Still recovering from hip surgery and walking with a cane, Willie Desjardins confirmed Thursday on doctor's orders he won't be coming to Prince George for the Vancouver Canucks training camp.
The 58-year-old Canucks head coach is suffering from his own lack of mobility but the same cannot be said about his team. The Canucks are faster, more physical and healthy heading into training camp, which starts today at CN Centre.
The Canucks were one of the better teams in the NHL in the regular season in 2014-15, finishing with 48 wins and 101 points, but were eliminated in the first playoff round by the Calgary Flames in a six-game series.
Gritty forwards Brandon Sutter (traded from Pittsburgh) and Brandon Prust (traded from Montreal) and speedster Sven Baertchi (trade deadline deal from Calgary) have joined a group of impressive young pros which includes Bo Horvat, Ronalds Kennins, Frank Corrado and Matt Bartkowski and top prospects Cole Cassels, Brendan Gaunce, Jake Virtanen, Jared McCann, Alex Grenier and Hunter Shinkaruk. Add in 16 other returning veterans and the Canucks believe they've made enough strides to keep pace with the rest of the teams in the Pacific Division.
"One of the things we talked about is we wanted to be faster and a harder team to play against so we set about to try to accomplish that this summer, so I'm happy going into the preseason we've got some good young players who I think are going to challenge for roster spots and we're excited to see where they're at," said Canucks general manager Jim Benning, at a media conference Thursday in Vancouver.
"We're not going to rush our kids into situations they can't handle and they might need more time in the AHL to develop their game to where they need to be. I like the speed of our team and I think we're going to be more physical. Last year when I watched our team I felt we were a little bit in between - we weren't fast enough to get in on the forecheck and we didn't spend enough time in the other team's end and now I feel we have enough speed to get in on the other team's defencemen and recover pucks.
"We have 10 of our top 12 goalscorers coming back from last year... so I feel good about our group."
Sutter, a 26-year-old centre, already has seven NHL seasons under his belt with Carolina and Pittsburgh. The Canucks acquired him from the Penguins over the summer along with a third-round draft pick in 2016 for Nick Bonino, Adam Clendening and a second-rounder in 2016.
"He's a real good two-way player, he always plays on the right side of the puck, he has high hockey sense and he's going to bring us speed," said Benning. "He gets in on the forecheck and comes up with pucks and when he gets the puck he takes it to the net. We feel that with Henrik (Sedin), Brandon and Bo (Horvat) we can match up with any team in our division up the middle.
"When you look at Brandon Prust and Brandon Sutter, these guys are competitive guys and they're sore losers. So I think while we transition these young guys into our lineup they're going to watch the Prusts and the Sutters and it's going to be good to learn from them."
Desjardins watched Sutter play in the WHL for the Red Deer Rebels when he was coaching Medicine Hat and knows what he's getting.
"He was a good young player, he's really smart and he finds ways to win," said Desjardins. "He's great with his stick. He's not super-flashy, he's not a guy you rave about offensively but he's a guy you can win games with and I'm really excited he's here."
Last year heading into camp at Whistler, the Canucks were dealing with injuries that sidelined several of their top prospects and starting goalie Ryan Miller. That's not a concern this time around.
"We did the rookie tournament last week and it was good to see some of our kids that were hurt last year and I thought they performed really good," said Benning. "They're all healthy, all ready to go so we're going into camp fully healthy."
The exhibition season will be a time for the Canucks to experiment with line combinations but they don't anticipate too many changes once preseason play begins. The season starts Oct. 7 in Calgary.
"Some of the young guys over the summer take big steps and you don't want to rule them out and not give them a chance to fill a role," said Desjardins. "Early in the camp we'll be trying different combinations but saying that, we have a pretty good idea where we're going to be at going into our first game."
Most likely to play on the top line with the Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel, are Radim Vrbata, Alex Burrows or Jannik Hansen.
Desjardins watched webcasts of the three Young Stars games from Penticton and liked what he saw from C Gaunce (first round, 2012), D Ben Hutton (fifth round, 2012), D Jordan Subban (fourth round, 2013), D Gulliaume Brisebois (third round, 2015), and C Dmitry Zhukenov (fourth round, 2015). The coach admitted that if there's a veteran and a rookie equal on the depth chart, chances are he'll pick the proven commodity.
"You have to think who will be better in February, but I think that's too late," he said. "I think the points are too important, so I think you have to pick who will be the best player in November and if you think a young guy can be there by November you've got to look at him seriously.
"We don't want to start the year guessing and hoping, we want to start the year knowing this is what we're going to get in all these situations and that's when a veteran player and his experience comes in."
The Canucks expect Miller to play 55 or 60 games with six-foot-six Swede, Jacob Markstrom, backing him up. Markstrom led Utica to the Calder Cup AHL final last season.
While this is the first time the Canucks have held their training camp in Prince George, they have a long history of moving it outside of Vancouver. For the first four seasons of the franchise, starting in 1970, they were in Calgary. Since then, they've held camp in Victoria, Courtenay, Powell River, Duncan, Parksville, Kamloops, Vernon and Whistler, and in 2000 were in Stockholm, Sweden.
"The Canucks are a provincial team - we have a fan base all over the province, so everywhere we can get out and visit and have the fans be part of what we do is important," said Benning.
"The other thing is when we get all our players up there as a group they have to spend time with each other. If we were to have training camp (in Vancouver) they'd go home to their families and split up different ways, but in Prince George our older guys will be hanging out with our younger guys and will be talking to them and our younger guys will be asking questions. So I think it's a good learning experience for our younger players and it's a chance for our team to grow together going through camp.'
LOOSE PUCKS: Prince George Cougars D Tate Olson, taken by the Canucks in the seventh round in 2015, will be on familiar ice while he skates in his first NHL training camp. Olson, 18, totaled five goals and 24 points in 68 regular-season games with the Cougars and also scored three goals in five playoff games... RW Brock Boeser, the Canucks' top pick in the 2015 draft (23rd overall) won't be in camp. He's attending the University of North Dakota... Travis Green, head coach of the Canucks AHL affiliate in Utica, coached the Young Stars tournament in Penticton. Canucks assistants Perry Pearn and Glen Gulutzan will handle the bench duties in the pre-season until Desjardins returns. Gulutzan, a former head coach in Dallas, will be running the practices in Prince George.
Vancouver Canucks training camp
On-ice schedule (all at CN Centre)
Today
First session -- 9 a.m.
Second session -- 11:20 a.m.
Saturday
First session -- 9 a.m.
Second session - 11:20 a.m.
Sunday
Minor hockey skills camp -- 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.
Power-play practice -- 9:45 a.m.
Intrasquad scrimmage -- 11:20 a.m.
