<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Congratulations! We have officially made it through another offseason. Canucks players were <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/scenes-canucks-summer-skate-sprong-skates-miller-boeser-sherwood-talks-opportunity-vancouver">skating at UBC late last week</a>, and by the end of this week, prospects will be suiting up in Canucks uniforms at Young Stars, and it won’t be long now until the stars are out in force for main training camp in Penticton. Hockey season is here again.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And all season long, we’ll take your questions and answer as many as we can here in our weekly Monday mailbag. No topics are off limits, so keep those questions coming. Let&#8217;s get started:</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">apologies if this has already been answered but any update on a practice facility?</p>
<p>&mdash; Gord Locke (@Gordylocke) <a href="https://twitter.com/Gordylocke/status/1832154467455922469?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">No apology necessary, but also no update of significance in quite some time. However, that feels like a question that will be posed to President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford when the Canucks brass meets with the media ahead of camp next week in Penticton. We haven&#8217;t heard from Rutherford in a press conference setting in a while and the practice facility always seems to be a topic that arises when he sits at a microphone.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Is Boeser ready for training camp?</p>
<p>&mdash; Clark (@Clark31R) <a href="https://twitter.com/Clark31R/status/1832150728946938067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yes, Brock Boeser was among those taking part in informal skates under the watchful eye of new Canucks skills coach Jason Krog last week at UBC. It seems the blood clotting issue that forced him to miss Game 7 against Edmonton has healed and it doesn’t seem like it impacted his summer training. So Boeser is expected to be a full participant when the Canucks hit the ice for main camp on Thursday September 19th at the South Okanagan Events Centre.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">How dominant does D.Petey look amongst his peers?</p>
<p>Has Raty&#39;s skating improved?</p>
<p>&mdash; Steven (@SwoomCS) <a href="https://twitter.com/SwoomCS/status/1832192982180884947?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Well, camp hasn’t started so it’s impossible to answer either of these questions at this point. But these are two guys who will be in the spotlight when camp begins. Elias Pettersson – the defenceman – will be among the most intriguing prospects the Canucks have at Young Stars. He has pro size and plays with an edge and it’s going to be interesting to see how quickly he adapts to the North American game after getting a taste of it late last spring. Raty, on the other hand, should be motivated to make a mark at camp. He got a quick three-game look from the NHL Canucks two seasons ago after being acquired in the Bo Horvat deal. But he spent all of last season with AHL Abbotsford. Still just 21 (he turns 22 in mid-November), Raty is high on a short list of prospects expected to push for NHL work at some point this season. The hope has to be that push starts in earnest next week in Penticton.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Who plays more regular season games for the Vancouver Canucks this year? Lekkerimaki, Raty, or Willander?</p>
<p>&mdash; Jay (@TheHeartPlumber) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheHeartPlumber/status/1832154992469512629?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’m going to say Raty. He’s probably the easy answer to this question based on his professional experience. Obviously, Lekkerimaki doing enough to earn an opportunity would be good news for the organization. As for Willander, I’ll be surprised if he gets into NHL games this season after his second year at Boston University. And really, that’s more about the timing of his decision to turn pro and where the Canucks are in terms of ramping things up for the playoffs. Years ago, they could afford to stick college players into their line-up late in the season because the NHL team wasn’t playing high stakes hockey. That shouldn’t be the case for this group next April. </span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Who’s your underdog heading into training camp that could surprise some people?</p>
<p>&mdash; Liam (@millerthegoat9) <a href="https://twitter.com/millerthegoat9/status/1832150436306092460?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I don’t think there is a candidate that is going to come from out of the blue to earn NHL work. But I think my answer to this question is Cole McWard. He’s been name checked by Canucks management over the summer. He plays a position where a significant leap up the depth isn’t out of the question. So I’ll definitely have my eye on the 23-year-old Fenton, Missouri native. My other answer is Sammy Blais. I’m curious to see what he does to set himself apart from the crowd on a professional tryout.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">What is the roadmap to improvement after exceeding expectations last year? Cap is tight, prospect pipeline is lower-third of the league, star players all had career years last year.  Where can they look to for upside?</p>
<p>&mdash; DougJasinski (@DougJasinski) <a href="https://twitter.com/DougJasinski/status/1832155776963559788?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’ve said before I’m not sure this team needs to improve on 50 wins and 109 points to be a better team. Certainly they’d like to, however, if they win 46 games and finish with 104 points but are a more balanced attack and firing on all cylinders at playoff time, that’s probably a better situation than last season when Elias Pettersson scuffled down the stretch, and the power play fizzled after the All-Star break. If that’s not enough and you are demanding improvement from last season, both special teams seem like a good place to start. The Canucks feel like they’ve added speed and increased scoring via free agency. So those are a couple of avenues that could lead to better results. The one thing I wonder about is can the Canucks possibly have better health for their top end players than they did last season. There is no way to predict that. But their top seven scorers missed a grand total of five games last season – two were healthy scratches for Nils Höglander, and the other three were Boeser, Miller, and Hronek, all given Game 82 off in Winnipeg.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Who wins an arm wrestle in media row, me or <a href="https://twitter.com/The_Real_Moj?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@The_Real_Moj</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheStanchion/status/1832185351336595643?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So I can think of one very easy way to answer this question. However, the Canucks apparently frown on arm wrestling in the press box. Somehow it’s not considered ‘appropriate conduct’ by journalism professionals. Still, I have this vision of Woodley in stripes serving as a referee trying to keep the peace. On the surface, I feel like, based on brute strength alone, Moj would prevail. But Wyatt’s a cunning guy who has studied with and surely learned a few tricks from some of the best on the local indie wrestling scene. This could prove very distracting. I also think that if Wyatt wears the full Cheetos fit as he did to a game last season (matching hat, shirt and shoes) and uses a handful of nuclear orange Cheetos dust as a secret weapon, he may be able to not only catch Moj off guard but completely gross him out as they lock hands. I absolutely think the Cheetos dust is your key to victory here, Wyatt.</span></p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>


