There’s still a few weeks left in the offseason, and as such, its not a shock to see players making appearances on the golf course or at charity events. Sometimes, they’ll be doing both at the same time, as Alex Burrows did at the third annual Michel Therrien golf tournament in Montreal. There’s no word out there on just how good Burrows was at sinking his shots, but one would hope he was as good as he believes the Canucks will be this year.

In a conversation with NHL.com’s Arpon Basu, Burrows showed more confidence in the mindset of the front office than most of us have shown over the past few months. “[Trevor Linden and Jim Benning] are obviously intelligent people with a plan,” Burrows said, “and last season was the first year of their plan.”

Burrows also touched on the departure of Eddie Lack, the acquisition of Brandon Sutter, the aging of the Sedins, and the departure of Kevin Bieksa, mostly towing the company line in all of his statements.

To bring it all together, Alex feels that the West is a wide open race for anybody’s taking. “There’s so many good teams. Are the Stars going to get in and make a push? Are the Kings going to get in and make a push? Are the Blackhawks going to win again? There’s so much parity. We have a lot of good pieces in Vancouver. The [Sedin] twins are going to be good, [Radim] Vrbata’s going to have another good year, I’m going to have a good year, we have a lot of good young guys coming up.”

A good year from him would definitely help the process. While he’s continued to drive play in a positive manner, his production has yet to pick up from its pre-lockout pace. His eighteen goals were a marked improvement on 2012/13 and 2013/14, but still the fewest he’s put in the net in a 70+ game season since 2007/08. With likely centre linemate Brandon Sutter yet to produce his first 40 point season at the age of 26, its hard to bet in favour of an offensive rebound for number fourteen, but stranger things have happened.