Wake With Elias: DiPietro’s Camp Not Pleased

Canucks News

• Michael DiPietro, who recently asked for a trade out of Vancouver, appears to not be pleased with the track his development has taken. His agent has quite literally said as much. And frankly, who can blame him. He got screwed over by being on the taxi squad during the COVID season, and on more than one occasion, has been thrown into NHL games just to be shelled. His NHL save percentage in three games is .711%! I tend to think a trade is inevitable, either individually or as a package, and I think that’s a shame given he did seem to have potential.

• On a better prospects note, defender Joni Jurmo has been invited to the August World Junior Championship. I’m not entirely convinced Jurmo will amount to much, but hey, if he does, that’s huge. The Canucks need a surprise on the back end.

• Yesterday was an unfortunate anniversary for the Canucks. You have to think Mr. Commito is trolling. Anyways, I’m including this so you can have your say on Messier in the comments. Have at it.

• Some talk around a package deal surrounding JT Miller and Noah Dobson. It’s a hefty price, but a young right shot defender is the ideal return, and exactly what the Canucks need. I’d much rather give up Hoglander than Rathbone (the team has plenty of good wingers, and almost no good defenders — though your mileage may vary on their exact value), but frankly, I’d probably give up either if it landed a player of Dobson’s caliber.

• Canucks President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford was on John Shannon’s podcast. Apparently he was hyping up Tucker Poolman’s potential, so do with that what you will. He also discussed how the team and JT Miller are far apart on a contract. I'm not one to panic, but I sure hope this isn’t Rutherford subtly laying the groundwork for doing nothing for the entire rest of the summer.

• And this is a few days old, but I’m including it because I was at this concert and I think it’s fun. I visited the team store before the show, and his manager (or some staffer) came in and asked the cashier who our best player was. She threw out Bo Horvat, Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, and Thatcher Demko (suspiciously, not Miller). Part of me wanted to dupe them into buying like, a Dickinson jersey. But anyways, I'm a sucker for acts wearing the hometown team jersey, and I thought it was pretty neat.

Hockey News

• The Hockey Canada tragedy rolls on with more questioning from MPs, and more calls for changes at the top. Hard to see it any other way, quite frankly, despite insistence from leadership figures themselves that they won’t resign.

• A disturbing revelation regarding CHL billet rules. Again, hard to see any of this as a one off when stuff like this keeps coming out. It’s a culture problem, and culture stops at the top. I hope we see more than nominal changes and a half-assed apology, or even more than just one to two guys saying sorry and walking away. It needs to be wholesale change.

• Some news on John Klingberg, the biggest name on the free agent market in terms of the back end. Some say the Canucks are, or should, be in on him (though Rutherford has sort of dismissed the notion of big defence moves in free agency). I’m skeptical. He’s 29, and he’s not the borderline-Norris guy he once was. He seems like a prime overpayment candidate, and unless they can move off a guy like Myers, I would stay far, far away.

• And a fun left-wing ranking from Fresh, featuring JT Miller at #13. That seems a tad low, but this list mostly seems good to me. You can have at it with your picks in the comments.