Donnie & Dhali: Elliotte Friedman on the Donnie & Dhali show on Vancouver Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau‘s future and the Canucks interest in Russian free agent Andrei Kuzmenko.

“I think Rick he’s coming back. I heard, you reported about the Kuzmenko meeting on Friday. That he met by Zoom with the Canucks. I understand that Boudreau was part of that meeting.

One of the things that Kuzmenko has told teams is that, you know, there is a lot of Russian players, they like certain cities. Some cities are better for Russians than others, but I don’t think necessarily that is the case with him. I think he’s looking for a situation where he can be successful. Where he’s given an offense role with a coach who believes in offensive players.

Also, because of the way the salary cap works, he can only sign a one-year deal. So he’s going to want to be set up in a situation where he feels he’s going to have a chance for success to get another contract out of it.

So, I heard Boudreau was there. I heard Boudreau was very positive about him. I think he painted a picture that this would be, Vancouver would be a place where he would be in that role. And so, it would just seem, I know crazier things have happened, this whole Boudreau situation to me is crazy to begin with, but I just find it really odd that they would say, ‘oh okay, Boudreau is part of this meeting and now he’s not part of the team.’

The other thing I would just say about your interest in Kuzmenko, is Patrik Allvin has had a lot interest in him for a long time. So I think it just goes by just the coach, but I heard Boudreau made a good impression in terms of what he believed, and what he thought, and how Kuzmenko could fit.”

**NHLRumors.com transcription