<span style="font-weight: 400;">Congratulations! We have officially made it through another offseason. Canucks players were <a href="https://canucksarmy.com/news/scenes-canucks-summer-skate-sprong-skates-miller-boeser-sherwood-talks-opportunity-vancouver">skating at UBC late last week</a>, and by the end of this week, prospects will be suiting up in Canucks uniforms at Young Stars, and it won’t be long now until the stars are out in force for main training camp in Penticton. Hockey season is here again.</span>
<div class="bam-inline-promotion-block" data-max-length="2" data-placement-id="2111" data-context="web-content-promocard" data-property-id="329"></div>
&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">And all season long, we’ll take your questions and answer as many as we can here in our weekly Monday mailbag. No topics are off limits, so keep those questions coming. Let's get started:</span>

https://twitter.com/Gordylocke/status/1832154467455922469

<span style="font-weight: 400;">No apology necessary, but also no update of significance in quite some time. However, that feels like a question that will be posed to President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford when the Canucks brass meets with the media ahead of camp next week in Penticton. We haven't heard from Rutherford in a press conference setting in a while and the practice facility always seems to be a topic that arises when he sits at a microphone.</span>

https://twitter.com/Clark31R/status/1832150728946938067

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Yes, Brock Boeser was among those taking part in informal skates under the watchful eye of new Canucks skills coach Jason Krog last week at UBC. It seems the blood clotting issue that forced him to miss Game 7 against Edmonton has healed and it doesn’t seem like it impacted his summer training. So Boeser is expected to be a full participant when the Canucks hit the ice for main camp on Thursday September 19th at the South Okanagan Events Centre.</span>

