Afternoon Headshots: June 18th

How’s that for a spiffy t-shirt design? Kudos to @YYJordan.
The finalists in our T-shirt design contest will be posted tomorrow (promise this time).

It was a light day for us at Canucks Army. Jeff broke down the club’s secondary scoring need and some possible ways to address it this offseason, and that’s all we wrote. So pretty much the hockey blogging equivalent of counting "fifteen two, fifteen four and there is no more" in a game of cribbage.

Click past the jump for more Canucks news.

Scott Cullen dropped his annual "Canucks Offseason Gameplan" column for TSN.ca today, and it is remarkably readable, thorough and accurate. In addition to pointing out some pretty interesting facts – did you know, Dan Hamhuis is second among NHL defenceman in +/- over the past three years to only Zdeno Chara? –  Cullen advocates that the Canucks pursue Grant Clitsome this summer (sign me up) and that they give Brendan Gaunce a shot at third-line centre (I’m skeptical that he’s ready). We’ve booked Scott as a guest for the podcast tomorrow, so check back on Wednesday afternoon to hear more about what Scott sees as the Canucks needs this summer. [TSN]

Capgeek has confirmed that the Canucks have signed depth puckmover Patrick Mullen, the son of legendary Pittsburgh Penguins winger Joe Mullen, to a two-way deal worth 600k at the NHL level. Mullen played two games for the Wolves last season before being injured, and we’re left to wonder whether or not the Canucks would’ve subjected us to the Cam Barker experience had Mullen been healthy in January of 2013. [Capgeek]

Harrison Mooney wonders if the Utica Comets branding is too "Canucks centric" and opines about the branding necessity that is explicitly linking an AHL club to their locale, rather than to their parent organization. [Pass it to Bulis]

Tony Gallagher is on "Hat Trick" duties today, describing Mike Gillis as a guy who can take a lesson from sci-fi author Douglas Adams (Don’t Panic!) and throwing some well deserved kudos in the direction of Boston defenceman Dennis Seidenberg. [The Province]

Blake Murphy recaps Tom Sestito’s first partial season with the Canucks. [Nucksmisconduct]

Finally, I missed this yesterday but the Wild re-signed 23 year old defenceman Marco Scandella (who is secretly pretty good, I might tell you) for two years, 2.05 million dollars. Why is that relevant for the Canucks? Scandella has played 89 games over the past three seasons in Minnesota, putting up four goals and fifteen points while often playing top-four minutes. Chris Tanev? He’s played 92 games over the past three seasons, scoring two goals and adding eight assists while playing mostly third-pairing minutes. Counting stats aside, I’d narrowly prefer to employ Chris Tanev, but that Scandella is a comparable player is undeniable… [PHT]