Spitballin’ (or Super Pass It To Bulis: All In, if you love adventurous acronymizing) is a feature that allows us to touch on a multitude of things really fast, because in the world of hockey, there are always lots of things to find and colour. Here are a few quick topics.
Report: Canucks will not lose Brendan Gaunce in the expansion draft
One of the upsides of the Canucks being terrible right now is that they’re not going to lose anyone irreplaceable in the expansion draft. No matter who the Knights take, the appropriate response from Canucks nation should be a half-hearted shrug.
The only player that would earned more than that shrug from me is Brendan Gaunce, if only because I still believe he is capable of being a solid third-line centre in the future. I may be completely delusional, but I like the guy, what can I say?
So I was pleased to see Rick Dhaliwal report that Gaunce would not be selected:
Been told Brendan Gaunce will NOT be taken by Vegas in expansion draft. #Canucks
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) June 21, 2017
Dhaliwal likely got that report from Gaunce’s agent, as he followed up with several tweets about speaking with agents for several other Canucks.
You might assume that means Luca Sbisa or Reid Boucher, the next most obvious choices, would get the call from the Knights, but that may not be the case. Ray Ferraro, on an appearance on TSN 1040 on Tuesday, suggested that the Knights would use their Canucks pick on a “throw-away player.”
That's right: the Knights might select a pending restricted or unrestricted free agent from the Canucks’ list and then let him go to free agency.
How cold is that? The Knights looking at the Canucks list of exposed players and saying, “No thanks.” On the other hand, this is a best case scenario for the Canucks: none of the players exposed are on onerous contracts (even if Sbisa is overpaid), so they’re not hoping the Knights take a contract off their hands, but they’d surely like to hang on to all of their assets.
The Knights have little need for Sbisa, considering the other defencemen available to them in the expansion draft, and may not see much in Gaunce or Boucher to make them worth the roster spot. They’re picking 30 players and getting a couple more in trades and can only ice a roster of 23 players.
Now, this isn’t confirmed at all and we’ll likely have to wait until the NHL Awards this evening for the official announcement, but for now it looks like Brendan Gaunce will be a Canuck next season.
New VANCOUVER jerseys are the same as the old VANCOUVER jerseys
The long, drawn-out announcement of the NHL’s new jerseys courtesy of Adidas is finally over and it’s incredibly anticlimactic for most teams around the NHL and particularly for Canucks fans.
There are all sorts of benefits to the players with the new jerseys — they’re lighter and stronger — but the overall look is pretty much identical to the old ones. The collar is smaller and that’s pretty much it.
This was an opportunity for the Canucks to lose the lame and unnecessary “VANCOUVER” wordmark over the orca logo. Only three other NHL teams have the name of their city on their jersey — the Kings, Capitals, and Leafs — and on those jerseys the city name is incorporated naturally into the logo, not emblazoned awkwardly above the logo like 90’s wordart.
The Olympics were seven years ago, guys. You don’t need to remind everyone you’re from Vancouver anymore.
Expansion draft forcing Jim Benning to rebuild
Even Jim Benning’s harshest critics agree that he did a good job at the trade deadline this past season in trading Alex Burrows and Jannik Hansen for promising prospects Jonathan Dahlen and Nikolai Goldobin. It was the clearest sign the Canucks have given that they’re serious about actually rebuilding the team and Benning got good value for the pair of two-way wingers.
But according to Jason Botchford’s latest piece at The Province, Benning wouldn’t have traded Hansen if there was no expansion draft.
Benning reportedly said that Hansen would still be on the roster if not for the Knights joining the NHL, saying, “If there was no expansion draft, there wouldn’t have been the urgency to move him. He’s been a good player for us through the years.”
To a certain extent, this is true: Hansen has been a good player and since he is still under contract through next season, could have been kept and traded at next year’s trade deadline. Only, he likely would not have fetched a quality prospect like Goldobin as a pending free agent. The extra year on his contract was likely a selling point for the Sharks to acquire him.
It’s just baffling to me that Benning would undercut himself on a trade for which he was universally praised.
Heck, there’s even talk that whether Benning trades Tanev or not will depend on if the Knights take Sbisa in the expansion draft, for fear of being too thin on defence next season. Let’s be clear: if the Canucks are serious about rebuilding, it shouldn’t matter at all how good they are next season. The presence or absence of Sbisa in the lineup should not impact whether they move Tanev for future assets.
But if it takes a Vegas expansion draft to force Jim Benning to make the best decisions for the Canucks’ rebuild, so be it.
Canucks sign former invitee Alexis D’Aoust (to play in Utica)
Alexis D’Aoust was one of the standout performers at last year’s Young Stars Tournament. The winger was an offensive catalyst for the Canucks, carrying the puck with speed and confidence and distributing it effectively to create scoring chances. He was invited the Canucks main camp and was the last invitee standing before finally getting cut.
Long-time Bulies know how much I like invitees, so it was great to find out that the Canucks signed D’Aoust on Tuesday. Sort of. In reality, D’Aoust signed with the Utica Comets to an AHL deal, but he could get a look from the Canucks if he performs well with the Comets.
Last year, D’Aoust was coming off a stellar 44-goal, 98-point season in the QMJHL, but he wasn’t able to improve on those numbers in his over-age season. In 50 games, he scored 29 goals and 60 points, a small step back in points-per-game from his previous year. That’s still a fairly strong season and he followed it up with 5 goals in 6 playoff games.
D’Aoust is an excellent finisher, with a quick release on his wrist shot and great hands around the net. He also has decent speed and isn’t too undersized. The biggest issue I saw with him was a lack of defensive awareness, which is something he may be able to develop in the AHL. He’s definitely worth keeping an eye on.