https://twitter.com/SwoomCS/status/1832192982180884947

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Well, camp hasn’t started so it’s impossible to answer either of these questions at this point. But these are two guys who will be in the spotlight when camp begins. Elias Pettersson – the defenceman – will be among the most intriguing prospects the Canucks have at Young Stars. He has pro size and plays with an edge and it’s going to be interesting to see how quickly he adapts to the North American game after getting a taste of it late last spring. Raty, on the other hand, should be motivated to make a mark at camp. He got a quick three-game look from the NHL Canucks two seasons ago after being acquired in the Bo Horvat deal. But he spent all of last season with AHL Abbotsford. Still just 21 (he turns 22 in mid-November), Raty is high on a short list of prospects expected to push for NHL work at some point this season. The hope has to be that push starts in earnest next week in Penticton.</span>

https://twitter.com/TheHeartPlumber/status/1832154992469512629

<span style="font-weight: 400;">I’m going to say Raty. He’s probably the easy answer to this question based on his professional experience. Obviously, Lekkerimaki doing enough to earn an opportunity would be good news for the organization. As for Willander, I’ll be surprised if he gets into NHL games this season after his second year at Boston University. And really, that’s more about the timing of his decision to turn pro and where the Canucks are in terms of ramping things up for the playoffs. Years ago, they could afford to stick college players into their line-up late in the season because the NHL team wasn’t playing high stakes hockey. That shouldn’t be the case for this group next April. </span>

https://twitter.com/millerthegoat9/status/1832150436306092460

<span style="font-weight: 400;">I don’t think there is a candidate that is going to come from out of the blue to earn NHL work. But I think my answer to this question is Cole McWard. He’s been name checked by Canucks management over the summer. He plays a position where a significant leap up the depth isn’t out of the question. So I’ll definitely have my eye on the 23-year-old Fenton, Missouri native. My other answer is Sammy Blais. I’m curious to see what he does to set himself apart from the crowd on a professional tryout.</span>

https://twitter.com/DougJasinski/status/1832155776963559788

<span style="font-weight: 400;">I’ve said before I’m not sure this team needs to improve on 50 wins and 109 points to be a better team. Certainly they’d like to, however, if they win 46 games and finish with 104 points but are a more balanced attack and firing on all cylinders at playoff time, that’s probably a better situation than last season when Elias Pettersson scuffled down the stretch, and the power play fizzled after the All-Star break. If that’s not enough and you are demanding improvement from last season, both special teams seem like a good place to start. The Canucks feel like they’ve added speed and increased scoring via free agency. So those are a couple of avenues that could lead to better results. The one thing I wonder about is can the Canucks possibly have better health for their top end players than they did last season. There is no way to predict that. But their top seven scorers missed a grand total of five games last season – two were healthy scratches for Nils Höglander, and the other three were Boeser, Miller, and Hronek, all given Game 82 off in Winnipeg.</span>

https://twitter.com/TheStanchion/status/1832185351336595643

<span style="font-weight: 400;">So I can think of one very easy way to answer this question. However, the Canucks apparently frown on arm wrestling in the press box. Somehow it’s not considered ‘appropriate conduct’ by journalism professionals. Still, I have this vision of Woodley in stripes serving as a referee trying to keep the peace. On the surface, I feel like, based on brute strength alone, Moj would prevail. But Wyatt’s a cunning guy who has studied with and surely learned a few tricks from some of the best on the local indie wrestling scene. This could prove very distracting. I also think that if Wyatt wears the full Cheetos fit as he did to a game last season (matching hat, shirt and shoes) and uses a handful of nuclear orange Cheetos dust as a secret weapon, he may be able to not only catch Moj off guard but completely gross him out as they lock hands. I absolutely think the Cheetos dust is your key to victory here, Wyatt.</span>

<strong>Sponsored by bet365</strong>
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JPat’s Monday Canucks mailbag: Camp surprises, areas of team improvement this season, and media arm wrestling

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