Canucks Army Monday Mailbag: August 15th

Well, the Canucks might not have anything big on the horizon, but there’s plenty of hockey news on the way. Radim Vrbata is reportedly working on a one-year deal with the Arizona Coyotes, and Jimmy Vesey is set to hit unrestricted free agency on Tuesday. There will be news, my friends. Some of it hockey related.

Now, if you’re following me on Twitter, you might’ve noticed that I didn’t ask for any Monday Mailbag questions this Sunday. I was a guest on Ryan Biech’s podcast, Game Time Decision (an episode which will go live) and there were several questions for me from listeners that we just didn’t get to answering. So, I’ve repurposed some of those for this article and thrown in other ones that came in throughout the week. Enjoy.

I’m sure I’ve made some serious omissions. Similarly, I could write this list tomorrow, and it might be different. It’s all so delightfully ad-hoc. Anyways, I really, really like Mattias Ekholm.

I’m listening to the Grateful Dead while I’m writing my response to this, for whatever that’s worth. Regarding those three bands in particular, though, it’s The Clash and by about a country mile. One of the first albums I ever remember my father playing for me was ‘London Calling’. And we’d listen to it all the time going to and from hockey games and practice when we lived in California.

Besides, The Clash are ‘the only band that matters’ after all. 

I know this is all very tongue in cheek, but I’m more or less over the Canucks losing Corrado on waivers. Just don’t expect me to pretend it never happened and just avoid mentioning it in articles about, you know, waivers. That said, I’ll keep up appearances and whine about it daily if it means I get some free Postmark Brewing. Like, their saison is lit a f, fam.

Also, why the hell would anyone think I wasn’t down with the Juolevi pick? I distinctly remember being one of like three people in Vancouver not griping about that selection. And to this day I will contend that, in a vacuum, Juolevi at five wasn’t a reach. I’m pretty stoked on having him in the Canucks system. Now, that said, I’d be so much happier about having Mikhail Sergachyov. 

If everything goes well for the Canucks (and I mean almost everything) they can contend for seventh or eighth overall in the Western Conference. You can hear my take on that on the GameTime Decision Podcast, too. It should be live as of this post going live.

Rumour had it that Edmonton Oilers General Manager Pete Chiarelli was looking to snag a second round pick for Yakupov. So, basically, the same cost of a Sven Baertschi. I can’t remember where, but I seem to recall stumbling upon a tweet or article about the Oilers not being able to secure better than a third round pick at the draft for his services. So, yeah, I think they’re holding firm on the second round pick.

I can’t see the Canucks being able to offer Jimmy Vesey anything that other teams couldn’t. In fact, their logjam at forward, limited salary space and unlikeliness to contend any time soon are working pretty strongly against their favour. I would be absolutely floored if the Canucks could pull this off. But that’s because they won’t.