CrashingTheGoalie

by Bill Heintz

A recent poll on the hfboards revealed that some 80% of the fans wanted to see Mats Sundin back with the Canucks this year. I confess to being somewhat surprised given the issues surrounding Mats. Mostly these are centered around his contract and the resulting cap space problems, somewhat exacerbated by the fact that we haven’t signed a legitimate top six defenseman yet. But, as one fan succinctly put it, how can you not want a 6’5” centre man who can set up, score and provide leadership?

Yep, that’s a lot to bring to the party. Gillis said at the end of the year address that he would welcome Mats back and that they would find a way to deal with the contract. The truth is, I thought he sounded half-hearted at best. However, Gillis does not have the excitable bombast of a Brian Burke at the best of times and many fans consider that to be one of his assets. Sure he has the charisma of Pat Paulson (who?…okay, Stephen Wright…who? okay well, piss off then), but when the swamp fills with alligators, its best to have a guy that can calmly deal with the crisis and still drain the swamp. I suspect he already knows what Mats’ plans are.

And with that absolute nugget of gold, we turn to the Roberto Luongo contract extension. Bob’s in a tough spot, but then so are we. He wants to play for a winner but the cap may be declining. Even the contenders like Detroit and Pittsburgh will be up against the cap with little room to fit an eight million dollar salary under the ceiling. So yeah, who has the space? Well, some of the losers do…headed by Burke/Nonis and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Think they might be interested in seeing Luongo become a free agent in another year? Think Brian’s ego would consider that to be something that keeps him at centre stage? Signing the best goalie in the world…cause that’s what Burkie would call him at the presser.

Does Roberto have a messiah complex? Leading the Maple Leafs to the promised land? Okay, maybe that was Moses. But the point is, if you think Brian was interested in the Sedins, just watch him if Luongo hits free agency. But like I said there’s not a lot of panic in Gillis. I not only believe he has a plan, I believe he has backup plans. And he believes he can sign Roberto.

Finally, back to the sixth D-man. Zubov certainly holds some interest just for his historical skill level. To a lesser extent Mathieu Schneider could be worth it on a one year flyer. But the guy I’d think Gillis would take a hard look at is Dennis Seidenberg. He’s young, still affordable and would be more than a one year gum-plug solution. And he could very well be available now that the Hurricanes have brought back Aaron Ward. Seidenberg has some skills and would definitely challenge for a top four position.

So, the abbreviated training camp is about a month and a half away. Some coaches have expressed concerns about such a short camp coupled with a long exhibition season. But ultimately with the number of young guys fighting to make our roster, I think exhibition games are a better yardstick with which to measure. Even that early in the season, game conditions trump practice. Once the roster is settled they can set practice routines that should suffice for team development.