Habster:
I know I stated that any news outside the Bruins/Canadiens series would appear in the sidebar section of the blog but the firing of Canuck’s GM Dave Nonis is big news.
There were rumors that Nonis would be given another year to right the Canuck’s sinking ship but I guess this Captain isn’t going down with his ship.
The Vancouver Canucks were in the playoff race up until the final week of the season but once again had injury and consistence issues throughout the season. When Roberto Luongo’s game went south (his mind was rightfully elsewhere with his wife having a difficult pregnancy), the Canucks game and playoff chances went with them.
The Canucks have a strong foundation to build on with some good young players but they will have to find some secondary scoring to compliment Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin. The Canucks inability to generate offense was a key reason for their failures. Vancouver are deep in role/character players like Ryan Kesler, Ryan Burrows and Matt Pettinger.
I have a hard time believing the Canucks will re-sign their UFA captain, Markus Naslund to a new contract as they will probably look to use the available cap space (Naslund’s $6 million salary) to get some scoring punch via trade or UFA.
The defensive corp is also fairly deep with good young defensemen like Alexander Edler, Lukas Krajicek, Luc Bourdon and Kevin Bieksa making their mark. Add into the mix, veteran players like Sami Salo, Willie Mitchell and Mattias Ohlund and you have a solid defensive unit (if they can remain healthy the whole season!!).
The Toronto Maple Leafs will now have some competition in their search for a new general manager though I would think Assistant GM/VP Steve Tambellini is the leading candidate unless team ownership wants someone with more experience like a return of Brian Burke to guide the team (his wife is from the Vancouver area).
