As we are in the most exciting week for prospect aficionados Canucks Army has converted into a puppy mill of draft content, spewing out hundreds of profiles on players combining both traditional scouting qualitative analysis with our own unique statistics.  We are so busy as we are so excited for Friday that we haven’t quite been able to keep up with regular Canucks news  that will affect Vancouver and Utica’s rosters next season.

With that being said we have a number of quick hits to keep you up to date, with some of our thoughts on the decisions.

One of the first moves in the goaltender carousel was the loss of Joacim Eriksson.  This is not a surprise, something I wrote about two months ago, as it was rumoured for months that he was going to leave the Canucks system with the lack of NHL prospects in front of him.  

The biggest surprises that came out of this is that Eriksson is leaving for Latvia and the KHL, rather than heading home to Sweden, and that the Canucks did not seem to have much interest in qualifying the restricted free agent.  

Somewhere over the past year, the Canucks seem to have soured on Eriksson.  He had yet to give any significant performance in the AHL where he was at least league average, posting save percentage 0.03 below AHL average in both seasons, which did not help his case.  The Canucks managed to sign him as a free agent so they don’t lose much in this case and I’ve made the case that young goaltenders like him are easily replaceable.

The Canucks announced two re-signings this week with Ronalds Kenins and Alex Friesen.  Ronalds Kenins was found by Marc Crawford playing in Switzerland two seasons ago.  He finished up in Europe and started last season in Utica. 

Part way through the year, with injuries mounting in Vancouver, he earned himself a long call-up to the big club.  It was a surprise at the time as he did not show too much in Utica, with 12 points in 36 games, largely due to his bottom-6 role. 

He played well enough to stick with Vancouver and became something of a fan favourite too.  And with a 1-year contract, just above league minimum at $575,000, it does not look like Kenins will return to Utica anytime soon.  It will be interesting to see if he can replicate last season’s success and continue to be a serviceable bottom-6 player.

Alex Friesen’s re-signing was announced at the same time and he has been inked to a 2-year 2-way deal with the Vancouver Canucks at $575,000 per year. 

Friesen was part of the Gillis experiment to draft over-agers named Alex.  While Grenier is looking to have NHL potential, Friesen does not.  He has been improving quite a bit in the last year and a half in Utica but it has not been enough to suggest any significant NHL upside.  Still, we weren’t expecting Kenins to make the NHL so anything could happen with Friesen. This signing is more to stock Utica depth where he is reasonably effective.

The biggest complaint one could find out of this is that a contract space was used on an AHL regular that is easily replaceable.  It makes me wonder why the Lindenning camp was so quick to cut ties with Jordan Schroeder yet are willing to re-ink Alex Friesen.

Two Canucks prospects have been invited to the Team Canada U20 World Juniors summer camp.  Both Jake Virtanen and Jared McCann will show off what they can do this summer with the Canadian Junior National team.  If either player is on the Canucks roster this season it is unlikely, but unknown, if they will be able to attend the World Junior Championships in December and January.

Joe Cannata’s re-signing was covered by Tiny Drancer a week ago.  Since that post, we know he was signed to a 1-year, 2-way deal at $600,000 at the NHL level and $100,000 at the AHL level.  His re-signing was not a surprise, something I expected as teams typically stock their goalie depth down to the AHL level.  At this point in his career he is unlikely to be an NHL regular and was signed to most likely back-up the Utica Comets next year.  With his excellent performance in the ECHL this season he could be an improvement on Joacim Eriksson.

Some other players names have popped up in the media that should be noted but there is not much else to touch on with them.