Canucks Mailbag: On Myers' contract, Hughes' future and ... Sir Paul McCartney's toilet?

I’ve got mail! No, seriously. I’m honoured that so many of you participated thoughtfully in our season-ending mailbag on the Vancouver Canucks.

Thank you for reading along this season and clicking on Sportsnet for your Canucks coverage. The team may be infuriating, but it is rarely dull.

Proof that there are no bad questions, just sketchy answers, let’s tie a bow on Vancouver’s season. Sorry we couldn’t fit all your questions in here.

Good question, and I’m a big fan of your music. The timing of the bonus seems to have been intended to make Tyler Myers harder to trade. The Canucks can try to negotiate the framework for a deal ahead of time, then execute it after the bonus is paid. Another potential obstacle is Myers’ 10-team no-trade list. The hope is he would work with the Canucks on a trade because, at 33, he probably wants to play beyond next season. Bottom line: it’s hard to envision him in Vancouver’s lineup in the fall.

I wouldn’t call eight years a lock for Elias Pettersson. Quinn Hughes signed for six and there may be appeal to Pettersson becoming a UFA again at, say, 30 or 31 instead of 33. But I do think he’ll sign for seven or eight years. As far as salary, $10 million to $11 million per – if an extension gets done this summer.

I sure hope not because Hughes is the best defenceman I’ve covered in Vancouver. But at some point, most brothers would like the chance to play together. Honestly, I think it depends on the Canucks. If Quinn feels he can win here, he’ll stay. And if the team implodes again next season, Hughes might not have to ask out because GM Patrik Allvin could be trading everyone.

And that was just the pre-season. My dad, younger brother and I recently finished off the last couple of ounces of my father’s Macallan 30, which he had been rationing for, well, about 30 years. (We’re Scottish.) Magnificent. But my budget is the Glenmorangie 10, which I’m thinking of pouring into the Macallan 30 bottle.

Hi, Murph. Did you write that while doing Pilates or riding the elliptical bike? I do know it’s possible that a TV host tells a co-worker/panelist to fold a piece of white paper and use it as a pocket square because no one will ever know the difference. And then the host, whom you regard as a friend, throws to commercial break by pulling it from your pocket and telling the live audience: “Look, it’s paper!” Meanie.

Thanks, Jay. Noah Juulsen WILL be considered – if he has a good summer and training camp. Didn’t get a lot of attention, but assistant coach Adam Foote really liked what Juulsen was showing before he got hurt. A former first-round pick, Juulsen has been scrabbling for seven years as a pro. But everyone’s big chance starts with a coach believing in them.

Thanks, Andrew. Confidence, consistency and a bottom-line offensively. Vasily Podkolzin has all the tools. Importantly, he also has the mindset. After his initial disappointment about going to the AHL, the Sedins were blown away by his attitude and willingness to do whatever it takes to improve and help his team. He has to play going forward, not stalled or worried about mistakes. Confidence.

Yes, Rick, I do own a pressure washer. I dress like Captain Highliner when I use it once a year. But I’d rather cut the grass. And my favourite garden equipment is my vintage rototiller. When I plough through the rich, alluvial till of West Richmond, preparing for another crop of beets, carrots, leeks and tomatoes, it feels like riding a Harley on the Sea-to-Sky Highway (I imagine). Except the tiller is louder. When it starts.

Not a terrible question, Terry. Minimum, the Canucks have moved off one big contract and added a third-line centre or second-pair defenceman. Plus, drafted someone who instantly becomes a top-three prospect, while adding more young, value free agents to try developing into NHL players. And if it’s September, I hope we all had a great summer. Minimum.

So, you’re saying there’s a chance, Dave. At some point, surely, even the Canucks will win a draft lottery. But because it’s the Canucks, it will just never be when someone like Bedard is available. They kind of won the draft lottery once: When the NHL let them keep Pavel Bure as a sixth-rounder after Central Scouting told teams he was ineligible for the 1989 draft.

