It’s officially the dog days of summer, folks.
This Canucks blog is trying very hard to find ways to keep talking to you about your favourite team. We’re trying so hard that we dared to look to our friends over at theleafsnation.com to see what they were writing about. One thing we saw was TLN break down the Leafs’ brief history of transactions they’ve made in August. They analyzed 2022-2013 and had a total of 16 transactions to talk about in that time. This didn’t include front office movement, which there was some of as well.
This got us thinking though, when was the last time the Vancouver Canucks made a move in the month of August? And today, we have the answer. As the headline suggests, it was back in 2015. Jon Stewart was hosting “The Daily Show” for the last time, Kanye West announced his Presidential run in 2020 at the MTV Video Music Awards, and Usain Bolt was still winning races.
Meanwhile, the Canucks got busy.
In late July, they traded for Pittsburgh Penguins centre Brandon Sutter, sending Nick Bonino, Adam Clendening, and a second round pick in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft back the Penguins’ way. But that was in July, on the 28th.
On August 4th the club named John Weisbrod assistant general manager, Chris Gear vice president and general counsel of Canucks Sports & Entertainment, Judd Brackett director of amateur scouting, Ryan Johnson assistant director of player development, and Mike Addesa an amateur scout. The front office moves came on the heels of the club firing assistant general managers Laurence Gilman and Lorne Henning along with director of player personnel Eric Crawford.
On the same day, the club announced that they had signed the recently-acquired Sutter to a five-year contract extension worth $21.875 million. Sutter’s Canucks tenure was disappointing and came to an incredibly unfortunate end when Sutter was forced into retirement after missing the entire 2021-22 season with long-COVID symptoms.
But those aren’t the Canucks’ last moves in the month of August.
No, that title belongs to the signing of forward Adam Cracknell, who the club signed to a one-year two-way deal on August 26th, 2015. The contract carried an NHL cap hit of $575,000, and Cracknell spent his 2015-16 campaign with the Canucks before the Edmonton Oilers claimed him off waivers in late February. Cracknell tallied five goals and five assists through 44 games with the Canucks and went pointless through eight games with the Oilers. At 37, Cracknell recorded 21 goals and 32 assists through 64 contests with the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners last season.
So here we sit in the month of August, longing for the team to do something so that we have something to talk about rather than be forced to go read Toronto Maple Leafs blogs or write about Adam Cracknell.
Perhaps an Elias Pettersson contract extension? Please?
