Canucks trade Darcy Hordichuk to Florida

As promised, Mike Gillis tried - and was successful in finding Darcy Hordichuk a place to play in the NHL. On Wednesday, the Canucks announced they traded the veteran winger to the Florida Panthers in exchange for Andrew Peters.

Peters, a legit NHL enforcer, had already cleared waivers in Florida, so he can be assigned to the minors without clearing waivers again. This means he has already been assigned to Manitoba, and will not be on the Canucks opening night roster.

The addition of Peters gives Vancouver a legit heavyweight enforcer who can be recalled from Manitoba without having to go on re-entry waivers. Peters is on a 2-way contract in which his NHL salary is the league minimum $500,000. Because he already cleared waivers this year, he can be sent up and down at will, without going back on waivers. This allows the Canucks to call him up if they feel the need to dress an enforcer for a game, and can send him down againt right after.

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Shane O'Brien cleared waivers, but General Manager Mike Gills was able to trade him, along with prospect Dan Gendur to the Nashville Predators, for young defenseman Ryan Parent, and 29 year old journeyman forward Jonas Anderson.

Vancouver then instantly placed Parent on waivers in order to clear a roster spot in which the Canucks are expected to sign Peter Schaefer.

Parent, a former 1st round pick of the Predators in 2005, played much of last year with the Philadelphia Flyers, including 17 playoff games in last year's epic Stanley Cup Finals run. He is considered a work in progress, but could be a serviceable defenseman in the near future.

Anderson, 29, played last year in the KHL (Russia's pro league) where he registered 20 points in 30 games.

Brendan Morrison signed a one year deal with the Calgary Flames Monday after the former Canuck was released from his tryout with Vancouver after the two sides couldn't agree on a contract.

Darcy Hordichuk also cleared waivers but is not expected to report to Manitoba, and Mike Gillis has mentioned that he is trying to work out a deal that would keep the long-time NHL vet in the big leagues. It could be a tough task considering Hordichuk doesn't bring much to the table these days.

Canucks put Shane O'Brien and Darcy Hordichuk on waivers

With the Canucks preseason officially over, GM Mike Gillis began his quest of forming his team's opening night roster; a roster which likely won't include both Shane O'Brien and Darcy Hordichuk. The two veterans were placed on waivers early Saturday morning, meaning all other 29 teams will have a chance to claim either player within 48 hours.

If they get claimed, the team that claims them will take on their contract outright, and if they don't get claimed, they will get assigned to Vancouver's AHL affiliate in Manitoba. If they go unclaimed and get sent to Manitoba, the Canucks will have to pay them their full salary, but their salary will not go towards Vancouver's salary cap.

O'Brien, I would imagine, has a good chance of getting claimed as many NHL teams are looking for depth on defense. He has the tools to be an effective NHL defenseman, but his off-ice antics (apparently he enjoys his booze), and his questionable attitude (has publically called out his coach and GM), along with his very average preseason play have made him the odd man out in Vancouver.

His inevitable departure means the Canucks will keep both Andrew Alberts and Aaron Rome as the team's 6th and 7th defenseman heading into the regular season.

Hordichuk will likely go unclaimed, unless there's a team out there looking for a below-average enforcer with zero puck skills. He will most likely get assigned to Manitoba, or loaned to Europe or another league.

The Canucks still have a number of roster decisions to make, including whether to keep Cody Hodgson on the roster or send him to Manitoba to get some seasoning.

Brendan Morrison and Peter Schaefer are both on tryouts, and a decision will have to be made whether to sign them or let them walk as free agents.

Also, Jeff Tambellini, Victor Oreskovich, Guillaume Desbiens, Alexander Bolduc and Joel Perrault are all still in the mix fighting for one or two spots on the 4th line. Expect Vancouver to announce their decisions in the coming days.

The Canucks don't start their regular season until next Saturday (Oct.9th), but will likely name their opening night roster sooner than later.

Stay tuned to Canuck City for all the latest news and roster decisions.

What To Do Without Burrows?

The Canucks head into the 2010-2011 NHL season with high expectations and are coming off a year where they were the second highest scoring team in the league overall and the best offensive team in the Western Conference. Naturally, since the Canucks have added some forward depth during the off-season, most fans would expect this team to replicate that without any problems.

Not so fast, for the first month to two months of the season the Canucks will be without Alex Burrows who scored 35 goals last year and who leaves a hole in the Canucks top 6 forward group where the Canucks will need someone to step up and fill in until Burrows returns.

