I just looked at the Hawks' possible lineups and looks like

hossa/toews/kane/
versteeg/sharp/brouwer
ladd/bolland/byfuglien
frasor/kopecky/burish/eager

keith/seabrook
campbell/hjallmarson
barker/johnson

I know there will be some changes still but damn lol..

Well, really, Hossa and Havlat are almost a wash for one another... very similar style players and only a minor upgrade..... or none at all given Hossa's disappearing act in the playoffs this year.

Looks like Chicago is trying to win it all next year and then disassemble itself LOL... although with signing these guys to multiple year deals instead of 1 years... they have effectively prevented themselves from resigning either Kane or Toews let alone 1 of them :p

As someone as posted, I think they are definitely going to be trading for prospects and picks in the near future for sure. Those RFAs are probably a lot more attractive and trade-able now that they are all signed. So I'm sure something will be coming up eventually cause Kane/Toews are the cornerstone of that franchise.


Looks like Hudler is gone.
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=284076

the hawks are better off to sign the players now so they can trade them for draft picks and pro
Spects then lose them for nothing. I have a feeling that's what they were looking at and I agree
With them.

I liked Hudler.. he's still young and will only get better... for 2 million, I personally think he is a steal at that price... Wings should have signed him and traded him for a pick..... unless he didn't want to and really wanted to go to KHL lol.

Barker for 1st rounder!! where do I sign lol

I was going through the Province site and found this great read. http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/n...0-eb2f732180b2

Ducks sign Koivu..

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2009/..._saku_anaheim/

shit..hudler!!!! nooooo!

To be honest, I'm starting to get sick of hearing what players the Canucks will have in the next few years. Excellent set up for the future, but I guess then there's not much expectations for this season, right?

That's exactly why Luongo wouldn't commit to this franchise if the club hadn't fluffed him up with the captaincy and whatnot.

This team has to be a NOW team. And Gillis has promised NOW. It's not easy but Luongo and the fans are riding him to deliver. It's "the promise" which is basically endeared him to many fans to favour him over Nonis.

IIRC, his campaign to GM is that he should be favoured of Nonis due to the following reasons:

*** It should be win NOW team
*** The club has to more aggressive instead of passive

(Well, at least we're drafting better & at least he made a play at Gabby and won the Sundin sweepstakes prior) Shows he's at least true to his word.

Canucks' top pick Schroeder small guy with big upside

First-rounder from NCAA Minnesota out to prove he can play in bigs

By Jim Jamieson, The ProvinceJuly 8, 2009 9:01 AM


Jordan Schroeder was selected 22nd overall by Vancouver in 2009 NHL draft. He had 40 points in 32 games last season.

Jordan Schroeder was selected 22nd overall by Vancouver in 2009 NHL draft. He had 40 points in 32 games last season.
Photograph by: Nick Procaylo, The Province

Jordan Schroeder is focused on showing the naysayers that his 5-foot-8 stature won't hold him back in pro hockey.

But then again, Schroeder — selected 22nd overall by the Vancouver Canucks at last month's NHL entry draft — is known for his focus.

The 18-year-old Prior Lake, Minn., native left home at 15 to join the U.S. National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich., where he played for two seasons. He also accelerated his high school courses to graduate a year early so he could enter college that much sooner.

Last season as a freshman centre at the University of Minnesota, Schroeder was a scoring machine with 40 points (13-27) in 32 games. He was fourth in the NCAA with a 1.3 points per game average. He was also named the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's top rookie, the College Hockey News' top rookie, the Minnesota Gophers' top rookie and was a WCHA second team all-star.

"I've heard it for a long time that I'm too small," said Schroeder on Tuesday, the second of a five-day summer conditioning and orientation camp attended by him and about 30 other Canucks prospects.

"I want to prove to everyone that I can make it and play in the NHL one day."

Schroeder, who turns 19 on Sept. 29, said he was enjoying his first visit to Vancouver. He claimed he was even looking forward to Friday morning's sprint up the Grouse Grind, a torture test that winds up the camp.

"It was beautiful flying in, a great city, I love it here," he said.

The Canucks may have got the steal of the first round when Schroeder — projected to go in the top 15 — slid to 22. But he said going to a Canadian team in a hockey-mad market more than made up for the drop.

"It wasn't a big deal to me," he said. "I just wanted to go in the first round, especially to a team like Vancouver. Everyone is crazy about hockey up here. Obviously, there's pressure when it comes to a Canadian city so I'll have that on my shoulders, but I'm looking forward to it."

University of Minnesota head coach Don Lucia said for a player to come in as a freshman — especially one a year younger than usual — and make the splash Schroeder did is almost unheard of. He said Schroeder is a sure-fire top-six NHL forward.

"This is a tough league," said Lucia. "Next year we're going to have 20 NHL draft choices on our team. It's not often where a guy can come in and have the impact that he had. Usually, if a freshman can come in and score 15-20 points, they've had a good year.

