What’s the Future of the Canucks D?
July 13th, 2007, 4 Comments »
If you’ll permit a brief, mid-summer diversion by a out-of-country Canucks fan, I’ve been musing about the future of the Canucks defensive core. At the moment, they have six legitimate NHLers under contract:
Ohlund
Salo
Mitchell
Miller
Bieksa
Krajicek
All of those guys could play in the top four positions. Add to that promising rookies Luc Bourdon and Alexander Edler (and what’s the status of the storied Rory Fitzpatrick?), and you’ve got remarkable depth.
Of course, the team is paper-thin up-front, so I expect they move one or more of these assets to add a scoring forward or two. Ohlund and Salo look the most expendable, though the former has both have a no-trade clause (and Ohlund, as it happens, is my favourite Canuck after Linden).
There have been rampant rumours about a trade with New Jersey. In my experience, it’s rare that the really popular rumours ever become a reality.
What do you think will happen?