With all the talk surrounding the Canucks bottom six forward training camp battles, there is an interesting situation that top 6 fill in candidates Raffi Torres, Cody Hodgson, Jannik Hansen, Jordan Schroeder, and Sergei Shirokov find themselves in. Without Burrows offense and chemistry to open the season, one of the above mentioned forwards has an opportunity to jump onto the top two lines and be productive, but who will it be?

Jannik Hansen is coming off a year with 9 goals, whereas Raffi Torres had a great first half of the season but ended his campaign in Buffalo where he was MIA in the offensive attack for the Sabres. Cody Hodgson and Jordan Schroeder have an opportunity, but they're both young and need to make the team, let alone make the top 6 forward group.

Sergei Shirokov is an intriguing option as he is expected to suit up alongside the Sedin twins in upcoming Pre-Season action and will be given a look to start the season riding shotgun with two of the NHL's best offensive forwards.

Burrows, meanwhile, is coming off successful shoulder surgery and without full contact practices right now is still a month to two months away, without considering the time he'll need to make an impact jumping into the NHL season that has already been in full swing for 6 - 8 weeks. With Daniel, Henrik, Samuelsson, Kesler, and Raymond, goal scoring shouldn't be a major issue for this Canucks bunch, but taking it for granted could cost the Canucks some early points in the standings.

Brendan Morrison Gets Canucks Training Camp Tryout

Former Vancouver Canuck Brendan Morrison has agreed to a professional tryout and will attend the organizations training camp in Penticton which kicks off on Saturday. The BC native has seen his role diminish in recent years, but the Canucks are hoping that he can be a solid bottom six contributor and a character teammate.

That's if he makes the team of course. Right now, the Canucks have a few spots open in the bottom six forward group, and since Alex Burrows will miss part of the beginning of the season after successful shoulder surgery, someone will need to step up into the top 6 forward group for the time being, creating another available spot in the bottom two lines.

The Canucks play their first Pre-Season game as a split squad set of games, one in Calgary and one in Vancouver, both on September 21st at 7PM Pacific.

Roberto Luongo Steps Down As Canucks Captain

The Vancouver Canucks announced on Monday that Roberto Luongo has relinquished his captaincy, and the team will be looking for his replacement for the upcoming season. There was much speculation about this issue, and the announcement comes as little surprise to anyone in Vancouver as the rumours have been flying for a couple of months already.

Early speculation has Henrik Sedin, the NHL's leading scorer and MVP last season, as the most likely replacement, but Mike Gillis has stated that the team will not rush into any decisions. Ryan Kesler is another option, but many people feel he is not quite ready to accept a responsibility of that magnitude. Heading into the season without a captain is also a possibility for the Canucks, but Gillis did mention that he expects to make a final decision before the start of the regular season.

“Roberto has been an excellent captain for our team the past two seasons,” Gillis said in a statement. “We respect and support his decision to relinquish the captaincy and are confident that he will continue to help lead our team through his tremendous character and work ethic both on and off of the ice.”

The Canucks goalie was an anomaly, as a captain being a goaltender hasn't been done in the modern era.

Rumour has it that the responsibility of dealing with the media pre and post game was a bit too much to handle for Luongo, and a goalie being the spokesman for the team often made it sound like he was throwing his teammates under the bus.

According to Gillis and Luongo, it was the former captain's decision to step down, as opposed to management asking him to, which has been rumoured around town.

"I am honoured to have served as captain of the Vancouver Canucks for the past two seasons," Luongo said. "Being captain in a Canadian city for a team with such passionate fans is a privilege and an experience I will always take pride in. I will continue to be a leader on this team and support my teammates the same way I always have while focusing on our ultimate goal."

Expect Luongo to bounce back from a poor season (by his standards) with the pressure of being captain off his shoulders. Luongo was well-known for his game day preperation and often quirky superstitions which, before being named captain, included not talking to the media on game days.

Canucks sign Raffi Torres

General Manager Mike Gillis and the Vancouver Canucks have reportedly bolstered their bottom six forward unit late Tuesday night by signing gritty forward Raffi Torres to a one year deal worth one million dollars.

Torres, known to many Canuck fans because of his lengthy stint with the Edmonton Oilers a couple years ago (a stint which saw him light up the Canucks repeatedly), split time with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Buffalo Sabres last year, scoring 19 goals and adding 17 assists for 36 points.

