
  • Former Vancouver Canucks prospect Mackenze Stewart has signed a contract in the ECHL as well, but the 23-year-old is far from the end of his career. Stewart, a 2014 seventh-round pick, became an unrestricted free agent this off-season when his entry-level contract expired and the Canucks opted to not extend a qualifying offer. Stewart has always had good size and played a hard-nosed game and is even one of the few skaters in hockey who can comfortably transition from forward to defense. However, the WHL prospect has never quite developed the high-end skill needed to compete in the NHL or even the AHL. In his three pro seasons, Stewart has 132 ECHL games to his credit compared to just six in the AHL and has struggled to produce at any level. He has improved slightly each year and perhaps he can still develop into a serviceable pro. The Toledo Walleye at least see some potential in the big man; they announced a one-year contract with Stewart and went so far as to confirm that he will have guaranteed role in the defensive corps.
  • Reid McNeill likely could have avoided the ECHL in the coming season, but rather than wait around for the right AHL fit and risk spending time at the “AA” level, the former Pittsburgh Penguins prospect has decided to move overseas. McNeill has signed with Dornbirner EC, an Austrian club in the EBEL. The Bulldogs announced a contract with the AHL veteran, adding him to the roster just one week prior to the start of the EBEL regular season. McNeill, 26, was a sixth-round pick of the Penguins back in 2010 and spent five years with the organization, almost entirely with their minor league affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. At 6’4″, 216 lbs., McNeill is a big, physical player and a punishing defensive presence. McNeill reached free agency last summer and signed an AHL contract with the Syracuse Crunch. He went on to play a leadership role as an alternate captain for the team and had a strong season to boot. Now with Dornbirner, McNeill could be a true No. 1 defenseman for the Bulldogs.

2018-19 Season Primer: Vancouver Canucks

at CDT | by 2 Comments

With the NHL season now just a month away, it’s time to look at what each team has done this summer and what to watch for in the year to come. Today, we focus on the Vancouver Canucks.

Last Season: 31-40-11 record (73 points), seventh in the Pacific Division

Remaining Cap Space: $9.27MM per CapFriendly

Key Additions: F Jay Beagle (free agent, Washington), F Antoine Roussel (free agent, Dallas), F Tim Schaller (free agent, Boston)

Key Departures: F Nic Dowd (free agent, Washington), F Jussi Jokinen (free agent, unsigned), F Daniel Sedin (retirement), F Henrik Sedin (retirement)

[Related: Canucks Depth Chart From Roster Resource]

Player To Watch: F Elias Pettersson – Vancouver’s top pick in 2017 did about everything there was to do in the SHL last season.  Not only did Pettersson lead the league in scoring, he also took home Rookie of the Year honors as well as regular season and playoff MVP while winning medals at the World Juniors (silver) and World Championships (gold).  Suffice it to say, he showed that he’s ready to try his hand at the NHL in 2018-19.

The 19-year-old is viewed as Vancouver’s long-term center of the future but it has been suggested in the past that the team may opt to start him on the wing to allow him to ease into his defensive responsibilities.  That’s an approach that several teams have taken in the past and it seems to work well.

Although they’re two different types of players, it wouldn’t be surprising to see some compare Pettersson to Brock Boeser.  Boeser came into last season viewed as a top prospect and made a huge impact and they’re hopeful that the Swede can make a similar mark.

With the Sedins leaving and not really being replaced (their offseason additions are better suited as bottom-six forwards), Pettersson should have a chance to jump into a top-six role quite quickly.  If he progresses as quickly as he did in Sweden, he could wind up being a contender for the Calder Trophy while showing that the Canucks have a high-end one-two punch up front to build around.

Key Storyline: The sudden departure of Trevor Linden from the front office caught many by surprise.  While both sides have stayed quiet, numerous reports have stated that the reason for his departure stemmed from a desire from ownership to get back into playoff contention sooner than later while Linden’s philosophy was to be more patient.

With Linden now gone and Jim Benning holding more control now, there has been speculation that the team could be looking to make a big splash on the trade front.  Given that they’ve lost two top-six forwards without really replacing them (instead of hoping for internal candidates to push through), that would presumably be the area they’d look to target.