"But [Schroeder] played against the other team's top lines and defence pairs all year long," Lucia said. "He couldn't hide."

Although he's clearly got a top-end future, Schroeder's probable path is to return to Minnesota, where he can mature physically for another year while likely contending for the Hobey Baker Award for college hockey's best player.

But Schroeder wouldn't commit to returning to college, only acknowledging it's likely. "I'll have some decisions to make when I go back home," he said. "[But] a year back in college wouldn't hurt at all."

E-mail: jjamieson@theprovince.com
© Copyright (c) The Province

Time will tell if Rodin is real deal
Second-round draft pick has high praise from Gradin

Tony Gallagher
The Province

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

The Vancouver Canucks had Anton Rodin rated so highly they were considering taking him in the first round of the 2009 NHL draft.

When Jordan Schroeder came available the way he did, they passed on the young Swedish centre and held their breath -- the most difficult moments coming when Detroit took their pick, which turned out to be Landon Ferraro, another player not expected to fall that far.

Needless to say, when Rodin was still there when the Canucks' pick in the second round came, there was considerable excitement because everyone in the organization -- as well as the other set of advisors on young players Mike Gillis developed when he was an agent -- were all wildly excited about this kid.

At 5-foot-11 and just 176 pounds, he has a lot of filling out to do but he's got three or four years to get the job done. He's expected to move up to the Swedish Elite League this year and play on Sweden's world junior team, and if you heard some of the names he's being compared to at the moment you would say, "Hold it right there, get a grip on yourself."

And that's exactly what we'll do right now -- get a grip.

He's just a prospect, but Canucks director of player development Dave Gagner did admit they had an avalanche of outstanding recommendations for him, not the least of which was Swedish scout Thomas Gradin, who found Alex Edler. And when Rodin is asked to describe the player he most feels like he can be like in the NHL today, he quickly and without hesitation responds: "Zach Parise."

"I'm trying to improve on everything right now," says Rodin, who comes from a small town about two hours drive north of Stockholm. "I have to gain some weight and improve on all parts of my game. But I've just come off a very good year when things went very well for me, lots of ice time and some success and now I just have to get better. I'd say I'm a good skater, good stickhandler with a pretty good shot."

"We've got him at just the right time, before he puts on the weight, so that we can make sure he puts it on in the right way," says Stan Smyl, who is the former director of player development and now the man responsible for the all-important college free-agent market.

The Canucks spoke to Rodin at length at the draft combine and whatever he said certainly didn't cool any of their ardour. Rodin certainly wasn't off-put by anything he heard from Vancouver either because when he was finally taken by the Canucks, with their long tradition of Swedish stars, the kid said, "It was a dream come true."

Given the Canucks less-than-brilliant drafting history, enthusiasm at this point doesn't mean much. Remember Swedish defenceman Daniel Rahimi and how good he was supposed to be?

The number of mistakes made by this team over the years is utterly discouraging, particularly given most of the same scouts who were around under the Brian Burke and Dave Nonis regimes still have their jobs. But they've been given a new set of instructions with much more specific things to look for and identify in the players, and the results of this new approach are starting to come in with this year's draft.

Gillis must be pretty confident the people around him can do the job because he's betting the future of the franchise on these people, rather than bring in his own scouts. Given he's asked the Aquilini family to more than triple the budget for the scouting and development of young players, a further dimension of pressure to produce talent is applied -- although without it in this era of the salary cap your team is hooped anyway.

For the record, Rodin had 29 goals and 55 points in 37 games for Brynas IF in the Swedish junior league last season, which are glorious numbers in any league, although it was the word-of-mouth recommendation from some very big-name people that helped Gradin's attempt to sell the kid to the point where the Canucks had him rated.

Now we begin to find out whether Cody Hodgson was a one-off or things are really going to change around here.
© The Vancouver Province 2009

Alex Auld to Stars for 6th round draft pick 2010

Hm.. still waiting on Gillis' trade, lots of time to do it tho

I have faith in Gillis.

trade I don't think he will really have to make a trade with all the teams over the cap. All I know is the waivers will have some good players on it this year thats for sure.

^ good point

one thing I have noticed about Gillis he doesn't rush on anything, he makes very caculated decissions and won't risk the future or this team which like San Jose and Chicago have been doing. He knows what hes doing thats for sure and remember he was a agent for how longs so he knows the players and can see things in certin ones which a lot of GM's need there scouts to tell them.

Well, you can blame the shitty scouting done in the past for the current fuck ups.

:werd: I was surprised the scouting staff was'nt overhauled during the management shift, but they've made some pretty awesome picks since Gillis took over.







but still... WTF PAT WHITE?

did anyone hear pat whites interview on 1040 this morning? they asked him how he liked it here and he said its very nice and listed earls cactus club moxies are real fun. Didn't say anything about training hard etc

can we stop talking about patrick white?
i get so angry when i hear that fucking name

patrick white

patrick white. so hot right now.

patrick white.

http://www.epix.de/images/scanners4.jpg


assholes lol