AGRI Biz

Like his predecessors before him, Canucks' GM Mike Gillis made a couple of trades in the free agent market that will go down as his identifying mark of approval by the 'Nucks Nation. Brian Burke brought the Sedins and Dave Nonis on his watch—Roberto Luongo. Mike Gillis signed two top D-men that may end up getting the Canucks past a couple of second round playoff exits. Keith Ballard and Dan Hamhuis will challenge ...

Today as reported by the Vancouver media and TSN.com, the Canucks made a qualifying offer of $1.6M to Shane O’Brien. Mason Raymond, Tanner Glass and Jannik Hansen have also received qualifying offers. No amounts were disclosed at the time of this writing. That is good news as the Canucks move forward to secure their young talent but $1.6M for a number six D-man in O’Brien is a steep cost, especially when a ...

Well, there were no first through third round entry draft picks for the Canucks this year, but they did get a player in Keith Ballard who can play top minutes on the one through four D-group and step in right away. That’s more than you would have gotten with the No. 25 pick. This trade was precipitated due to the fact that the 25th pick that they did have and the players that ...

I guess signing Aaron Rome to a new contract is good from a depth position, but is he really in the mix for a number six man, and what does that say about the ‘Nucks defense? Interesting that Montreal chose Jaroslav Halak over Carey Price after the performance Halak displayed during the playoffs. Rumours are that they would not have been able to afford him and at least got something back from ...

Much has been written and debated about the Canucks Roberto Luongo having been made the Captain back in September of 2008. Hockey writers and commentators have presented varying degrees of arguments why he should or should not be wearing the "C." I was listening to Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet the other day, as he brought up a very valid point in relation to the captains currently playing for the Stanley Cup. During ...

My last comment in my previous article made reference to which Vancouver Canuck team would show up in Chicago. Well, it looked very similar to the one that played Game One— and won— there. Maybe the Canucks should ask to play the remainder of the series in Chicago, since they've had their best games there. They came to play Sunday night, and scored in the opening minute. They established the ...

This is an easy game to write about. Let’s see here, out of nine periods so far in this series, the Vancouver Canucks have outplayed the Chicago Blackhawks in seven of them, but when you go 0-for-8 on the power play, and your penalty kill and goaltender don’t shut the door, you’ll never win a series five-on-five. Case in point: Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo couldn’t control his rebounds, and they ended up ...

Sorry this is a bit late, but the golf tournament yesterday had me getting home late and THEN I had to watch the game on tape. At least I was able to watch a bit of the game during the dinner portion of the golf awards, so I knew it was 2-2 when I headed home. After watching the game into the wee hours, a number of things stood out. First of all, ...

The only thing that was mad about that game, was the Chicago crowd towards its goalie Antti Niemi, who got lit up for five goals by the visiting Vancouver Canucks. Nothing like a little motivating redemption to inspire a team after getting their noses wiped by the Blackhawks last year in Games Six and again on March 5, where both times Roberto Luongo was shelled. When you make a proud combative goaltender ...

This series ran like the PNE roller coaster with a plate full of highs and lows, surprises and disappointments. For the game's intellectuals, some coaching tactics, and just down home, good Canadian entertaining hockey for the rest of the fans. Who knew the Canucks' penalty kill would be so atrocious that it just about cost them the series? Or that it would do a 180 and change the outcome of the series? Some players ...