Is that the right approach for them to take, however?  It’s not as if Vancouver narrowly missed out on the postseason last year; they were 22 points behind Colorado for the final playoff spot.  The current state of their roster says they should continue the path they’re on but ownership appears to want to go the other direction.  Which approach will ultimately win out?

Overall Outlook: With Boeser and Pettersson up front plus goalie Thatcher Demko and defenseman Quinn Hughes in the pipeline, the future looks bright for the Canucks.  However, this is the present and their roster as currently constructed does not appear to be anywhere near good enough to contend for a postseason spot.  Unless they make a big splash (or two), another year outside of the postseason appears to be the likely outcome in Vancouver.

Morning Notes: Krejci, Senators, Canucks

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The John Tavares saga wasn’t very fun for the New York Islanders, as they watched their captain and face of the franchise head to the Toronto Maple Leafs in free agency. It also might not have been the best time for an opposing center, as David Krejci tells Joe Haggerty of NBC Sports. Krejci didn’t hear from anyone in the Boston Bruins organization during their own courtship of the star free agent, one that many believed would force the team to move on from one of their more high priced forwards. There’s no one in the Boston organization with a higher price tag than Krejci, who also happens to play the same position as Tavares.

With all that finished now, Krejci will get his chance to show why he earned his own big paycheck by taking on Tavares and the Maple Leafs this season. The Bruins knocked the Maple Leafs out of the playoffs last season by smothering top options like Auston Matthews and William Nylander with two defensively capable centers in Krejci and Patrice Bergeron. Toronto had little answers this spring, but will now be heading into the 2018-19 season with arguably the best group of centers in the league. The Bruins will have to find an answer for Tavares and Matthews if they want to get by them once again, given that the two teams seem destined for a collision in the postseason once again as two of the top contenders in the Atlantic Division.

  • The Ottawa Senators have announced the hiring of three additional scouts, hiring Kyle Flanagan, Peter Havluj and Christian De Blois. Each will have their own individual territories, with Havluj spending his time in the Czech Republic. The Senators notably passed on Czech forward Filip Zadina in the most recent draft, but may get some more insight into the country’s top prospects going forward. Ottawa’s scouting staff is notoriously small, but has found some solid results in the last few drafts in players like Alex Formenton, Filip Chlapik and Jonathan Dahlen, all selected outside of the first round.
  • Erik Gudbranson spoke to Luke Fox of Sportsnet about several pressing matters for the Vancouver Canucks this season, including the now-vacant captain position after Henrik Sedin’s retirement. Gudbranson believes the team needs a captain this season and suggests that “guys would be excited” about Bo Horvat as a candidate. Horvat is entering his fifth season in the NHL and has long been expected to take over a leadership role on the team when the Sedin twins finally called it quits. The 23-year old center wore an “A” with the London Knights and could be the center of the next wave of Canucks playoff hopes.

Is Vancouver Looking To Make A Big Splash?

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

It is no secret that the Vancouver Canucks do not operate like a typical rebuilding team. Make no mistake, the team has accrued plenty of talented young building blocks over the past few years: Bo Horvat, Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson, Jonathan Dahlen, Adam Gaudette, Quinn Hughes, Olli Juolevi, Thatcher Demko, Michael DiPietro and the list goes on. However, the team has also gone about business as usual, signing free agents and at times even overpaying to add veterans to the roster. Over the past two off-seasons, Vancouver has taken roster spots away from younger players in order to sign the likes of Erik Gudbranson, Sam Gagner, Michael Del Zotto, Anders Nilsson, Thomas Vanek, Darren Archibald, Jay Beagle, Antoine Roussel, Tim Schaller and more. The moves have put the team no closer to being a contender. The Canucks have not advanced past the first round of the playoffs since their 2011 Stanley Cup Final appearance and have failed to reach the postseason altogether in each of the past three years. It seems unlikely that the trend will change any time soon, either.