He is known as a gritty winger who plays a physical game, something the Canucks have been looking to add since getting ousted by a more mature, physical Chicago team in last year's 2nd round of the playoffs.

Source

Meet Victor Oreskovich

Known to most as the "throw-in" player in the deal with Florida that also brought Keith Ballard to Vancouver (for Grabner, Bernier and a 1st rounder), Victor Oreskovich isn't a household name just yet. But once Canuck fans see him play, I'd expect they will recognize him quickly. A hulking winger (6'3, 220 lbs), Oreskovich hits everything in sight. His forecheck quickly became his forte, and was the main reason why he made the Panthers as a free agent camp attendee after taking almost two years away from the game.

Drafted in the 2nd round of the 2004 NHL entry draft by the Colorado Avalanche after a successful two year junior career in Kitchener, the Whitby, Ontario native quit the game after a couple of poor seasons and a number of injuries resulted in him losing passion for the game. He switched his attention to school and his Finance Degree at Notre Dame.

Then one day, it hit him.

"One day I was looking at some number equations and hockey popped into my mind," Oreskovich said. "It's funny, but I was supposed to be looking at my future in finance and all I could think of was hockey. I started to miss the game. It started to eat away at me. I never gave the pros a chance. I didn't want to look back and regret it the rest of my life. That fire started burning again."

One phone call to his former Junior coach, and now Head Coach in Florida - Pete DeBoer - and he had his second chance. He made the most of it by earning a spot on the Panthers, playing 50 games and earning 6 points on the team`s 4th line.

He plans on making the most of his new opportunity in Vancouver where there`s a number of bottom 6 positions up for grabs.

Here`s a look at what the Canucks can expect from the gritty, hard-working 24 year old.

Sami Salo out indefinitely with torn achilles tendon

This should come as no surprise to anybody, but Sami Salo is injured yet again. According to the Vancouver Sun, Salo suffered a tear to his Achilles tendon while playing floor hockey in his native Finland. Early reports suggest the hard-luck 35 year old defenseman could miss at least 3 months and will start the season on the IR.

Luckily the Canucks have an abundance of d-men under contract, so they will be able to replace Salo with a proven rear guard.

If anybody benefits from Salo's injury, it's Kevin Bieksa, who has reportedly been on the block. He may now stick around as Salo's replacement to start the season.

Stay tuned for the latest on Salo's injury and much, much more.

Canucks GM Mike Gillis was a busy man this off-season.

Canucks General Manager Mike Gillis has been one of the busiest GM's in the NHL this Summer, making several key moves in order to shore up some of the team's weaknesses that were so very evident in last season's playoffs.

In arguably the team's biggest acquisition, Gillis signed free agent defenseman Dan Hamhuis to a 6 year deal worth 4.5 million a season. Hamhuis, a 27 year old Smithers, B.C native, played his first 6 seasons with the Nashville Predators after the Preds made hm the 12th overall pick in 2001. The soft-spoken, hard-hitting d-man is known for his solid overall game - he doesn't excel at anything in particular, but is good at every aspect of the game. Canuck fans can expect a gritty, hard-nosed style mixed with some offensive ability. Most importantly however, Hamhuis has only missed only a handful of games in his NHL career (9 to be exact), something most Canuck defensemen can't attest to. Hopefully the Canuck Curse doesn't fall upon the usually reliable blueliner.

Another move meant to bolster the Vancouver backend saw Gillis trade for d-man Keith Ballard from the Florida Panthers for Michael Grabner, Steve Bernier and the Canucks 1st round pick in this year's draft. Ballard is another reliable blueliner who has only missed 13 NHL games in his career (all in 2006'2007). He has played in every game for 4 of his 5 NHL seasons.

Ballard is known as one of the top shot-blocking defenseman in the game, and is also known as one of the biggest hitters in the game despite his small stature (5'11, 200 lbs). The American rearguard is especially known for his hip-checks (view highlights here ), an art-form almost extinct since Darius Kasparaitis left the game.

Gillis also solidified his 3rd line with the signing of Manny Malhotra to a 3 year-7.5 million dollar deal. The Indo-Canadian forward spent last season with the San Jose Sharks, and was widely considered the team's MVP in last year's playoffs. Malhotra is a useful penalty-killer and faceoff man who should replace the services of the departed Kyle Wellwood and Ryan Johnson (both UFA's who remain unsigned). He is also a physical player who can play both Center and Left Wing, and can chip in here and there offensively.

