Columnist image

| Archive

VANCOUVER -- The Vancouver Canucks opened their long-awaited, much-anticipated 2021 training camp with general manager Jim Benning and head coach Travis Green addressing the media. The following are 10 key points that jumped out from the virtual session on Sunday morning.

Benning confirmed the addition of veteran defenceman Travis Hamonic to the camp roster on a professional tryout. The 30-year-old right-shot blueliner opted out of the summer's Return to Play and has not appeared in an NHL game since suffering an upper-body injury against the Canucks at Rogers Arena on Feb. 8. So it will be 11 months between game action for the veteran who won’t be able to join the on-ice sessions at camp for another week.

"Once we get going here it seems like we’re going to be playing every second night – 56 games in 116 days," Benning explained. "With the travel, we just thought he’s an experienced player and can come in and help us so we got him signed to a PTO. He’s flying in today. He’ll do his quarantine and then he’ll join us for camp and we’ll make a decision on him after camp. I’m excited he chose to come in and sign a PTO with us because I think he’s going to help with our back-end and help develop our young players."

While Hamonic is not officially under contract to the Canucks – yet – it certainly sounded like Green has a slot in his top six earmarked for him. Green sounded well past the usual ‘let’s have a look at him and see how he fits’. No, the coach already has Hamonic penciled in for late-game situations to help the hockey club secure victories.

"Just what he can provide is a lot of things that you need to win," Green said. "Blocked shots, end of the game, penalty kill, hard defensive minutes that you need to win ultimately. It’s not always offence that wins, it’s two-way and defensive hockey as well and I think he can bring that to our group."

While it didn’t come as a surprise, Benning confirmed that rugged winger Micheal Ferland will not participate in training camp. Last summer, after a lengthy layoff, Ferland was able to attend camp and ultimately return to the line-up in the post-season. But after suffering a season-ending concussion in the Edmonton bubble, clearly something has changed that isn’t allowing Ferland to compete in this camp.

"He’s not going to be able to join us here to start the season," Benning said. "He still has concussion symptoms from what happened in the bubble last year. So he’ll continue to rehab and we just continue to hope that he gets feeling better and we’ll go from there."

It’s pretty clear that both Benning and Green want the coach to remain behind the bench. But it’s also evident that Green will start training camp without the security of a contract extension. The GM confirmed that COVID’s impact on the business of hockey is one of the main reasons for the hold-up in getting Green signed, sealed and delivered.

"We want to take a look at the financial landscape of the whole business as we keep moving forward," Benning said. "But our intention is to sign Travis to an extension here so that he’s a part of our group moving forward."

For his part, Green re-iterated what he has said since the Canucks were eliminated from the playoffs last September – he believes he is the right man for the job and wants to be here long term.

"Jim and I have had good conversations," he said. "I haven’t hidden the fact that it’s an exciting time to be a Canuck right now. Whether you’re a fan, a player, someone that works in the organization, it really is. And I’m part of that. I’m excited as well. I haven’t hidden the fact that I want to be here long term. We’re just starting to scratch the surface of what we are as a team and where we’re going. With my conversations with Jim, I’m fine with where we’re at right now and hopefully we can work things out and I can be here for a while. But starting today, I’m just worried about today and worried about our team and getting them prepared for Game 1. It’s no secret I love coaching here and I want to win here."

As for training camp, the Canucks hit the ice in two groups on Monday at Rogers Arena. The head coach has made a habit of testing his players’ fitness on the first day of past camps. Expect that to be the case again after four months off.

"I anticipate camp will be competitive," Green said. "We’re going to try to play a lot of games. We’ll probably have four days of game-like situations, a couple of full game days and some hard practices to get the conditioning level to where it needs to be. I do feel like our group comes in great shape, but there is still hockey shape and pushing yourselves out of your comfort zone that they’re going to need to get to. And they understand that and that’s one good thing about our group is they embrace it and they know that we do it for their betterment and the team’s betterment."

One of the battles to watch closely at camp will be between the pipes where Thatcher Demko will try to stake his claim to the starter’s job while veteran Braden Holtby will look to make an immediate impact on his new coach and team after signing as a free agent in the off-season. The coach wasn’t ready to tip his hand Sunday as to who has the inside track to be the Game 1 starter.

"To have two guys like that to start training camp, it’s exciting for us from a goaltending standpoint," Green said. "I’m definitely not going to sit here and say that I already know who’s going to play how many games or anything like that. Let’s see where they’re at on the ice. Obviously we have a young goalie that we hope is still improving and played tremendously in the playoffs. And we’ve got a guy that’s already done a lot in the league and still has a lot of juice left in him. So we’re in a good spot."

It wouldn’t be a Canucks training camp without a question about Jake Virtanen. Green was asked about his top six forward group and where the 24-year-old Abbotsford native fits into the equation heading into the first on-ice session. Because of conditioning issues, Virtanen was relegated to an AHL group on Day 1 of the team’s last full training camp in September 2019. He responded with a career-high 18-goal season.

"If you go back to last year, we were in the same boat at the beginning of the year," Green recalled. "It’s no different now. We’ll have to figure that out as we go. As far as Jake, I’ve been with Jake a long time. He knows what’s expected of him. I think progression is also something we want to see out of Jake. It’s not just him, it’s a lot of our young players. We have high expectations within our group and part of those expectations are coming back better hockey players and he’d be on that list. We still think we haven’t seen his best yet."

Because of COVID and the resulting border restrictions, the Canucks find themselves in an All-Canadian division, something Green couldn’t hide his excitement about.

"Everyone knows the passion of hockey in Canada," he said. "It’s going to be a very exciting season for players, coaches but also fans. And not just fans of the Canucks, but fans of hockey throughout Canada. You probably won’t see this again and it’s going to be exciting and it’s going to be an amazing year really."

Like many British Columbians, Benning said he finds himself in front of the television every time BC’s Chief Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry addresses the province. The Canucks have worked hard with Dr. Henry to ensure the team is meeting all protocols to ensure the health and safety of the entire organization. Benning emphasized that players have been briefed on their responsibilities to follow the health orders in order to allow them to play this season.

"It’s going to be strict, but I have a lot of confidence that our players are going to be disciplined to follow all the rules that they need to follow because they want to play," he said. "This is what they do. It’s the time of year they’re playing hockey and I know they’re anxious to get back playing and they know what’s at stake. I’ve been following the other leagues. I understand the hiccups the other leagues have had. It could happen to us in hockey, but I’m hoping that we have a good run here and we can play the games because it should be fun for our fans and fans across Canada."

The first group of Canucks hits the ice at 10 a.m. Monday. The team is scheduled to have eight days of camp in Vancouver before traveling to Edmonton on Jan. 12 and opening the season against the Oilers at Rogers Place on Jan. 13 and 14.