With just one more sleep ahead of the kickoff of the Vancouver Canucks’ 2023-24 season, it was a busy day at Rogers Arena.

The team practiced but General Manager Patrik Allvin stole a bit of the spotlight as he spoke to the media prior to his team taking the ice.

Vancouver welcomes the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Arena Wednesday night for the season opener and we will have much more on-ice talk tomorrow in our scenes from morning skate. Today, we’ve got a lot of side stories to dive into. So, let’s dive right in.

We didn’t see the team run lines as there was more time spent with Allvin but Randip Janda of Sportsnet reported that Teddy Blueger was not on the ice for practice.

On top of Blueger not being in attendance, the Canucks didn’t have a sixth defenceman on-ice for Tuesday’s skate.

Guillaume Brisebois was absent from practice while Carson Soucy looks to be out week-to-week.

There may need to be an emergency recall early into the year. We could expect Akito Hirose or Christian Wolanin to get the call for opening night.

Much more ‘what we saw’ to come tomorrow…

Alright, we’ve got a lot to chew on here.

We ran through the Allvin press conference a few times and wanted to break down a couple of interesting quotes before diving into what Conor Garland said after Elliotte Friedman reported that Vancouver has granted Garland permission to speak to other teams about a potential trade.

This tweet came out after Allvin spoke to the media, so the GM was not asked about it.

Allvin spoke about Elias Pettersson’s contract situation.

“I have a great relationship with Petey, I have a great relationship with his representatives,” said Allvin. “We just continue to talk here and hopefully, we can get something done. We’ll take our time and I’m sure he’ll take his time.”

This question came after Friedman spoke about the team taking their time to make a decision on his latest episode of 32 Thoughts.

Allvin said he wasn’t sure if Guillaume Brisebois would be ready to go for the home opener and that the flu had hit the dressing room over the past couple of days and there may be some other players who are game-time decisions.

In terms of Ilya Mikheyev, Allvin has this to say about his availability for the home opener.

“I think he wants to play tomorrow,” said Allvin with a laugh. “We’re at that stage here where it’s a fine balance pushing him or not. We’ve been very impressed with how he worked and how he was really pushing it to be ready. It’s a discussion between our medical staff, Ilya and the coaching staff. I would believe he’s pretty close to returning here.”

Conor Garland spoke to the media after practice and was asked about Friedman’s report of him being granted permission to speak with other teams about a trade.

“I’m really focused on tomorrow’s game as a Vancouver Canucks and we’ve put in a lot of work there past couple of weeks to get ready,” said Garland. “It’s a big test against a really really good team and we’re all excited to get going tomorrow.

When asked if the report was accurate, Garland paused and then had this to say.

“It’s not my focus, that’s his focus,” said Garland as he referred to his agent. “My focus is tomorrow night and having a good practice today.”

Garland never denied the report but he did refer to his agent’s job multiple times during the media availability. Rick Dhaliwal of Donni & Dhali tweeted earlier in the day that Garland had changed agents — adding to the drama.

“I’ve changed agents in the last 48 hours, so, there hasn’t been a whole ton of conversations,” said Garland. “I don’t there’s anything to put to bed. For us as players, maybe you guys don’t realize it, we’re in such a tunnel during the season that you’re focused on playing each game. I’m a big routine person and I just focus on every day and right now I’m excited. I get a chance to play [on the] first line tomorrow with two really good players against a really good team and most likely play against the best player in the world. That’s where my focus is at most.”

We’ve got much more to talk about from the rink tomorrow as both Quads and myself will be in attendance but there’s a lot to chew on over the next 24 hours before the regular season opens.