In a less publicized signing (and for good reason), Gillis inked former 1st rounder Jeff Tambellini, the son of former Vancouver Asst. GM Steve Tambellini. The left-winger had 14 points in 36 games for the New York Islanders last season, and should compete for a third line spot on the Canucks.

With the acquisitions of Hamhuis and Ballard, Vancouver now has 9 defensemen on one-way contracts on their roster, including Sami Salo, Christian Ehrhoff, Alex Edler, Kevin Bieksa, Aaron Rome, Shane O'Brien and Andrew Alberts.

With the log-jam of rearguards and with the team being slightly over the salary cap, Gillis undoubtedly needs to move a d-man or two. Kevin Bieksa, whose play has been widely criticized over the last few years (especially by me), is rumoured to be on the block. Bieksa makes 3.75 million a year and is under contract for another couple years.

Hell in Hollywood; Canucks lose 5-3 to Kings

Despite having the offensive upside of a six-year old school girl, Ryan Johnson brings certain things to the Vancouver Canucks that no other player can. He blocks shots (3rd in NHL for forwards) and wins faceoffs, and thrives at both while shorthanded. The Canucks could have used Johnson Monday night as they went 0-3 on the penalty kill in a 5-3 loss to Los Angeles, and have now successfully killed off under half of their penalties so far in the playoffs. As a comparison, the Toronto Maple Leafs had the worst penalty kill percentage during the regular season (enough said, right?), at 74.6%. The Canucks PK so far this post season is 41.7%. This obviously has to be remedied soon for Vancouver to stand a chance at coming back and winning the series.

I guess we should give the Kings' powerplay their due credit. Even though the Canucks have allowed L.A's two all-star defensemen all the time in the world, and they cannot block a shot to save their lives (well, playoff lives) – L.A have moved the puck around well and capitalized on Roberto Luongo's large rebounds.

Michael Handzus scored twice for the Kings, who also got singles from Brad Richardson, Ryan Smyth and Drew Doughty (also had 3 assists), while Mason Raymond (1st), Daniel Sedin (2nd), and Mikael Samuelsson (4th) scored for the Canucks. Samuelsson continued his strong play and has proven himself as a playoff performer with 4 goals and an assist in the first 3 games. The Kings coaching staff said themselves that Samuelsson is the guy who scares them, not the Sedins. This brings me to the twins - they need to be better. All night they were outplayed by L.A's 3rd line. Daniel and Henrik need to be the best players on the ice in order for Vancouver to be successful, and I expect they will turn it around on Wednesday.



All in all, Vancouver is not playing very good hockey right now. They need to get better in all assets of the game, including goaltending, in order to win this series. Here are a few more comments and observations:

– Daniel Sedin's disallowed goal in the 3rd period was shockingly incorrect. The rule is a player cannot use a distinct kicking motion to kick the puck into the net. Because the goal was deemed legal on the play, the replay had to "conclusively" prove that Daniel used a kicking motion to redirect the puck into the net. Judge for yourself HERE.

– Apparently league commissioner Gary Bettman wants LA to be a big hockey market. I wonder who was on the phone with the ref to call off that Vancouver goal? Conspiracy perhaps? I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

This was the NHL's explanation for calling the goal off. Doesn't sound too "conclusive" to me.

– Roberto Luongo has to start playing like a top notch goalie. His juicy rebounds and his susceptibility to the weak goal are hurting this team.

– Andrew Alberts can thank Vancouver's poor penalty killing for keeping him out of the spotlight.

– The penalty kill is way too passive. They need to pressure LA's defensemen and negate the shooting lanes.

With all of that said, keep in mind that the series is still young, and a win on Wednesday and Canuck fans worldwide will be optimistic once again.

Bigger and better things on the way!!!!

So here's the deal people. We figure if you want a game update there are a few places that people will check before our blog, so we are changing it up a bit. Starting in the near future, we will be creating a weekly half hour show dedicated strictly to the Canucks. This will be a podcast style of strictly audio, and will be a show done in a unique style with some nice flavour. If you are expecting your standard, meant and potato radio show - our show might not be for you.

The real fans perspective on issues that your favorite radio station won't even dare to touch. We aren't afraid to say the things other stations are afraid to air. Stay tuned, and thank you for all your patience!