This is a rare off-the-cuff post from me, but with the news that Andrew Alberts suffered a broken wrist in tonight's game against the Blues, well... DAMN. We are hurting on the blue line and I had to respond. This is getting beyond comical, as Jevant points out in the game thread for the Blues game:

Are we going to catch a break with D?

Now injured:
Edler-Ballard
Hamhuis-Alberts
Sweatt-??

Have I forgotten someone?

Turns out you did Jevant, as Semi_Colon promptly pointed when he noted that we could add Nolan Baumgartner to that dubious list. So, tomorrow night against the Wild Yann Suave will become our 12^th defenseman to dress this season. Pretty messed up, eh?

I hate to pile on to the misery that Sean Zandberg highlighted less than a week ago, so let's look on the sunny side of life: even after a disappointing game tonight, and despite cycling through 11 (going on 12) d-men this season, the Canucks sit seven points up on Detroit for first in the Western Conference and (assuming the Flames don't blow the five goal lead they currently enjoy) 15 points ahead of Calgary for the Northwest Division crown. So, who do we thank for this success? Henrik and Daniel Sedin's consistent excellence? Ryan Kesler's two-way brilliance? Roberto Luongo's solid net play? While I would fully endorse any of these options, I offer a different option for this season's Most Valuable Person: GM Mike Gillis.

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The waiting game ensues. What will Mason Raymond be awarded in arbitration or beforehand? Who, or more specifically, which defenceman / defencemen will Mike Gillis move to create more space in the aftermath of the Raymond signing? What is to become of the seemingly low-quality bottom 6 forwards dilemma? To even make a projection, some cap crunching is in order.

More after the jump.

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This was formerly known as the "State of the Franchise" event. At 7:00 PST tonight season ticket holders will be asking Mike Gillis and Co any questions they feel like at Roger's Arena. You can watch it LIVE here. (By the way, that link currently gives you a live feed of the Prospects Camp.) If you miss it, I will do my damned best to recap what is said / announcements. Rumored:

-announcement of when Markus Naslund's tribute might take place

-a new 3rd jersey? A new game jersey? Or....just a new jersey patch for the upcoming 40th anniversary season?

-formal announcements of the new Canucks signings?

-an introduction to the new Canucks captain? Don't bank on it.

**OK, here we go!***

-John Shorthouse co-hosting with Jim Robson

-The Panel: Victor deBonis, Mike Gillis, Stan Smyl, and a vacant seat....

-a review of the 2009-10 season (video). Touching.

-Shorty: "Seasons like this don't come around every year." In reference to club wins records...Hank's achievements, etc

-MG: Felt bad for a week after losing...haha. Went on the radio and explained to everybody they felt. Did a state of the union and explained to everybody how bad they felt. And now they are live in GM Place and they are telling everybody how bad they feel.

-MG: A lot of great individual accomplishments from players. But felt that defence was an area the Canucks had to improve. Needed more depth.

-MG: Canucks had 4 distinct plans heading into July 1. Option A was great. Happy about getting Keith Ballard. Satisfied. Said Ballard plays the game fast and is a very physical player. Hammer is a BC guy and the Canucks wanted more kids from the west on the team. In the same mold as Ballard. Hammer is better looking than the Watson brothers...haha

Malhotra is a wonderful guy. In NYC years back, MG saw some Rangers players at a place, Malhotra gave a homeless woman some $$ and that impressed Gillis.

-deBonis talks Italians in the World Cup of soccer. Blah blah..keep reading for more on the event..

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The Province is reporting that Mike Gillis and Co. have  interviewed former Anaheim Ducks' assistant coach Newell Brown. I believe Brown was the special teams coach for the Ducks, and readers at Anaheim Calling are not happy with his contract not being renewed. Brown won a Stanley Cup with the Ducks in 2007. He was replaced by Mike Foligno. Gillis and Newell are not commenting. This has people wondering if Brown will be an addition to the staff that was in place, or if, say, Rick Bowness gets replaced. The Canucks' assistant coaching staff are all currently waiting for contract extensions, something Gillis and Lawerence Gilman have been quite tight-lipped about.  With Prospect Camp about to open we should hear an answer soon.

It's easy to assume that something has to be changed in the special teams department after the atrocity in the playoffs, especially the penalty kill. Make me nauseous just thinking about it.

There is no rest for Nucks Misconduct yet. Not with the NHL Awards coming up on June 23 and the draft on June 25-26. They are followed very quickly by free agency season a few days later. The lull in the Canucks news front is about to change.

But before that happens, let's rosterbate. I don't mean tell us which certain free agents you want though. I mean show us your ideal Canucks roster for 2010-11 that fits under the projected salary cap of $58.8 million US, or be safe and aim for the current $56.8 million cap. The cap increase is not official yet. Let's say you'll need 13 forwards, 7 defencemen and 2 goalies for your roster and all count against the cap. I'm not going to get all technical about the salary cap because I am no capologist. You can read about it at NHLSCAP.com if you'd like. One thing, if you are signing a player long-term on a descending-scale contract the cap hit for the year is the overall average of that contract. That is uber-important for saving dollars (like Luongo's contract for example.)

-Here is a list of Unrestricted Free Agents this summer at CapGeek.

-Here is a list of current signed Canucks' salaries, and the dollar values of Canucks that are entering UFA and RFA status.

-If you are going to get ballsy and take a stab at another team's restricted free agent (you poacher, you):

Here is a complete list of RFA's in the West.

Here is a complete list of RFA's in the East.

Alright, here is my opening night roster:

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I never heard the interview, but as I've done before, I'll copy paste what a poster at CDC wrote up in summary:

- Hopefully some young players will emerge on the team next season
- Thinks Chicago was too strong and had too much depth, matched every teams intensity level
- Mentioned how having D men who can play 30 minutes a game in the playoffs is key to advancing (hint,hint)
- Thinks the team will be very competitive and are a few pieces away from being a contender.
- Is looking at a lot of options moving draft picks, moving players, spending a lot of time looking at free agency
- Will most likely take the best player available in the draft, but also realizes that he needs to draft players on the back end

Thanks to sport scout at CDC for recapping it. Is Gillis going to acquire a top 2 defenceman who can log those minutes? Or is there are player on the current roster who can do that with more conditioning?

I am going to quote the recap from Bertuzzi187 on the CDC forum today: 

- Thinks Roberto was emotionally fatigued from the Olympics, which lead to his inconsistent play
- Has plans regarding a full time goalie coach, Roberto's captaincy, but wouldn't talk about it.
- Isn't going to build the team for next season based on defeating the Blackhawks in the playoffs.
- Thinks the team will be very competitive next year.
- Believes the Hawks will win the cup
- Has mixed feelings about how San Jose lost in 4 games and the Canucks won 2.

There's that "fatigued from the Olympics" crap again. Hey, if that's the case then maybe NHL'ers should not partake in the Games. Seriously, we have a Cup to win here. That's more important than a gold medal.

In case you missed the presser, I'll give you a quick summary of what I heard.Keep in mind, the damned feed kept freezing on me.

Gillis:  Didn't compete in playoffs the same as regular season. Need time to evaluate why that happened. Want to address why they couldn't compete before addressing changes. (That was a recurring theme early on in the presser)

Gilis: Team lost focus and had difficulty regaining it in Chicago series.

Gillis: Players made dramatic improvements in regular season, 7 players had career seasons. Canucks didn't match Chicago's emotional level this year or last year. Can't say that the Canucks were the better team. If Chicago was better than Vancouver in certain areas then they were the better team.

Gillis: Spend some time with Roberto and talk to him about captaincy. They like his leadership ability.

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