Vancouver Canucks Hockey Stuff

The Vancouver Canucks announced toay that Coach Alain Vigneault has signed a three year contract extension.  The extension will make Alain the coach through the 2012 2013 NHL season.  Alain has taken the canucks helm for three seasons, wining two division titles in the process.  The canucks ended last season with a record of 45-27-10 with Alain recording his 100th win as a Canucks coach, his 200th NHL coaching win, and 500th game as a head coach in the NHL, all last season.

While manning the bench, Alain has maintained a 133-86-27 with a .595 winning percentage, the best for any head coach in Canucks history, even better than Marc Crawford during the West Coast Express heydays.  Alain is also only the second coach in club history to win the Jack Adams Award. 

Alain has another few seasons as head coach of the Canucks ahead of him, at an important crossroads in the clubs history.  Fans are pressing more than ever for a championship win, and the current roster would like nothing more than to be wearing a championship ring by the end of the Stanley Cup Playoffs next spring.  With the Sedins and Roberto Luongo locked up for several years, it is now or never for coach Vigneault.

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The Vancouver Canucks have signed Aaron Rome.  No details as to what his contract is.  He looks to be a role player, mainly a minor leaguer, playing a total of 26 NHL games, with 3 total points, for 2 different NHL clubs, including the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Anaheim Ducks.

Rome was selected by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, in the 4th round, number 104 overall.

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Just got news that Mattias Ohlund has signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning.  His contract is 7 years, at 3.75 million per season.  His contract ends when he is 39 years old.

Mattias was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks with their first pick in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft, 13th overall.  He played his first campaign with the Canucks in 1997-1998, playing 77 games, netting 7 goals, 23 assists for 30 points.  Mattias Ohlund played all 82 games this past 2008-2009 season, scoring 6 times and netting 19 assists, with another goal and two assists in 10 playoff games this season.  Mattias is the all-time leading goal-scorer and points-leader among Vancouver Canucks Defenceman.

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Daniel and Henrik Sedin have signed a contract extension with the Vancouver Canucks.  The new contract is  5 years long, and is worth 6.1 million dollars per season.

This comes after a last minute flight 24 hours before free agency was to begin, that saw the Canucks GM Mike Gillis on a plane on his way to Sweden to meet the Sedins.  Mike Gillis and the canucks Assistant GM met with the Sedins and their agent JP Barry for little more than 2 hours, before hopping back on a flight heading back to Vancouver.

The deal was announced an hour before free agency was to begin this morning.

The Sedin twins have played their entire careers in vancouver, after being drafted #’s 2 and 3 overall in the 1999 NHL entry draft by Brian Burke.  They each had 82 point seasons in 2008-2009, with identical 10 point playoff runs going into the 2nd round with the Canucks.  This new contract ensures the Canucks retain their top line.

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ESPN has reported to the Pratt and Taylor show on Team1040 sports radio today, that Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo has agreed to terms on a long term contract extension that will be officially announced by the Vancouver Canucks on July 1st.  Because Roberto still has a year left on his current contract, an official signing cannot be made until after July1st.  Thus the Canucks are expected to make the announcement on july 1st, or shortly thereafter.  Roberto Luongo had nine shutouts this past season, with a record of 33 – 13 - 7 .  Since coming to Vancouver in a trade seeing Todd Bertuzzi sent to the Florida Panthers, Roberto Luongo has a record of 115 – 64 – 22 with twenty shutouts.  Once announced, this will be a great step forward for the Canucks in luring east-coast NHL talent to Vancouver, and solidifes the rumours that Roberto was building a summer home on Nicola Lake, just outside of Merritt BC.

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The Vancouver Province reported this morning that Marian Gaborik has purchased a home in West Vancouver.  Gaborik is an Unrestricted Free Agent come July 1st, and it doesn’t look like he will be resigning with the Minnesota Wild.  Gaborik played with current Canuck Pavol Demitra when Demitra was a member of the Minnesota Wild.  This looks like a Plan B move that Canucks GM Mike Gillis may make, depending on how talks are between the Sedin twins and the Canucks organization.

On other new Vancouver Canucks off season news, it has been reported that Roberto Luongo is in the process of building a home on Nicola Lake near Merritt BC.  If true, it would show that Roberto Luongo plans on staying in Vancouver for the long term, as he has stated in the off-season that he likes Vancouver and would like to stay. 

There is now new news out of the Sedin twins saga, the last rumour was the agent for the twins, JP Barry, wanted a 12 year, 63 million contract for each of the Sedin twins.  With free agency less than a week away, we won’t have to wait much longer to see what ends up happening.

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Latest out of the Vancouver Canuck rumour mill is that Daniel and Henrik Sedin are both seeking a 12 year, $63 million contract.  this would make their new contracts comparable to Henrik Zetterberg’s  12 year $73 million contract.  It’s been rumoured by a swedish website (expressen.se) that this is true, and the Sedin twins want to finish their careers in Vancouver by signing this long term deal.  Neither the Sedin twins or their agent JP Barry would comment on the rumour.  The Sedins have said they want to stay and the Canucks want to re-sign them, however the length and price terms of a front-loaded contract like this one might make that a difficult scenario.

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Yesterday the Vancouver Canucks signed forward Rick Rypien to a two year contract extension, that will see him under contract to the Vancouver Canucks through the  2010-2011 NHL season.

Rick Rypien has been with the Vancouver Canucks for five seasons.  This past season he played in twelve regular season games, netting a total of three goals.  he also had 19 penalty minutes in those 12 games.  During the 2 rounds the Canucks made it to in this past post-season, Rypien had two assists and 40 penalty minutes. 

With this contract extension, Rypien is now put into a solid spot in this teams line-up, most likely up on the third line, with possible second line minutes if he can stay healthy.  His knack for injuries is the only thing holding Rypien back from moving into a stronger bigger game.

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The Team1040 reported yesterday that the agent for the Neidermayer brothers has been in contact with Mike Gillis and the Vancouver Canucks.  Apparently the Neidermayers are interested in playing for the Canucks in the 2009-2010 season.  The Neidermayers are natives of Cranbrook BC , and will be Unrestricted Free Agents come July 1st.  With the Winter Olympics coming to Vancouver in 2010, wouldn’t the Canucks be a great fit for Scott and Rob Neidermayer to come and play with?  The Canucks should have enough cap space to sign the Neidermayers and the Sedins.  This goes to say though that Mats Sundin  probably wouldn’t be back, and Mattias Ohlund wouldn’t make a return either.  I would like Ohlund back, but at his price, we could have local BC boys who have proven Stanley Cup experience.  It’s going to be an interesting summer.

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Mike Gillis, GM of the Vancouver Canucks, announced today that the Vancouver Canucks have re-signed Canucks forward Steve Bernier.  Bernier, 24, would have been a restricted free agent come July 1st.  He made 2.5 Million this year, and it’s reported that his new contract is a 2 year deal worth 2 million a season.  Along with the contract, the Canucks have challenged Bernier to improve his hands, skating and conditioning over the summer break, providing him with a nutritionist, and a specialized coach to help with his skating stride.  They also have designed a conditioning program for Bernier to follow, that will include game-play like situations that will hopefully improve his awareness and finishing touch around the net.  Steve Bernier had 15 goals for the Canucks this past season, but had a countless number of chances around the net, missing or fanning on great scoring opportunities.

“We all would’ve liked to seen him scores more goals with the opportunities he had,” Mike Gillis said. “But he got those opportunities and he generated those opportunities. We’re hoping he will be able to relax and capitalize on those chances”.

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