Hi, Robin. Got to admit, the three seasons since the Edmonton bubble have been the hardest three-season slog since I began covering the team a month before Bure arrived in 1991. Pandemic complications, disappointment and turmoil. But then I’m too far gone to get a real job.

I feel you, dog. Games are faster, the Blue Jays have pitching to go with their bats, managers still look silly in uniforms, and there’s nothing as gross as the dugout floor after a Major League double-header, nor as glorious as the clubhouse confectionary buffet for players of gum, candies and other treats. And nothing beats Nat Bailey Stadium on a beautiful day.

Thanks for the question, Marek. You’re not the first to ask this in despair. Apart from the Oliver Ekman-Larsson contract, there is light at the end of the cap-space tunnel but, obviously, not for next season. As for prospects, I think Allvin has done a good job adding low-risk volume, and a couple of them will be players. But for help in the top half of the NHL lineup, the Canucks must hit on their handful of top prospects Aatu Räty, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, EP2 and whoever they take in the first-round in June. Their lack of five-star prospects is a serious issue. The best path forward, however, is that coach Rick Tocchet actually gets the team to perform for 82 games and Thatcher Demko stays healthy.

Well, Paul, that makes one of us. But thanks for the vote of confidence. I did one game with Shorty, just to get a column out of it, and had fun. But my start in game broadcasting came on radio with Joey Kenward, who needed help calling a Giants playoff game in Kelowna during the NHL lockout in 2004-05. My best line might have been, "Ya-ba-da-ba-doo!" Which people barely got. Even “Bazinga!” is too old now. Maybe: “This is the way.” You can see why I’m sticking to writing.

Thanks, Trevor. Understandably, Allvin has been wary of using sweeteners to move contracts. He did for Jason Dickinson’s trade to Chicago before the season, but didn’t get that far in Brock Boeser trade discussions last winter. The team doesn’t have draft picks to squander. The Filip Hronek deal was contentious, but it was a hockey trade and the Canucks got the player they badly wanted. It’s a different thing to burn a pick to move a contract, especially if the player you’re trading still helps you on the ice as Boeser does.

Thanks for participating, Taj. I think Jim Rutherford will get extended if he wants to keep working in Vancouver, but I don’t think it’s a burning issue for anyone (except maybe for the hockey-ops president). A couple of things, though: everyone, and especially players, is aware of a lame-duck coach while not many people worry about a lame-duck president; and this feels like Allvin’s team now. The transition that occurred when Tocchet replaced Bruce Boudreau was reflected above them.

Hi, Spencer. Wasn’t he the guy a lot of people figured the Canucks should draft instead of Pettersson? Glass certainly fits management’s acquisition profile of a young, talented player with pedigree who has struggled in his early NHL years to fulfill expectations. But I don’t see him as a fit for what the Canucks are looking for on their third line. And the cost would be prohibitive.

Love the retro plate of spaghetti. I think that logo and black home jersey look brilliant. But not so crazy about the road whites if that’s how they go. Players love the black retros, too.

Hopefully in B.C. I’ve been hearing about a practice facility for 20 years, but still waiting to see one after the Canucks’ agreement with 8-rinks collapsed. Probably has to be within Vancouver, as most players live either downtown or on the west side. Partnership with UBC? Or on the False Creek lands east of the train station? It needs to be somewhere. The Canucks’ lack of a dedicated practice rink has long been a talking point for players and is a major deterrent for them spending more of their summers here getting ready for hockey season.

I know you’re a convert, Sat. Going back to the "auld" country this summer for the first time since 2017, so I will consume plenty of Irn-Bru, Tunnock’s snowballs and tea cakes, and Cullen skink. And I will be stopping at the Loch Fyne fish shop to buy kippers for breakfast as I drive down the Kintyre Peninsula to one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I’m still waiting to run into Sir Paul McCartney on the Mull of Kintyre. My uncle installed a toilet for him.