The Province’s Ed Willes is worried that things might get even worse. Willes claims that recently departed team president Trevor Linden ” lost his job because he favored a patient, methodical approach to the team’s rebuild”. With Linden gone, the team has been even more aggressive than usual this summer in targeting older players. Vancouver made an offer to John Tavares that was rejected and more recently has been linked to Erik Karlsson. While he isn’t convinced the team has the means to acquire Karlsson, the fear is that some player will come along on the trade market that they can afford and will deplete their promising prospect ranks to acquire. Willes firmly believes that Benning and the Canucks are in the hunt for a cornerstone player, no matter the cost.

Just as it has in recent years, even adding an elite veteran player is unlikely to get the Canucks to where they want to be. As it is currently composed, the team lacks the supporting cast to be a true contender. The greatest strength of the organization is the youth waiting in the wings, with at least two goaltenders, four defensemen, and eight forwards under the age of 25 that are all almost universally expected to be NHL regulars for a long time to come. Yet, the cost of adding a marquee player would be a package of those exact players or upcoming (early) draft picks. The patient approach that Linden fought for could transform the Canucks into one of the league’s top teams in five years time. An impatient acquisition could cost them what progress they have made and, in Willes’ opinion, cost them fans as well. So perhaps the question is not “is Vancouver looking to make a big splash?”, but “should Vancouver be looking to make a big splash?” and the answer seems to be a convincing no.

Poll: Who Will Win The Pacific Division In 2018-19?

at CDT | by 4 Comments

We’re just over a month away from the 2018-19 NHL season, and players are hitting the ice with teammates to start forming chemistry. All over the league there are individual workouts underway, and rookie tournament rosters being announced. The excitement for the upcoming season is starting to bubble up to the surface, and even the smallest NHL news has fans in a frenzy.

Recently, Bovada released their over/under numbers for each team’s point totals and there are some interesting results. Though these aren’t to be taken exactly as predictions for the upcoming season—since betting odds also take into account popularity trends and other factors—fans of the Tampa Bay Lightning should still be extremely satisfied to see their club at the very top with an over/under of 107.5 points. The Lightning are expected to be Stanley Cup contenders once again in 2018-19, and have brought back nearly their entire roster.

We ran a poll asking the PHR community to decide who will win the Atlantic Division last week, and the Lightning came out on top with nearly 37% of the vote. The Toronto Maple Leafs finished in second place, but the big surprise was the Detroit Red Wings in third with 15% of all voters. While our readers have more confidence in the Red Wings than the odds makers, we’ve seen stranger things in the past.

The odds though tell an interesting story in the Pacific Division.

The Vegas Golden Knights won the division easily last season with 109 points, finishing at 51-24-7 in their inaugural season. They rode that dominance all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, and yet aren’t the clear leader this time around. Vegas is tied with the Anaheim Ducks at a 96.5 point over/under, but actually a point behind the San Jose Sharks who come in at 97.5. Los Angeles, Calgary and Edmonton don’t lag far behind, making this one of the most interesting divisions in hockey to watch this season.

Who do you think will come out on top of the Pacific Division this year? Can Edmonton bounce back from a disastrous 2017-18? Will Marc-Andre Fleury lead the Golden Knights back to the top? Can the Coyotes go from worst to first in one season? Cast your vote below and explain how you think the season will play out in the comments!

Who will win the Pacific Division in 2018-19?
San Jose Sharks 26.83% (338 votes)
Los Angeles Kings 16.43% (207 votes)
Vegas Golden Knights 14.60% (184 votes)
Calgary Flames 13.10% (165 votes)
Anaheim Ducks 11.19% (141 votes)
Edmonton Oilers 10.71% (135 votes)
Arizona Coyotes 3.73% (47 votes)
Vancouver Canucks 3.41% (43 votes)
Total Votes: 1,260

[Mobile users click here to vote]

Minor Transactions: 8/28/18

at CDT | by 1 Comment

August is almost over and training camps are right around the corner. Yet, players continue to make decisions on where they’ll play this season. On a day with a surprising amount of signing news, here are some other smaller moves around the hockey world:

