The Vancouver Canucks are hoping for less off-ice noise this season, and it should be all about the on-ice
Donnie & Dhali: Elliotte Friedman on the Donnie & Dhali show talking about the Vancouver Canucks season outlook and some of the storylines this year. It’s all about what they do on the ice.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Rick Dhaliwal: “What is your feeling about the Canucks going into this season?
Friedman: “Well, Rick, it’s been fun being a guest on the show. You know, I just think that it’s pretty obvious that this year is all about, you know, just trying to keep the noise down and just keeping the news to the ice.
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You know, as you look at it, as we come in this year, despite your best efforts on Friday on the radio, there aren’t a lot of big contract debates going on this year. You know, I mean, the Hughes thing, obviously, will be a big talking point, but he can’t even sign until next summer, so there’s not much you can really say about that.
To me, this year is all about the ice. And you know, what happens on it? I think the storylines are, obviously, how does (Thatcher) Demko look? You know, is he ready? Is he ready to go? Does he stay healthy? Obviously, that’s a huge start to their season.
You know, what are the Canucks do down the middle? Internally, they think they have a hole there, but if you don’t have a willing trade partner, I mean, the biggest thing that’s been a challenge across the league is that you only really have one team that is saying, starting this year, saying they’re not trying to get better, and that is Pittsburgh. Other than that, everybody wants to compete. There aren’t a lot of trade partners.
And you know, I think the other thing this year, Rick, is that there’s a lot of talk about the playoff cap, but that double retention thing that’s going to really hurt teams that are close to the cap. The fact that right now you can’t do double, if you’re going to do a double retention, the second trade has to happen 75 days after the first one.
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So, you know, I think this year, this is a year where the Canucks have to do their talking on the ice, and the discussion has to be about them on the ice. I think they all know that. You know, Boeser, nobody has to talk about that all year. That’s settled. So it’s all about what do they do on the ice?
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