Canucks Have a Lot of Work Ahead
By Darryl Dobbs
In reviewing the NHL rosters quite thoroughly, it is clear that the roster that needs the most work right now is Vancouver’s. If this doesn’t change soon, there will be open tryouts for a number of roster spots – beer leaguers welcome.
In all seriousness though, the way things look at this moment for Vancouver on the right wing is that Matt Cooke may have a spot on the first or second line, and a number of players would be vying for the other spot.
If they can convert newcomer Taylor Pyatt to the right side, he will play with Naslund and Morrison. Pyatt hasn’t had this big a chance to prove his (formerly?) vast potential since he was a rookie. A big power forward who scored a ton of goals back in junior, Pyatt sure reminds you of somebody, doesn’t he?
It also looks as if Jason King and Josef Balej will get a shot at that spot. Balej blew his last ‘can’t miss’ chance at a premium spot last year. The Rangers had little depth on the wings at the time, and he would have had to play so horribly that they would be forced to cut him.
He played that horribly, and he was cut.
He played so bad that he was traded for a couple of sticks and a bag of pucks just one season after he was the heart of the Kovalev deal that brought him to New York in the first place.
There are two other options on the right side, assuming of course that the Canucks fail to add a right winger by October. The first is Jesse Schultz, an undrafted right winger who reminds me of Chicago’s Rene Bourque in terms of talent and career path. This 23-year-old late bloomer had an excellent season for Manitoba last year, with 67 points in 80 games.
The second option, and this one is a bit of a longshot, is 2006 first round draft pick (14th overall) Michael Grabner. The Austrian-born sniper would ideally wait several years before making his NHL debut, but if the Canucks continue with the roster as is, they may have little choice.
The Canucks also need defensemen #5-8. What this means is that their 2005 first-round pick (10th overall) Luc Bourdon has a genuine shot at a roster spot. He’s signed, he just needs to add about 10 pounds this summer and he could be eased into the lineup quite readily.
Meanwhile…
The Pittsburgh Penguins acquired Nils Ekman, along with a goaltending prospect, for a second-round pick. This has been a bit of a fantasy roller coaster ride for Ekman this summer. He was looking solid for 60 points next year on Joe Thornton’s line, before slipping to about 30 projected points when the Sharks acquired Mark Bell. He’s bounced up to 60 or even 70 points again, now that he will line up on the left side with either Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin…
In Columbus Nikolai Zherdev is pulling a heavy on management, signing with a team in Russia. Essentially he has forced GM Doug McLean to either sign him by October 5th, or else lose him for the year. The feeling is that a deal will get done, but the possibility of it not happening is definitely a real one.
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