  • The AHL’s Providence Bruins have added another body up front. Mark Divver of the Providence Journal reports that the team has signed center Brett McKenzie to his first pro contract. An unsigned 2016 seventh-round pick of the Vancouver Canucks, McKenzie just wrapped up an OHL career that featured 224 points in 328 games. Most recently, he led the Owen Sound Attack in playoff scoring with eight goals and eight assists in just eleven postseason contests. The big pivot also plays a strong physical game and can make a living lower in the lineup. The P-Bruins are already an extraordinarily deep AHL team and McKenzie may spend some time down in the ECHL, but could fight his way into a consistent role with the team during the season.
  • AHL teams tend to be more interested in adding younger players out the junior and college ranks as bottom-six contributors than recycling past AHLers. Hayden Hodgson is a case in point, as the former Cleveland Monsters grinder was unable to find another AHL deal this off-season. Instead, Hodgson has signed with the Toledo Walleye of the ECHL, the league announced. Hodgson spent some time in the ECHL last year and will be able to play a bigger role at the lower level. It remains to be seen whether he can show the offensive upside to ever climb back up the hockey ranks though.
  • The most common route for elite American prospects in recent years has been through the U.S. National Development Program and then into the NCAA or right into the NHL. However, that path didn’t yield the desired results for young defenseman D.J. King. Despite having great size and playing a prominent role on the blue line for both the U-17 and U-18 squads this past season, King went undrafted in June. This likely points to a lack of belief in his offensive abilities, as he produced little in the way of scoring for the USNTDP. In an effort to improve that image before his next go-round in the draft, King has signed with his junior rights holder, the defending OHL champion Hamilton Bulldogs. Hamilton has announced the deal with King, who they are excited to bring in after spending a second-round pick on him back in 2016. Former NHL defenseman and Bulldogs President and GM Steve Staios spoke to King’s upside as a prospect, citing his leadership, toughness, and puck-moving ability. Perhaps a change of scenery is all the big defender needs to boost his production this season.

Pacific Notes: Treliving, Pavelski, Bear, Sautner

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Calgary Flames seem to gamble on their success every season lately when it comes to their offseason moves. This year, attempting to address their second-half collapse, general manager Brad Treliving made several key moves to revitalize the franchise, including trading away defenseman Dougie Hamilton, Micheal  Ferland and collegeiate defenseman Adam Fox for youngsters Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm. The team also went out and signed a 30-year-old James Neal to a five-year, $28.75MM deal as well as signing veteran bottom-six center to three-year, $9.38MM contract. Many of those moves will turn out to be quite a gamble.

The Athletic’s Kent Wilson (subscription required) wonders whether this might be the last year for Treliving if the team doesn’t show immediate improvement and return to respectability. Several of his gambles from previous seasons have failed, most especially last year’s trade for Travis Hamonic for a slew of draft picks. While the trade made sense at the time, the deal looks worse and worse as time passes.

Treliving also has used his draft assets to add players over the last two years as he has had just one pick in the top 105 over those two seasons to acquire players like Hamonic, Curtis Lazar, Michael Stone and veteran goaltender Mike Smith, most of which have made few contributions so far to the team. Throw in the team’s lack of uncertainty in net in the future and one has to wonder whether Treliving will survive the next season if the team doesn’t make immediate improvements.

