Fulfill your destiny and take your father's place at my side.

Vancouver announced this afternoon they have signed the 2011 first round pick Nicklas Jensen to an undisclosed deal (by which we mean capgeek will tell us shortly).

From the mothership:

Vancouver Canucks President & General Manager Mike Gillis announced today that the Canucks have signed forward Nicklas Jensen. Jensen, 18, has appeared in one NHL Pre-Season game in 2011.12, recording two points (1-1-2) en route to 4-3 Canucks win over the Calgary Flames on September 20 at Rogers Arena.

He spent the 2010.11 season with the Oshawa Generals, collecting 58 points (29-29-58) in 61 games played. In his first year in the OHL, he ranked fourth on the team in scoring and fifth in the OHL among rookies. Jensen tied for the team lead in goals (7) during the 2011 playoffs. On the international stage, Jensen helped Denmark win the Division I 2011 World Junior Championship. In 2009.10, the Herning, Denmark native recorded 26 points (12-14-26) in 34 games with Herning Blue Fox Denma.

That's quite the first impression from the second best Dane on the team. While he doesn't have the best chance to make the club this year (and at 18 why would you want him too anyway?), he currently ranks #2 in Hockey Future's list of Vancouver prospects, snuggled between Cody Hodgson (check the noon number) and Chris Tanev (check yesterday's noon number).

The kids are alright. Now all we need is a nickname for the guy. Hit the comments with your best (or worst, we won't tell).

From Canucks.com:

The Vancouver Canucks announced today the expected roster of their Prospects Development Camp opening Tuesday, July 5th. 34 players are scheduled to report to the Development Camp.

 

The camp will consist of on- and off-ice sessions throughout the week with activities that will showcase the city of Vancouver, including hiking the Grouse Grind and Dragon Boating at False Creek.

The complete roster after the jump...

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When the dust settled and the irrelevant Minnesota crowd get their boos out of the way, Mike Gillis declined the urge to follow last year's model, kept his pick and went somewhere he rarely has gone before: namely taking a right winger in the form of Oshawa Generals forward Nicklas Jensen. He joins Anton Rodin as the only notable RWs MG has drafted.

Jannik Hansen may want to stick around for a bit.

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[cache.boston.com]

In case you missed it, Vokail was kind enough to share a little update about Vancouver prospect Patrick McNally, our 2010 fourth round pick, 115th overall. First here's what was reported this summer about McNally:

"He's a bright young guy," Gillis said. "He's big and he's got a lot of skill. It seems like a good pick but you never know, we'll find out."

The 6-2, 180 lbs McNally had 35 points in 28 games with Milton Academy in Massachusetts last year and was voted Prep Defenceman of the Year by U.S. Hockey Report.

The addition gives Vancouver another offensive defenceman in their system, an area Gillis has addressed the pass couple years.

"With Chris Tanev, Kevin Connauton and now McNally, we've got three guys that are offensive guys in development and we'll see what's going to merge," he said. "Because he's solely committed to Harvard that teams passed on him and it dropped him down. We have four, five young defencemen in Manitoba this year so we felt that it wasn't a hinderance. He can stay there and develop."

Tanev has been one of the most pleasant surprises this season at the NHL level and Connauton set some franchise records last season with the Vancouver Giants. Not bad company to be batted around with.

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Sean Z. Note: This is a repost with some Yann Sauve information from when the Canucks signed him last May. I'll add a few tidbits to Yankee's piece, and you can see how Sauve's fortunes have changed somewhat.

According to CapGeek, the Canucks have inked their second pick (41st overall ) from the 2008 draft Yann Sauvé to a three year deal. While not official the 20 year old is rumored to be getting a three year, bonus-laced deal worth  $2,012,500 (or roughly $670,000 a year).

Sauvé has spent the past four seasons with the QMJHL's Saint John Sea Dogs and just finished his most productive season, including 15 points in 21 games during the post season. Also notable is that the Sea Dogs won 22 consecutive games between October and December during which Sauvé went +24 and added 16 points. Hockey's Future currently lists him 8th on the Vancouver prospects list and they have him projected to be a second pairing blueliner with an offensive side.

At 6'3'' and 220lbs, Sauvé is one of the bigger blueline prospects in the Canucks system. The knock against him at training camp two seasons ago was he lacked both speed and size on the puck. Last season he came in more confident but Vigneault remained hesitant with what he saw before returning him to juniors. Now after a strong season with the Sea Dogs, he's bound to get another strong look in September and, if he doesn't crack the roster, take his next steps with the Moose.

Edit: On September 4, 2010 Sauve was struck by a car in downtown Vancouver and missed Canuck training camp. Huh. Regardless, below are his updated stats from hockeydb:

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Hopefully not lost in the KesLORD/Thunderdome party last night was another strong game from our "injury-ravaged" defense. If you knew in October that Vancouver would be without Alexandre Edler, Andrew Alberts and of course Sami Salo, Kevin Bieksa would be our top (or close second) shutdown defenseman and we'd pair Christian Ehrhoff and Keith Ballard with rookies we didn't know of before last summer, you may have uttered a phrase that would have greatly displeased your mother. The only starter not to be knocked out of commission yet is Bieksa.

Yet here is the Gillis plan - or at least back-up plan - in motion. Cut SOB's drama and cap hit, bring in a project player in Ryan Parent for depth. If that trips up, then many of his quiet excursions into the NCAA or European Elite ranks could be the fall back. I don't think he could have predicted how smoothly some of these transitions to the NHL have become.

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Update: @ManitobaMoose just tweeted me back: "Cody is in warmup with a full cage. Anticipated he will play today."

CBC has really hit the nail on the head this year by creating the program "AHL on CBC", which shows AHL games on Sunday mornings/afternoons featuring the primary farm teams for the Canadian NHL teams.  Today, at 10:00 am PST (1:00 pm EST), we get to see the Manitoba Moose (baby Canucks) on the program for the first time this season, as they host the Abbotsford Heat (baby Flames).

Some pre-game reading material:

• Game preview.
• Recap from the Friday night matchup between these two teams.  The Heat won the shootout in Jordan Schroeder's return.
• This game at the MTS Center is also Nolan Baumgartner Bobble-Head Day.  Poor Baumer....

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A few changes via the Canucks Report to look for tonight:

• Pierre-Olivier Morin will skate on the top line with Bill Sweatt and Jordan Schroeder
• Steven Anthony replaces Stefan Schneider on the third line
  
• The fourth line will be James Henry, Stefan Schneider and Tayler Jordan
• The second line of Prab Rai, Alex Friesen and Matt Fraser will remain intact
• Evan Oberg and David Fischer will sit in favor of Adam Polasek and Kris Fredheim
• Taylor Ellington with Sawyer Hannay and Kevin Connauton with Chris Tanev round out the defense
• Sir Eddie Lack will man the pipes again

Pray the feed is better; here it is in case you missed it earlier.

Go baby 'nuckers.