Bumpy pre-season deflates start of high-stakes Canucks campaign

VANCOUVER — The second biggest change for the Vancouver Canucks this summer was a total renovation of their compound beneath Rogers Arena.

The organization has spent millions to renovate the dressing rooms, build a new lounge, medical room and gym for players, and expand coaching and staff offices. There wasn’t much space available within the arena’s compact footprint, but at least the media work room was cheap and easy to claim and repurpose. Like, who's going to complain?

The impressive construction project, alas, is not quite finished, so no one has yet seen the finished product. The same goes with the hockey team.

The Canucks’ pre-season ended Friday with a win and a trade. But after seven National Hockey League exhibition games and a 2-3-2 record, we still haven’t seen the new-and-improved Canucks.

Their big summer spends on Russian free agents Ilya Mikheyev and Andrei Kuzmenko should significantly upgrade Vancouver’s top-nine forwards, giving the team more speed, skill and scoring depth.

But on the third day of training camp, two weeks ago, first-line incumbent Brock Boeser mysteriously injured his hand, requiring minor surgery that forced him to miss the entire pre-season. And the next day, in the Canucks’ first tuneup game, Mikheyev suffered a lower-body injury on a hit against the Calgary Flames. He hasn’t played since.

The good news is coach Bruce Boudreau said Friday morning that both wingers will travel with the team to Edmonton for next Wednesday’s season-opener against the Oilers, although they may not play until later in the challenging five-game road trip that at least allows tradesmen time to finish their work on Canucks headquarters.

Those early injuries, however, deflated much of the excitement the Canucks carried into training camp after finishing last season 32-15-10 under Boudreau. They also set a dispiriting precedent, as Boeser and Mikheyev were followed to the infirmary by defencemen Travis Dermott (concussion) and Tyler Myers (undisclosed), who will miss the first two-to-four weeks of the regular season, Boudreau said.

Then in Friday’s 4-0 win against the profoundly-dismal looking Arizona Coyotes, who managed only seven shots in 60 minutes against Canucks starter Thatcher Demko, top-six Vancouver winger Conor Garland left the game injured after taking a second-period hit from Laurent Dauphin.

This was shortly after the Canucks announced on Twitter that they had unloaded bottom-six forward Jason Dickinson and his $2.65-million salary, along with a second-round pick, in exchange for budget-friendly Chicago Blackhawks defenceman Riley Stillman.

The transaction saves the Canucks $1.3 million in cap space this season and next. It also gives the team some experienced depth and grit on defence — which likely will be put to use next week due to the absences of Dermott and Myers.

“We see him as a third-pairing defenceman,” Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin told reporters during the second intermission. “Character guy, hard to play against. He'll help us with our depth.

“Dermott and Myers are out here, hopefully week to week or in Myers' case, two to four weeks. But we're looking at all options to make our team better depth-wise. To have a guy like Riley Stillman coming in here helps us, being a little bit harder to play against and also getting a younger defenceman.”

Stillman, 24, has spent most of the last three years in the NHL after launching his career as a fourth-round, 2016 draft pick of the Florida Panthers. Last season, he had 12 points and 36 penalty minutes in 52 games in Chicago, averaging 15:04 of ice time and managing just a 39.2 per cent shot-share for the poor Blackhawks.

Stillman’s salary of $1.35 million is barely half of what Dickinson is owed.

Asked about the cap savings and cost of doing business (the second-round pick), Allvin said: “It's part of the league. And operating in LTIR, as we are right now, you want to make sure you have flexibility moving forward here. (Saving cap space) was part of it, but we were also happy to get Riley back.

“It's something that me and my staff always talk about — the value of cash, the value of picks and you see around the league what it costs in today's cap world.”

The savings on Dickinson give the Canucks enough flexibility to add another player before Wednesday if Allvin finds an upgrade.

“We’ll see,” he said. “We've got another couple of days here to keep you guys busy."

Stillman will get an opportunity with the Canucks. So, too, could Swedish rookie Nils Aman.

With the trade of Dickenson, who bombed in his only campaign with the Canucks, managing just five goals and 11 points in 62 games last year in what he described as a “garbage” season, Aman, 22, or minor-leaguer Sheldon Dries looks likely to start the season as the fourth-line centre beside newcomers Curtis Lazar and Dakota Joshua.

It was an underwhelming pre-season for many Canucks prospects, but Aman and countryman Linus Karlsson, both signed by Allvin last spring, competed well and survived with the NHL group through Friday’s pre-season finale.

On defence, top prospect Jack Rathbone was solid and should start the season on the Canucks’ roster, although his waiver-exempt status could make him a chip Allvin plays to make the team cap-compliant by Monday’s deadline.

Other NHL depth players like defenceman Kyle Burroughs and winger Nils Hoglander, who opened training camp on the fifth line, also showed well in the pre-season and solidified spots on the Canucks. Defenceman Tucker Poolman, who played only four minutes in the final three months of last season due to complications from migraine headaches, got better as the pre-season progressed and appears to again be part of management’s plan for the team.

Kuzmenko and young stars Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes were excellent. Kuzmenko, the 26-year-old free agent from the Kontinental Hockey League who drew interest from at least 20 NHL teams before choosing the Canucks on a one-year contract, had a goal and assist against the Coyotes and finished the pre-season with three goals and three assists in four games.

He is part of a dynamic power play that could help Pettersson build a monster season. Pettersson has been the Canucks’ best player since camp opened.

But all of this was shaded by the injuries, five winless games to start the pre-season and the disconcerting reality the Canucks head to opening night without a full lineup or proper dress rehearsal.

“The good thing is that we have seen a lot of our depth players,” Allvin said. “I'm really happy to see the younger players pushing the older guys in practice and giving us some hard discussions about the opening-night roster. It's a fine balance. I think the coaching staff know what they have in the older guys... but we've been really satisfied to see a lot of younger players.”

Boudreau has said the season will be a “disaster” if the Canucks fail again to make the playoffs. Their slogan, displayed daily on players' t-shirts, is "Unfinished Business." Rarely has so much been expected from a team that has accomplished so little.