Disappointing Season (Rutherford)
- Ran into an unfortunate incident in the first half of the season that hurt
the chemistry of the team; went from a contender to a team in transition
- Feel their goaltending and defence are in a good place
- Work to be done on the forwards to get back to where they should be
Miller Incident (Rutherford)
- Was lots to it but won’t share info; not just down to two people; filtered
to the whole team and affected the chemistry
- Miller tried hard to help fix the situation
- A lot of people hoped it could get back to what it was a year ago
- Was a situation that wasn’t easy to resolve in a day or a week; when they got to the point where they realized it wasn’t going to be resolved and approached Miller to consider a trade; Miller started getting anxious and made it clear he would waive his NTC to go to the Rangers; wasn’t just about trading Miller, all options were on the table
- Pettersson won’t be able to snap his fingers and change; wasn’t as prepared properly for the start of the season and that became one of the issues; were signs of him going in the right direction at the end of the season; has to buy in to being a complete player and working hard; has been there every day working hard and that’s a good sign; needs to keep doing it all summer
Tocchet’s Status (Rutherford)
- Is handling the contract negotiations; the communication has been good between the player and team; communication has been even better since the season has ended
- Won’t exercise the team option for him to stay; don’t feel it's right to force him to stay if his mind is somewhere else
- Believes that the coaching staff did just as good a job coaching this season as last season
- Are going through a process; will probably get a decision from Tocchet sometime this week
Willander (Allvin)
- Was aware that the Swedish National Team had interest
- His advisor informed the team that he will go back to school for another year, as of last week
- Samuelsson and Komisarek felt that he was ready to turn pro
- Will come to Canucks development camp
Pettersson (Allvin)
- Have talked about practice habits since Tocchet was hired
- Will keep all their options open but Pettersson has had one down year in the last three years
- More than capable of taking his game to the next level and is encouraging to see his determination and work effort
Adding Players (Rutherford)
- Might lose Boeser & Suter but might not; didn’t trade them so they could have a longer runway on that decision
- Need to strengthen their centre position
- Don’t know how many forwards they need but, pulling a number out of a hat, he says they need 3 forwards
Miller’s Personal Leave (Rutherford
- Miller requested the personal leave
Pettersson Becoming More of a Complete Player (Rutherford)
- Just has to buy into to become a more complete player
- References Yzerman changing his game; Crosby did the same thing
- Pettersson can do it and just needs to buy in and prepare in the off-season
Coaching Staff (Allvin)
- Working towards having Tocchet back and the assistant coaches are tied to his status
Accepting Changing Course (Rutherford)
- Didn’t have a choice and then knew it would set them back
- About 5 guys can play the game like Miller and that’s a tough guy to let go
- Wanted to build around younger players; haven’t traded their younger players either
- Need hard work from management, get good luck, and maybe get a free agent to come here
- More likely they will have to make a trade to acquire a player
Ticket Prices (Rutherford)
- Understands the frustration in tickets going up
- Management is not responsible for the price of tickets
- Increases is partly about the cap going up but also investing into renovations of an older building
- 90% renewal rate on season tickets
- Money is being invested back into the building and to offset the salary cap
- Have to deal with the exchange rate; all their revenue is in Canadian funds; closer to a 130m CDN salary cap
Training Facility (Rutherford)
- Jokingly, doesn’t want to talk about it
- Pettersson probably won’t skate all summer and will use the team facilities in the meantime
- Assures us that this will get done even if it’s long after he’s dead
- Have tried to form a partnership with local rinks
- Need 20 thousand square feet to build a dressing room and rink
- Have more people working on this and it looks like a new facility will have to be built; a couple of parcels of land that are being targeted
- Taking a while and all are disappointed
Resolving the Centre Ice Position (Allvin)
- Pettersson has shown he’s more than capable of being a 1st line centre
- Suter has been one of their most consistent players
- Another level in Chytil’s game
- Will need to address the centre position; most likely through trade
- Still young and can play with different matchups
Resolving the Centre Ice Position (Rutherford
- Will be tough to do in free agency based on what they see
- Probably through a trade; stops himself and won’t play his hand
Growing Salary Cap (Rutherford)
- As the cap grows, there will be more national TV revenue
- All indications from ownership is that the Canucks will continue to spend to the cap
Demko & Garland (Rutherford)
- Coaching and hockey ops need to talk through both players future
- Hopes they stay here longer term
- Haven’t got to those meetings yet
- Need to get the coaching situation resolved first
Demko & Garland (Allviin)
- Looking around the league to see what else is available
Pettersson’s Injury History (Allvin)
- A lot of NHLers that play through injuries throughout the year
- Pettersson’s offseason played into his poor season
- Has resources to handle different things
- As of now, is healthy and is rehabbing his oblique
- Had some swelling in his knee during the 4 Nations but is not an issue now
- Hopefully will be healthy coming into next season
Communication with Pettersson (Allvin)
- If the player doesn’t get the message, it’s up to the coach to change the way they are delivering the message
- Intention from the coaching staff was right but after 6 games, felt that the group wasn’t ready and had to go back to basics
- Saw a lot of growth in the younger individuals; mentions tremendous leadership from Hughes; Pettersson now understand hard it’s going to be to consistently get into the playoffs
- Coaches need more resources communicating with players
Demko Extension (Rutherford)
- There would be risk on both sides if there is an extension
- Had a different approach to his training; was more injury prevention
- Talks about Gary Roberts changing his training regimen to play a long career and how Demko reminds him of Roberts
- Would like to extend him but is a fools game to negotiate publicly
- Both sides need to balance risk on the next contract
Assets to Trade for a Centre (Rutherford)
- Tough decisions and will be expensive; will also be expensive not to acquire a centre
- What they are willing to give up depends on the level of the player
Trading Pettersson (Allvin)
- Wants to keep all his options open but still believes in Pettersson
Hughes’ Future (Rutherford)
- Everything is about keeping Hughes and preparing for a massive extension when it’s time
- May not boil down to money with him; has said he wants to play with his brothers; would be out of their control but in their control if they bring his brothers to Vancouver; realizes that he just tampered and Allvin laughs at him; admits he just crossed the line