Vancouver Canucks

Picking Up the Pieces

Ken Holland wanted to lock up Marian Hossa. He couldn’t do that but before he could get started on Tomas Kopecky, he too jumped ship for Chicago. The Canucks got into the action yesterday, picking up 32-year old Swedish winger Mikael Samuelsson on a three-year, $7.5m contract.

Samuelsson’s a shrewd pick-up by Mike Gillis, no doubt another “best bang for your buck” type player. He’s been consistent throughout his years in Detroit, and while he may have to acclimate himself to a lower talent pool in Vancouver, he still has the ability to score 20 goals as well as log significant minutes on the powerplay. He’s versatile forward that has seen some time at centre, and if Alain Vigneault chooses to use Alex Burrows on the third line, Samuelsson, a natural right winger, can jump on the Sedins’ line. If not, he can line up beside Pavol Demitra and Ryan Kesler as well to even out the scoring.

There’s been a much slower flow through free agency the past two days and that’s expected, but there is still some talent out there if Gillis wants to throw the dice. My guess is that he is for the most part done for the summer, and if anything a lot of the moves will come via trade. With Samuelsson, the Canucks still need either a top nine forward, preferably a centre, and two defensemen. The Canucks don’t have enough cap room to acquire a big name forward, but like Kyle Wellwood last year there will be bargain players later on during the summer. There are still some significant RFAs out there and Gillis is no stranger to the offer sheet.

I will be going on vacation for the weekend so hopefully there will be some more good news once I come back.

Names of interest within a reasonable price range:
C/RW Rob Niedermayer
D James Wisniewski (RFA - Anaheim)
RW Colby Armstrong (RFA - Atlanta)
D Nathan Oystrick (RFA - Atlanta)
D Boris Valabik (RFA - Atlanta)
C/LW Clarke MacArthur
RW Drew Stafford (RFA - Buffalo)
C/RW Dustin Boyd (RFA - Calgary)
F Tuomo Ruutu (RFA - Carolina)
D Dennis Seidenberg
C Colin Fraser (RFA - Chicago)
F Kris Versteeg (RFA - Chicago)
F Jason Williams
D Ole-Kristian Tollefsen
F Jiri Hudler (RFA - Detroit)
F Ville Leino (RFA - Detroit)
W Ales Kotalik
D Steve Eminger
D Marc-Andre Bergeron
C Kyle Chipchura (RFA - Montreal)
C Tomas Plekanec (RFA - Montreal)
D Ville Koistinen
F Andy Hilbert
C Blair Betts
C Brandon Dubinsky (RFA - NY Rangers)
W Ryan Callahan (RFA - NY Rangers)
W Nikolai Zherdev (RFA - NY Rangers)
D Paul Mara
F Mike Comrie
D Andrew Alberts
D Lasse Kukkonen
W Scottie Upshall (RFA - Phoenix)
W Miroslav Satan
W Petr Sykora
C Marcel Goc
C Torrey Mitchell (RFA - San Jose)
D Matt Lashoff (RFA - Tampa Bay)
D Cory Murphy
F Jeremy Williams (RFA - Toronto)
F Alexandre Giroux
D Jeff Schultz (RFA - Washington)
D Milan Jurcina (RFA - Washington)
D Shaone Morrisonn (RFA - Washington)

Names of interest that requires salary cap maneuvering:
D Francois Beauchemin
C/RW Phil Kessel (RFA - Boston)
D Cam Barker (RFA - Chicago)
C Joe Sakic
D Jack Johnson (RFA - Los Angeles)
C Saku Koivu
W Alex Tanguay
C Travis Zajac (RFA - New Jersey)
D Mathieu Schneider
D Derek Morris