Minor Canucks news and notes: SKA’s offer to Virtanen, the new guys’ numbers, Olympics, and engagement SZN

There isn’t a whole lot going on around the National Hockey League right now.

Does that stop a select few people from commenting “slow news day?” on hockey blogs all across the web in late August? Not a chance.

That being said, this time of year often brings on a whole bunch of smaller news items that don’t typically warrant entire articles on their own, which is why we’re dusting off this series once again.

Here are all the recent minor Vancouver Canucks news items you may have missed.

SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL — the former club of top prospect Vasily Podkolzin — has reportedly offered former Canucks forward Jake Virtanen a contract.

The report from Sport24 in Russia states that SKA is negotiating a contract with Virtanen that would pay him 60 million rubles, equivalent to $817,200 USD.

The Canucks bought out Virtanen’s contract this offseason, which will cost them $50,000 this upcoming season and $500,000 in 2022-23.

The forward was placed on leave by the club in April after an allegation of sexual misconduct came out online.

Conor Garland will wear Chris Tanev’s old number eight, which most recently belonged to Jordie Benn. Defenceman Tucker Poolman will wear number five, which was last worn by Oscar Fantenberg.

Before Fantenberg, the number was worn by Derrick Pouliot and Luca Sbisa — two defenceman Canucks fans are hoping desperately Poolman outperforms in his time with the club.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson is currently listed on the Canucks’ website as number 23. Obviously, this is the old number of Alex Edler, who decided to sign in Los Angeles with the Kings this offseason. Edler will wear number two with the Kings, in honour of Mattias Ohlund, in case you were wondering.

When it becomes official, you’ll see an article on it for sure, but for now, things are looking promising for the NHL sending their players to the Winter Olympics in February.

Our very own Stephan Roget detailed last week which players from the Canucks could be getting the call to represent their countries next year, and you can read that article here.

The groups have already been drawn, and let’s just say things could get ugly for China if the NHL does in fact decide to send their stars overseas this winter:

Last, but certainly not least, forward Tyler Motte got engaged to his longtime girlfriend Adriana Hassan.

Motte made the announcement on Tuesday via this Instagram post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CTM-geJLq8t/

And last week, goaltender Thatcher Demko proposed to his girlfriend Lexie Shaw.

It’s officially engagement SZN, folks.