  • The San Jose Sharks have done an impressive job of combining veteran talent with an infusion of youth over the years and none more than last year when several of their young players really stepped up, including Tomas Hertl, Chris Tierney, Timo Meier, Joonas Donskoi and Kevin Labanc. Even on defense, their youth took another step. However, how long can the veterans hold out? The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz (subscription required) wonders how much Joe Pavelski has left in the tank and how much the team depends on him? Despite missing just one game in the last five season, the 34-year-old veteran’s production dropped to just 22 goals last year, his worst season since the strike-shortened 2012-13 season. One of the reasons for his decline was that he was banged up early in the season with a wrist injury, a broken finger and some lower-body injuries. Although Pavelski’s days of scoring 40 goals is likely over, the team hopes they can count on Pavelski’s experience and skills to help lead the team on the top-six as there is no doubt the veteran will get the lion’s share of minutes on the team again this year.
  • The Athletic’s Allan Mitchell (subscription required) looks at the play of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Ethan Bear, who has been one of Edmonton’s top propsects. The 21-year-old played most of the season with the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL, but finally broke into the NHL in March, playing in 18 total games. However, Mitchell writes that while Bear showed some offensive prowess, he struggled in coverage and gap control and likely needs more time in the AHL to be successful. With the injury to Andrej Sekera, Bear could get another chance to make the Oilers out of training camp.
  • With few changes in their defensive personnel, the Vancouver Canucks have to look at as many internal defensive options if they want to get better. One option is Ashton Sautner, according to Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Sun. The 24-year-old agitator finally got recalled last season by Vancouver in hopes of providing the team with an energy presence. He played five games on an emergency recall and had an impressive showing. Unfortunately, Kuzma doesn’t think he has much of a chance to make the team out of training camp this season as the team has nine defenseman under contract, including 2016 first-round pick Olli Juolevi, giving him little to no chance in making the NHL squad.

Jim Benning States That The Canucks Are Not Involved In Erik Karlsson Talks

at CDT | by 2 Comments

While the Canucks were a team that was surprisingly linked to Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson earlier this morning, GM Jim Benning told Sportsnet’s John Shannon (Twitter link) that the team is not involved in discussions for the Ottawa blueliner.  Given that Vancouver appears to be heading into at least a soft rebuild, giving up considerable assets for the pending unrestricted free agent would seem to be somewhat counterproductive.  However, with more than $9MM in cap room at the moment (per CapFriendly), Vancouver would make some sense as a potential fit to get involved as a third party facilitator if someone needs to clear some short-term cap room or retain on Karlsson’s deal before flipping him, similar to what Vegas did with Derick Brassard last season.

Erik Karlsson Trade Talks Picking Up

at CDT | by 17 Comments

After the last few weeks have brought little in terms of trade speculation around the NHL, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet has sparked the fire again surrounding Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators. Friedman tweets that trade talks involving the superstar defenseman have picked up recently, with Western Conference destinations—potentially including the Vancouver Canucks—as the most likely. West teams like the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars had previously been linked to Karlsson, though it’s unclear if they’re included in the recent discussions.

For Vancouver the acquisition of Karlsson would seem unlikely, given that the team is still rebuilding and there is no guarantee that the Senators defenseman would be open to an extension. Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet tweets that Quinn Hughes, Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson are all completely off the table for the Canucks, making it hard to imagine a package strong enough to beat any other contender for Karlsson’s services. Interestingly MacIntyre does not mention top prospect Olli Juolevi, though that doesn’t necessarily mean he would be available.

There are obviously dozens of other teams in the NHL who would be interested in Karlsson, though many of them won’t be able to afford an extension that could push towards Drew Doughty’s eight-year $88MM contract. Ottawa would likely receive the biggest return from a team that can immediately extend Karlsson, but that could also dramatically reduce their trading partners. The Golden Knights have the prospect capital and cap space to fit a star like Karlsson in, and the Colorado Avalanche have a trade chip that no one else in the league can match. That’s the Senators own first-round pick this season, acquired in the Matt Duchene trade from last season. After Ottawa chose to keep their 2018 pick and select Brady Tkachuk, they had to give up the 2019 pick and a potential opportunity at top prospect Jack Hughes. With the Senators expected to struggle this season—especially if Karlsson departs—the Avalanche could easily be holding a top-three pick in their pocket. For what it’s worth, Adrian Dater of BSN Denver isn’t hearing any connection with the Avalanche and Karlsson.

The Tampa Bay Lightning were the other team strongly linked to Karlsson in the past, and it’s unclear if they still pose a threat to acquire the defenseman. That would require Tampa Bay moving out other salary, but would make them an absolute powerhouse in the Eastern Conference and the favorite for a Stanley Cup Finals appearance. All of the other teams in the Atlantic Division will be hoping that the Senators’ captain heads out west and signs a long-term contract to stay out of their way.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

scroll to top