Canucks Draft
Vancouver Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin made comments to select media on Tuesday regarding Wednesday’s 1st-round of the NHL Draft and this was the most noteworthy message.
“We’ve got pick eleven here, not much discussion on moving up at this point,” he said. “We’re excited about eleven. The scouts are doing the last, final tuning here on the list, but I think there are a handful of players that they’re excited about to potentially get at eleven.”
Last week Allvin said the team could trade up in the Draft.
Canucks Schedule
The Vancouver Canucks schedule came out on Tuesday for the 2023-’24 regular season and here are a few of the key takeaways.
The club opens with an elongated home-and-home, over a four-day stretch, against the Edmonton Oilers starting with the season opener at Rogers Arena on October 11th.
After the game in Alberta on the 14th, the Canucks continue their traditional October roadie with stops against the Philadelphia Flyers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, and Nashville Predators. Home opener pregame ceremonial matters can be time consuming and involve delays and it appears the Canucks will experience another fair share of them. The club finishes the month of October with three home games.
Finishing the stretch a game below or above .500 would be considered acceptable; anything beyond that a huge bonus.
November is an early division rival month with nine of their fifteen games against Pacific foes, including two against their closest neighbours, the Seattle Kraken.
The Canucks schedule actually gets a bit bizarre after New Year’s, with a seven-game road trip in January, eight of their first ten February games on the road, and then a monstrous nine-game homestand in March.
In April, all eight games are against the Pacific Division with five of them on the road, the schedule concluding at the Winnipeg Jets on the 18th.
Canucks Norris Votes
Canucks defenceman Quinn Hughes finished 9th in the voting for the 2023 Norris Trophy, not without a positive boost from his local voters. Sentiment from Vancouver writers gave him some love, but not nearly enough to have an impact on the overall results.
While most of the 196 voters, made up of hockey writers and some broadcasters, had Hughes outside the top-5, the local scribes notched him much higher. So much for the negativity moniker.
One voter gave him a 2nd-place vote, three had him pegged for 3rd, two votes for 4th place, and two more for 5th. Only one local scribe left him out of the top-5.
San Jose Sharks D-man Erik Karlsson and his 101-point season took home the prize as the NHL’s best blueliner, with Adam Fox of the New York Rangers finishing second and Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche, the previous season’s winner, finishing third.
Canucks Stanley Cup Poll
This past week on twitter we threw out a little poll, asking readers and/or twitterers to vote on “which team/franchise would win the Stanley Cup first?” The three choices given were the Seattle Kraken, Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres.
Why those three? First of all, none of them have ever won a Cup. The Canucks and Sabres came into the NHL as expansion brothers back in 1970.
Seattle and Vancouver are regional rivals.
Owen Power, 2nd-place finisher for the Calder Trophy and the 1st-overall NHL Draft pick out of the University of Michigan in 2021 is a defenseman for the Sabres.
Matty Beniers, winner of the Calder Trophy and the 2nd-overall NHL Draft pick out of the University of Michigan in 2021 is a center for Seattle.
Both of those teams seem to making strides in the right direction.
The Canucks could be as well, so we’ll re-issue the poll after the NHL Draft and free agency period to see where they stand.
For now, these were the results. “Homerish” didn’t seem to factor in, as we have less Kraken followers than others.
Seattle Kraken – 44%
Vancouver Canucks – 20%
Buffalo Sabres – 36%
Fans believed the Kraken will get to the promised land first. Of course, there is no timetable.
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